Is that too much writing? 2,500 is the legth of the essays you'd write in high school on the night before the essay was due, how come 2,500 is so hard to crank out in one day/night, but boring things like academic essays aren't as hard?
2500 words a day
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Well, I average about 10 words a day, so I'll finish by 2030 lol.
Academic is easy, there's no creative component to it, especially when you're younger you're just reporting on what others have done, not a lot of critical thinking or application/synthesis.
2500/day seems a bit steep to me, but if you can do this please share how.
Academic is easy, there's no creative component to it, especially when you're younger you're just reporting on what others have done, not a lot of critical thinking or application/synthesis.
2500/day seems a bit steep to me, but if you can do this please share how.
I'm the opposite, actually. 2500 words of fiction is a few hours work for me. I find it pretty easy. Academic writing takes me a lot longer.
Yeah, if I'm being serious, 2500 is pretty standard. I can usually write between 850 to 1200 words in a half hour, so a half hour early and another later in the day can get me to 2500 easily enough. If it's straining your brain then don't try to get it all down at once.
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I don't really have a problem writing out that much at once, depending on the part I'm in of course. It's not that unusual for me to get twenty-five pages in a day if I've got the time and the idea is already sorted out enough in my mind. Sometimes it's just throwing words on paper and doesn't take any effort whatsoever. Sometimes I get more like 500~800 words, and that's still a good day.
Everyone is different. I personally don't set daily word goals. I don't even necessarily make it a goal to write every day. Sometimes I need time off, or have too many other things to do to worry about it. Then again, I'm pretty self-disciplined and can get it done. Some people need a daily word count to pull off BIC.
I agree with katiemac. Try to set a goal that might be a bit challenging but doesn't leave you frustrated. If it's too irritating then you'll lose motivation to do it. You just have to find what works for you.
Everyone is different. I personally don't set daily word goals. I don't even necessarily make it a goal to write every day. Sometimes I need time off, or have too many other things to do to worry about it. Then again, I'm pretty self-disciplined and can get it done. Some people need a daily word count to pull off BIC.
I agree with katiemac. Try to set a goal that might be a bit challenging but doesn't leave you frustrated. If it's too irritating then you'll lose motivation to do it. You just have to find what works for you.
I do about 2,500 most days (weekends, I do a lot more). It's not hard so long as you have some idea of where you are going. I'm not an outliner (pantser, honest!) but I do think about my novel in all my idle moments, so I always have some idea of what I want to do next. I think, if I had no idea, it would be an awful lot harder.
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My daily target when I'm working on a novel is between 1,000, and 3500 a day depending on how well it is going and what kind of rush I am in. When I am not working on a novel I don't usually write anything but I have recently started 500 words before breakfast as a daily target which is quite useful.
Unless you are a person who has trouble keeping the story moving it isn't usually about quantity but quality - some people work better at pace and others like to reflect. More is not necessarily better and the danger with a high daily word target is that you pad your work with unnecessary stuff which just has to be taken out later.
So no - it's not a huge amount for some people but if it produces pointless word bloat it could be too much for you. It depends on the individual.
Unless you are a person who has trouble keeping the story moving it isn't usually about quantity but quality - some people work better at pace and others like to reflect. More is not necessarily better and the danger with a high daily word target is that you pad your work with unnecessary stuff which just has to be taken out later.
So no - it's not a huge amount for some people but if it produces pointless word bloat it could be too much for you. It depends on the individual.
My output today:
Shit shit shit shit shit. Shit shit shit! Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit, shit shit shit shit shit.
Shit shit.
Shit?
"Shit," shit shit.
Shit shit shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.
Shit.
Now I only have 2458 words to go to equal your output. I'll be up late, apparently.
caw
Shit shit shit shit shit. Shit shit shit! Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit, shit shit shit shit shit.
Shit shit.
Shit?
"Shit," shit shit.
Shit shit shit, shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.
Shit.
Now I only have 2458 words to go to equal your output. I'll be up late, apparently.
caw
Our current writing is held to a higher standard than our high school essays. That's why writing the same amount of words takes us longer now. Writing fiction requires inclusion of good characters and plots while the essays required only some written opinion, none of the creativity novelwriting involves.
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If you can sustain that kind of output, go for it.
I tried to set a goal of 1000 words a day and it was difficult for me to sustain that -- I'd write for a day or two, then stop for a week. It was deflating to a point I might not write for days.
So now I scaled back and said I would write 500 words a day.
So far I've written over 20K words (just on the WIP). So it's definitely working much better for me.
And it certainly depends on your writing style, how much you know your story already, etc. I'm kind of a perfectionist, so even though I told myself I could write crap and so just write, I still overthink what I write because I know if I don't do it right, I'll just work so much harder during rewrites anyway. So it's either front-loaded or back-loaded.
