Productivity Measure (Hours/Pages/Words)
Minimum 2,000 words or 10 pages.
Some days Sanderson would write for 4 – 5 hours, and some days it would be 14 – 16 hours.
Morning Person/Night Owl
Sanderson writes at night, though he’s usually working on a story 24/7. Even if he’s not physically writing, he will be thinking about it.
His hours are:
12 – 4 PM – writing
4 – 10 PM – family/other stuff
10 PM – 12 AM or even 4 AM – writing
Part-Time Writing Life
When he was a part-time writer working a full time job, he specifically chose a job that allowed him to write during work hours so he could still shoot for 2,000 words a day. But his advice to newbie writers would be to shoot for 2,000 words a week (286 words/day or rounded up to a nice even # of 300 words/day), which would give you a book in about a year. That’s 2,000 words x 52 weeks a year = 104,000 words at the end of the year, which after edits would probably come down to 80,000—a good book length.
How Brandon Sanderson Outlines
Best video I’ve seen of his process:




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