You probably already know the answer I’m going to give you. Or maybe not… but probably so. 

So… how many words a day should you write?

However many you want to! 

Like I always say… you do you. 

If that’s not a good enough answer for you, though… well, then buckle up. 

Today I just got to thinking… what’s the average number of words I write per day and how does that compare to… you know, authors that are way more famous than I’ll ever be. 

So, the best way, I believe, to show you my findings is with a list. 

How many words different writers write per day… on average: 

• Stephan King- 2,000
• Jack London- 1,000-1,500
• Barbara Kingsolver- 1,000
• Edmund Morris- 300
• Ernest Hemingway- 500
• Carol Shields- 600
• Holly Black- 1,000
• Mark Twain- 1,400
• Nicholas Sparks- 2,000
• J. G. Ballard- 1,000

So, this isn’t a super long list or anything, but I think it’s good enough to get a point across. And that point is… everybody writes different. Some people write a bunch of words every single day… and some people just don’t. 

Overall, though, I feel like there’s an average of ~1,000 words written per day here. And that’s not a bad goal to aim for, I think. 

Personally… I write a different amount of words each day. Actually, I don’t even write every day. I try… but, just like how many words I type out, it varies. And it depends on my mood, too. And whether or not I get distracted while writing because that happens all the time. 

And I may or may not have been distracted by writing this blog post instead of working of my story… 

But, anyway, I think I churn out an average of 500 words a day… but, sometimes, I can get out 2,000 or so. But that obviously doesn’t happen that often. 

As far as a good goal to set for yourself, though… 1,000 is a good place to go. Don’t, like, beat yourself up if you find you can’t quite get to it, though. Because then you’ll probably never get there and you’ll be distracted by your thoughts and everything. 

How many words do you write a day do you think? Or… how many do you wish you could write a day? 

I know we all wish we could be like Stephan King and write a solid 2,000 every morning… but, oh well. 

Let me know what your writing… word goals are! 

-iKari