Writing

How to Actually Write 1000 Words a Day

Consistency is key to making it as a writer

Matthew Donnellon
4 min readSep 11, 2022

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Photo by Steve DiMatteo on Unsplash

I know for many of you writing a thousand words a day is nothing. In fact, for a professional writer it should be a relatively easy task.

But, articles about writing are not meant for the veterans of the trade.

Besides, a professional writer would know better than to get advice from me.

So, if you have trouble hitting a word count, keep reading.

Now, why a thousand words?

Well, it is a pretty good number to hit. After a few days it shouldn’t take too long and even if you knock it out relatively quickly then you have a decent bundle of words with which you can do many things.

1,000 words is a common word count for an article.

It could be a book chapter.

It could be ten poems.

So think of it this way. Hit a thousand words, and you have a 1,000 word article ready to go.

Or two 500 word articles.

Or four 250 word articles. I have no idea why you’re writing 250 articles unless you write for Buzzfeed. And then we’re playing fast and loose with the term “writing.”

Or, let’s say you’re writing a book.

A thousand words a day means that you would write 7,000 words a week. That’s 365,000 words a year. 366,000 if it’s a leap year.

Now a lot of that might not be usable. But even if a third of it is, then you could put out a book a year.

Might not be a good book.

Or you might not sell it.

But, hey you have a book.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. A thousand words sounds like a lot of work.

How do I get this done?

Well, you can do what I do and spend far too much time in a cabin in the middle of nowhere so people can’t bother you.

But I’m told that’s considered anti-social.

So, there are a couple things you can do to start hitting that word count.

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Matthew Donnellon

Matthew Donnellon is a writer, artist, and sit down comedian. He is the author of The Curious Case of Emma Lee and Other Stories.