Writing Every Day
The Power of Persistence
Let’s say you want to write a 400 page book. The average page of a novel has approximately 250 words on it. This means your 400 page book will have around 100,000 words. That’s a lot of words! How long would that take to write?
Let’s assume you write at a pace of 500 words an hour. That is only 8.3 words a minute (a very conservative pace). If you can manage to sit down and write for an hour a day (500 words), you’d have completed your novel in 200 days. That’s under 7 months!
Ernest Hemingway averaged about 500 words a day, Stephen King still regularly hits 2,000, and Anne Rice got up to 3,000 words a day. Writing every day doesn’t guarantee success, but it can’t hurt your chances.
A Modest—and effective—Goal
A lot of writers have trouble convincing themselves to sit down and write, but once they do they can really get chugging along. If this describes you, an ambitious word count is only going to hinder you. It will seem like a big commitment and might stop you from even trying. Worse, even if you do manage to sit down and write, a high word count will be unattainable certain days, when life gets in the way, leading you to get out of rhythm.
A lot of writers will suggest starting with a goal of 1,000 words a day, or 500 words, or even 300. I recommend starting out with much less. Try to write 1 sentence a day. That way, even if you only have one minute of free time, you should be able to succeed. Over time with that success you will form a habit.
If you only write one sentence you'll be one sentence better off than you were yesterday. But I think you'll find that once you start writing, you'll end up regularly producing a lot more than just that one sentence. You probably won't hit 3,000 words a day right off the bat, but you’ll be writing every day, and that’s a big step in the right direction.
How to get started
My favorite advice on this is to just start writing--even if what you write is total garbage. Even if it doesn't make any sense or has nothing to do with the story. Just get that sentence down. If you have to, start describing the room you're in. Just get writing! If you’re lucky, the words will start to flow.
Soon it won’t be a huge effort to sit down at the keyboard. It will be part of your routine. Then you’ll be closer to hitting 500 words a day or even 1,000. Who knows, you might start writing multiple books a year.
