Writing Pace Calculator: How Long to Write a Novel

The short answer

An 80,000 word novel at 1,000 words a writing day, if you write five days a week, takes 80 writing days, or about 16 weeks. At 500 words a day it takes around 32 weeks, and at the NaNoWriMo pace of 1,667 a day it takes about 10 weeks.

Calculate your pace in writing days rather than calendar days. A plan that assumes you write every day breaks the first time your plans change. A plan built on three or five writing days a week can survive the unpredictability of an ordinary life without needing to be rebuilt.

Target word count

Words so far

Words per writing day

Writing days a week

16 weeks to a finished draft At five writing days a week.

80,000 words to go What is left of the target.

80 writing days Sessions at your pace, not calendar days.

Have a deadline? Finish by

Pick a date to see the daily word count it would take.

Common writing paces

The table below details how long an 80,000 word draft takes at each pace, assuming five writing days a week.

Daily word counts and how long each takes to draft an 80,000 word novel
Words a writing day	Writing days	At 5 days a week	What it feels like
250	320	64 weeks	A paragraph or two. Sustainable more or less forever.
500	160	32 weeks	A common target for writers with a day job.
750	107	21 weeks	A steady pace that still leaves the evening intact.
1,000	80	16 weeks	The classic daily goal. Ambitious but keepable.
1,667	48	10 weeks	The NaNoWriMo pace: 50,000 words in 30 days.
2,000	40	8 weeks	A full-time writing pace.
3,000	27	5 weeks	Sprint territory. Hard to hold for months.
5,000	16	3 weeks	A drafting binge, not a plan.

How long a novel really takes

The arithmetic above is the optimistic version, because it assumes every writing day happens as planned. Most first drafts take somewhere between six months and two years.

Remember: a draft that takes fourteen months instead of four months is still a completed draft. The writers who finish drafts are the ones who come back after slumps, writer's block, or changes to their writing schedule.

Let's not forget about revisions. Drafting is usually about half the work, maybe slightly more. Budget roughly the same amount of time for revision as the draft itself took, and probably longer if this is your first novel. A calculator that says sixteen weeks is describing sixteen weeks of drafting, not sixteen weeks to a finished book.

Choosing a pace you can keep

The best daily target you can set for yourself is the one that you can maintain in week one and in week twenty. Hint: this target is almost always smaller than the one you initially have in mind.

Set the floor, not the ceiling. A target of 500 words that you can achieve most days does more for your draft than a target of 2,000 that you hit twice and then start avoiding. Nothing stops you from writing more on a day that is going well.

Pick your days honestly. Three writing days a week is a real schedule. Seven is a wish. The calculator above asks for writing days per week rather than assuming every calendar day is a writing day for exactly this reason.

Recalculate instead of trying to play catch-up. When you miss a few days or a week, the temptation is to double the target until you catch up to your original output goal. What is more likely is that one missed week will snowball into a stalled draft. Put your real word count back in, keep the pace, and target the new date.

Questions writers ask

How long does it take to write a novel?

An 80,000 word draft at 1,000 words a writing day, five days a week, takes about 16 weeks. Most first drafts take somewhere between six months and two years, because life interrupts and because few writers hold a steady pace from first page to last. Revision usually takes as long again as drafting did.

How many words should I write a day?

Between 500 and 1,000 words on the days you write, if you have a job and a life alongside the book. That finishes a normal novel in four to eight months. The number matters far less than whether you can still hit it in week twenty, so pick the pace you can repeat rather than the pace you can manage once.

How long does it take to write 50,000 words?

At the NaNoWriMo pace of 1,667 words a day, every day, it takes 30 days. At a more typical 1,000 words a day across five days a week, it takes about ten weeks.

Is 1,000 words a day a good pace?

It is a strong pace and a realistic one. At five writing days a week it finishes an 80,000 word draft in about 16 weeks. It is ambitious enough to feel like progress and small enough to survive a bad week.

Do I have to write every day?

No. Writing days per week is the setting that matters, not writing every day. Three good days a week beats seven planned days that turn into two, and a plan built on days you actually write survives contact with the rest of your life.

What happens if I fall behind?

Recalculate rather than trying to make up the deficit. A missed week is a week, not a debt, and doubling your target to catch up is the most reliable way to stop writing altogether. Put your current word count in, keep the same pace, and accept the new date.

The pace is easier to keep when you can see it

Inkwell tracks the goal you set, the streak you are building, and the milestones as they pass, all on your Mantel beside the manuscript. Writing Analytics shows your word trends and a twelve month heatmap of the days you wrote, which on a slow week is often the most useful thing you can look at. Ready to start writing?

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How Long Will It Take to Write My Novel?

The short answer

Common writing paces

How long a novel really takes

Choosing a pace you can keep

Questions writers ask

The pace is easier to keep when you can see it

Keep reading

How Long Should a Novel Be?

Word Count to Pages

How to Outline a Novel