# How many hours a day? How many words?



## MichelD (Mar 5, 2019)

How much of the day do you devote to writing?

Do you have a word quota?

I'm retired so I'm trying to catch up on my writing before I die.

I try to write 500 words into my novel manuscript in the morning and then work on some memoirs in the afternoon.

I can't seem to write fiction in the afternoon.


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## Ralph Rotten (Mar 5, 2019)

I write from 0400 to 0800 m-f, and 0800-1200ish on weekends.
During those hours I am either writing, or working on writing related stuff like editing, cover art, advertising, marketing, etc.

I don't use word-count goals because I write scene by scene. 
I have always found word-count goals to be arbitrary.  Just a number plucked from thin air.
I work out a specific amount of content in the afternoon, then write it in the morning.
Sometimes I just outline the next scenes at the bottom of the work-in-progress.


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## Sir-KP (Mar 5, 2019)

I write as long as the words pour out. I wouldn't sit down producing nothing. 

And considering this is not my main job, if I have more important things to do, I will stop it by writing quick note of what's left to be written before it get vaporized. :lol:


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## luckyscars (Mar 5, 2019)

A word count quota of 500 words a day sounds kind of low to me. But I write quickly and only write fiction. So I personally target 2,000 words a day. It used to be more, but I have less time now and only one project (no memoirs) so it's not a comparable situation. 

Do I always hit 2,000? Absolutely not. Some days I don't do any. But, having the 2,000 as a target means I _usually _hit, say, 1,000+ a day where otherwise it might well be close to zero when I'm especially busy or tired. So for me this 'rule' works. It certainly drags me away from the damn television.

The main thing if you want to create 'rules' is to base them on what works you and your schedule. Not some notion of what is right or wrong. 

Think about it like this: 500 words is still going to give you an 80,000 word novel in five or six months (160 days at 500 words a day). About two commercial-length novels a year. Consider that even a prolific writer like Stephen King doesn't average that these days.

Bottom line: If a word count allows for a consistently thoughtful process while still pushing you to achieve, then that is a good number whatever it is and should not be 'arbitrarily' changed. It's quality not quantity, at the end of the day. Some people write productively without any kind of tracking system. Others, like me, tend to respond well to a hair shirt when it comes to getting stuff done. Try everything until you find what works.


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## moderan (Mar 6, 2019)

4 or 5 hours a day. I write fiction during the late morning/afternoon, until lunchtime, then I screw around until after dinner, when I write my column and then take care of whatever else I want to work on. No wordcount goal but I'd guess at 4-5K daily. I have dozens of projects happening at any given time, prioritized haphazardly depending on who is offering money.


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## Cephus (Mar 6, 2019)

I just upped my daily word count to 7500 and this isn't my full time job.  I don't have any hours set aside for writing, but I know that I have to hit that 7500+ goal 5 days a week, whether I start writing at 6am or at 6pm, I do not go to bed until I'm done, no exceptions.  I also don't stop at 7500, I go as long as I can go and ultimately, I want to raise that to 10k a day.


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## Sir-KP (Mar 6, 2019)

Okay, so I think I really need to up my game seeing people writing thousands of words in a day in a span of 4 to 5 hours.

Do you guys really type that fast or just non-stop?


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## luckyscars (Mar 6, 2019)

Sir-KP said:


> Okay, so I think I really need to up my game seeing people writing thousands of words in a day in a span of 4 to 5 hours.
> 
> Do you guys really type that fast or just non-stop?



I can easily do a couple thousand words in the two hours I typically spend on my WIP each day going as slow as I like, provided I have figured out what I am writing.

It's not that impressive. 16 words a minute = 1,000 words in an hour. Everybody with hands is capable of that.

So yes, 'thousands' of words of output from an uninterrupted 4-5 hours of writing is extremely achievable.


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## moderan (Mar 6, 2019)

Oh yeah. I've been typing every day for 50 years. I'm _fast_. But most of the writing takes place before my fingers hit the keys. Nothing facilitates writing like organization.


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## Phil Istine (Mar 7, 2019)

My output is far lower and more haphazard, but I'm in my early sixties and do manual work full time (or pretty close).  Even so, I do my best to write something for a minimum of one hour per day at least four times a week.  Early morning is best for me, but sometime I have early morning jobs with the work that pays my living costs.


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## moderan (Mar 7, 2019)

Disciplined is the way to go. Form a habit. Do the work at the same time every day for six weeks or whatever. Get in the groove. If you'e writing for yourself, you can afford to wait for inspiration. I need consistency.


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## Theglasshouse (Mar 7, 2019)

That sounds like advice meant for more than one kind of writer. But is well intended. I usually tried discipline early but didn't do so well. I lacked the belief I could write a good story. Secondly, my language was worse than now. I would like to be disciplined but I need to first find out by feedback if I am doing this right.


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## JJBuchholz (Mar 7, 2019)

MichelD said:


> How much of the day do you devote to writing?



