For those of you who write ✍🏻 Regularly: Approximately how many hours, and how many pages, do you estimate you write in 1 day?

Question

>>Please specify if you physically write, or type, or speak onto a recorder<< Out of curiosity, I looked up the average page written by writers & the data looked odd- tho anecdotal so all subject to variation of opinion. Still weird how many were saying stuff like 3-6 pages if you have free time & all day to designate and maybe 1/2 page, if you have other jobs and or parenthood, and only a few hours to designate. Supposedly, Stephen King writes 6 pages 📄 a day ALL day. They were making that out to be astounding. Well, in this case they must mean 6 perfectly crafted edited researched referenced prosed… I Mean anyone Can write 6 pages in well under 6 hours, so it must be 6 ‘perfectly executed ready to publish pages.’ No? I suppose the questions are not asked specifically or of course as is often the case, questions are answered so generally it’s as if no question was asked at all. I notice in writing, there can be many different approaches and aside from preparing thoughts / questions in your mind (which adds to the over all writing process) many people do a fair amount of stream of consciousness, question answer, notes, research etc etc —which can go on for hours. All technically writing tho not story line in isolation. My guess is for all the people writing 6 pages in 6 hours, there are people writing 10 pages in 1 hour abs every number in between. So, for those of you who do write regularly, I’m curious to know, if you happen to know yourselves and are w give a rough estimate.. Approximately how many pages do you write a day, on average. How many pages is for you a heavy flow? How many pages on a day when relative to your own higher numbers, you don’t produce much? Approximately how many hours are you comfortable writing in one day? How many pages do you think you write in an hour? Does the amount you write per hour, lessen or increase as you write for more than an hour? Im just curious! Thanks 🙏🏼

SnowedIn · Accepted Answer

What a wonderful question, thoughtfully written, and well presented.

I selected E for 5-6 hours and more than four pages. But, full transparency, that's a "what I could do" scenario as opposed to real world right now. Jobs of husband, dad, and full time pay the bills job currently come first.

Am I a writer? I consider myself one. Not published yet but I still consider myself a writer though I confessed to someone this morning that I did feel like a fraud for saying that. I did write for 20 years when I was in the Navy and much of that was published (Congress, records, etc.) or publicly read (speeches, awards, manuals and directives) or sent as personal letters to people around the world from school kids in Micronesia to U. S. Cabinet Secretaries.

But, the job, kids, wife, cat notwithstanding, I do write regularly. Usually every night before bed. That's what works right now. Probably an hour? I can churn out about a page or two. It's not finished work. But it's something raw that can be shaped. But I'm actually producing that much work that fast. I'll get stopped, often by a detail that I need to research or a recognition that what I just wrote doesn't fit with previous pieces of the narrative and it all comes crashing to a halt.

But, to your other questions that dovetail into the above.

On average, I probably produce a paragraph or two a day. That's rough. It needs shaping. Refining. Research. Filling in a word that I know I need but it escapes me.

I'm a fast thinker and a blazingly fast typist so if I were to produce as you so wonderfully phrased it "heavy flow" I could easily churn out 10 or more pages. But, as I noted above, it's the crashing halt of wondering whether the dress should be burgundy or lilac, or what is the right verb for the almost alcoholic to drink his rum and Coke, or where I want this paragraph to fit in the greater narrative. So I'm back to the plodding paragraph. Or half page. Or despair that I can't create prose and dialogue like the authors I admire.

Right now, I spend about an hour or 90 minutes with my laptop. Not paper. I desperately love paper and pen but my hand and the pen cannot keep up with my mind and, frankly, I'm old and my hand will start to hurt. But, if I were doing this full time? I'd be comfortable with about 12 hours a day with little breaks in the middle. Coffee. A sandwich. But not all of it would be words on the page. There's looking up the cut of the neckline. The brand of rum. Outlining the narrative. That's what I'd really love to do.

You asked how many pages I think I write in an hour. If I didn't have the questions, the road blocks, I'd probably churn out five full pages of single spaced prose. It'd need heavy editing but it would be a solid starting point. This dovetails with your final question about whether the amount per hour increases or decreases the longer I write. It can increase if the roadblocks are gone. If I have a clear idea of what I'm doing and where the narrative is going, the writing will speed up.

