You've started writing a novel, a few chapters are already complete, and eventually a question comes to mind: how many words should you write every day to actually finish it?
500 words? 1,000? Maybe 2,000, like some particularly productive authors?
The answer is less intimidating than you might think. Writing just 300 words a day, five days a week, adds up to 78,000 words in one year. Depending on your story's length, that could be enough to complete an entire first draft.
The real challenge isn't producing an impressive number of words for a few days. It's finding a writing pace you can maintain over several months.
**Finishing a novel is often less about how much you write in a single session and more about how consistently you keep going.**
How many words are in a typical novel?
Before deciding how many words to write each day, it helps to understand how long you want your finished manuscript to be.
Novel length varies depending on genre, audience, and storytelling choices. There is no universal word count that every novel must reach.
As a general reference, here are some possible ranges:
Short novel: 30,000 to 50,000 words.
Medium-length novel: 60,000 to 80,000 words.
Long novel: 90,000 to 120,000 words, sometimes more.
Epic fantasy or particularly ambitious stories: over 120,000 words in some cases.
These figures are guidelines rather than strict publishing rules. Expectations differ between genres, publishers, and markets. A middle-grade novel, for example, may be considerably shorter than an adult fantasy novel.
For our calculations, let's use an 80,000-word novel as an example. It's a useful reference point for understanding what several months of writing might look like.
How long does it take to write 80,000 words?
Imagine writing five days a week, leaving two days free to rest, think about your plot, or simply do something else.
Here's approximately how long completing an 80,000-word first draft would take at different daily writing targets:
250 words per day: 320 writing sessions, approximately 15 months.
500 words per day: 160 writing sessions, approximately 7–8 months.
1,000 words per day: 80 writing sessions, approximately 4 months.
2,000 words per day: 40 writing sessions, approximately 2 months.
These estimates assume you're starting from zero and maintaining your schedule consistently. They don't include outlining, editing, or rewriting.
But they demonstrate something important: you don't need to write thousands of words every day to finish a novel within a reasonable timeframe.
500 words might represent a short scene, an important conversation, or a few paragraphs that move the plot forward.
Repeat those small advances often enough, and they eventually become a complete manuscript.
What's a realistic daily word count for a beginner?
When you begin writing a novel, setting an ambitious target can be tempting. After all, the more words you write, the sooner you'll finish. Right?
Not necessarily.
Writing 2,000 words for three consecutive days is one thing. Maintaining that output for six months is quite another.
The best daily writing goal depends on your available time, your experience, and how you approach storytelling.
If you're a beginner, 200 to 300 words per writing session can be an excellent starting point. It's manageable even after a busy day and substantial enough to create visible progress.
If you've already developed a writing habit, consider aiming for 500 words per session. This allows you to move forward while leaving room to think about scenes, characters, and the direction of your story.
If you have longer writing sessions available and know your plot well, 1,000 words or more might become a comfortable target.
However, these numbers are not measurements of writing ability.
An experienced author might spend an entire session carefully crafting 200 words, while a beginner could produce 1,500.
**The best daily word count isn't the one that sounds impressive. It's the one you can realistically maintain.**
How to calculate your own daily writing goal
Instead of choosing an arbitrary number, start with your actual situation.
Imagine you've already written 20,000 words of a novel you expect to reach 80,000 words.
That means you have 60,000 words left.
If you can write four days a week and produce 500 words per session, you'll write approximately 2,000 words each week.
60,000 ÷ 2,000 = 30 weeks.
At that pace, completing your first draft would take approximately seven months, assuming you maintain your average.
The calculation is straightforward:
Remaining word count ÷ weekly word count = number of weeks required.
You can also reverse the formula if you have a particular deadline.
For example, to write 60,000 words in 30 weeks with four writing sessions per week:
60,000 ÷ (30 × 4) = 500 words per session.
Now you have a concrete goal.
Remember to leave some flexibility for unexpected events. A writing schedule should help you plan, not become an inflexible deadline.
Do you really need to write every day?
Not at all.
The idea that serious writers must write every single day can motivate some people, but it can also discourage others.
Between work, family, everyday responsibilities, and unexpected interruptions, maintaining a strict daily writing routine isn't always realistic.
That's why a weekly word count goal can sometimes work better than a daily target.
Instead of forcing yourself to write 500 words every day, you could aim for 2,500 words per week.
One week, you might write 300 words on Monday, 700 on Wednesday, and another 1,500 over the weekend.
