How fast do you write? In words per hour?

stranger · Aug 17, 2005

Hi,

Two hours a day, right? But I'm just wondering how much the average writer gets done in that time. For the first draft. I find myself hovering below 800 words after 2 hours. 400 words per hour. I see other people mentioning figures like 2000 words per hour.

I'm not sure if it's absolutely a bad thing to be writing that slow. I'm thinking about the story, the characters, the word choice, etc. Hopefully this will mean that I have something worth polishing by the end of the first draft.

I haven't got a detailed outline, so I guess if I had that I'd have less to think about and would write faster. I also write faster when doing dialogue, and slower when writing description.

So, how fast do you write?

William Haskins · Aug 17, 2005

it depends on how long the words are...

LloydBrown · Aug 17, 2005

My goal is 2,000 sellable words per day. So in addition to that, I have to write stuff that'll be cut, do research, edit, and goof off, plus write things that I don't get paid for (I write a monthly column, write material for a D&D game I run, participate in a couple of message boards, etc.).

Mike Martyn · Aug 17, 2005

I seem to tick along at 500 words per hour. I don't outline so that's perhaps why I'm comparatively slow.

I do find now that I'm rewriting my first novel, I can go some what faster since I know the characters and I know the plot.

Writer2011 · Aug 17, 2005

It all depends on how fast i'm typing...sometimes I write 3 to 4 thousand words per day...some more.

scribbler1382 · Aug 17, 2005

When I'm in top form, I can write about 1,000 to 1,500 words per hour at the keyboard. I'm not particularly thrilled with what I end up with at that speed, though. If I write longhand, I can get about 500 an hour and I seem to be much happier with the outcome. For me, speed is not necessarily a good thing. Then again, I hate revision so that could have something to do with it.

Lenora Rose · Aug 17, 2005

It varies by day. I don't do anything consistently. Some days I only really add about 200-500 words to the story, some days, I just keep going, and end up with 4000 (Okay, right now, those are invariably days off work...). I have more days like the former than like the latter.

Every writer goes at a different rate. Every writer finds something that works for them. I know Uncle Jim recommends 2 hours, But I've seen other techniques that say write a minimum 200 words (Bcause that's easy to pelt out even if you're essentially stuck, or if you only have half an hour to squeeze in at lunch.)

ChunkyC · Aug 17, 2005

I do probably about 500 - 800 words in an hour. That means I can get in 2000 in as little as 2 1/2 hours. If that's your daily output, you've got a first draft in ten weeks while working less than 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I think that's plenty fast. If you can do a greater quantity of quality work in a shorter period of time, fabulous! What really counts, of course, is the end product.

NeuroFizz · Aug 17, 2005

Don't count, and don't want to. As long as the file size grows each time I sit down, I'm happy. The results posted here are interesting, and I'm blown away (with envy) by some of the numbers, but it's kind of like lifting weights in a gym. No matter how large (or slim) one gets there will always be someone larger (or slimmer). For some, comparisons can be frustrating, and that's something we don't need in this writing business. Running word counts should be so low on our priority lists that we only check them out when we type "the end" on the first draft. Am I the only who feels this way?

LloydBrown · Aug 17, 2005

NeuroFizz said:
Running word counts should be so low on our priority lists that we only check them out when we type "the end" on the first draft. Am I the only who feels this way?

Yes.

Kidding.

As a freelancer, word counts are the other half of word rates. Writing 100 words a day for a dollar a word pays the same as writing 1,000 words a day for a dime a word.

I have written nearly 15,000 sellable words in a day. I was trying to average out a long-term, reliable number above, which counts out for those horrible days when you just cut, cut, cut--thus undoing much of your previous work. It really depends on what you're writing, too. Technical work? Slow. Novel manuscript? Much quicker.

brinkett · Aug 17, 2005

NeuroFizz said:
Don't count, and don't want to. As long as the file size grows each time I sit down, I'm happy.

I'm the same way, except sometimes the file size shrinks, and I'm fine with that because the shrinkage always results in improvement. As long as I feel I've accomplished something, I'm happy.

Lenora Rose said:
It varies by day. I don't do anything consistently.

