What's "a lot" of words for you in a day?

[Ultimate Cheapskate]

I'm always curious about this.

If you spend a solid (but not abnormally ambitious) day writing on a single project, how many words might you crank out in a day?

I find that I normally write at least 500 words every day, but when I'm really focused on a project, 1,000-2,000 words in a day is, for me, a very good clip. I'm always amazed (and, admittedly, demoralized) by writers who claim to write in a single day what I can, if I'm lucky, write in a week.

What about you?

[louiseh87]

1500 is pretty average. On a good day I can get closer to 3000. But I only manage about 2-3 hours at the moment, due to extreme procrastination, so I figure I could probably do a lot more if I really set my mind to it.

My spreadsheet tells me March averaged 1451 words per day, and April is so far averaging 1101.

[Ultimate Cheapskate]

Thanks Louise -

Two words jump out: "procrastination" and "spreadsheet."

Do you factor in "procrastination time" as part of the equation of words-per-day? (I do... in fact the sign outside my office reads: "Welcome to the Den of Rumination". Because, as I like to say, "I'm a very fast writer, but a very slow ruminator.")

As for "spreadsheet," do you log your daily word count on a spreadsheet? Very interesting, if you do. Do you find it helpful? Might be something I should consider, given my LWCP ("Low Word Count Productivity").

[louiseh87]

Thanks Louise -

Two words jump out: "procrastination" and "spreadsheet."

Do you factor in "procrastination time" as part of the equation of words-per-day? (I do... in fact the sign outside my office reads: "Welcome to the Den of Rumination". Because, as I like to say, "I'm a very fast writer, but a very slow ruminator.")

As for "spreadsheet," do you log your daily word count on a spreadsheet? Very interesting, if you do. Do you find it helpful? Might be something I should consider, given my LWCP ("Low Word Count Productivity").

"Procrastination time" isn't always in my log - I make a decision to stop writing and go off checking the internet, or read for a bit. Sometimes I don't take it out of the time, and that's where, on my spreadsheet, the WPM (words per minute) drop radically What I like to do though, is aim for 500 words before I stop, then read or wander about, or mess about on the internet for a bit, then go for a another 500 words. That usually works well.

The spreadsheet has been amazing. I only introduced it recently, and my word count over a week shot up immediately. I basically wrote more in one week than I had over several months when I started being unemployed. I think I downloaded a basic one from a website and tweaked it to what I want it to do (the WPM I added, and a log, as the basic one only did words per day). I put in my start time, and my end time, and how many words I did in that time.

[EccentricKim]

I posted here, but it didn't show up, so if I have a double post later I'm sorry!

A lot for me is probably 2,000. But I haven't done that many in awhile. This week I've written nothing new, although I did send 3 short submissions and a couple agent submissions.

[cdnrmsclk]

I can get down maybe 1500 - 2000 words in a day. I can get down a lot more, if I have no distractions! (Impossible in my house...)

[jmar2]

For me, it depends on the stage I am at in a story. When I am first starting a story - this is after letting it percolate into brain farts for a week - I can sometimes get over 10,000 words in 5-6 hours. (No, not edited words - just words).

But if I'm trying to tie two competing scenes together where conflicting MCs are heading towards a head-on, full speed collison, I'm lucky if I get 2 words in an entire day.

If you're a fiction writer, I'm sure you've been there; the 'How in the world did I let the characters get to here and what do I do next'. Sometimes, I get as far as "He ... "

The good thing is the 2-word days are few and far between. I usually get out of them by jumping ahead in the story and continuing on. Then suddenly my creative side goes, "AHA!" and I can return to the sticking point and carefully apply spackle and paint and no one hopefully notices.

My average is probably 3-5K a day, but that's not every day. Sometimes I actually take a walk with the dog.

John

[updog]

I write with finishing a scene or chapter in mind, so word-count can be anywhere from 200 to 4,000, depending on where my head is and what my characters are doing at the moment. And yeah, I spend a lot of time ruminating too. My husband calls it staring at the wall, but that's not what I'm doing.

[rosebud]

This is a good thread. I haven't really considered a word count per day, or week for that matter. The spread sheet interests me, and would give me an opportunity to learn excel. Right now my only word count is what I manage to accomplish during Word Wars on Saturday nights. Shameful, I know, but the reality of my life. I'm stuck on my Mandy story and am reading over previous chapters in order to come up with an appropriate ending....should have done and outline...

[mammamaia]

in over 30 years of writing full time, i've never counted words per day... only per completed works, when necessary...

my 'most' has consisted of 18-20 hours non-stop writing every day for weeks, when working on a major project [book or screenplay]... forgetting to eat, if no one put food in front of me...

i turned out a completed, 120 page screenplay in 10 days, never having written one before... but word count doesn't really mean anything there, due to the format required... takes up more time for thoughtful deliberation, than with prose, where you just spew out the story...

imo, writers shouldn't concern themselves with how many words they can turn out in such and such a period of time, because spitting out 5,000 words per day of crap can't compare with setting down 500 perfectly crafted words worth of brilliant writing in the same amount of time...

deal with amounts written only if you're working under a deadline, such as writing a daily column for a newspaper... otherwise, ignore word and page counts and just write the best you can, without watching the clock, or keeping count...