Your Daily Word Count

The daily word count is a personal matter. Some authors adhere to actual counts while others take a time measuring method. I have always used a daily word count but for some writers a daily word count is more of a guideline than a strict goal. And still others see words counts as the motivator that allows them to push the edge.

For instance, all of you, no doubt, have heard of Stephen King’s daily requirement of 2,000 words. It is one of those infamous pieces of information out there in the writing community:

“I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words… On some days those ten pages come easily; I’m up and out and doing errands by eleven-thirty in the morning, perky as a rate in liverwurst. More frequently, as I grow older, I find myself eating lunch at my desk and finishing the day’s work around one-thirty in the afternoon. Sometimes, when the words come hard, I’m still fiddling around at teatime. Either way is fine with me, but only under dire circumstances do I allow myself to shut down before I get my 2,000 words.”

Those 2,000 words are a lofty goal. I have pushed myself to adhere to it through the years with myriad rates of success.

According to legend, James Joyce was happy if he completed two perfect sentences a day on his book Ulysses. For those of you brave enough to tackle the tomb, you know the book is a mammoth undertaking of references in multiple languages with so much depth as to be almost unswimmable. It is a challenging, but ultimately a brilliant book… that Joyce wrote two sentences at a time.

Other authors vary day-to-day, following time schedules rather than word counts. Haruki Murakami gets up super early and works for a good chunk of the day:

“When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10km or swim for 1500m (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. but to hold to such a repetition for so long — six months to a year — requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. physical strength is a necessary as artistic sensitivity.”

In collecting other authors word counts, Margaret Atwood said she writes something like 1,000 to 2,000 words a day by long hand; and rumor has it that Anne Rice writes 5,000 words before calling it quits. Without knowing for sure but by studying their input; Jack London wrote 1,500 words a day and Arthur Conan Doyle did 3,000 words.

And, if you are very interested, you can see Brandon Sanderson actually work in a series of videos, though his daily word count is otherwise unknown.

But what about you? Do you adhere to a strict schedule? A strict number of daily words? Or do you have more of a laid back approach? Also, how do you determine your Book-in-a-Week challenge goals? Are they informed by your daily goals, or are they a little bit extra each month?

Let us know!

This article first appeared on the Book-in-a-Week website 07/01/2014.