How Long Does It Take to Write a Book?

It depends on how long you intend your novel to be, how many words you can write per day, and how often you write.

The trick is to balance these so you have a sustainable, daily writing goal and a book target that you can complete before your motivation runs out.

Most writers complete their manuscripts by creating a writing routine — a practice of writing a set number of words every day. Some people write 500 words a day. Others can do 5,000. Your experience and lifestyle will determine how many you can write. But it doesn't matter how many words you write as long as you do it regularly. If you can write every day, you can finish a book.

To help you find the right writing schedule for you, we've built a simple writing planner.

Enter the estimated target for your book and choose which days of the week you want to write. Then set a deadline or daily goal, and the planner will calculate the rest.

Let's say you'd like to write a 120,000-word epic fantasy novel. Because of your demanding job and family life, you can only write on the weekends for the foreseeable future. At 1,000 words a day, you can expect to complete the first draft in late February 2022.

You can always go back to tweak the values. Your schedule will update instantly. Let's try setting a deadline instead.

If you'd rather finish by the end of 2021, you would need to add 177 words to your daily goal. That isn't too bad to save two whole months!

The planner is free to use — no need to sign up. Try it here.

Looking for the right tool for tracking your writing projects and daily word counts? See how Writing Analytics can help you create a writing routine that is sustainable for the long term.