Fact · Dictation for work and study
56 to 104hours
At the 480 to 900 words an hour of composing by speech, a 50,000-word draft would take about 56 to 104 hours of speaking, before any planning or editing time.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
- What it measures
- Shows why composing pace matters more than speaking pace for a book. Planned text dictated at 7,500 to 9,000 words an hour would take about 6 to 7 hours.
- How it is calculated
- 50,000 / 900 = 56 hours; 50,000 / 480 = 104 hours
- What it does not show
- The 50,000-word length is a typical minimum for a short novel, not a fixed size. The composing rate comes from an older study, so modern software may be faster.
Calculated from
- The Wikipedia article on the novella, quoting a 2018 article in The Writer, says a novella tops out at 50,000 words, which is the minimum length for a short novel.
- Earlier reported composition speed using speech software was 8 to 15 words per minute, which the authors describe as much lower than normal speaking speed.