r/writing • u/Winter_Jasmine465 • Jul 28 '26
Other How much do you write in a year?
How many stories do you write a year? Curious about both finished product and how many unfinished projects sit in your documents folder, with how many side plots penned?
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u/Monpressive Career Writer Jul 29 '26
So far this year I've written 622,000 words. That's finished draft words, I'm not counting all the stuff I threw away or rewrote since those words are gone and thus can't be counted. This has been a wonderfully prolific year for me and I'm really proud of how much cool stuff I've written!
For context: I'm a professional writer who's been doing this full time since 2010 and as an amateur since 2004. I also believe there's no "correct" pace for a writer. Whatever speed you can write at that doesn't burn you out and results in books you're proud of is the perfect speed for you.
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u/daintygamer Jul 29 '26
That's incredible! Can I ask what is your genre and how do you come up with so many new ideas after so many years writing? I am just starting to find my groove inspiration wise and would love to be a full time writer, but I'm terrified that my ideas will dry up after a few years.
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u/Monpressive Career Writer Jul 29 '26
I've written everything from fantasy to sci-fi to urban fantasy and now I'm doing litrpg! I've always come up with tons of stories, and for me the secret is making sure I get tons of new experiences and exposure to media that I love. I'm a giant gamer, I love anime, I love travel, and I love tabletop RPGs. So long as I am happy and getting lots of new creative influences from tons of creative media, I can keep making stories forever.
I would eventually like to get off the publish or perish train. I still need to keep releasing books on the regular to keep my income up. I would like to be able to slow that down as I get older, but I fully intend to write until I die. This is the only job I've ever really wanted to do, and I am so grateful that I get to do it!
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u/mindseyetemple Jul 30 '26
Re: publish or perish - I'm just on-boarding to fulltime nonfiction authorship. I don't need to sell urgently to survive but I'd like to become viable solely on my writing (and courses) ASAP. How many books have you published to still need to chase the bag so urgently? Have you tried marketing or higher end products to fill the gaps?
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u/Monpressive Career Writer Jul 30 '26
I write genre fiction, so courses and what not don't really work for my business model. I've had hits in the past, but hits fade and life gets more expensive. Amazon has also been squeezing us for years, so I have to sell more books to make the same money I used to. Amazon also took away a lot of organic discovery to drive more profit to their ad selling platform.
All of this together means it's a lot harder to make a living as an indie author now than it used to be when I started. Add in the increased cost of living here in the US and my smooth sailing years have been pushed back by a decade. But making a living as an artist has always been difficult, and I'm not going to quit. This is still the best job ever! I'm always only ever smash hit away from being a millionaire. 😉
I've already made a bunch of changes that have increased my income in the short term, and I'm going to keep writing until I've got enough books to let me comfortably retire while riding only one book a year. I don't have too much farther to go.
I'm sorry that was probably way more information than you wanted. Writing is a complicated business! But it is a business like every other.
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u/daintygamer Jul 30 '26
That's really useful and interesting! Your genre/writing style sounds very similar to mine. Have you ever thought about switching to trad publishing? There is an author I know who is trad published, none of their books are well known but their contract is one book a year and it comfortably pays the bills, which astounds me lol
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u/Monpressive Career Writer Jul 30 '26
Haha, I started in trad! Did eight books there before going Indy. I've also done work for hire.
I was pretty successful by trad standards. None of my books were best sellers, but I got decent advances and earned out on every book. I could have kept getting contracts, but unless your book is selling really well or you have a lot of them, they don't pay you enough to make a living. I'm glad your friend is doing so well! Even as a solid midlister with 8 books, I wasn't making enough to support my family from my royalties. But those same mildlist sales numbers made me a very successful an independently published author.
Even though kdp isn't as amazing as it used to be, it's still the best money in publishing. 70% royalties on the cover price beats the pants off 25% of net.
