Writing, writing speed and burnout (Patreon)

Let's start with a very important note. Not burntout. Not even close.

But...

There was an interesting discussion between myself and a few other authors about writing speed. Now, I'm a 'slow' writer. I get between 1-5k done, with an average of 3k each day. That works out to (roughly) one new book a month; not including editing and proofreading time. It's why most books release every 2-3 months.

You might note - that includes weekends. Yes. I write on the weekends too.

Anyway, the conversation on writing speed was because some authors write 1-2k and it's a stretch for them to do so. Others, like Michael Chatfield hits 5-10k a day.  I know of a few other authors who can hit that 10k number every day, punching out a book a month. Or more (60k books - Romance & Urban Fantasy mostly).

That's an insane output. As James pointed out, Jim Butcher has written 20 books in 20 years. He has written 20 books in 4.

Now, as Rusch has pointed out, most writers can write faster than the 1 book a year that was imposed by publishing houses.  That single release was more to do with them than the writing speed of the authors. But...

4-6 books a year seems to be a little on the high side too. So there's got to be a middle point, somewhere in-between.

As I'm now doing this full-time with very little other distractions, I keep having to ask myself, how much is too much? When I don't feel like writing, when the story isn't 'gelling'. Should I keep writing? If I do, as you guys have seen, 45k words can just get deleted.

But, if I don't discipline myself and write a few words, days can go by.  And even if I'm writing, how many is enough? 3k? 5k? 10k?

I can type at 100 WPM. So, by that number, I should be able to write 6000 words in an hour. In an 8 hour day, with say 5 hours of productive time, I should have 30k words done.

But obviously, I don't. So...

How much is too much? How much is too little? 

It's a weird dilemma. And one I'm still trying to find the balance on.