Trying to write in the later part of the afternoon or early evening is super hard for me. I function so much better in the morning. All my creative energy is focused on the time of day when it makes the most sense. Not that I cannot be creative later in the afternoon. But I seriously see and feel the difference between the words on the screen in the afternoon and morning.

Us Storytellers, we work all the time. What works for one of us won’t work for someone else. It’s all about the schedule and accessing the best creative energy. Many function better at night. Others say late afternoon is best. But early mornings are best for me. And if I get into it right away? It’s so much better! Clarity in thinking and feeling energized builds into my creative process, something I have spent countless hours honing.

Speaking of hours . . .

Fun fact – I love writing. Storytelling is my jam. My one thing? I’d love to spend the majority of my time creating worlds, people, and creatures to share with the world. That passion? It’s helped me interview people and get their stories captured and written. The questions I ask my interviewee are the same I ask myself when I’m drafting a new story or a new manuscript.

In my less confident and more insecure days, I’d brag about my experiences, sharing the time George Lucas waved at me. He didn’t, really. But, after being exposed to the film industry while my Dad worked as an assistant visual effects editor? You’d have thought that George Lucas and my family were tight! Now, I share my experiences, hoping they can help someone else be a better person than me or, at the very least, a better storyteller. (Yes, Dad did work for Industrial Light and Magic. And I saw a lot as a kid that most people wouldn’t believe.)

Storytelling isn’t something that found me; I found storytelling. I wanted it. Craved it. Read everything I could put my hands on, including shampoo bottles, soap dispensers, and toothpaste tubs. Yeah, it’s a little weird, but I was a kid. Learning, to me, was everything. Roughly fifteen years ago, I finally decided I’d had enough of sitting on the sidelines, opting to play the game instead. So, I started writing.

And it wasn’t just that I started writing. I continued reading, and reading is what motivated me to start writing. In an interview, Stephen King, the masterful storyteller and wordsmith, shared with the interviewer that he writes at least 2000 words in a day. Even if it didn’t make sense. Even if it didn’t make it into the final cut of the novel he was working on. Even if it was nothing more than something trivial like, “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” (I still think this phrase is one of the moments he couldn’t figure out what to write, so he continued typing. Thankfully, the repetition worked for the novel, and he included it!)

That was the goal. Write, at the very least, a little every day. 2000 words would break me some days. Other days, it was all I could do to stop. I think the highest number of words I wrote in a day was 7900-something.

Hours and hours later, this program kept track of the number of words written. A magical tool I continue to use is Grammarly. I love this program because of its versatility and easy-to-use interface. If you write professionally, send a lot of emails or text messages and need to clearly communicate your thoughts? I highly recommend this program! It will make you a better writer IF YOU put in the hours of hard work.

I’ve averaged 23,324 written words per day over the last four years. That means I could write a novel with a minimum of 100,000 words in four days, leaving another three days to edit. I could write several books in less than a year if I concentrated only on writing books.

That’s why I keep writing. It’s exciting and adventurous!

Definitely not something a Jedi would aspire to!

Working on a novel or short story? How many words do you write a day? Let me know in the comments below!