1. MasterOfSuspense

    MasterOfSuspense New Member

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    Novel Novelists, how much do you write a day?

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by MasterOfSuspense, Dec 11, 2012.

    Those of you who've found enough inspiration and determination to write consistently almost every day, what is the average amount of words you find yourself typing?

    After taking rather long break from writing, I've started again and have been pushing myself to work on one of my novels every day, even if it's just a little bit, and the unexpected and pleasing result is I usually end up writing much more than I planned to. Even when I'm lacking inspiration, often-times a paragraph will get me "pumped up" and provide me with the means to keep me going.

    Right now I'm averaging about 600 words a day (in about 2-3 hours space of writing). I plan to raise my writing time as I continue.
     
  2. captain kate

    captain kate Senior Member

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    I do anywhere from 1.8k to 3-4k a day depending on the chapter I'm working on. I tend to be a fast worker on my first drafts.
     
  3. Cerrus

    Cerrus New Member

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    I had a limit of 1k a day and it worked out well.
     
  4. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Anywhere between six to a few thousand words. Many times I bash out a few hundred words and then delete the whole thing. Sometimes those six words can take me just as many hours, and sometimes I knock out a very satisfactory 2000 words in two or three hours.
     
  5. Thumpalumpacus

    Thumpalumpacus Alive in the Superunknown

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    Right now I'm averaging about 700 wpd on my WIP.
     
  6. Ian J.

    Ian J. Active Member

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    Right now I'm in rework mode, but even when working on a new book I do quite a bit of development before writing any of the prose. So in those times I'm writing zero words per day, but still doing a lot of work on a book. When in the prose writing stage, it can be anywhere from a few words to a few thousand. Average, probably one to two thousand per day.
     
  7. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    i don't keep track of daily word or page count, as i see no need to do so...

    when working full time on a book, i often write non-stop 18-20 hours a day, for weeks... when doing that in my old novel-writing life, i usually forgot to eat, if no one put food in front of me...
     
  8. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    My writing time varies greatly, based on other demands. On a good day, I can go 6-7 hours, and maybe another 2-4 in the evening. But that might not be all writing, it might be editing, researching or stopping to verify the accurancy of something I've used in my writing. A bad day, an hour. If I don't think I can get at least an hour in, uninterrupted, I don't bother because it's been my experience that such fragmented sessions don't yield much in the way of quality.
     
  9. Show

    Show Contributor Contributor

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    I write when I get inspired. Yeah, not the advice everyone gives but I've also gotten 8 novel drafts out of it in the past few years and I'm just a college student. My pace is working for me for the moment.
     
  10. ithestargazer

    ithestargazer Active Member

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    I try to sit down everyday and write something. Some days I do very little and some days I can pump out five thousand. I wish I could write full-time
     
  11. Madmurdock

    Madmurdock New Member

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    It depends on the novel I'm writing, whether I'm working that day and my personal motivation.

    For my first novel I probably averaged about 1000 words a day because I was pushing myself for NaNoWrimo. My second novel took me less time because I got so into it. I must have been doing 5-10k words a day (Bear in mind I was unemployed though).

    Sometimes I struggle to get two hundred out. Others I can do 15k without realising.
     

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