Words per day calculator

How the daily word count is calculated

The calculator counts the calendar days from your start date to your deadline, both included, then keeps only the days you actually write. Words per day = word goal ÷ writing days, rounded up so you finish on time. Words per session divides that by the number of sessions you plan each day, and the milestone table shows the running total you should have reached at the end of each week.

Worked example: a 50,000-word draft in 30 days, writing every day, needs 50,000 ÷ 30 = 1,666.7, so 1,667 words a day. Split into two sessions, that is 834 words each. Writing only 5 days a week over the same 30 days leaves 22 writing days (4 full weeks of 5 plus 2 more), which raises the target to 2,273 words a day.

Figures assume writing every day and are rounded up.

Setting a daily target that holds

The 50,000-words-in-30-days pace was made famous by the National Novel Writing Month challenge, and many people who try it learn that the difficulty is not one hard day but keeping 1,667 words going for a month. A lower number you hit every day usually beats a high one you miss twice a week, because missed days push their words onto the rest of the schedule. Stephen King wrote in On Writing that he aims for about 2,000 words a day; most people with a job and other commitments set far less.

Plan with the days you will really write. If weekends or one evening a week are never available, reduce the writing days per week here rather than hoping to catch up. Leave some buffer before the deadline too: enter a deadline a week or two earlier than the real one, so illness or a slow chapter does not sink the plan.

Remember that a first-draft target is only part of the job. A novel or thesis also needs revision, and editing time is usually not measured in new words. If the deadline is for the finished text, set the drafting deadline here well ahead of it and keep the remaining weeks for rewriting.