Same here. Some days I write a lot, some a little, some not at all.

alaskamatt17 · Aug 17, 2005

I average 1000 words per hour. Sometimes I go faster, sometimes I go slower. My record is 20,000 words in two days.

Jamesaritchie · Aug 17, 2005

Count

About 450-500 words per hour longhand, 750-1,000 per hour at the keyboard. Writing isn't typing, or shouldn't be, so speed isn't all that important. Steady progress is what matters.

But I write five hours per day. Burnout is a bad thing, but so is setting a daily wriitng time that's too short.

mollythemagnificent · Aug 17, 2005

You have to do what's right from you. Some people write naturally faster than others, and the quality of a day's work can vary wildly from writer to writer, too.

Euan H. · Aug 17, 2005

I have a spreadsheet where I plug in how many words I've done each day, and how much time I spent writing, so I can tell you 'zackly how much I write per hour: lowest on this WIP was 571 wph, fastest was 1007. I write until I've added 2,000 reasonable words a day.

Mistook · Aug 17, 2005

I've never kept count. All I know is it depends on what kind of scenes I'm writing, and how much I've been able to think them through beforehand.

arainsb123 · Aug 17, 2005

2,000 words an hour isn't difficult for me. My typing speed's increased a lot since I switched to Dvorak.

HConn · Aug 17, 2005

If I know what I'm going to be writing, 1K to 1.2K an hour. If I'm struggling, it's 500/hour or less.

Mistook · Aug 17, 2005

I'm with HC. The nightly progress depends on where I am in the story, and how well I've thought it out beforehand. Some nights I just sit there writing lines and deleting them again, then staring at the cursor, searching for the words.

Other nights I'm on fire. It just depends.

gina · Aug 18, 2005

I write about 500 words an hour. On a good day I can get 1,000 words fiction wise and another 500 - 1000 nonfiction wise. I am another that keeps track of word counts by plugging numbers into a spreadsheet each day. Helps me keep track of progress. I've started writing more since I began keeping track a couple of months ago. I'm a slow writer, so any improvement in word count is good for me.

Kayla · Aug 18, 2005

Mistook said:
I'm with HC. The nightly progress depends on where I am in the story, and how well I've thought it out beforehand. Some nights I just sit there writing lines and deleting them again, then staring at the cursor, searching for the words.

Other nights I'm on fire. It just depends.

Same. If its going smoothly, 800-1000 an hour. If not, 500 or less.

ChunkyC · Aug 18, 2005

It is interesting to see how many words you average in a given time, but for me the important one is my daily goal of 2000 words when not working at the day job, 500 words when I am at the day job and can only write on lunch hours. If I don't hit the target, I don't beat myself up. But having that target helps get me motivated to write in the first place.

scarletpeaches · Aug 18, 2005

When I'm in the zone, about 1500 words an hour (typed of course)! This means I can complete the first draft of a novel in about a month, a month and a half. The first draft's about story, the second about style. The second draft always takes longer. For me, that is.

mdmkay · Aug 18, 2005

With me it all depends on the day and what I'm writing sometimes I get as much as 4,000 or more words out and there are other days I'm lucky to get 500 but there are other things I have to do that also have to do with writing. On days I'm researching, working forums, or leads, I may not get much written if any but I may wind up with a very productive day. I usually count my writing in hours not wpm.

NeuroFizz · Aug 19, 2005

NeuroFizz said:
Don't count, and don't want to. As long as the file size grows each time I sit down, I'm happy. The results posted here are interesting, and I'm blown away (with envy) by some of the numbers, but it's kind of like lifting weights in a gym. No matter how large (or slim) one gets there will always be someone larger (or slimmer). For some, comparisons can be frustrating, and that's something we don't need in this writing business. Running word counts should be so low on our priority lists that we only check them out when we type "the end" on the first draft. Am I the only who feels this way?

Yeah, I know quoting yourself is tacky, but all this got me wondering, so I took a couple of counts. I'm happy to say I'm right in there with most of you. One day, just over 500/hour and the other nearly 1000. I type fast, but I daydream--about the story. Also, I have to get up and pace when it do it (blasted metabolism). Now that I know I'm in the ballpark, I'll go back to not counting again.

How fast do you write? In words per hour?

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