# How many words do you write in a day?

I've been revamping my writing workflow, and took advantage of the opportunity to count the number of words I write daily.

These word counts are rounded daily averages of writing over the last month (since August 1st).

## Journaling

I keep a regular journal on my computer and on paper. Over the last month, I wrote an average of about 556 words per day. 593 per day over the last week. I write about anything that's on my mind, so occasionally this stretches to 1000 or 1500, and sometimes I only write 200 words.

=> just-write.gmi Just Write, the philosophy behind my journaling

## Freewriting

I've recently started freewriting again. I take a prompt and write just over 1000 words based on that prompt. There is no pressure for it to be any good. It's simply a way to free fantastical ideas from the mind. I try to do this daily.

I started this a few days ago, so last month's average calculates to 105 words. I estimate this will increase to an average of 600-700 words per day by next month. This is an extrapolation based on my freewriting frequency over the last few days (3 out of 5).

## Gemlogging

My daily average for gemlogging over the last month has been 76 words. I don't publish most of my thoughts, as I don't have much to say that someone else can't say better, but it's more than nothing.

## Poetry

I haven't written much poetry lately, and when I do write it, it's short. Over the last month I've written 3.5 words per day on average on various poems.

=> /notion/ Notion - my poetry page

## Others?

This runs into a similar problem as ew0k's computer counting exercise: what words do I want to count? I also communicate via text messages and email. I wrote 1000 words just yesterday to a single friend. I'd prefer to not to count it, because texting seems to be a form of interpersonal communication that just happens to be written. But in the end, so is all writing, even if the recipient is a future self.

It's been fun counting my words. Now it's time to learn to use them.


~ Josias, 2022-08-30