I can hit 2000/hour (at the LH 90-minute flash contests, I have hit 3000 words on occasion), but not for sustained periods. I’ve written 5000 or so a day on a number of occasions. The heaviest ever day of writing was doing a complete 12000-word story which I did in 15 hours, from conception to completion. I didn’t write for several days afterwards.

I’m at about 70 words per minute too, though programs like Word have really spoiled us as writers (we don’t have the type the right word perfectly every time, as Word will fix it automatically … which isn’t the case in the typing program, of course — and I’d say typing tests aren’t a good measure either, because as a writer you’re not dictating but writing purely from the soul … so it measures a different type of word-per-minute).

Anyway, I’d say my usual output is about 1,000 words an hour. Depends on how into the story I am at the time — sometimes it could be more, sometimes it could be less.

I once wrote a 90,000 word novel in three weeks. And just like tchernabyelo, I didn’t write for days afterward.

That’s why it’s good for writers to get into a daily routine, just like jogging — doing it once a day for the same amount of time, it becomes almost natural, and the more you do it, the easier it gets, the faster you get … As Stewart O’Nan once told me, the two hardest things about writing are starting and not stopping.

Interesting approach, Jordan. I haven’t taken a typing test in decades, but I currently work at a computer typing all day long the words of others. It’s all reactionary, no thinking, fill in the blank typing though, no measurable output. Since it’s become predictable after all this time, I’m usually finished typing before the person’s done speaking though, as not much changes on an individual daily or hourly basis.

For my personal writing, I’m not 100% transitioned to the computer yet. Past halfway, but as I’ve done so little writing of my own the last year, I’d say that 75% of my words are still originally handwritten. My best day was a complete 9k story in 8 hours. In NaNo 10-minute typing competitions, I’ve hit almost 800 words before. Don’t know that I could sustain that over an hour though.

Speeds not my challenge right now, though – for me, just getting some words down is hard enough.

That 90k was a product of luck and good fortune. I’d just graduated college and was still living at home, so I didn’t have to worry about paying rent or utilities. When they called me to sub, I wouldn’t answer the phone so I could write all day. And at my other job I was able to bring my laptop along and write while I worked, so as you can imagine I got A LOT of writing done. I hadn’t set out to write that much in three weeks; but after the first week, when I saw I had written between 20-30k, it made me even more motivated to see how fast I could write it. The downside, of course, was that it burned me out, both mentally and physically.

Good luck on your novel. Will this be your first?

Jordan, when you get a chance, can you e-mail me? Thanks.

Hey Jordan – FYI – I am subscribed to this thread but I haven’t received any emailed comments. I do receive emails whenever you have a new post, so that feed works fine. Anything I can do on my end?

Interesting.. I haven’t calculated my typing speed since keyboarding class back in H.S.

During the course of this year’s NaNo I started to take note of how many words I could push an hour. At the beginning, when I was still finding my way, I was around 800 words/hr. Later on, once the story was flowing, I was averaging 1000/hr. I think my best was 1200/hr.

It’s actually a useful bit of information to have, as it allows you to judge how much time you have to commit (going in, I usually have a rough idea of how long a story will be).

Have you checked this out: http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html ? This fancy internet tool’s threat of deleting my words unless I type fast enough has brought me closer to my theoretical typing maximum than ever before.

http://asterling.typepad.com/incipit_vita_nova/2007/07/how-fast-do-you.html

Y’all put me to shame!

I did write a novel in a single holiday weekend (I’m going to say President’s Day weekend, 2004). And somebody actually brought this book to me to sign one time, even though it is another writer’s name on it. So “they know.” How? !!*@@!!???

Hey, just thought you guys might be interested in NASAYA. It’s like NANO on steroids. 1 year, 1 million words of creative fiction. Check us out on facebook, National Saga Writing Year. We star January 1st.

My top typing speed ever is 116 wpm, over 10 tests best average is 92, overall average 81. On a 70wpm basis assuming I didn’t stop I could manage 4,200 WPH.

I hit around 2k words per hour in normal fantasy fiction writing. I may have to take that test lol.