There is no correct number of words to write each day. What matters is choosing a target that fits your available time and that you can keep up over months, not just for a good week. This guide shows how to calculate a target from a deadline, compares a few common targets, and covers the pitfalls of aiming too high.
Should I set a daily target or a weekly one?
Either can work, and a weekly target is often more forgiving, because it allows a shorter day to be made up on a longer one without feeling like a missed goal. A daily target is simpler to track but less flexible around ordinary disruptions.
How do I calculate a target from a deadline?
Divide your target word count by the number of writing days between now and your deadline, based on how many days a week you can realistically write, not every calendar day.
Example
For example, to write 60,000 words in 20 weeks at four writing days a week, that is 80 writing days. 60,000 ÷ 80 = 750 words per writing day.
What does a 250-words-a-day target look like?
250 words a day, five days a week, is 1,250 words a week. An 80,000-word manuscript at that pace takes 320 writing days, or about 64 weeks of five-day writing weeks, roughly fifteen months of drafting. This suits writers with limited daily time, such as short lunch breaks or a single quiet half hour.
What does a 500-words-a-day target look like?
500 words a day, five days a week, is 2,500 words a week. The same 80,000-word manuscript takes 160 writing days, about 32 weeks, or roughly seven and a half months of drafting. This is a common, moderate target for writers with a regular short session most days.
What does a 1,000-words-a-day target look like?
1,000 words a day, five days a week, is 5,000 words a week. The same manuscript takes 80 writing days, 16 weeks, roughly four months of drafting. This suits writers who can protect a longer daily session, but is not realistic for everyone, and is not inherently a better or more serious target than a lower one.
Why keep separating writing days from calendar days?
Because a plan built on "every day" collapses at the first missed day and can feel like failure, while a plan built on realistic writing days absorbs missed days as expected, not exceptional. If you plan for four writing days a week, a fifth day off is simply the plan working, not a lapse.
How long does it take to reach 50,000 or 80,000 words at different paces?
| Words per writing day | Days to 50,000 words | Days to 80,000 words |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 200 days | 320 days |
| 500 | 100 days | 160 days |
| 750 | 67 days | 107 days |
| 1,000 | 50 days | 80 days |
| 2,000 | 25 days | 40 days |
Should I use a time-based goal instead of a word-count goal?
Some writers prefer "write for 30 minutes" to "write 500 words", especially for scenes or sections that need slower, more careful work, such as difficult memoir material or dense non-fiction argument. A time-based goal removes the pressure to hit a number on days when the writing is genuinely harder than usual.
Why can a high daily target backfire?
An ambitious target set to impress yourself, rather than one based on your real available time, tends to produce a pattern of missing it, feeling discouraged, and eventually abandoning the routine altogether. A lower target consistently met builds a more durable habit than a higher one regularly missed.
What should I do about missed days?
Treat them as expected, not as evidence the plan has failed. A weekly or monthly view, rather than a single missed day, gives a fairer picture of whether the routine is working. If missed days become the majority of days, that is useful information to lower the target, not a reason to give up.
How should I track progress?
A simple way to track drafting progress
- Note the date and rough word count at the end of each writing session
- Review weekly totals rather than judging single days
- Adjust the target after a few weeks if it consistently feels too easy or too hard
- Keep the tracking itself quick; a spreadsheet cell is enough
Does this apply to revision as well as drafting?
Not directly. Revision is usually measured in pages or chapters reviewed rather than words written, since you are reworking existing text rather than generating new material. See how long does it take to write a book for how revision and editing time are usually planned separately from drafting.
Common mistakes
- Copying another author’s daily target. Their available time, book length and working style are not yours.
- Counting every day of the week as a writing day. This produces schedules that look achievable on paper and are not in practice.
- Treating a missed day as a failure. A single missed day tells you very little; a pattern over weeks tells you whether the target fits.
- Using word count for revision progress. Revision is better tracked by chapters or passes completed than by words written.
Frequently asked questions
Is 1,000 words a day a good target?
It can be a good target for someone with the time to sustain it, but it is not a benchmark everyone should aim for. A lower target consistently met will produce a finished draft too.
What if I write far more than my target some days?
That is fine and common. Some writers bank a strong day against a slower one later; others simply keep going while the momentum lasts. Either way, the weekly or monthly total is the more useful measure.
How do I set a target if I do not know my pace yet?
Write a few sessions at a comfortable pace, note the word counts, and use that average rather than guessing. Two or three sessions is usually enough to get a realistic starting figure.
Should the target change as the book goes on?
It can. Some sections, such as a difficult memoir chapter or a dense argument in non-fiction, genuinely take longer per word than others, and adjusting the target for those stretches is reasonable.