Book Writing Time Calculator

Days to finish a book: days ≈ total_words ÷ words_per_day

Drafting time scales linearly with how much you write each day. The formula: days = total_words / words_per_day. The classic NaNoWriMo pace is 1,667 words/day × 30 days = 50,000 words, which lands you a short novel. Stephen King recommends ~2,000 words/day, which would wrap up an 80,000-word novel in roughly 40 days. As for typical lengths, an adult novel runs 80,000–100,000, YA 50,000–80,000, a novella 20,000–40,000, and middle-grade 30,000–50,000. At 500 words/day an 80k novel takes about 160 days, roughly 5 months; bump that to 1,000/day and you're at ~80 days.

Applications

Use it to plan a writing schedule and hit a deadline, to set a pace for NaNoWriMo or a 100-day challenge, to map a self-publishing (Amazon KDP) release calendar, to quote ghostwriting work by delivery time, or to work through homework in a creative-writing course.

FAQ

Does the estimate cover editing too? No, it only counts the first draft. Tack on another 30–100% for revisions, beta-reader feedback and copy-editing rounds.

Is 1,667 words/day realistic? For a short sprint of about a month, sure. Keeping it up all year is another story. Most working novelists settle somewhere around 500–1,500 words/day.

What if I skip weekends? Just recalculate the daily target around your working days: 80,000 / (5 days × 16 weeks) = 1,000 words/day on weekdays only.

How long is a novella vs novel? A novella sits around 20k–40k and a novel starts at 50k+, going by the SFWA Nebula thresholds. Genre fiction usually wants 80k–100k.