How often to write, and how fast

This post was requested by Shaynie, and it was a very good idea, so I decided write it immediately.


So there is a very important point to raise here. We all need to know how often to write, because it will give us good rules to go by. There's just one problem with that, it varies for each person. I would say write as much as possible without it interfering with school or work. Writing shouldn't be what your life revolves around (unless you have already made it your main or only career, if so good for you!).

There are a couple things that you need to take into account when trying to figure out how often to write. If you are in one of those ruts that I have talked about, it's alright not to write for a day or two. If you are on vacation you might not have time. The list goes on. You should try to write everyday, and I'm not talking about in your journal or on twitter. I'm saying real story writing. Make a goal of words every day. For instance, if you have a lot of time in one week, then shoot for 1,500 words or more a day. If you hardly have any time make a goal to get 20 words in at least.

Normally, when I have an hour I can write probably 1000 words, depending on my inspiration. There are days when I can't wait to write and days when I can't wait to be done writing. I would say you should write everyday, if possible, and if not schedule in times for writing. But try really hard to write everyday because if you don't, your book might get neglected then you might lose enthusiasm, then you run out ides and bye-bye book! And we don't want that to happen, now do we?

For how fast to write, in terms of how long it should take you to write something, it had a lot to do with how fast you type and how much time you have. I am trying to finish my main novel that I'm writing, and I mean finished as in ready to be published, by November of next year. That will mean it would have taken me a little over a year, and I'm planning for the book to be between 200-300 pages.

Try to finish your novel in a year. Once again, this boils down to enthusiasm, because if you don't have anything to show for your work you might lost interest and, once again, bye-bye book. You don't need all of the editing done in a year, just the basic thing. In NaNoWriMo, people write 50,000 words in a month (I have done this but in August when I wasn't busy.) That's a great way to write, but realistically, not many people will normally do that.

So write as fast as you can, and try not to go over a year, and write as often as possible, everyday is highly recommended.

For short stories, I would say finish it in one to two sittings.