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Writing speed.

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arcan

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Hi everyone.
I'm curently writing my first novel. I haven't had any writer's block yet (yeah!!!) and it's going on quite smoothly.
I'm curious about one thing though. What's your average writing speed? (words per day).
My average day must be around 3k. I wonder if that's high or low.
 

Blinkk

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It depends on who you are and what your style is. Are you a planner? Do you have every scene already organized? If so, you'll (generally) write more words than someone winging it.

Me personally, I don't have lots of time to write at the moment, but when I do sit down for a session I get 2k-3k. I usually have a rough idea of how the scene will go. My previous novel had no roadmap whatsoever and I'd be lucky to get 500 words written in one session. :D But that's okay because it worked for me.
 

peanut

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I average 2k-3k a day, but I have all morning while my kids are at school to write. And I do plot my novels.
 

arcan

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I don't plot much. Well, I usually do much of the plot during the night, just before sleeping or when I'm still just half awake. I have the general frame, but the scenes just appear as I'm writing them. Sometimes, the characters just surprise me.
 

Myrealana

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I write or edit ~1250 words per day, six days a week. I take about 4 weeks off a year for vacation and holidays. That takes me 1-2 hours of concentrated writing time.

Assuming the final draft of a novel is about 100,000 words, and I write each word once and edit it an average of twice, a book takes me about ten months. I average about two months working on pre-writing research and outlining before I write the first word, so that puts me on track for one book per year or so.
 

HarvesterOfSorrow

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1000-1500 words, usually. That's average, and is about three or four hours of work if I'm going at a 'normal' speed. Sometimes I'm lucky and I get 1600-1700, and a couple times I've hit 2000--which I wish would happen a lot more often, but that's usually at the end of a draft when I'm running for the FINISH line.
 

MookyMcD

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There are well know writers who have crossed a million words (published) in a year, and some who average 300 words or less per day. It depends on what you write, how you write, who you are, and a zillion other things.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I write 2,500 final draft words per day. This is high, and it's low, just like your writing speed. Some write a lot faster, and some a lot slower.

If I had to make a guess on what the average is for pro writers, based on reading about every writer I read, and many I don't read, I'd place it right around where I am.

But you know what they say about the man who sleeps with his head in the freezer and his feet in the oven. . .on average, he's very comfortable.
 

leocrow

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600 in a good day for me... Long time to go before that final word I'm afraid!
 

spikeman4444

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If this is ur first novel and your writing 3k a day and can sustain that pace...praise be to you.
 

Jamesaritchie

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The main thing is that your actually putting in the hours, practicing BICHOK. or, in my case, BICHOP (Pen). Do this, and word count will take care of itself.
 

etherme

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[Mine is the speed of molasses in Antarctica.]

This pretty sums it up for me (more often that not)!

If I'm 'knee-deep' in a project, I try to sit down every day and put something on paper. Sometimes it's a paragraph, sometimes it's a (short) chapter. Baby steps ... right? --Erik
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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I'm slower, maybe 500 words a day on average. The highest I've achieved in one day is ~5000 words, once, and I had to lie down for a week afterwards.

I'm self-employed and have two kids, so my writing time is limited. I can get up there during Nano, but I have to ignore my family completely and resign myself to not earning any money at all. I need the whole day and night to get those 1700 words.
 

arcan

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If this is ur first novel and your writing 3k a day and can sustain that pace...praise be to you.
A good day I can write up to 8k. But that's without difficult paragraphs. And I don't write everyday (I have to work too...).
But I've been working on my draft for about two months and am almost finished for the first rough draft. Then I'll have a lot to edit. I don't to it while writing.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I'm slower, maybe 500 words a day on average. The highest I've achieved in one day is ~5000 words, once, and I had to lie down for a week afterwards.

I'm self-employed and have two kids, so my writing time is limited. I can get up there during Nano, but I have to ignore my family completely and resign myself to not earning any money at all. I need the whole day and night to get those 1700 words.

I know a couple of writers who can, when pressed, write 25,000 words in a single day, and they're good words. One time, just one time, I managed to write 12,000 words in a very long day, and like you, I had to lie down for a week afterwards.
 

LJD

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I'm not sure. 1500 maybe? I write my hand then type it up the next day. Considering how much time I have to write, I consider myself a pretty slow writer.
 

BethS

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I'm slower, maybe 500 words a day on average. The highest I've achieved in one day is ~5000 words, once, and I had to lie down for a week afterwards.

lol. Sounds familiar. When I do get to writing fast and the words come pouring out (doesn't happen often), chance are most of them will be discarded the next day (or the next week, after I get up from my restorative nap). When I write fast, I tend to go off road and sometimes over a cliff.
 
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wolfking

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I know a couple of writers who can, when pressed, write 25,000 words in a single day, and they're good words. One time, just one time, I managed to write 12,000 words in a very long day, and like you, I had to lie down for a week afterwards.

My god...how the...25 thousand???



I have a goal of 800 words every day. That is 5,600 words each week. As long as I hit the weekly goal I feel good. I usually hit 800-1,200 in the two hour span that I have set aside.
 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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I know a couple of writers who can, when pressed, write 25,000 words in a single day, and they're good words. One time, just one time, I managed to write 12,000 words in a very long day, and like you, I had to lie down for a week afterwards.

Christ, 25,000! I don't think I'd be able to feel my hands/face/brain after that (ever).
 

Jett.

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I'm dealing with first stories, I'm excruciating slow.

I don't plot much. Well, I usually do much of the plot during the night, just before sleeping or when I'm still just half awake. I have the general frame, but the scenes just appear as I'm writing them. Sometimes, the characters just surprise me.

I plot while researching.
Imagine the scenes while half-snoozing.
Dump them on a pad at about 1K/2h.
When I then try to type them in some decent form it takes me 4h for 300 words.
An if I ever go into polishing one scene it's a matter of weeeeeks.
 

TomKnighton

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Christ, 25,000! I don't think I'd be able to feel my hands/face/brain after that (ever).

I did it once. Once.

I also have no interest in doing it again. Not only did it wipe me out, just about everything I wrote was absolute crap. Not gonna do it again for that reason if nothing else.
 

VoireyLinger

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My max was 15K in one day. I don't sustain that. I've also done 200. i don't sustain that, either. A good count is whatever you can do on an ongoing basis and any forward motion is good.

Daily word count doesn't reflect how long it takes to actually produce a book. Edits and revisions can add a ton of time or fly quickly. It all depends on the writer, the book and how it all comes together.
 
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