Writers how many words a day

And, yes, I have to force myself to write. Sounds ungrateful, I know. I write with my watch before me, to require of myself words every quarter of an hour. I have found that the words have been forthcoming as regularly as my watch went. Author Maya Angelou Words I write five or six days a week, usually a minimum of words, sometimes more. Author Patricia Highsmith Words According to King, 3 months should be the maximum time for anyone to finish the first draft.

If it takes longer, it will be harder to dig back into the story. I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Author Neil Gaiman Words Author Susan Wittig Albert Words I aim for words a day. Author Somerset Maugham Words In , when we were living in Tedworth Square, London, and I was writing the book called Following the Equator, my average was words a day; here in Florence my average seems to be words per sitting of four or five hours.

Author Holly Black Words I try to write a thousand words every day. I do this to keep myself honest, saying exactly when I wrote what part of the book. Pace yourself. A thousand words a day is a good ticking over amount.

Write 1, words a day, five days a week, before you do anything else. Author Sophie Kinsella Words I try to write 1, words a day. Sometimes I do that by 11 a. Once you start writing a book, make time to write every single day. Find a comfortable number of words for you to write each day and stick to that number. Carve out an hour or two early in the morning before the rest of the house gets up, or before you go to work. Try to make this a regular time slot — do it at the same time each day, for the same amount of time.

Make it a habit. I know a number of writers who finally started making enough money from their writing to be able to quit their day jobs, only to discover that, as soon as they started writing full time, they suddenly became far less efficient. All that time stretching before them in the day — the two hours of writing per day they used to squeeze in here and there now took them eight hours.

It tends to make you more efficient. Writing is a job. Treat it like one. If you treat your writing like work, your family and friends should do the same, and be more respectful of that writing time. Be ruthless in managing your time. This is the biggest problem most writers have. On the more modest side are writers like Ian McEwan, whose word count is on an average day, and 1, on a good day. On the higher end of the output scale, there are writers like P. Wodehouse who, during his 93 years on Earth, somehow managed to write, among other works, 71 novels, 24 short story collections, 42 plays, 15 film scripts, and three autobiographies.

He wrote at least 2, words a day. Then there are writers whose output varies from day to day, like Ernest Hemingway. As Fran is always quick to point out, not writing is the easiest thing in the world; however, as all writers know, it is also the most painful.

Personally, I write fast. I cut my novel Lycopolis from , words to 85, — and that was after several radically different drafts. But other writers are more meticulous, and you could well be one of them. A great day for you might be two pages words — but those will be pages that are as good as you can make them. Some writers thrive on routine. Others thrive on adrenaline. How do you prefer to write? What might make a good starting goal daily or weekly for you?