What's the most words you have written in a Day, Week or Month?

by Adrian Sroka
11th April 2013

Graham Greene advised writing 300 words a day. It works out at 2,100 a week, and 109,200 a year. I have a target of 500 words a day. The most I ever wrote in week was 8,000, but my average is about 2,500-3,000. I think long and hard about every word I write..

Replies

Sorry for the typos above. I just got an ergonomic keyboard. Takes a bit of getting used to.

Profile picture for user pppnl@yahoo.com
Jennifer
Harvey
330 points
Developing your craft
Film, Music, Theatre, TV and Radio
Fiction
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Business, Management and Education
Jennifer Harvey
11/04/2013

I don't set a target. Focusing on a word count is distracting. I aim instead to work of the puzzle of whaterber it is I am trying to write or say.

So I ask myself:

What am I tring to achieve with this piece?

How can I best say it?

What language works best?

Can I play around with things?

The number of words is incidental.

I find aiming for a wordcount (which I used to do when I first started out) left me with too much superfluous text and a load of editing that I found too cumbersome to deal with.

Some days I may only get a paragraph. But if that paragraph tickles my brain and I enjoy reading it, then a paragraph is enough.

I also have days where I write for hours on end and reach 2-3 thousand words. But that is very taxing as I write and edit and purge as I go - exhausting stuff.

Profile picture for user pppnl@yahoo.com
Jennifer
Harvey
330 points
Developing your craft
Film, Music, Theatre, TV and Radio
Fiction
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Business, Management and Education
Jennifer Harvey
11/04/2013

I aim for 1000 words a day. It enabled me to finish my children's novel in a month.

Profile picture for user andrewat_23446
Andrew
Atkinson
330 points
Ready to publish
Film, Music, Theatre, TV and Radio
Short stories
Fiction
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Adventure
Middle Grade (Children's)
Picture Books (Children's)
Comic
Speculative Fiction
Gothic and Horror
Andrew Atkinson
11/04/2013