I don’t write fast. I just recently got back from Rainforest Writers Village where many of my fellow writers wrote 10’s of thousands of words in a weekend. I wrote like 3600 words. Sometimes I beat myself up a little for not writing faster, but most of the time I’m OK with it. I write about 500-600 words in an hour if I’m on a good tear, but I can’t maintain focus for hours on end. I also don’t multi-task terribly well (except in listening to music while working- a vestigial skill of my .com days). 

I’ve been most successful at writing by consistency over time, not sprints. I also measure “over time” in weekly or monthly time periods. I am very much a tortoise writer not a hare writer. I try to write an average of 500 words a day rather than absolutely write every single day. I tend to feel better about myself if I’m not flagellating myself every day I don’t write. (I know, it’s a novel approach to try and maintain my self-esteem, but hating on myself got so exhausting I decided to give it a shot.) Some days that means I write 2000, some only 500, some no words at all. As long as I average ~500 I can vary day to day without feeling like crap all the time.  All things in moderation, including moderation. (Which also means, yes, I do feel bad about my progress sometimes even while doing it this way. But that’s OK as long as it isn’t ALL THE TIME.) 

I haven’t been doing so great at this in the last (mumblemumblemanymonthsmumble) little bit. I ended up down a hole due to various life/situational events and let things slide too far. I’ve climbed my way out of the hole but I’m still not back on top of things with my habits and now I’m working to rebuild them all. Getting back to a consistent words per day average is only part of that. I’ve got household things, work things, and *coff* posting here to get back in control. I’m not going to promise anything in particular because I know I’ll only disappoint myself. What I do promise, is that I’ll do better. That’s not a very high bar right now, but I hope it will continue to get higher as I keep on keeping on.