Daily Word Count Goals?

[lonelyboy1977]

First of all, apologies if this question has been asked previously (I did two or three searches and nothing especially relevant came up).

I'm assuming that few if any of the members of the forum are full-time writers, so I was curious to know if anyone else sets daily word count goals for their writing. With my current WIP I set myself a target of 5000 words a day but I'm concerned I've set my goal too low, even though I only ever seem to accomplish half that amount. I've been working on this novel since early February and I'm only 36k words into my 80k word target, and I can't help but feel I should have achieved double that much.

Am I being too harsh on myself or should I be putting more effort into my writing time? Also I'd love to know what other writers deem to be an acceptable daily word count goal.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Personally, I think 5k/day is what you'd expect of a full time writer.

I'm not there yet. I have about 1-2 hours every morning. I also write in 10 minute sprints with equal breaks between. So, for me, it's more like 1000-1500/day if I'm drafting, a bit more if I'm editing & revising. Initial edits for content that require some actual writing take longer. With copy editing & proofreading, I can do more like 3k+/day.

When I first started honing in on my process, it was 500 words a day.

Set achievable goals and stick to them.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Hmm, I take this approach... Stephen King reputedly produces 2k words per day. A very typical number is 1k. In general, I think the obsession with high word counts has the potential to be unhealthy, but to each their own.

A good deal depends on your goals. If you want to be the fellow pumping out 8-9 novels per year and aggressively courting a niche pulp fiction market on Amazon and other places, then you bet! You'd better be writing a lot of words per day. If you are looking to produce 1 or 2 novels per year for traditional publishing, then 5k per day is totally unnecessary. And a lot depends on style.

There are people like the 8-9 novel guy, who write their stuff clean and straight forward, in concise formulas of story-telling, and wham! off to the editor, make corrects and wham! off to sales... and there are people who will go back over every verb in their novel and agonize over a paragraph in the amount of time it takes the other guy to write a thousand words.

Neither is intrinsically correct, and neither guarantees quality writing. It's a matter of what works for you, and your goals.

 

[Terry Greer]

I set 500 a day - but don't stop if I'm going well - there's no upper limit - only a time slot of between 1-3 hours. It's just to make sure I write something - no matter how little.

 

[Penpilot]

5k is very prolific. That's a 100k first draft every 20 days. Over the course of a year, that's over eighteen 100k novels. Not many produce at that rate.

As mentioned above, the general rule of thumb is 2k for being a good pace. But if you're comfortable producing more then more power to you.

But remember full time writers don't just put down words. They have other writerly things pulling on their coat tails demanding their time. One of the big things is editing, which can easily take twice as much time as it takes to produce the first draft.

 

[Chessie]

OP, if you're accomplishing half that amount then stick with that for the time being and work on increasing your word count goals in small bits. Starting out with 5k a day without any sort of consistency to your schedule already is a set up for burn out. Start where you are. 2500 is a respectable amount. If you want to do pulp speed (3k 7 days a week minimum), then work on that by using word sprints. The more you write/practice, the faster you'll get and your word counts will increase. I started out doing 500 words per day if I was lucky or having a really good day. Finally, I got fed up with the struggle and started doing timed sprints throughout the day. It took me about a year but now I do about 1k per hour and 2-4k per day depending on the day. My goal is a consistent 5k day but it takes time to get there. Honor where you are. Start there and keep progressing. Don't bite off more than you can chew!

 

[Russ]

First of all, apologies if this question has been asked previously (I did two or three searches and nothing especially relevant came up).

I'm assuming that few if any of the members of the forum are full-time writers, so I was curious to know if anyone else sets daily word count goals for their writing. With my current WIP I set myself a target of 5000 words a day but I'm concerned I've set my goal too low, even though I only ever seem to accomplish half that amount. I've been working on this novel since early February and I'm only 36k words into my 80k word target, and I can't help but feel I should have achieved double that much.

Am I being too harsh on myself or should I be putting more effort into my writing time? Also I'd love to know what other writers deem to be an acceptable daily word count goal.

This question gets asked a lot and is quite tough to answer. But I think Demesnedenoir's answer is on the right track.

To set those daily goals, you need to know yourself, know what kind of writing you want to do, and decide what time frames are important for you.

While I don't make my living at writing fiction, many of my friends do. They have a wide range of how much they write in a day, but I would say the midpoint is about 1500-2000 words a day. Then you have to factor in editing time and research time when you are writing. Of the professional writers I know personally the high point I have ever heard any of them say is 12,000 words in a day, and that is not steady, that was pure desperation, no bathroom breaks, caffeine fueled madness when a critical deadline was fast approaching.

I don't know anything about your circumstances or your goals or if time is important to you, but I would lean towards saying a 5000 wpd goal might be on the high side, not the low side.

 

[Helen]

sets daily word count goals for their writing

I set a daily page count - 3.

