#4. How much and how often should you be writing?

I'll start by saying there isn't a straight-forward answer for this. Like anything else in life, it varies. Your free time, how well you focus, whether or not you're having to research a lot for what you're writing, and a score of other things factor in.

The average writer puts down between 1,000 and 1,500 words per day into their manuscript. Stephen King (Shawshank Redemption, The green mile, It) once said he aims for 6,000 words per day...which is a lot, and people sometimes feel they aren't doing enough if they can't hit this word count each day. But keep in mind, I've seen an interview with him and George RR Martin (who wrote the Game of thrones book series and many more), where he was blown away that Stephen King could put this much down in a day.

Now, King himself admits he doesn't always hit that mark. It's his goal and nothing more. He later followed up saying he hits 2,000 words fairly often. That's still a good bit and writing less than that doesn't make you less of a writer. Trust me on this. If you write, and finish your work, you're a writer.

Here's a few examples of some big authors and their average daily word counts:

Tom Wolfe: 135 Words
Jack London: 1,500 Words
Sarah Waters: 1,000 Words
J.G. Ballard: 1,000 Words
Ernest Hemingway: 500 Words
Arthur Hailey: 600 Words
Anne Rice: 3,000 Words

I'm not sure what my daily word count averages out to be, but there are days where I hit 1,000, and others where I hit 7,000+; but I often write 10 hours a day, which brings me to time.

I write when I can. Period. I'm addicted to it and feel guilty when I'm not writing as if I'm not trying hard enough or failing myself and my family. I think it stems from the years I spent training, teaching, and fighting for a living. I’ve always thought, "If I'm not training right now, there's someone else that is." The same is true in all walks of life. So, if you're not writing...I can promise you that someone else is –your competition.

When not to write?

Don't write if you're not enjoying it. Don't write when you're stressed. Don't write because you read this blog entry. Write because you're compelled to do it and you're enjoying it. Otherwise, what's the point?

There are no rules to writing. Do it however much you're comfortable with and enjoy the process. Scribing 1,000 words per day will land you a 90,000 wordcount novel in 3 months and 500 words a day will take 6 months for a novel of the same length. Just don't stop until you're finished.

~:C. R. BUCHANAN:~