Cover Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels (adapted)
11 ideas to help you get there
I remember reading about a similar habit two prolific writers had: Nicolas Cole writes 10,000 words a day, and Tim Denning writes 20,000 words in one day. Cole does that every day, and Denning does that twice a week. In the end, both produce 40,000 words or more every week.
That’s a staggering number!
Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words. Teen books are about 55,000 words. The average blog post length is 1151 words on platforms like Medium (source: author).
If you discount the editing process, both Cole and Denning could write two books per month.
Is that realistic for anybody to do? Of course not!
When I became a full-time writer at the beginning of October, I wanted to build the habit of writing 10,000 words, like Cole. We’re nearing the middle of October, and there’s not a single day I came close to writing that many words.
My best day was around 5,000 words, and I considered that a very productive day. I currently average 3,000 words, which I think is doable by many if they follow some of the ideas I’m sharing in this article.
Type faster
That’s an obvious one we often overlook. You can bet Cole and Denning type fast. Likely much faster than the average speed of 40 words per minute (WPM). At 40 WPM, 3,000 words will take you a minimum of 75 minutes. That’s not counting the time to think about what you’re going to write.
Now imagine if you could type double that speed? That would shorten the time it takes you to type 3,000 words by exactly half.
As with any skill, this comes with practice. You could practice simply by writing more, but I find value in practicing typing in isolation as well. This can be done using tools like those found on typing.com.
Think of it this way: any gain you make in this skill will make you more productive for life. It’s one skill you never lose to improve.
Find a time with no distraction
Writing requires a lot of concentration. A minor distraction can completely disrupt your train of thought and make you waste countless time in retracing it. For most people, that time is either very early in the morning or very late at night. You could use both times if you want.
In When, Daniel H. Pink shows that you are more logical in the morning and more creative in the afternoon. You could write more logical things in the morning and more creative things later in the day.
If you’re typing at 40 WPM, you probably want to find two blocks of 75 minutes or one block of two hours and a half.
Get in the zone
I shared my process on how to get in the zone in this article. But essentially, all the tips in this article should help you reach there. You can’t realistically write 3,000 words per day without it, even if that’s what you do full-time.
This nice thing about writing in flow is that you don’t really have time to think about what you write, it just goes straight from your brain to your fingers. There are many times when I wrote full articles, not even realizing what I wrote at all. I’d go for lunch with my wife and she’d ask me what I wrote about and I’d freeze. I have no clue what I wrote about. And then I read it again later and it’s deeply satisfying work.
Best feeling in the world for a writer, let me tell you!
Build momentum
The more you write, the easier it becomes to write. It’s like going down a ski slope, the faster you go, the faster you go. It just keeps increasing until you break the momentum. That’s why Denning writes for 12 hours. The first 1,000 words you write are always the hardest to write.
Once your brain is “primed”, ideas start to flow more naturally and words come out more easily.
I go into great detail in this article.
Have a stellar routine
Ugh… another article preaching about routine! Well, if you want to do something remarkable, you can’t leave it up to chance. Routines are a needed structure for this kind of achievement.
In this article, I share my exact process and routine. I go very deep into the details. You don’t need to copy my routine, but you can get inspired by it and adapt it to your needs.
Offload the research
In a recent interview with Denning, he shared his whole writing process. He goes into greater detail in his course, Medium Bad-Assery. The gist of it is that he writes two days per week for over 12 hours each. He spends time the other days to collect everything he needs to focus on just writing these two days.
This makes a lot of sense to me. Writing, editing, and researching all work with different parts of our brains. When you focus on the same type of activity, you build some momentum and get into flow more easily. When you don’t have to scour the internet for sources, you can more easily keep your flow.
Write 10 headlines a day
This is a habit I started when I became a full-time writer. This gets my creative juice flowing, but also makes it much easier to get started when you want to write. When you have a bank of hundreds of headlines you wrote, you can simply choose which one inspires you the most at the moment.
Write from experience
The more you write from experience, the easier it will be to write a piece without overthinking. Skilled writers can turn a mundane life event into a great lesson.
With thousands of articles getting published daily, your personal experiences are the only thing distinguishing you from the rest. They’re what makes you authentic. And the good news is, it makes writing more words easier because it’s a topic you already know!
Collect stories
Some of the best articles you’ll read are told as stories, at least in the introduction. The more stories you collect the easier it will be to write introductions and sometimes the content of the article as well.
You can do that as part of your research, or by simply observing what people around you are saying. When you pay attention, you notice how we always talk in stories. I guess it’s not surprising since we learn best from stories. They involve more of our senses, which helps the brain assimilate the concepts.
Have a bank of quotes
I love quotes from other, more famous people. They give credibility to a piece but they can also give you inspirations for your next article’s topic. They also very nicely break the flow of a piece. A good quote can essentially remove the need for an inline image.
They help you write more words, because (1) they come “for free”, and (2) they help you organize your thoughts. You can simply explain what the quote means to you.
Keep a Win Journal
This might seem like a strange addition, but it matters. If you want to consistently write many words, you need external validation that what you’re doing matters. That happens through small wins you get throughout the day.
Every day, I record at least one of those small victories. Most of the time, it’s a very nice comment I got from a reader. It gives a purpose to my writing and keeps me going. You need all the motivation you can get.
Everything you need to know
Type faster
Find a time with no distraction
Get into flow
Build momentum
Have a stellar routine
Offload the research
Write 10 headlines a day
Write from experience
Collect stories
Have a bank of quotes
Keep a win journal
If writing many words a day is a goal for you, I hope this helps you get there.
You can do this!
— Danny