Nola

I've written as much as 10,000 words in a day and then, of course, as little as 0. I may go days without writing a word, simply because of time constraints or staleness of the brain. What works for some may not work for others, and I've found that when I force myself to write, even if I have no fresh ideas or creative urge, it ends up being utter crap. Since that means I'll then have to spend at least the same amount of time rewriting that I did writing in the first place, with the added bonus of stress and frustration, I simply don't write unless I feel moved to do so. I'm not suggesting it's the 'right' way, or that others should follow my example. I'm not even published, for crying out loud, so do NOT follow MY lead, lol. I just don't see any point in doing something if I can't a)do it right, and b)enjoy it.

That's just me.

__________________
If my answers frighten you, then you should cease asking scary questions.

www.onlynola.com
That's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh uh-huh...

Monkey King

How much do I write a day? Not enough. The internet and the real world keep distracting me.

On a techincal note, I think most people prefer to use a word count than a page count because writing 2000 words sounds a lot more impressive than 10 pages.

__________________
Cut me some slack. I just found out that only I can prevent forest fires and that's a lot of pressure.

lisajane

I think the most I've ever written in a single day was about 20 pages... 12pt Times New Roman, double-spaced...

But I don't write every single day. Nor do I write 2000 words every single day - I mean, most of my short stories hit around 1500 words each, except for the odd one which is between 2000 - 3000 - and my short stories take more than a day quite often to get written. Not because of lack of ideas, but I arrange the sentences inside my head before I write them down. When I do that, everything comes out so much faster and better.

I believe a quota is a good idea, but I wouldn't stick to it. I don't need to be inspired to write - I've always got the ideas. But I do have to be in a specific mood, which is usually reached by about 9pm. And preferably to be the only one in the house, which for me, is very simple.

To quote Spooky:

__________________
'Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap. And he, a little charleychaplin man, who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence.' - Laurence Felinghetti, 'The Acrobat'

demon_

lol, lots of replies.

Anyway, I probably write 1000-2000 words a week. I dont really do any typing anymore, since its summer for me! = )

demon

__________________
Nowhuttumsayen?
click on the spoiler for YOUR health...

Avarice

I use 10pt and single spaced and always use word count. Pages mean little to me but if I was able to get 2000 somewhat decent words out every day then I would be very happy. And as for that person that said 10,000. Is that humanly possible? or did you just type garbage for the last few thousand. Why do some people not care about word count when thats what it comes down to?

crunch

I don't even write everyday. Imight get about 200 words every three days. Wow, I'm awful! (Sorry I have no idea how to spell that and I'm too lazy to check in the dictionary.)

__________________
Vampires are way cooler than werewolves. All you wolf lovers need to get over it.

Nola

No, it wasn't garbage, but thanks for asking. It wasn't going to win any Pulitzer, either, but it wasn't at all bad. I just got very caught up in a certain time period in my book, and since I occasionally wrestle with a bit of insomnia, I used it to my advantage. It's amazing how much writing you can get done when everyone else in the house is asleep and your body is all wired up and refusing to let you rest.

I also didn't say it was something I did regularly, just that it has happened.

__________________
If my answers frighten you, then you should cease asking scary questions.

www.onlynola.com
That's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it, uh-huh uh-huh...

Thekherham

I don't really know. It varies, I guess. Sometimes the muse is kind and I can reel off 2,000 words in one sitting, at other times, she does not want to co-operate and I only write a couple of hundred words. But I guess it all averages out.

__________________
The Alien Writer.

It's pronounced Tee kee' rahm

Oracle

I haven't been writing every day (although I should), but I usually get a couple thousand words done when I do sit down and get to work.

__________________
The bubble is round.

oskawizzkey

Wow, after reading some of these posts I can pretty much call myself pathetic!! I finally got around to starting my novel (took me long enough), and I still haven't come up with a daily word count goal. I think 500-1000 words a day would be great - but I don't think I could even pull that off. You guys saying 2000 or 2500 a day, that's amazing and good on ya'! I guess I better skip a meal or something so I can start writing more!

-Oh Dub

damien_frosst

I go through bursts of creative activity. When I'm in a writing mood, I usually do about 2000 words a day as a minimum. Especially for things like NaNoWriMo. When I'm not in a writing mode, I drop to maybe 2000 words a week.

The forums have been very helpful in keeping me doing something creative all the time though.

mammamaia, I think people like the word count because it sounds more impressive. There's a bit of a move towards it instead of pages too (at least, that's the trend I'm seeing). A lot of submission guides online give a word count limit for the size of stories they'll take, instead of a page count.

Still, no matter how many words or pages you write in a day, it's all good, because you are writing.

__________________
Damien

In my world, there are no heroes, only really polite villians.

a15haddad

Setting word count goals ultimately destroys the fruit of writing. If you can't write at the moment, you shouldn't try and force it through. Writing should flow from creativity, not from determination.

__________________
"I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state of a small city." -Themistocles

"Conrad transcended all the rules. There have been, perhaps, greater novelists, but I believe that he was incomparably the greatest artist who ever wrote a novel." -H.L. Mencken

suzakugaiden

Sometimes being uninspired is your subconcious telling you that you're really not interested in what you're writing. As in the intro to Life of Pi, the guy mentions you can have a perfect plot and be writing it well, but it'll still feel really dead, and it's more of a feeling than anything judgeable. I've noticed that if I'm into what I'm writing, I at least feel inspired enough to load word and glare at the text for a few minutes every day.

"A lot of submission guides online give a word count limit for the size of stories they'll take, instead of a page count.

Variable font sizes, formatting, etc. Word count is by far the more accurate portrayal of length.

a15haddad

"I've noticed that if I'm into what I'm writing, I at least feel inspired enough to load word and glare at the text for a few minutes every day."

I'm privy to doing this. Yes, what you are saying is very true; my point is that you shouldn't write merely in an attempt to reach, say, a 2,000-word mark. I personally can barely write until nighttime, when everything flows; the rest of the day (especially in the car and such) I am relegated to planning. Half of the time when I want to write I find myself, perhaps not glaring at the text, but poring over it, not necessarily reading, just looking at the various characters I have typed into the computer. But I do agree that word count is easily the most precise measurement; it would be criminal to suggest that Harry Potter, or Cirque Du Freak longer than Brave New World, merely because it has more pages.

__________________
"I cannot fiddle, but I can make a great state of a small city." -Themistocles

"Conrad transcended all the rules. There have been, perhaps, greater novelists, but I believe that he was incomparably the greatest artist who ever wrote a novel." -H.L. Mencken

suzakugaiden

Going by page count, On the Road's manuscript would probably be the shortest one ever :P

Anyway, I largely write at night because I don't want the phonies busting into my room and screwing with me. Whatever that means (I like privacy?). Also, being baked on sleep depravation makes everything REAAALLY flowy. It also makes you too tripped to care about how dumb your story sounds, and prevents infinite rewrite syndrome.

Of course the down side is that you (I) sometimes fall asleep while writing and crank out some REALLY horrible stuff while alseep (and are left wondering why you could type at all). Not really your (my) fault because you (I) were (was) asleep at the time, but still.