When I have a WIP, usually somewhere between 1-3 hours. (I work full-time, and spend almost a couple hours most nights at the gym)

I also try to make two to three posts per week in my sports blog as well, my passion for writing combining with my passion for football on this one. I try to spend about 20 mins per post when I have a topic and such.



MichelD said:


> Do you have a word quota?



No. I write what I can. Some days, it's a couple of pages or more, some days it's a couple sentences. It all depends how much time I have, how tired I am from the day, and how much of the story idea I can see before my eyes at a given time.

-JJB


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## moderan (Mar 7, 2019)

Theglasshouse said:


> That sounds like advice meant for more than one kind of writer. But is well intended. I usually tried discipline early but didn't do so well. I lacked the belief I could write a good story. Secondly, my language was worse than now. I would like to be disciplined but I need to first find out by feedback if I am doing this right.


That strikes me as counterproductive. The way to learn how to do it is by writing (or practicing your art/skill/exercise in general). What others think is immaterial. That really doesn't matter until you try to sell the stuff. It's necessarily trial-and-error. You have to do the deed to know what works for you. And that's how you become confident, by handling different situations and challenges. It's an organic process -- not linear.


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## Theglasshouse (Mar 7, 2019)

I do have dyslexia though. I need to have good English skills when polishing a story. I made many mistakes in the past. People were not keen on telling me the truth about my grammar except my friends here. 

At the end of this month I should have a software that helps me correct the mistakes. It's called claroread. I didn't think at various points in my life I needed it. All the software I tried including wordq, wasn't good enough for me to fix the mistakes.

For the times I have gotten the grammar right, I have been published. It's a mixed success rate. But now I do sort of feel confident these grammar problems will be resolved. I will buy the program at the 31st of march which is my birthday. That's why discipline failed me before. I got rejected but did not know why. It was probably due to grammar errors.

I believe you are right in the discipline aspect. I think knowing a theme or developing a character can help in that regard since that is what works for me. I read that theme is the changing part of the character. We all have different points of view and perspectives. 

The only reason I wrote 1200 words was because they recommended that I do so. To see my progress. I could have written more. But the problem has to do with dyslexia, which is why I needed a good opinion. The people that have been willing to help have helped me plenty. But I had to reconfirm, that I can fix my grammar on my own.


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## Cephus (Mar 7, 2019)

Sir-KP said:


> Okay, so I think I really need to up my game seeing people writing thousands of words in a day in a span of 4 to 5 hours.
> 
> Do you guys really type that fast or just non-stop?



A little bit of both.  I know what I'm going to be writing when I sit down and I also type really, really fast.  I wear out a couple of keyboards a year.


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## Cephus (Mar 7, 2019)

moderan said:


> Disciplined is the way to go. Form a habit. Do the work at the same time every day for six weeks or whatever. Get in the groove. If you'e writing for yourself, you can afford to wait for inspiration. I need consistency.



Same here.  I decide when I am going to have the first draft of a book done, then I calculate how many days I have and how many words I have to average per day to hit that goal. Then I produce more than that number of words every single day.  I gave myself until the end of the month to finish my current WIP.  I will be done tomorrow.


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## luckyscars (Mar 7, 2019)

moderan said:


> Disciplined is the way to go. Form a habit. Do the work at the same time every day for six weeks or whatever. Get in the groove. If you'e writing for yourself, you can afford to wait for inspiration. I need consistency.



^I 100% agree with this.

Side note but related: I find it sort of alarming how often this 'how can I make myself write?' thing comes up on here. I get the issue with juggling other commitments and struggle with that myself, hence I do use word count goals, but for those people who have the time I don't understand how they could have problems with productivity?

It's friggin' voluntary. Also, it's supposed to be 'your passion'. Do we suppose gamblers or fly fishermen or furries spend their time hand-wringing over whether they need to do those activities more? Of course not. 

Which suggests there is either an issue of rampant laziness...or an issue of writers not actually enjoying writing.



Cephus said:


> I wear out a couple of keyboards a year.



How??


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## moderan (Mar 7, 2019)

Cephus said:


> Same here.  I decide when I am going to have the first draft of a book done, then I calculate how many days I have and how many words I have to average per day to hit that goal. Then I produce more than that number of words every single day.  I gave myself until the end of the month to finish my current WIP.  I will be done tomorrow.


Suuure you do. And this stuff is just snapped up for immediate publication, right? Under a dozen pseudonyms? And wrecking keyboards? Because fast means you hit the keys way harder, right? Come on, man. 


> I believe you are right in the discipline aspect. I think knowing a theme or developing a character can help in that regard since that is what works for me. I read that theme is the changing part of the character. We all have different points of view and perspectives.


That isn't at all what I was writing about. Discipline is getting yourself to sit down and write, dealing with all of your objections and actually creating ways to get the work done.


luckyscars said:


> ^I 100% agree with this.
> 
> Side note but related: I find it sort of alarming how often this 'how can I make myself write?' thing comes up on here. I get the issue with juggling other commitments and struggle with that myself, hence I do use word count goals, but for those people who have the time I don't understand how they could have problems with productivity?
> 
> ...



