How many hours of work in 1000 words?

emmagrant01:

I know everyone who writes has a different process, but it seems like it takes me a while to get a fic ready to post. Part of that is that I like to fiddle and edit and write and rewrite, and sit on a story and re-read it and so on. So I wondered, How much time do I actually spend on a fic? Here is my best estimate per 1000 words of text I post:

  • Pre-writing: Plotting, outlining, thinking through scenes: 1.5 hours
  • Zero draft: 1 hour
  • 3-5 editing and rewriting passes over a week or so: 1 hour
  • Responding to, thinking about, and working in beta comments: 1 hr
  • Final editing pass before posting: .5 hour

So that’s approximately 5 hours of work per 1000 words of fic. Chapters of my current fic are averaging about 6000 words, so that’s about 30 hours per chapter, spread out over about a month.

Yeeeah… that feels about right.

How many hours do you think you put into your writing?

It really varies for me, but my current project is a write-and-post nightly challenge (so basically first draft only) and it’s averaging about ~1500 words per night that I write in a three-hour window. 500 words/hour is about typical for my rough drafts. So any additional research or editing that I decide to layer on adds to that, depending on how much reworking or background reference is needed.

71 Notes/ Hide

  1. references-for-me reblogged this from sinbin-fanfiction
  2. timetogetorganized reblogged this from destinationtoast
  3. dam-writing-studies reblogged this from emmagrant01
  4. solrosan reblogged this from destinationtoast and added:
    So I saw this post back in June and thought “Hm, I actually have no idea how much time it takes me to get to 1000...
  5. destinationtoast reblogged this from shinysherlock and added:
    Such an interesting question! Like @esterbrook and Shiny, my process varies greatly. I’ve written a few oneshots in the...
  6. shinysherlock reblogged this from esterbrook and added:
    My process is all over the place. Some things, like @esterbrook said, just flow. Some things, especially longfic,...
  7. officiallyfandomtrash-blog reblogged this from emmagrant01
  8. a-skull-full-of-chocolate reblogged this from emmagrant01
  9. bookishwordish reblogged this from havingbeenbreathedout
  10. theunacceptablepylades reblogged this from onethousandhurrahs
  11. onethousandhurrahs reblogged this from emmagrant01 and added:
    Ooh, this is an interesting question, and I love reading all the responses!Once upon a time (read: high school) I used...
  12. sapphoshands reblogged this from havingbeenbreathedout and added:
    hbbo = hardcore ;)this is interesting to think about at a point where i’m not writing regularly and not writing fic as...
  13. havingbeenbreathedout reblogged this from esterbrook and added:
    Mine is gradual and iterative too. I almost always start a writing day by rereading and revising/rewriting the section I...
  14. songlin reblogged this from emmagrant01 and added:
    Let’s see. I have no idea how long pre-writing takes, as I tend to do that in patches over extended periods of time and...
  15. miss-temple reblogged this from emmagrant01
  16. rienerose reblogged this from littlelonghairedoutlawllho and added:
    Same here. The little one-shot scenes / phics usually just come to me whole and the only issue is capturing them on...
  17. dragon-temeraire reblogged this from inell
  18. emmagrant01 posted this