I’ve always been fascinated with the daily word counts of the world’s greatest writers.
Charles Dickens wrote about 2000 words per day. Stephen King says in On Writing that he gets between 2000 and 2500. Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park is reported to have forced himself to hammer out 10,000 words every single day.
But volume is not always king.
Hemingway averaged just 500 words per day.
The only reason I get to be mentioned in the same context as these great authors is because I’m writing this article here, but I average about 2000 words per day if I’m really cookin’.
However, that’s a number that’s taken me years to reach. It’s a number that I’ve trained myself to reach.
See, your writing output is a muscle, and there’s a way to train it.
Today, we’re talking about speed, volume, and how speed and volume impact quality.
Speed is determined by organization.
If you have to think about what you’re writing, it will slow down your ability to write faster.
One of the easiest ways to improve the speed at which you write content is to “plan the page”.
Essentially, create an outline.
Whenever I write an article, I write out the 3-5 sections of the article with key points for each section before I even start writing the introduction. I make sure that the content is organized and that each section is connected. I create flow within the article before I even find the flow state.
This way, when I am writing the actual content I don’t need to think about what I’m going to say next. I just focus on what I’m saying now.
I love to write and I love to think, but I find it nearly impossible to do both at the same time.
Organize your short-form content.
Volume is determined by the time allotted to your work.
I’m a Gen Zer, which means that for some reason, my spoiled brat self believes in work-life balance.
I work hard, but I also like to be able to relax and have dinner with my girlfriend every night. I embrace the grind, but I like to have time on the weekends off as well. I don’t like to work too late at night because it messes up my sleep.
At times, these boundaries decrease my volume of work. That, plus the fact that I compete and train professionally in martial arts. I have a lot of responsibilities and a lot going on.
However, it’s important to remember that the time allotted to your work is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You’re not going to be a writer just this week, you’re going to be a writer for the rest of your life. You have more than enough time to produce all of the work and stories that you need to be as good as you can.
So yeah, these days I only write in the morning, but I write every morning.
I plan the page and then write as well as I can every morning.
Discipline equals increased volume.
Quality must never be sacrificed.
Not all of my writing is a home run. If anyone knows that it’s me.
However, I do my very best to maintain as high a quality work as possible while still writing fast and a lot.
This means that every article that gets published by me and every project that I release goes through at least one, but usually 2-3 revisions.
Especially if you’re writing fast, you may make a mistake. It’s possible that an article or piece won’t “work” the way that you want it to.
If you ramp up the volume but sacrifice quality in the process, it’s as if you didn’t do anything at all. 1000 bad articles will be worth less than one banger tweet.
You don’t want to end up a writer who’s just posting incoherent content into the void for years on end. You need to learn. You need to refine. You need to study your craft, not just practice it.
Writing is hard. Respect the game by putting tons of time into the refinement process.
One way I help myself improve my speed without detracting my writing quality is to get myself a day ahead of schedule. Good writing needs to rest before it is shared.
If this article is going out on Wednesday, I want it to be done by Monday so that on Tuesday I write the article for Thursday or Friday and edit the post for Wednesday.
Get ahead of schedule to give yourself time for revision — while also creating new content for future days.
Closing Thoughts
Last year, I went through a phase where I was obsessed with my daily word count.
I thought that writing 2000 words per day would “change my life”. Because of this notion of productivity that I had in my head, I focused a lot on improving my speed, putting out more content, and somehow trying to do it while not sacrificing quality and still balancing the rest of my life.
It was a tall task.
I learned a lot during this time about writing, improving volume, and most importantly for today’s lesson, speed.
In the digital era, speed is essential — but not just any kind of speed. You need to write quickly in a way that doesn’t detract from quality.
Fast writing can be good writing, but you need to practice the skill of writing fast.
These 3 ideas help me improve my output, speed, and quality.
If you want to work with me 1-1, my writing coaching and education program will be live in just a few more weeks.
This program will help you build an audience, find your first writing clients, and establish credibility so that you can begin your journey toward making a full-time living with your words on the internet.
Stay tuned :)
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“Creating flow before reaching a flow state.”
Banger tweet and applicable for many domains.
You write like you talk, and I think that's your inimitable style.