People think it's all cool and glamorous to be a writer, and that the process of writing is all mysterious and special, and that they're the undiscovered classic everyone has been waiting for, without realizing that _every single tyro thinks the same things_. It goes along with the 'what if they steal my precious ideas'  and 'Ima name my characters after the jobs they do' schools of 'thought'.


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## Ralph Rotten (Mar 8, 2019)

Heh, normally I'd agree with Mod about the self-discipline thing...but today instead of writing I just sat and drank coffee and surfed twitter.
Every now & again I just don't feel like @!#@ writing.


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## Terry D (Mar 8, 2019)

There's a big difference between wanting to be a writer, and actually wanting to write. The only times I've ever actually been productive are the times when I get myself on a writing schedule and stick to it. Those are also the times when my word-count per session goes up, and when the quality and originality of my work is at its best. Not that I ever really worry about a word-count goal, for me those are self-defeating. I don't care if I only write 250 words in a session if they are the _right_ 250 words. 

Our customers (readers, agents, publishers, or editors) only care about the words we present to them. Those are the only words which have any actual _value_. So, the only time we are creating value is when we are writing. Anything else we do (research, 'world building', outlining, daydreaming, whatever) doesn't matter to the reader and is, therefore, not creating value for our customer. Some of those tasks might be necessary to our creative process, but that doesn't mean our readers give a shit about us doing them. That's why I tend to roll my eyes and say, "That's nice, but, no." when I hear wannabe writers claim that all the time they spend 'thinking about the book,' or world building, or outlining is just as valuable as time spent actually putting the ink on paper, or pixels on a screen. 

Even more pathetic, IMO, are those who have to wait for some 'muse' to move them before they can write. If there is one secret to writing it is that your muse is waiting for you in the chair in front of your keyboard. To find her you only need to show up there everyday. It's the same cure for writer's block. Now, even the most dedicated writer will have that rare day when she looks at her blank screen and just decides, "to hell with it, _for today._" You'll know you are really on your way to being a writer when those days really are rare, and when you do take the day off (as Ralph mentioned above) and you feel uncomfortable playing hooky, like when you leave your wallet at home, or forget to brush your teeth. That's when you are developing the writing habit. To steal a saying from the sports world; the most valuable ability is availability. So, I don't think it's necessarily mandatory to set word count goals (but if you do that's cool too), but it is mandatory to show up on a regular basis.


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## Cephus (Mar 8, 2019)

moderan said:


> Suuure you do. And this stuff is just snapped up for immediate publication, right? Under a dozen pseudonyms? And wrecking keyboards? Because fast means you hit the keys way harder, right? Come on, man.



100% true.  I decided, less than a month ago, that my deadline for the first draft of my current WIP would be my vacation at the end of March.  I was shooting for 100k words, my writing goal when I started was 5000 words per day, I write 5 days a week, which comes out to 20 days, or a month of working time.  I have since upped my daily quota to 7500 words a day.  I finished the first draft this morning.  98,274 words.  Starting Monday, I begin plotting the sequel.  I'll come back to it for revisions in April.


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## AdrianBraysy (Mar 10, 2019)

I can't say I've been consistent with  this. My previous two novellas took me about a month each with 1.5k words a day on average. The one I wrote before that took me four days of writing 5-7k per day.

With the novel I'm working on now, I tend to average something like 1.5k. It takes me longer, but that's because the story is more complex (weaving 5 subplots into the main story), and I find myself going back to previous chapters in order to correct things, which takes time. Also, it's a bigger book.

As far as goals go, I try to aim for different goals depending on whether or not I'm working. During the weekends, I aim for higher word counts. If I'm working night shifts, my aim is a bit lower. 

What I do need though, are strict deadlines. If I don't have a deadline, I can't seem to complete anything.


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## moderan (Mar 10, 2019)

Cephus said:


> 100% true.  I decided, less than a month ago, that my deadline for the first draft of my current WIP would be my vacation at the end of March.  I was shooting for 100k words, my writing goal when I started was 5000 words per day, I write 5 days a week, which comes out to 20 days, or a month of working time.  I have since upped my daily quota to 7500 words a day.  I finished the first draft this morning.  98,274 words.  Starting Monday, I begin plotting the sequel.  I'll come back to it for revisions in April.


Of course it is, because you say so. And destroying keyboards in the process, wow. I wish I was as cool as you.


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## Ralph Rotten (Mar 13, 2019)

"I shall sell no books until they are ready."
Orson Rotten


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## Kyle R (Mar 18, 2019)

MichelD said:


> How much of the day do you devote to writing?
> 
> Do you have a word quota?



My spare time varies, so I mostly focus on word-count goals. 1,500 words a day is my target. Sometimes I hit it, other times I don't. Some days the writing comes easily; other days it feels like my brain won't work at all. The process is fluid in that regard. 

My motto these days: just keep moving forward, at whatever pace works for you. The important part is to write when you intend to write--don't let distractions steal your time! :encouragement:


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