How many words a day do professional writers write?

Professional writers report daily figures from about 500 ¹ to 2,000 ² words, but these are personal habits, not measured averages. No survey we found counts the output of professional writers. The useful number for you is the one you can sustain, measured in finished words.

Reported daily figures run from 500 to 2,000 words

The figures that exist come from writers' own accounts. Stephen King's daily target is listed as 2,000 words ², and Graham Greene's as 500 words ¹. Both come from a blog list of writers' daily targets, so they describe targets rather than measured output.

The novelist Sebastian Faulks gave a more detailed account in a 2012 interview. He said his output usually settles at between 1,400 and 1,500 words ³. That is one author's description of his own day, and it is more specific than a target because it describes what usually happens.

No study has measured the daily output of professional writers

We did not find a survey that counts the words that working writers produce each day, so there is no average to quote. The figures above may not count the same things, so check what a figure includes before you compare.

The most detailed historical example comes from the novelist Anthony Trollope, who described his own method in his autobiography. He wrote with his watch in front of him and required 250 words in every quarter of an hour ⁴. That works out to 1,000 words per hour ⁵. It is a target he set for himself, not a record of what he always achieved.

Planning takes most of the time, so word counts understate the work

A day of 1,500 words is not a day of 1,500 words of keystrokes. Most of the time in composing goes to planning. In a 1978 study of letter writing, about two-thirds of composing time went to planning, whatever the method ⁶. A count of words a day does not show the hours spent planning, researching and revising.

This is why the guide to writing speed separates composing from copying. Copying speed tells you how fast words move onto the page, and composing speed tells you how fast a finished text takes shape. For how long a single 1,000 word piece takes, see how long it takes to write 1,000 words.

It depends on the kind of writing

• Fiction and long-form books are where most of the figures above come from, and those habits may not suit other work.
• Journalism and business writing often run to deadlines, so the count changes with the assignment.
• Academic and technical writing may involve long periods of reading and checking, so the count of finished words can be lower.
• Early drafts and revision days produce different counts. A revision day may end with fewer new words and a better text.

These differences mean a single number cannot describe all professional writing. Compare yourself with writers doing similar work, and check the source of any figure before you rely on it.

What to do

1. Count finished words, not keystrokes. Keep one number for new text you would keep, and a second for total words including discards.
2. Measure for two weeks. Record the count at the end of each session, and note the hours spent planning and revising.
3. Set a target you can sustain. A target that you hit most days is more useful than an ambitious figure you abandon after a week.
4. Look at time, not only counts. If your count is low, check whether planning or research is taking the time, and whether typing speed is a factor. The question on how fast you need to type covers when speed matters and when it does not.

For a worked example of time per 1,000 words, read how long it takes to write 1,000 words. If you are thinking about speaking your first draft, can dictation help with writer's block covers that trade-off. The typing speed overview has the full picture.