Have you ever been in front of your keyword trying to write a long article just to find yourself staring at the screen for hours without doing much? How long does it take to write 1000 words for real?
If you’re a blogger, a writer or you’re just wondering how much should it take you to write a 1,000 words article, look no more. The truth is this number should be different for every person based on different situation but the speed can be improved with some tips I’m going to show you.
You know, when you’re a writer or blogger the more you write usually the more money you make (either paid per hour or per project, etc.).
However, there’s this thing called writer’s block that happens every now and then and you’re just there staring at the screen, without doing anything when you know you should be writing. It sucks and it can be mentally consuming.
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But really, how long does it take to write 1000 words?
On average, writing a 1,000 words article takes about 1-2 hours, depending on your writing speed and process.
That’s on average, sure, but how long does it take YOU to write a post?
Some people spend 3-4 hours, and some people spend just 1 hour or less. I’ve been writing articles for different websites for the last 13 years, so a 1,000 words post goes by easily in around 40 minutes, if not less.
For SEO purposes you’ve probably heard 1,000 is the minimum word count your articles should have for them to get better rankings. 2,000+ is usually recommended, as you can see here also here.
However, there’s no fixed number really. The reason why articles larger than 1,000-2,000 words tend to get ranked is because they provide great content that can be linked from different sources and they also get ranked for several (sometimes hundreds) of long tail keywords at the same time.
This means writing a high quality article with 2,000 words should take you around 3-4 hours on average, but for me it usually takes an hour and a half max.
I know some writers could do it in half the time, and because I know you’re reading this because you obviously want to spend as less as possible writing whatever you need to write, here are some tips I’ve developed during 13 years of writing for different websites as content editor.
Tip 1 – Quality over Quantity
I can’t stress this enough but obviously writing just for the sake of writing isn’t going to have the same quality as writing because the article requires it or because you’ve got passion to explain every detail.
I blame school a bit for making us think like machines that just have to fill a number of pages with content instead of providing our best quality content to get an A in science class.
However, if you’re a writer in many occasions you also get paid by word count, and thus, you’re required to fill a number to receive your check, and this isn’t good.
If you’re a blogger focus on quality and explain every detail as possible but don’t overdo it. Don’t run into that keyword stuffing madness just because you need to fill that 1,000 words magic number.
Tip 2 – Writing requires concentration
Unfortunately, this world is full of noise and our attention gets divided a lot between our work hours.
You sit down thinking you’re going to be super productive today and you’ll write a 2,000 words article. You get started at 9am and you know you could finish before lunch time but time goes by and suddenly it’s lunch time and you’ve got a 200 words intro done so far.
By then you’ve also checked your Facebook/Instagram/Twitter 5 times each and laughed at silly videos of cute cats on Youtube.
If you write from home you might have also opened the door to receive a package, gone to the bathroom once and got distracted by some member of your family.
Whatever is distracting you while writing, you need to cut it out!
Writing requires focus. Writing is one of those activities where you really can’t multi task as opposed to many other jobs. Sit down, cut the crap and focus!
But how?
Simple:
- Step 1. Put your phone in silent mode. Preferably put it with the screen looking downwards so you don’t see it turn on every time you get a new notification.
- Step 2. Use some earphones or get into a silent room to avoid distractions. Lock the door and ask people not to disturb you as you’re in focus mode and you need to get something done by an hour.
- Step 3. If you’re using your computer block or close all the communication apps and websites that can distract you. No Skype, no FB, no Youtube, no 9gag. Close them all. if you’re weak and get distracted easily you can use a Chrome Extension to block the websites you need at certain times/days.
- Step 4. Get shit done 😉
Tip 3 – Writing requires planning many times.
Unless you’re writing a creative novel (and even then, you probably need to plan as well), writing requires planning before executing to make things easier.
Every time I write a blog post I open up my Trello project, select a post based on my ideas and keyword research and plan the structure of the post.
Everything from images, headlines and conclusions are usually planned before actually writing it and they’re in my head ready for when I want to sit up and write.
If you’re going to include graphs, images and headlines in your article it helps a lot when you add them first and you prepare the whole structure and then you just start writing while everything else is done and your paragraphs fall into place nicely.
If you’re one of those people who write but at the same time they need to pause to upload a picture to the cloud or to decide what’s the next headline about you’re going to lose focus. And remember tip number 2: writing requires focus.
And there you have it.
This post has a bit more than 1,000 words and it took me 35 minutes to write it.
I didn’t go to the kitchen to grab some water or coffee.
I didn’t put some music to get the flow before writing.
I didn’t go to a Starbucks to get the feel of enlightenment before writing this article.
NO.
I planned this article in the morning. Grabbed a couple pictures for this post and decided what I was going to cover as the post itself is quite simple.
It took me 10 minutes to setup everything (i.e. upload images, create a new post, add some headlines with WordPress) and then at night, after dinner, I sat down and wrote this post in 35 minutes. No more no less.
Of course, I still need another 10 minutes to review it, add some links (as needed) and make it public, but that’s it.
This article has 1,174 words according to the WordPress count. Easy 🙂
How long does it take YOU to write 1,000 words? Let me know win the comments below!
