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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41043
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41043
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Just do the math. Although it varies by genre, from about 80,000 to 120,000 (epic fantasy with lots of world-building), 1000 a day means 80 to 120 days. So about three or four months for a first draft. About the time I take myself.

Personally, I set aside 90 minutes every morning (my best time to write) to write, and use Orson Scott Card's advice: You don't have to write in that time, but you can't do anything else. No surfing the net (but actual research for something you are about to write is fine). No commenting on blogs, no outside reading (though reading what you have written is fine, or reading a writing reference book is fine).

Just sit there and stare at the screen or do writerly duties; new prose or editing or thinking about your story or in some way working on your story. The time commitment is what counts, and eventually the work will get done. You can only stare at the screen for five or ten minutes before boredom forces you to write something.

But I don't commit to a word-count; I can guarantee an amount of _time_ but not an amount of productivity. (As a discovery writer, some days I am stuck on choosing the right next scene, and spend the whole time re-reading and trying to figure that out. I might write notes about what I thought about. But I don't feel bad, I put in my 90.)

Original score: 20