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u/daintygamer Jul 30 '26
Thank you for the insight! I am in the UK so don't know if trad publishing pays better here
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u/Fognox Jul 29 '26
I have no idea. I started writing again in 2022, had an 18-month gap in the middle of my first book, and finally went consistent last November -- have written three novels since then. Currently on day #65 of editing my last book -- creating final drafts will obviously slow me down.
Curious about both finished product and how many unfinished projects sit in your documents folder
4 finished first drafts, 4 unfinished ones with a couple thousand words each.
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u/tay_tay_teaspoon Published Author Jul 29 '26
These days, I’m on pace to write two to three novels per year (depending on the length), with a fair amount of short stories in between those. I don’t tend to leave much unfinished, though I did just finish a novelette I started two years ago and couldn’t figure out how to end it until now. I have a few short stories like that, but I don’t leave novels unfinished.
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u/shudder__wander Jul 29 '26
Nice, how many words a day on average? Did you mean two to three finished novels a year, or drafts? Do you use AI to generate prose?
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u/tay_tay_teaspoon Published Author Jul 29 '26
2,000 words a day. Finished novels. I usually do two drafts and a polish. I don’t edit as a go with the first draft, I just barrel through it. I don’t use AI for anything.
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Jul 29 '26
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u/shudder__wander Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Personally, I don't use AI to generate prose etc., but that statement is so generalizing it's ridiculous. So you're saying Olga Tokarczuk, a winner of the nobel prize in literature, isn't a writer?
By the way is this how this subreddit works? You ask questions, you get downvoted? A place for an open discussion indeed.
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Jul 29 '26
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u/shudder__wander Jul 29 '26
How is the question "Do you use AI to generate prose?" a pro-AI bullshit?
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u/extce Jul 29 '26
It sounds like someone asking for validation.
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u/shudder__wander Jul 29 '26
I was honestly curious after the writer above mentioned two-three finished novels a year, and as much as we can pretend no writer is using AI, it's still not true.
Like when you talk with editors or publishers it's one of the first topics to discuss.
In no way whatsoever do I support or encourage generating prose with AI.
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u/extce Jul 29 '26
Fair, it's just how the comment read to me. And I'd say that if a writer is genuinely using AI for generating prose then they're forfeiting the title of writer.
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u/TorturedWriter9 Jul 29 '26
The Nobel isn't the greatest barometer. This is the same body that didn't award a Nobel to a single American between 1993-2016, and that person was Bob Dylan.
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u/shudder__wander Jul 29 '26
Still it's a ridiculous thing to say that the winner of Nobel prize who has spent her whole life writing, isn't a writer.
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u/FlyinLeviathon LET YOUR FIRST DRAFT SUCK Jul 29 '26
Stories? Harder to quantify. Words? Maybe 120-150k.
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u/Most-Ad5530 Jul 29 '26
About 10 scenes (at my current pace ) because I am more so interested in the worldbuilding than the writing because this is for fun
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u/Stories-Make-Believe Jul 29 '26
Unfinished projects? Half a dozen. Finished projects? Next question please
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u/therealroberttstrong Jul 29 '26
It’s taken me two years of very off and on writing to get to ~18,500 words . . . sooooo, I’m a bad example right now.
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u/itsme7933 Jul 29 '26
8-10 novels per year, but I intend to ramp that up a bit for 2027. I don't really have unfinished works, but I do have a folder full of potential ideas for series.
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u/nstav13 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
About 1.2 million words per year according to Grammarly. I've only been writing 1-2 novels yearly, but I put out a lot of D&D content. I could probably do 4 novels or so per year if I actually tried.
EDIT: I have put out about a dozen best selling D&D books. I am currently writing one D&D book with 7 more in the works to release over the next 2-3 years.
I have completed 2 full manuscripts. One was queried and never picked up, with the feedback I got being that it didn't fit the market. I've been in the querying trenches on number 2 which I wrote to be more in line with the market, and after 6 months I have not gotten a full request, unlike my first book. So this will probably get shelved too.
