Words per day calculator · Free · No sign-up

How many words a day to finish your book?

Set your word count goal and your deadline, choose the days you will actually write, and get a daily target you can trust. Print the plan or add a daily reminder to your calendar.

Quick start
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    Set your number as your daily goal in QuillSpace and it keeps your streak and reminds you to write. Goals are in the free plan.

    Daily reminder at Google Calendar

    Your day-by-day plan

    Made with the free words per day calculator at quillspace.app/tools/words-per-day-calculator

    Your plan is saved in this browser only.

    Words per day for common goals

    Words you need on each writing day to finish a first draft, if you write every day or only on weekdays.

    GoalIn 1 monthIn 3 monthsIn 6 monthsIn 1 year
    50,000 words 1,667 a day
    2,381 on weekdays only    		 550 a day
    770 on weekdays only    		 275 a day
    385 on weekdays only    		 137 a day
    192 on weekdays only
    80,000 words 2,667 a day
    3,810 on weekdays only    		 880 a day
    1,231 on weekdays only    		 440 a day
    616 on weekdays only    		 220 a day
    307 on weekdays only
    100,000 words 3,334 a day
    4,762 on weekdays only    		 1,099 a day
    1,539 on weekdays only    		 550 a day
    770 on weekdays only    		 274 a day
    384 on weekdays only

    How to use the calculator

    1. Pick a goal. Most adult novels land between 70,000 and 100,000 words; not sure where yours fits? See the words to pages converter, which lists typical lengths by genre.
    2. Be honest about your writing days. Untick the days you know you will not write. A plan built on six days a week that you actually keep beats a seven-day plan you break on the first Sunday.
    3. Re-plan instead of catching up. Fell behind? Enter what you have written so far; the calculator re-plans from today and spreads the rest over the days that are left.

    50,000 words in November

    The November novel challenge, made famous by NaNoWriMo, asks for a 50,000-word draft in 30 days: 1,667 words a day. The NaNoWriMo nonprofit closed in 2025, but thousands of writers still take on the month, alone or with a writing group. Choose "50K in November" above, print the calendar, and tick off each day as you go.

    Keep the streak going in QuillSpace

    QuillSpace is a book writing app for Windows and Mac that helps novelists and long-form writers organize a whole manuscript, write in focus, and keep their files on their own computer. Give a project a word goal and a deadline, set daily and weekly targets, and it tracks your streak and the words you add each day, with an optional daily reminder. See how writing goals work.

    Download for Windows Download for Mac

    Free to start. Windows and Mac are separate apps, purchased separately.

    Questions about daily word counts

    How many words a day should I write?

    As many as you can keep up on an ordinary day. A daily target you hit five days a week beats a big one you abandon after ten days. Many novelists draft somewhere between 500 and 2,000 words a day: Graham Greene famously stopped at 500, and Stephen King writes in On Writing that he aims for 2,000. Start with a number that feels slightly easy, then raise it.

    How long does it take to write a novel?

    At 500 words a day, every day, an 80,000-word first draft takes 160 days, a little over five months. At 1,000 words a day it takes 80 days. Revision usually takes as long as the draft or longer, so plan the deadline for the draft and the edit separately.

    How many words a day for 50,000 words in November?

    1,667 words a day if you write all 30 days of November. If you skip weekends there are about 21 or 22 writing days, which means roughly 2,300 to 2,400 words on each of them. Pick "50K in November" above and untick the days you will not write to see your exact number.

    What happens if I fall behind?

    Come back and enter the words you have written so far. Once the start date has passed, the calculator spreads what is left over the days that remain, so you always see the number that gets you to the deadline from where you are now.

    Does the calculator save my plan?

    Your last plan is remembered in this browser only, so it is there when you come back. Nothing is sent to us. Use Copy link to open the same plan on another device.

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