But, again in all honesty, not where I'm at now. Much of it is aspirational which isn't a bad place to be.

Thank you, @VIVANT for this! What a brilliant question!

@anon1903 ... this one might be of interest! :)

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The closest I come to writing is making posts on here. Sometimes they can be long and sometimes I will research while or before posting.

It can take time and I'm not quite sure how much text in these boxes relates to A4 on a word processor but I would guess that it takes less than 30 mins to write a page if 'it flows' but sometimes I find that I can decide how to best present or order my thoughts and that along with research is where the time gets spent. At this point you are asking 'how long is a piece of string?'

If you are talking the creative process of writing fiction, this could take any amount of time and trying to increase your output would probably necessarily make it shit; it would be formulaic, stock.

I think this applies equally to any activity and I think its unavoidable, it is simply not possible to plan for every contingency and even if you did somehow you would be investing time in contingency planning which could end up being greater than the delays 'on the day' if you had just 'rolled the dice'.

Probably 'scope creep' is an enemy, sometimes topics blend into other topics and this you should plan for when you have an opportunity to do so and try to focus on whatever the main thread is.

If its flowing, production will be high and easy and only limited by normal endurances, if you are limited on time or working to a clock or something though then I suppose you would have to keep thing simple, stick to the main line.

Pehaps it would be helpful to practice describing things in varying levels of details. The essense of something could perhaps be described in just one word. Constraints can be helpful; being given a blank sheet and asked to write about anything is far more difficult than answering a set question.

melanieeeB · Accepted Answer

Uhm like I'm writing mails daily at work but I wouldn't say it's much

I budget plan weekly my finances and co, that takes me like 30min - 1h, It can be 1-3 pages and it's in a normal Journal handwritten

I occasionally write into my diary, again depends on how much I have to get out, it can be from 5 mins - 1h and from 1 page to 10

Last year I sat down once and wrote on my laptop a base of a book, it took me the whole day like 12h and I don't know the pages anymore, I have to sit down on that again, totally forgot about it

menina · Accepted Answer

I used to write a lot when I was in college. When I was a first year student it took me 3 weeks to write an 8 pages essay. I was writing every day, but I had to do other things and some research, that's why it took me a long time.

Then when I was on my last year, it took me 6 hours to write 6 pages and I didn't sleep that night.

I don't write on a daily basis now, but it's something that I love doing.

cush_ebo · Answer

Well, i'm writing a book about Financing SME and Infrastructures in Africa. It's more than 5 months i've started it... And at some point, ideas came some days, other days no idea. I write ideas, statements and reajust them into the correspondant paragraph thema, so i have a structure plan with Parties adjusting around what i think, heard or read. I want to make a resume of my understanding of the situation and the conditions for bettering the future for a practical investor and entrepreneur. So some days i get inspiration while doing or not doing other stuffs. yesterday, i wrote 3 pages so i'm around 42 pages for 5 months : GOING DEEPER, but safely. What are you writing?

dustybiker · Answer

I’ve written 75% of a books (heart written) in a day. They come out easily in a gush. Could hardly keep up with my thoughts and side notes. Then went back and rewrote them with my head which took a couple weeks churning.

Still-alive · Answer

im not a write but i have heard George R R Martin say his goal would be a page a day

OlderAndWiser · Answer

I write letters, emails, notes, and legal documents every day, but I've never counted the pages. Probably, maybe. . . 3-4 pages per day, on average.

Part2603 · Answer

I would recommend you spend more time writing and proof reading your posts, Vivant. :)

__MisterGoneShiner__ · Answer

Sorry Vivant, i ain't a writer 😅😅

AmeerX · Answer

When I am writing a letter ✉️ I write for several hours. Sometimes I take breaks And write 8-10 pages front back

AngelOfLight258 · Answer

I usually do about a page a day.

ChefPapiChulo · Answer

steven king is a professional unlike any other. thats how he can write so many pages.

Sevenpointfive · Answer

writing is too hard vivian

pizzalovershouse · Answer

I read more than write Sept my post

Samantha_17 · Answer

Depends on what I write :)

Debbie14217 · Answer

love it !!

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