How much is a healthy word count?

[doravg]

So, what do you think is a healthy word count? Per day. I am not convinced that my 6k per day are healthy. What do you think?

 

[DonHon]

500 for me.... just for me but i think its 1k or 2k

 

[Temple]

Stephen King's daily word count is 2k. Brandon Sanderson is 2.5k. Granted, their "drafts" are already way more polished than us amateur writers, so that word count may be way more in terms of effort if converted to web novel standards. I do 2k-2.5k because I noticed that if I crank out 5k one day, for example, I don't have the drive to write the next day.

 

[DonHon]

man... i wish i could have the effort to do 1k or 2k i wonder why?

 

[TremendousHuman]

30 words per kg is healthy according to some public domain image of a guy in a doctor outfit I downloaded

 

[DWinchester]

6k per day is seriously impressive. 6k is my single day best. My goal is 10k words a week, at 2-3k a day.

 

[Octopal]

You need word count diets

 

[doravg]

30 words per kg is healthy according to some public domain image of a guy in a doctor outfit I downloaded

Are you sure? If I apply your formula, I'd have to be stuck writing the whole day, night, and barrow time from my afterlife.
So, is 3k better then?

You need word count diets

Explain?

 

[DonHon]

Explain

he means to have a little less word counts

 

[doravg]

he means to have a little less word counts

I know, I wanted to see how he'd explain it.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

So, what do you think is a healthy word count? Per day. I am not convinced that my 6k per day are healthy. What do you think?

Depends on your capacity and work routine as an author.

For me? I formerly write for around 2k to 6.7k words a day. But when I noticed it's too long for an average reader, I shortened it to 4k words. My story has a high fantasy setting, and I wanted to explain my concepts without infodumping and overloading on my readers, hence the amount of my word count (more of it is because I tend to 'break' my explanations with light banters).

 

[DarkeReises]

Yes.

 

[gaylolis]

my healthy word count is only writing when im in the mood :D

tho i personally don't write every day. i mostly spent the majority of time doing curiosity research and pondering. writing is just a way to summarize it.

 

[proxybaba]

only a chapter of 1.5k ~2k
that's it, if I write more, I end up taking a break for two or three days

 

[Maldrasen]

As a programmer, I feel that word count is a poor metric. You can measure a software engineer's lines of code written per day, but that doesn't tell you anything about their productivity. You can always make a program longer, but actual engineering is implementing a feature in a clear and concise manner.

Being focused on word count alone has perverse incentives. Normal writing tasks like editing and revision should remove words, making a story more focused and easier to understand. You can spend and entire day writing and end up with fewer total words than you started with, but if the story itself is higher quality, I would call that a win.

My advice is not track word count at all. I'm not saying that productive days are bad, but a day spent editing and fixing typos is better than a day writing filler.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

500 to 2000 words a day is a healthy amount for myself. 500 is a good starting point and as you do it, the amount you can write in a healthy manner will grow. People who write 5000+ words a day usually have had years to hone their skill or are unhealthily overwriting due to deadlines or something similar. Everyone is different though so feel it out and figure out what is best for you with a bit of trial and error.

 

[apexaltra]

Depends on you. If you're able to write 6k words each day 1) without burning out, 2) without it getting in the way of other important parts of your life, and 3) while being able to eat/sleep/etc on top of everything else, then I think it's fine if that what you want to do.

When I'm in the writing phase of a chapter (as opposed to the art phase) I try to shoot for 200-500 words a day but everyone's different