The following week, your output might be more evenly distributed.
Either way, your novel is moving forward.
This approach allows you to fit writing around your life rather than constantly rearranging your life around writing.
If maintaining a routine is difficult, our article on "how to write every day when you lack motivation" explores practical ways to return to your manuscript more consistently.
Don't confuse word count with writing quality
Watching your word count increase can be incredibly satisfying.
Seeing a manuscript grow from 12,000 to 15,000 and eventually 20,000 words makes your progress tangible.
But numbers don't tell the whole story.
You might spend an entire writing session rewriting an important scene and finish with exactly the same word count you started with.
Does that mean you've accomplished nothing?
Of course not.
Perhaps you've improved a conversation, eliminated a plot inconsistency, or strengthened a crucial moment in your story.
Similarly, producing another 2,000 words doesn't necessarily make your novel better if those words exist only to satisfy a quota.
During the first draft, word count goals can help you maintain momentum. During revision, other measurements become more meaningful: scenes improved, chapters edited, or narrative problems resolved.
Your word counter should measure progress, not determine the value of your work.
How to track your novel's writing progress
If you want to know whether your writing goals are realistic, regularly checking the length of your manuscript can be helpful.
You could track everything manually, but a dedicated writing application makes the process much easier.
With Plumelisse, you can access writing statistics showing the number of words and characters in your manuscript.
These statistics are available for individual chapters, chapter folders, and your entire writing project.
That means you can check the total length of your novel, monitor individual chapter lengths, and compare your progress with your personal writing target.
Plumelisse also keeps your notes, characters, and story timeline close to your manuscript. Instead of constantly switching between scattered documents to find important information, you can focus more of your energy on writing.
You can explore Plumelisse's writing features and start organizing your novel with a free account.
What if you don't reach your daily word count?
You planned to write 500 words today, but your word counter shows only 87.
Should you add the missing 413 words to tomorrow's goal?
Not necessarily.
One of the biggest problems with daily writing quotas is that they can create a feeling of accumulated debt.
Miss your target for several days, and suddenly it seems as though you need to make up thousands of words.
That pressure can turn an enjoyable creative project into a stressful obligation.
Instead, try evaluating your progress over several weeks.
If your weekly target is 2,500 words and you only manage 1,800, you can simply return to your normal schedule the following week.
If you repeatedly find your goal impossible to reach, reduce it or reconsider how you've organized your writing time.
And if you're consistently struggling to move forward, productivity might not be the real problem.
Perhaps the next scene isn't clearly defined. Maybe a character's motivation needs work, or a particular part of your plot needs rethinking.
In those situations, spending a few minutes reviewing your story outline may be more productive than forcing yourself to write.
How many words a day to finish a novel in three months?
Let's look at one final example.
Suppose your goal is to write an 80,000-word novel in approximately three months, or thirteen weeks.
Writing five days per week gives you 65 writing sessions.
80,000 ÷ 65 = approximately 1,231 words per session.
You would therefore need to aim for roughly 1,250 words per writing day, five days a week, to complete the draft within three months.
That's achievable for some writers, but it requires a meaningful time commitment, especially if you're still developing your plot and characters along the way.
For your first novel, a more flexible schedule might allow you to enjoy the writing process and reduce the risk of giving up.
What happens after you finish your first draft?
Reaching your target word count doesn't necessarily mean your novel is ready for publication.
Once you've written the final scene, you'll probably need to reread the manuscript, fix inconsistencies, improve dialogue, and possibly reorganize entire chapters.
Your word count may change significantly during this process. Some scenes will grow longer, while others may disappear completely.
That's why it helps to establish two separate milestones: finishing the first draft and completing the final manuscript.
If reaching that first milestone feels intimidating, you might also find our article on "why so many people never finish their novels" useful.
So, how many words should you actually write per day?
For many writers balancing a novel with professional and personal responsibilities, 300 to 500 words per session is a reasonable starting point.
It's not a mandatory minimum or a universal standard. Some authors will write less, while others will comfortably produce much more.
What matters most is choosing a sustainable writing pace, measuring progress without constantly judging yourself, and leaving enough creative freedom to keep enjoying your story.
Ultimately, a novel isn't completed because of one extraordinary 5,000-word writing session.
It's completed through all the writing sessions, large and small, that gradually bring you to the final sentence.
**Your next novel doesn't necessarily require you to write faster. It requires you to find a writing rhythm that helps you reach the end.**