Want to learn how to write faster? If you’re determined to write a book, you have to settle in for concentrated work over a prolonged period. If you’re desperate to finish your novel, you might wonder, is there any way to write faster? We’ve compiled some tips for writers in a hurry who want to write “The End” as soon as possible.
How Many Words Are You Writing?
Before you can plot your writing strategy, you must know how many words you’re writing. Here are some standard word lengths for fiction.
- Short story: 1,000 to 7,500 words
- Novella: 17,500 to 35,000 words
- Short novel or novelette: 7,500 to 20,000 words
- Novel: 50,000 to 80,000 words
- Genre fiction: 50,000 to 70,000 words
- Historical fiction, fantasy and other genres that demand imaginative world-building: 80,000 to 100,000 words
How many words do you need to create your characters, add some great dialogue, and deliver a well-planned plot? You might need 30,000—but you might not.
If you want to finish novel in a reasonable time, consider going shorter. If you’re struggling to fill words and pages, stop struggling. Don’t try to stretch a 30,000-word book to a 50,000-word book by pumping it up with filler. You’re better off writing a shorter novel—even a novella—that tells your story, start to finish, with no excess and with every loose end tied.
How Many Pages Is That?
Some writers type away directly on their keyboards. Others write their first draft by hand, on an old-fashioned typewriter, or by dictating it to a transcribing machine. But whatever method you choose, you eventually must produce a printed copy of your first draft.
A 50,000-word manuscript is about 100 pages, if you use 12-type font and single spacing. Using double spacing gets you 200 pages.
How Many Handwritten Pages Is That?
A surprising number of writers prefer longhand for their first drafts. If you’re one of them, you may wonder how many handwritten pages that is. Typically, 1,000 words results in 4 single-spaced pages or 8 double-spaced pages.
How Long Will That Take?
Let’s say you’ve decided on 50,000 words. The next part is simple.
Figure out how many words you can reasonably write each day, and multiply that by the number of words you need.
If you can write 1,000 words a day, every day, without fail—you’ll have a finished draft in 50 days. That’s fast! You could finish your novel in under two months. That’s in an ideal world, of course, where you devote every day for the next few weeks to writing without fail.
Not so ideal world
However, many people can’t stick to that daily count, no matter how good their intentions are. You are likely to get interrupted by life events, and you may want to keep your weekends free for other activities.
So, let’s assume you devote five days a week to writing, and you hit that 1,000-word mark every weekday. That gives you an average of 20 days a month to devote to your writing. At the rate of 1,000 words, a day, that means you’ll finish your novel in 2 ½ months.
Something else to consider to write faster
This calculation also assumes you can produce 1,000 words of usable content every day. If you feel like your book is bursting out of you and is ready to hit the page, you will find this easy and enjoyable. If you are more of a painstaking, perfectionist writer, it may be more of a struggle to get those words on paper.
Give yourself a break
Maybe you can only realistically produce 500 words a day. That’s a solid accomplishment. Using our calculations, that means you will finish your novel in 100 days, or about three months. If you work five days a week, your book will be done in under six months.
Looked at in those terms, it’s easy to see that you don’t really need to write faster. You just need to be consistent, stick to a schedule, and be sure to produce usable content every day that you write.
Be More Productive to Write Faster
1. Have a set writing schedule to write faster
This is standard advice, but it bears repeating because it’s vital to becoming a productive writer. Set aside two to four hours every day when you do nothing but write. Turn off the electronic devices, make yourself unavailable, and get to work to write faster.
2. Start with a daily writing ritual to write faster
Writing is important. Before you sit down to do it, give yourself a writer’s ritual that signals to your brain that it’s time to get creative. It might be a cup from a freshly brewed pot of coffee, a prayer, or a glance at a picture on your vision board. Use your ritual every time you write.
3. Write faster until you hit a natural stopping point
Keep writing, and don’t worry about the word count yet. It will seem insurmountable at first, but soon, you’ll develop a sense of when you’re about to hit it. Avoid the urge to self-edit as you write. You’ll write faster if you save the editing for later.
4. Set a timer to write faster
See how long it takes you to write 500 or 1,000 words. Once you’re consistently hitting your word goals, try to speed up your time. Don’t do this when you first start out, or you’ll get discouraged. Only attempt to write faster when you’ve established a regular routine of writing.
5. Leave notes for yourself to write faster
There’s nothing worse than staring at a piece of paper wondering what you’re going to put on it next. Help yourself out by leaving notes at the point where you left off—for instance, “Here, insert the discussion about the vase of lilies,” or “Remember to give Justin’s back story in this chapter.” You could even write, “YOU GOT THIS.” Whatever helps you write faster — use it.
6. Keep your writing supplies in reach to write faster
When you’re ready to work, make it easy by keeping everything you need close at hand. Work at a clean, well-lit desk, and make sure you know exactly where your supplies are. If you are working from notes or an outline, keep them close by.
How Long Will It Take to Write 1,000 Words
When setting up your writing schedule, you may be wondering, “How long will it take to write 500 or 1,00 words? How much time should I give myself?”
Beginning writers
Typically, a beginner will need 3 to 4 hours to write 1,000 words. To write 500 words, you may need two hours. With experience, some writers can crank out 5oo words in an hour.
If you’re finding it hard to reach your word goal, even after working for hours, don’t beat yourself up. Once again, consistency is key. Getting something down on paper every day is a step forward, and each step leads to your destination. With practice, your writing will speed up and you’ll be able to write faster.
Experienced writers
If you’re already comfortable with writing, you can expect to take about two hours to produce 1,000 words of good, usable content. However, some writers hit blocks when it comes to specific parts of the book. Maybe you struggle with dialogue, or you find the words fail you when describing a scene. Once you know what slows you down, you can work on getting better at writing those scenes.
How Do You Compare? Here’s How Long Some Famous Books Took
Books That Took a Long Time to Write
These books took a long time to write, but most would agree they were worth the wait.
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: 12 years (it’s also long, coming in at a hefty 1,400 pages)
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: 10 years
- Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: 17 years with 5 years of breaks while Tolkien was teaching and raising a family
- Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton: 8 years (Crichton says most of his book prep time is spent on research and the actual writing is fast)
Books That Took a Couple of Years or So
On average, it takes most writers a year or two to finish a novel. Here are some examples of famous books that fit that writing timeline.
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: 2 years
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: 2 years
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: 1 year
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: 8 months
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: 10 months
- The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: 1.5 years
Books That Were Written Fast
These writers were able to crank their books out very speedily. Are you ready to finish novel even faster?
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: 6 weeks
- Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: 2.5 weeks
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming: 2 months
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: 6 days
- I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane: 9 days
- A Study in Scarlet (first Sherlock Holmes) by Arthur Conan Doyle: 3 weeks
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro: 4 weeks
You Can Speed Up Your Writing
If you’re anxious to get your book done, set a schedule, calculate your daily word count, and start working. You’ll write book faster when you get on a steady, consistent track. Before you know it, you’ll be done. When it’s time to publish your book, talk to the experts at Dazzle Printing.
