What Writing 2K Words A Day Taught Me

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For a few weeks now, I’ve been working on a new writing goal. It sort of came unexpectedly. I had been keeping a pretty consistent goal of 500-1000 words a day, but I decided to make a change. I wanted to write more. So I started writing 2,000 words every day instead. Of course, I didn’t reach 2,000 words every day (some days it was more than 1,500), but I was able to largely stick to my new goal. I have to say, writing more each day was a game-changer, and I learned quite a bit. Read below to see what I learned!

I Have More Time than I Thought

First, I realized that I had more time to write than I thought I did. I just needed to push myself to make the time instead of making excuses. I just want to clarify: there’s nothing wrong with only writing 500 words a day. I’ve always been a bit of a slow writer, and plenty of others are. But I wasn’t happy with the pace I was going. I thought I could do more. My problem was that I took a look at my schedule and thought that I wouldn’t be able to fit it in.

I decided to focus on writing 500 words like I was used to instead of tackling all 2,000 at once. Since I was used to writing 500 in one sitting, that was an easy goal to meet. I then looked at times when I wouldn’t be as busy, starting in the morning when I could easily focus. My schedule ended up looking something like this:

1. Morning: 10-11 am (or 11 am-12 pm)

2. Early Afternoon: 1 pm

3. Late afternoon: 4 pm

4. Evening: 6 pm

Writing 500 words in one sitting didn’t take that long if I focused. Usually, it took about fifteen to thirty minutes to meet that word count, especially by dividing the 500 words into two sections of 250. After a few days, it became really easy to keep going and stick to my goal.

I Can Rework My Writing Process

For a while, I thought that the way I was doing things was the way it would always be. I thought I would always be a slower writer, but at the same time, I wasn’t happy with my pace. I started studying how other writers developed stories, including Brandon Sanderson since he had information on his website. Afterward, I realized it was possible to rework my writing process.

The writing process involves lots of things, including:

1. Worldbuilding

2. Outlining

3. Creating the rough draft

4. Rewriting

5. Editing

Besides focusing more on outlining than freewriting (or just writing to see where things go with the story), I also started focusing on worldbuilding just as much as writing. Sadly, I haven’t focused on that part as much as I should. But changing things up meant I could find a balance. In the end, making changes proved that I wasn’t stuck with the writing process I had given myself. I could change things to make it easier for myself and better for my writing.

Writing Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect

Lastly, I learned that I don’t need to focus so much on making my writing perfect, especially for a first draft. The first draft means getting the basics down and going back to fix everything later. Trying to chase the idea of everything being just right and good enough only weighs a writer down and makes it harder for them to push forward.

I had a friend explain that the first draft is like when a sculptor starts chipping away at a block of marble. Right now, it’s nothing but a block with some chips in it, not the finished product. That doesn’t mean the sculptor isn’t doing something right. It’s just part of the process.

With a bigger word count being met each day, I spent less time obsessing over details and actually worked on my writing instead. I learned that I can go back and fix things later. Right now, it’s time to write.

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