Writing Goal Calculator: Words per Day to Finish a Book by Your Deadline
Find the words per day, per week and pages per day you need to finish a novel, thesis or 50,000-word challenge by a deadline, or your finish date at your pace.
How it works
Words per writing day = (goal − words written) ÷ writing days · Writing days = days from start to deadline that fall on your schedule − buffer days · Words per week = daily words × writing days per week · Pages per day = daily words ÷ words per page · Time per day = daily words ÷ words per hour · At a set pace: writing days needed = ⌈words left ÷ daily words⌉, counted forward on your schedule
A big writing project becomes manageable when you know the daily number. Subtract what you have already written from your goal, count the writing days between your start date and deadline, and divide. The calculator counts actual calendar dates, so a Monday-to-Friday schedule over 90 days gives the real number of weekdays rather than an average, and buffer days are taken off the end of the plan for revision, illness or travel. Daily targets are rounded up so the plan never falls short. Switch to "My daily pace" to see when you will finish if you write a fixed number of words per day. Either way you get the weekly target, pages per day, the time it takes at your drafting speed, a week-by-week milestone table and chart, and how much the daily target rises if you miss a few days. The word counter on this site counts the words in a text you paste, and the essay pages calculator turns a word count into pages. This calculator plans the pace: how many words a day you need, or when you will finish.
Worked example
For a 50,000-word draft in 30 days, writing every day and starting from zero, there are 30 writing days, so you need 50,000 ÷ 30 = 1,666.7, rounded up to 1,667 words per day, or 11,669 words a week. At 250 words per page that is 6.7 pages a day, and at 1,000 words per hour about 1 h 40 min of writing. Started on November 1, 2026, the deadline is Monday, November 30, 2026. If you miss 3 days, the target rises to 1,852 words per day.
Sources: Wikipedia: National Novel Writing Month (50,000 words, 1,667 a day, closure in 2025) · BookWriter: Word count per day calculator (80,000 words in 90 days, 77 writing days = 1,039 a day) · ACFW: Meet deadlines with simple math (200,000 words in 365 days = 548 a day; 247 days = 809) · Omni Calculator: NaNoWriMo calculator (goal, dates, words per minute)
Frequently asked questions
How many words a day do I need to write a novel?
Divide the length by the number of writing days. An 80,000-word novel in 90 days with one rest day a week (77 writing days) needs about 1,039 words a day; in six months of weekdays (about 130 days) it needs about 616.
How many words a day is 50,000 words in a month?
50,000 words in 30 days is 1,667 words a day, the pace made famous by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The organization closed in 2025, but many writers still do the November challenge.
How many words is a novel?
Most adult novels run 70,000 to 100,000 words, with fantasy and science fiction often longer. Young adult novels are often 50,000 to 80,000 words, novellas about 17,500 to 40,000, and middle-grade books 30,000 to 55,000.
How many pages is 1,000 words?
About 4 pages double-spaced in 12-point type (roughly 250 words per page) or 2 pages single-spaced. In a printed paperback, 1,000 words is about 3 pages.
How long does it take to write 1,000 words?
At a typical drafting speed of 500 to 1,500 words per hour, 1,000 words takes 40 minutes to 2 hours. Set your own speed under More options to get a daily time estimate.
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This calculator is for educational purposes. Double-check important results before acting on them.