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Hey everyone, hope all is well with out individual pursuits of Writerdom. Was just wondering how many words an hour everyone averaged. I struggle with turning off the inner-editor and getting past the first few lines. The one time I was able to I stil only barely got over 500 words an hour, albeit that was while I was busy at work.
Posts: 91 | Registered: Oct 2011
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A thousand words an hour is my average raw draft writing pace. Add in planning, prewriting, mental composition, working drafts' writing, rewriting, and revising time, it's closer to a hundred words an hour, if not fewer.
Posts: 6037 | Registered: Jun 2008
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I try for writing faster than my inner editor can run. It's a trick I learned when I was doing NaNoWriMo last year.
I don't measure it by hour, because sometimes I need to stop and think about or make notes about the next scene/chapter/whatever, but I find my sweet spot, where the inner editor can't quite keep up, is somewhere in excess of 2500 words per day, ranging up into 7k if I actually have the day off from work.
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I'm about 1,000 words an hour, although I have peaked in at nearly 5k(horrible first draft, so bad I still haven't been able to finish it. In fact in some places I dont even know the words I was intending to write) I strive for 1k, as I am now trying to get a solid first draft so I only need an edit or 2 before submitting. I have been stuck in the "edit the life out" and never submit stage for too long.
Posts: 1168 | Registered: Mar 2008
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I write insanely fast because I type insanely fast. It is a talent/skill that I developed as a little girl, my mother had us all in touch typing classes (complete with metal typewriters that actually limit your typing speed) when we were young.
I can generally average 30-50 wpm when writing. But I'm a burst writer, I rarely write for an entire hour at once, or if so I end up getting up and tending to things for 5-10 minutes in the middle of it.
Because I can type fast, I don't have to think about where my hands are on the keys and therefore I can just let my fingers write the transcript for the movie that's playing in my head. Great fun when it really gets going! I highly recommend online typing training programs for those who find their fingers get in the way when writing. It's a tremendous relief to turn off the inner editor (because she simply can't keep up with 40 or 50 wpm! lol) Leads to much leaner, better first drafts. I rarely cut must, just do a fair amount of "tidying up" because I sometimes forget what I named a character x in chapter 1 and give the same character a different name in chapter 4. Or even just later in chapter 1, lol.
Posts: 1911 | Registered: Mar 2007
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I write faster than some, slower than others. I honestly don't count the words I write per hour. Writing isn't about numbers. If I'm tired after the writing session, I know it was worth it.
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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I generally manage 1k an hour when in full flow, but it can vary either side of that. I tend to go with the pace of the story, more if it's a fast paced scene, less if it's slow.
Posts: 778 | Registered: Aug 2010
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I figured it out once on my story ideas which flow out of the keyboard. I wrote about 23 words a minute. I don't deduct for mistakes. Not super fast but fast enough. Thank god for spell checks.
Posts: 1008 | Registered: Feb 2006
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When I'm writing something original, I generally stick to either five hundred or a thousand words a day...for five hundred words, that usually takes me twenty to forty minutes. (Amount is approximate.) A second draft takes about the same amount of time, with the same kind of limit on words...and everything after that is fiddling and polishing.
When I'm writing, that is...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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In draft mode, I write about 1,000 - 1,250 words an hour. That will slow up if I'm having to think about the present scene or how to transition to the next.
Posts: 1608 | Registered: Feb 2009
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In general, I am an incredibly slow writer, and it comes in fits and starts at the best of times. I can spend an hour plodding through 200, 100, even 50 words, but then I might happen upon a crack in my writer's block and zoom along at 1000-1500 words an hour.
I've had to learn to work with my inner editor. Sometimes it is doing its job well, and I know I should listen to it when it says 'this prose is crap; you can do better.' And other times, I need to ignore it, and say 'yes, I know this prose is crap, but I am going to bash out something that is awful, just to get the scene written. I'll fix it later; shut up and leave me alone.' It's a trial and error arrangement.
Posts: 33 | Registered: Jan 2012
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I don't know how fast I write. Part of that is that I'm not a great typist so correcting mistakes slows me down but I can write a 2 to 4 thousand word chapter in a time period somewhere around one hour. When I get into the zone that is. Other times I distract myself and I can take three whole evenings to do the same word count.
That is I am actually writing not revising or doing any thing else that writers do.
Posts: 5289 | Registered: Jun 2010
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I honestly don't count the words I write per hour. Writing isn't about numbers. If I'm tired after the writing session, I know it was worth it.
