Setting a Daily Word Count

Setting a Daily Word Count

Alan Watt

Table of Contents

write 100 words a day
win a Tuscany retreat

explore upcoming
writing workshops

finish the day with a completed outline

Here’s some advice for first time writers on setting a daily word count.

Consistency is the key. Set a writing goal. Can you write 750 to 1000 words a day? If you can do that, you will have a first draft in around 90 days. Do you have a rough sense of how long you want your book or screenplay to be? Is it War and Peace or Old Man and the Sea? When you sit down to write it, you want to have a sense of proportion. If your first act is 100 pages, then you probably want the book to come in around 350 to 400 pages.

Learn more about marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure in The 90-Day Novel, The 90-Day Memoir, or The 90-Day Screenplay workshops.

Alan Watt

Writing Coach

Alan Watt is a bestselling novelist and filmmaker, and recipient of numerous awards including France’s Prix Printemps. He is the founder of alanwatt.com (formerly L.A. Writers’ Lab). His books on writing include the National Bestseller The 90-Day Novel, plus The 90-Day Memoir, The 90-Day Screenplay, and The 90-Day Rewrite. His students range from first-time writers to bestselling authors and A-list screenwriters. His 90-day workshops have guided thousands of writers to transform raw ideas into compelling stories by marrying the wildness of their imaginations to the rigor of story structure.
Alan Watt with L.A. hills behind

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