Do you have a minimum daily word quota? Or even a time quota? Writing a novel a few years ago I said to myself "1000 words a day or you don't get to do anything else." I'm a working freelance journalist (well as I approach 65 I'm cutting down) plus news addict, Youtube music fan, Facebook nut, writer's group forum fan, etc.etc. so I have lots of distractions. But I told myself "Don't even turn on the Internet until you have 1000 words." So except for really urgent deadlines, that's what I did. In four months I had a manuscript. Who knows if it's any good, but I worked on it for another year and now I'm pitching it out in the world.
Good luck! And congratulations on getting your first draft out so quickly. I thought I was going to be able to do that, but I've already taken twice as long as you and still have a ways to go. I aim for 5k words a week. I'm not super strict with it, but it gives me something to aim for. However, sometimes I need to spend my writing time revising and rewriting. I guess I just sort of know when I've put real work into my writing v. anything less than that.
When I have full momentum going I do try to hit 1000 words/day. It got me through four different first drafts. The problem for me is building up to it. I can't just start at that level. Normally I start by aiming for about 500, then up it by 100 every week or so as long as I'm meeting my goal. But that requires discipline, and it requires forming a habit. A lot of writers really can't do daily (or weekly, or whatever) quotas. I'm the opposite. Until I started following a daily quota I floundered. But, just like trying to form any other kind of habit, making sure to keep up with it is the real work. Taking days off can be a huge momentum killer.
One polished scene every two days. Realistically, it averages about one polished scene every three days. But if I set that as my goal, it'll go to four days.
Not really. I'm a hobbyist writer than a "planning to publish" writer. I don't stress about word quota that much. Yes. I have school to deal with so I try to fit writing into my schedule. That's fantastic OP! I usually crank out a short story within months. Hope you can polish it to its best.
I don't because I've found that having a quota means that I tend to half-ass it if I'm just not feeling it that day and just write for the sake of getting to the quota, or if I'm writing very strongly and I hit the quota, I'll just stop because I hit it, not because I'm done writing. You can have some vague guidelines, but holding to a quota for the sake of holding to a quota makes no sense to me. You either want to write or you don't. Being forced into some arbitrary number of words... no thanks.
