I often hear from writer friends: “I’m a really slow writer.”

Really slow? I’m never sure what that means. Do they compose slowly? Are they being modest? Or is that just the nature of writing—it’s slow?

I think it’s the nature of writing. But that begs the question: How many words should you expect to write each day?

A grasp of your word production is useful for a couple of reasons. One is that you can schedule your work better—and better meet deadlines. Another is that you can negotiate deadlines more knowledgably with publishers—and not create a book-writing schedule that burns you out.

And then, too, it also helps in managing your work emotionally. To end a day satisfied, it helps to have a quasi-objective measure of progress, a goal.

One of the trying aspects of writing books is that, at the end of the day, your work is almost never done. You go to dinner every night with unfinished business on your mind. But if you have an interim word count, you can end your day with at least some sense of completion. Daily, weekly, and word-count monthly milestones – they all help.

So how does this work? Say you have a 5,000-word chapter. You can shoot for 1,000 words a day, 5,000 by week’s end.

When I get rolling, I can write as many as 2,000 words a day. When I’m struggling with a chapter lead, I might write just 500.

Word count can be your friend if you have patience during your bad days—and you set realistic goals. The count both prods you to keep moving and pats you on the back when you hit your target. Nobody else will care, but you will feel better when you hit your word count. It’s all a matter of setting and reaching expectations.

[Revised January 2020. Originally published June 20, 2011]