I've found that once you get used to writing 3 pages, it's not that much of a stretch to write 6. When the mood strikes.

 

[Chessie]

Yea if you want to make a living from your fiction then writing a lot and fast is a must. How you are able to do that depends on your goals, life, etc like Russ mentioned. Approaching it as a job is a good start. "I'll write from 6-9 daily" or whatever works for you.

 

[X Equestris]

I shoot for between between 500 and 1000, though I won't hold myself back if things are flowing well. I could probably manage a higher word count, but I've always edited as I go. On the upside, it tends to cut down on the amount of editing and rewriting I need to do later.

 

[Devor]

Steven King and a number of others have said they write about 2,000. That's kind of the going rate for a full time writer, but many have cited numbers that are much less. Doing it part time, I rather think a daily goal of more than maybe 1,000 words should raise the question of whether you're giving your writing enough thought. But of course there's always editing, so whatever works for you.

 

[Vincent Lakes]

Stephen King once said he writes approximately 2000 words a day, which is quite respectable. Writing 5000 makes me wonder how good it can be, but without further knowledge I assume you know what you're doing and keep myself from diving any deeper into it. Personally I've stopped staring at word count altogether. It's just a number without bringing anything to the story. I write from 20 to 3000 words a day, depending how inspired I feel. Yes, sometimes I have days when I write just one sentence and that's it. I hate to force it because I usually end up editing at least half of the crap away I wrote just to write something. In the end it's the story that matters and word count; well, it's just that - a mere number.

 

[lonelyboy1977]

I appreciate all the responses guys. It looks like I was worrying too much about not hitting the 5k mark each day, I guess I will now revise my target down to 1-2K words a day, which I find much more manageable.

Hmm, I take this approach... Stephen King reputedly produces 2k words per day. A very typical number is 1k. In general, I think the obsession with high word counts has the potential to be unhealthy, but to each their own.

Oh, yeah. Worrying about my inability to reach 5k words even once has certainly been stressing me out.

A good deal depends on your goals. If you want to be the fellow pumping out 8-9 novels per year and aggressively courting a niche pulp fiction market on Amazon and other places, then you bet! You'd better be writing a lot of words per day. If you are looking to produce 1 or 2 novels per year for traditional publishing, then 5k per day is totally unnecessary. And a lot depends on style.

I definitely don't want to be that guy who's churning lots of forgettable material as quickly as possible. One complete manuscript a year would suit me just fine; two would be a bonus.

5k is very prolific. That's a 100k first draft every 20 days. Over the course of a year, that's over eighteen 100k novels. Not many produce at that rate.

I hadn't stopped to look at it in this way. But seeing it spelled out makes me realise just how unrealistic I was being.

As mentioned above, the general rule of thumb is 2k for being a good pace. But if you're comfortable producing more then more power to you.

From this point on I will continue at to proceed at the pace I've been going at. I've generally found that I can quite comfortably do 1-2k each day.



Once again, thanks guys; a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm down with this. Even on a day I sit in front of a computer 10 hours, did that the other day, I wrote about half an hour, and did a sweep for a couple bad-habits I don't like in my writing for the other 9.5 hours. Word count? Err, 250, maybe. Heck, might've deleted more words than I wrote, LOL. So what.

Worshippers of word count have different goals. But hey, whatever works.

I noticed once a person saying they wrote 10k per day, and finished their novel in about 3 months, but the novel was under 14 days long (so to speak). So, I'd be more curious to know how many words went in the trash during the 2.5 months of editing and revising before "finished".

Whether I knock out 500 or 3000 words in a day, I know one thing, by the time they reach the digital page... the details may change, but I'm not going to be throwing away pages. Probably not even paragraphs.

Stephen King once said he writes approximately 2000 words a day, which is quite respectable. Writing 5000 makes me wonder how good it can be, but without further knowledge I assume you know what you're doing and keep myself from diving any deeper into it. Personally I've stopped staring at word count altogether. It's just a number without bringing anything to the story. I write from 20 to 3000 words a day, depending how inspired I feel. Yes, sometimes I have days when I write just one sentence and that's it. I hate to force it because I usually end up editing at least half of the crap away I wrote just to write something. In the end it's the story that matters and word count; well, it's just that - a mere number.

 

[Fluffypoodel]

I've been shooting for about 2500 words a day. during events like Nanowrimo I shoot closer to 3500. It also depends on how I am feeling as well. I know that when i'm not feeling it it usually takes me about a thousand words to warm up and after that i'm good to go for another 2-3k

 

[evolution_rex]

I checked my current WIP and it seems to be 800 to 1100. I don't write by word count, though. In my outlines, I separated each chapter into small parts, usually when the setting changes or time passes. Then I simply write one segment a day. I spend maybe three hours writing, and then whatever free time I have I spend on editing.