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You should try using the copy/paste word processing feature. You'll be done in no time.
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Sorry, don't mean to be a grouchy puss, but these threads where we all start comparing daily output is like deja vu all over again. Aren't there like a bajillion similar threads on this forum? In the end someone will determine that everyone's daily output is different and that whatever standard you uphold to should be the one that brings you closer to your goal.
I remember pounding out essays and papers in school with ease. English? ( or Language Arts in my younger days ) - the easiest subject in the world. All I had to do was read something, and write about it. I'd get a six page essay out and still have time to go back and check for spelling errors. Flying!
I think there's a couple of differences between then and now that make writing so much more difficult.
First, I knew my subject then - my subject was often simply my own opinion "what do I think about this?", and figuring out what came next was easy. In my current WIP I keep running across those ' what happens next ' moments that I can't seem to solve right away. Big stumbling block.
The second big difference for me is I now have a loud and bossy internal editor. I never used to worry about sentence structure or varying my openings or pacing ect. Rewriting? Editing? These things were unheard of. You wrote your paper, typed it up, turned it in, and never thought of it again. Now I'm playing wack-a-mole with my editor while I'm writing ( shush! I fix later! Yes, yes, this is crap. Be quiet anyway! ).
I think that one of the things that keeps me writing right now is remembering how smooth and fun it was back then. I figure, I had years of practice learning how to write assignments and term papers and the like. This writing every day thing, I've only been back at for a few months - sooner or later, it has to click.
I think there's a couple of differences between then and now that make writing so much more difficult.
First, I knew my subject then - my subject was often simply my own opinion "what do I think about this?", and figuring out what came next was easy. In my current WIP I keep running across those ' what happens next ' moments that I can't seem to solve right away. Big stumbling block.
The second big difference for me is I now have a loud and bossy internal editor. I never used to worry about sentence structure or varying my openings or pacing ect. Rewriting? Editing? These things were unheard of. You wrote your paper, typed it up, turned it in, and never thought of it again. Now I'm playing wack-a-mole with my editor while I'm writing ( shush! I fix later! Yes, yes, this is crap. Be quiet anyway! ).
I think that one of the things that keeps me writing right now is remembering how smooth and fun it was back then. I figure, I had years of practice learning how to write assignments and term papers and the like. This writing every day thing, I've only been back at for a few months - sooner or later, it has to click.
I've always been more fond of weekly goals, than daily goals. Some days can be dedicated to writing, other days I'm busy from waking to bedtime. But by looking at a weekly goal, I'm better able to let myself off the hook for a busy day and make up for it another time.
As long as you're getting words on paper, do whatever you can manage.
As long as you're getting words on paper, do whatever you can manage.
I think the exclamation point in paragraph one is melodramatic, especially given the spare irony of the rest of the piece. YMMV.
I have a word goal of 1000 words a day when I'm turning out fresh copy. I can push myself as high as 1667-3500 during NaNoWriMo, but for the long haul, that's too much for me.
I tend to write smooth first drafts fairly close to the finished product. It's during the free-wheeling free-writing planning stage that I put out lots of pages a session.
One of the most important things you can learn about yourself as a writer is how many words you can produce in a session/day without burning out. Because it's not the one-day or once-in-a-while word count that matters in the end. It's that you can keep going, week after week, month after month, year after year.
I tend to write smooth first drafts fairly close to the finished product. It's during the free-wheeling free-writing planning stage that I put out lots of pages a session.
One of the most important things you can learn about yourself as a writer is how many words you can produce in a session/day without burning out. Because it's not the one-day or once-in-a-while word count that matters in the end. It's that you can keep going, week after week, month after month, year after year.
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Some days I struggle through 250 words! Other days 2,500 is a short day. For me it simply depends upon where I am in the story and how difficult a scene I'm working on. Some days the words flow like water, other days not so much.
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I can do 2500 words of fiction a day without much of a problem; I'm a fast writer. 2500 words of nonfiction, though, is another story. I've always found academic essays harder than fiction, personally.
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I don't think wordcounts are that important. OK, you might get a sense of achievement if you knock out however many words in one go, but quality is more important that quantity.
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When I'm working on a project I aim for a minimum of six hours writing a day, which equates to ten pages and around 3,000 words. It's hard most of the time, but sometimes fills me with absolute joy.
I can't write a novel in less than a concentrated year, but I acknowledge that lots of people can, and I admire them. We're all different, luckily, today is the publishing day of the year for the Christmas season, I read somewhere that 800 new novels are being published today.
It sounds a lot, but my telephone, email and website remain deadly silent.
I can't write a novel in less than a concentrated year, but I acknowledge that lots of people can, and I admire them. We're all different, luckily, today is the publishing day of the year for the Christmas season, I read somewhere that 800 new novels are being published today.
It sounds a lot, but my telephone, email and website remain deadly silent.
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