1,667 Words a Day: The Myth, and What Real Writing Sessions Show
There is no right number of words a day: 1,667 is the result of a division (50,000 words over 30 days) made in 1999 for the November challenge, and nobody writes that amount every single day. A real writing log shows a distribution: a few days at 2,500 or 3,000, many days between 700 and 1,400, and some days at zero. The average can come out at 1,667 while the typical day (the median) sits well below it. Understanding that gap changes how you set a goal, and whether the goal helps you finish or makes you quit.
Where does the 1,667 figure come from?
From NaNoWriMo arithmetic, and NaNoWriMo closed in 2025: 50,000 words divided by 30 days gives 1,666.67, rounded up to 1,667. The figure never described a practice; it describes an end-of-month target spread evenly across the calendar. It then passed into writing advice as if it were a norm, when the same arithmetic would give 833 words a day over 60 days, or 274 over six months. The number tells you nothing about how a month of writing actually unfolds.
What does a real month of writing look like?
Here is a 30-day log, invented for the example but typical of what you see in the Sagoræ workshop from a writer who finishes the challenge (D1 is day one of the week; week 5 has two days):
| Week | D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,480 | 1,920 | 1,150 | 1,020 | 1,640 | 1,300 | 2,640 |
| 2 | 2,350 | 1,240 | 1,460 | 0 | 1,380 | 1,190 | 2,860 |
| 3 | 2,100 | 720 | 830 | 0 | 980 | 1,290 | 3,050 |
| 4 | 2,210 | 1,310 | 0 | 0 | 1,370 | 3,240 | 3,420 |
| 5 | 3,600 | 3,300 |
Total: 50,050 words. Average: 1,668 a day. The challenge is won. And yet:
- Median: 1,375 words. Half the days are below it. This writer's "normal" day was never 1,667.
- Four zero days, two of them back to back (days 24 and 25). The average absorbs them; a daily rule would have turned them into debt.
- Seven days above 2,500 words, all on a free day or at the end of the month. They make up more than 40 percent of the total.
- Three days under 1,000 words (days 16, 17 and 19), right in week three, where the slump is classic.
The same month as a frequency chart:
| Range | Days | |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | ████ |
| 1 to 999 | 3 | ███ |
| 1,000 to 1,499 | 10 | ██████████ |
| 1,500 to 1,999 | 2 | ██ |
| 2,000 to 2,499 | 4 | ████ |
| 2,500 and up | 7 | ███████ |
The most common range is 1,000 to 1,499. With 1,667 as a daily minimum, this writer would have failed eighteen days out of thirty, and probably quit around the 18th. The month worked because the good days paid for the bad ones, which only a monthly target allows.
Why aiming for a scene finishes more novels than a number
A word target stops when the number is reached, not when the scene is done. The usual result: 1,667 words exactly, a scene cut off in the middle, and twenty minutes lost the next day finding the momentum again. The reverse happens too: at 1,400 words the scene is finished, and the writer forces 267 words of padding to validate the day, padding that gets cut in January.
Aiming for one scene per session ("today: Gwen talks about the wreck") produces an uneven distribution like the one in the table, because scenes are not all the same size. But every day leaves something finished behind it. What you notice, without putting a number on it, among the writers who go the distance: they talk about their days in scenes ("I finished the lighthouse"), not in words. The counter confirms afterwards; it does not give orders.
The healthy use of the counter is described in writing statistics: friend or tyrant: you look at the chart on Sunday, and you do not look at the number during the session.
So, how many words a day?
Three answers, depending on what you are doing:
- All year round, with a job: 500 words a day, in one session. Small enough never to skip, big enough for a novel in six months; that is the logic of writing 500 words a day.
- A 30-day challenge: a monthly target (50,000), a plan in waves, and one scene per session. The average is made over the month, not the day; the plan is in 50,000 words in 30 days without burning out.
- A hard day: one 25-minute sprint, whatever it yields. 300 words on a bad day keep the machine running; the format is in writing sprints: how to.
If you insist on a daily figure in your statistics, set it on your median of the last fifteen days, not on your average, and certainly not on 1,667. A goal you hit one day in two is no longer a goal; it is a reproach you read every evening.
Frequently asked questions
How many words a day should I write for a novel? There is no norm. 500 words a day give 80,000 words in six months; 1,667 on average give 50,000 words in a month, with days far above it and others at zero.
Is 1,667 words a day realistic? As a monthly average, yes, for many writers. Every day, no: in a typical successful month, half the days fall below 1,400 and several are at zero.
Is a word goal or a time goal better? A scene goal first, then a time goal. One finished scene per session, inside a timed sprint, produces a more continuous text than a word counter that stops in the middle of a dialogue.
If you want to see your real distribution, median included, rather than a figure inherited from 1999, Sagoræ offers a free trial, no card required.
✒️ Read next: How to Finish a Novel: Where Writers Actually Quit, and How to Get Past It · How to Get Back to a Novel You Abandoned Years Ago: A 7-Day Method · How to Write a Novel While Working Full Time: Three Real Schedules
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