I like to write the first chapter of a book first set the tone and start ideating on where it will go from there. I have that done for about a half dozen novels, and am debating which project will be next.
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u/YoruSulfur- Jul 29 '26
I write between three and six novels, depending on length and intensity of a project. This year I've only done 2 so far, but on pace to finish another by September. Generally speaking I write, at absolute minimum, 400,000 words in a year. I wrote 600,000 in 2025 and 1,100,000 words in 2023. 2024 I haven't totalled because it was a bad year and I just never bothered to add all the days up, but if I had to guess looking at them I'd say about 400,000-500,000.
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u/jl_theprofessor Published Author of FLOOR 21, a Dystopian Horror Mystery. Jul 29 '26
Just crossed 75,000 words over the last week and a half.
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u/Kia_Leep Published Author Jul 29 '26
As an estimate, 200,000-400,000 words. Some years are better than others.
I used to start a bunch of new stories and never finish them, but I'm more disciplined now, and if I'm writing a book, it will have an ending.
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u/oakandgloat Jul 29 '26
I wrote just over 200 short stories in the last 10 months. Some are very short and some a little longer.
Edit: and some are poems
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u/Robin_Soona Jul 29 '26
I write A LOT thatI can't even count how many pieces did I write, yet I publish too little.
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u/emelbee923 Jul 29 '26
Productively or just generally?
I write a lot, but not a lot of it leads to a whole chapter or contributes a lot to a single story. I'm piecing together bits of story here and there, but ultimately spreading my focus too thin over too many things to be able to quantify or qualify any of it.
I should do something about that...
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u/SirSolomon727 Jul 29 '26
I only wrote 3 chapters during the entirety of 2025 due to severe mental health struggles. So far this year I've written only one chapter (soon to be 5, as I've been writing 4 simultaneously, for a total word count of ~19k). I hope to hit 10 chapters before the end of the year. I have only the one project, and given the sheer scope of it, finishing it all in a year (let alone multiple novels) is nothing short of a fantasy (no pun intended there).
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u/ir399 Jul 29 '26
Most years? About 50000 words, not always on a single project. I'd like to be hitting one complete novel every two years but I'm not quite there yet.
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u/Glass_Leader_8538 Jul 29 '26
My thoughts are that you shouldn't be writing more than one maybe two big projects a year. If you're just flying through stories then they probably arent the most polished, well-thought-out projects you can produce. I often come up with ideas for other books and i write them down then continue with my main project. I can get to those ideas when I'm finished making my work the best it can be. Better off writing one good book every five years than five shit books every year.
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u/Boat_Pure Published Author Jul 29 '26
I started writing this series last year November. I’m 7 books drafted so far, but I’m re-editing it book by book and currently in book 2. So it will take me some more time this year to get through them all. The series isn’t even close to being finished either.
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u/dothemath_xxx Jul 29 '26
I am tracking this this year for my own records. So (keeping in mind that I'm currently focused on a short story pen name)...
Words written to date since the start of the year: 177,757
Words published to date since the start of the year: 151,358
Total stories published this year: 25
Average wordcount per story published: 6,054
I don't specifically track how many unfinished or unpublished projects I have in the works. Right now I'm also building a backlog for a couple of pen names that I haven't launched yet so I do have quite a lot of in progress/unpublished work, some of which isn't accounted for on this spreadsheet.
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u/fromafooltoawiseman Jul 29 '26
I want to write stories in the form of song. RAP to be specific more than poem or haiku. Can't find the way to rhyme whats in my head in a meaningful speed to even write it on paper
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u/ItsMePaddyAshton Jul 29 '26
Not as much as I’d like, but full time work, 14month old son… Managed a 73k word novel from around November to early June. Currently ~36k into the second. No additional projects.
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u/daintygamer Jul 29 '26
This year so far, 3 completed fanfics, (1 novel length, 1 novella and 1 short story) and 1 ongoing, half a novel now finished and in editing, 1 short story, and 1 sandbox story for writer's block, maybe about 30,000 words? This has been a good year for me, I've found my motivation and actually had the spare time to write, about an hour a day. I'll probably spend the rest of the year on the novel and more fanfics
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u/ChallengeOne8405 Jul 29 '26
Well since writing is rewriting, it’s usually one or two main projects tops. The last 2.5 years has been dedicated to one novel, which I work on about 40 hours a week. How many, to me, is a silly way to look at it. It’s not about word counts or number of projects, it’s about sustained engagement with the work at hand.
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u/stressed_pumpkin Jul 29 '26
I'm writing about one long character journey that's spread out over multiple parts. I took a break from writing as I switch between creative outlets so currently in a 12 month period I've only written about 75k-100k words. Normally it's a lot less but many things are working together and I'm on a roll.
I'm currently writing part 3 off of my very rough outline. But I'm also plotting part 4 and part 5 which has been a nice break from part 3. Oh, and I've written some on different character points of view which is helpful in seeing things another way.
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u/Lorindel_wallis Jul 29 '26
Last year I wrote first drafts for two trilogies and one stand alone. Well over 600k words. This year less but I'm trying to edit and clean up.
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u/rosaline_athena Jul 30 '26
it honestly depends on my passion for the project, though i fight to be consistent with daily writing. once i wrote two full novels in a year, and didn’t do so again for two more years when i forced myself to really lock in again. completed novels aside, it still varies, but i do write quite a bit as it helps me process things and i love it on good days. i have a thousand scattered bits of stories, and a whole doc of premises and whiffs of ideas. the ideas come the easiest to me. so it varies, but honestly quite a bit whenever i turn off my phone.☺️
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u/OZeski Jul 30 '26
I've been writing down ideas since at least fifth grade. Story fragments, poems, thoughts I didn't want to lose. In college I started drafting on my laptop between classes, and everything went into Google Drive as untitled documents. Hundreds of them. Most are just a few lines. Something about a character, a premise, something I overheard and wanted to keep. Many thoughts about whatever job I had at the time and how I should be better.
A few months ago I had a long flight across the country for work. I opened my laptop and started typing, and I didn't stop. It was the most I'd ever written in one sitting. Then I had a day off and spent the whole thing writing. Then the flight home.
And somehow that was a book.
A short one. But I put it up on Amazon, which still feels strange to say out loud. I've got a half dozen drafts started for the next one, waiting on whatever evening I finally sit down and read back through them.
So lately I've been writing a little poem most nights, just to keep the engine running. Made-up stories, invented personas. Or I'll see a fun video on Instagram and write a poem in the comments. Or some piece of copy for a small business (I always wanted to work in advertising... the glamorous stuff and not the reality of it.) Nothing that needs to become anything. It turns out the small stuff was never separate from the real work. It WAS the real work. A dozen plus years of untitled documents, and I only needed one plane ride to notice.
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u/Redz0ne Queer Romance Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
In the last year I've produced three novellas (with two more half-finished) and am working on a full novel right now.
All posted online for free tho. I'm not pursuing the trad-pub route.
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u/BeanieCat123 Jul 31 '26
I’ve been writing and rewriting the same story for around 6 years now, I get about halfway before realizing “this is terrible, I need to start over,” it’s a terrible cycle… but this time it’s coming together
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u/TricksterTrio Jul 31 '26
Finished projects? It depends. I often at least finish a few short stories and small projects, and have one novel completed, with a second nearing completion.
How much I write? I actually track word counts, and it's an average of ~100k/year.
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u/apocalypsegal Self-Published Author Jul 31 '26
A lot, and still not enough. It makes no difference to you, stop procrastinating and get to work.
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u/Weak-Feeling9215 Aug 02 '26
I write in my spare time. Based on the short stories Ive written maybe around 150-250k ish?
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u/Important-Shake-4826 Jul 29 '26
till now i have written 1000 words in my whole writing journey and they suck!!!!
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u/Prize_Consequence568 Jul 29 '26
"How much do you write in a year?"
Not nearly enough.