How long does it take to write 13,000 words?! // a writing experiment vlog 

I love how every one of your thumbnails is like "omg why am i doing this with my life"

I've never commented on your channel before, but I've been a subscriber for several months. I have to tell you how much of an inspiration you are. You are so positive and so productive! You are my hero! "I've only written FOUR THOUSAND....today..." Oh Kate. Bless you. I LOVE Dylan! Hahah isn't he hilarious?

I love when the minor characters just suddenly take a life of their own. It feels so out of nowhere, even though we are the ones writing the story! 😂

I am a college student and I am going into deaf education(essentially I’m guaranteed a job when I graduate). But I am writing two novels, two fanfics and have several stories outlined for the future. My point being, this isn’t necessarily my future profession but I enjoy doing it. I do it in my free time. If I can at some point make money from this, that’s awesome but that’s not the plan.

Does anyone else have the problem of where their ideas they write down are super detailed and super clean and then you put it down into the actual rendering and it’s so smooshed and bleh that you facepalm???

I'm still working on the 1st draft of my first novel. I'm only 59K words in (and I started it back in late March), but I consider a lot of the prose to be some of my best! Concerning your first 2 questions: 1) When I've been working on the first draft of a story for over a month, then my self-hatred starts to flare up. Like, "I should've finished this by now! What's wrong with me? I have Loads of free time, why am I not working on it?" Things like that. But I try to remind myself that everyone goes at their own pace, and to not worry about it. 2) I decided to start setting deadlines for the date I'd be seeing my nurse practitioner. She loved to read my stories and I had a fun time trying to write as many stories as I could for her. She's leaving her office this month and moving to another state, so I'll be seeing my new nurse practitioner in four days. I'm hoping she'll want to read my stories. I have a few new ones finished and I just need feedback from betas and then I'd be able to submit them to lit mags. I haven't gotten published yet, but the story I consider to be my best is still "In-Progress" on Submittable, so keep your fingers crossed! Also wanted to mention: I think in one video you mentioned how titles were hard for you. I've found that usually titles are somewhat easy, and plots are what I have a hard time coming up with. One day I came up with 38 titles for stories and I love them! Anyways, I really enjoy watching your videos! They're so much fun, and they always calm my anxiety. I especially love the clips that show you typing on your keyboard. It's always been a calming sound for me. Keep up the awesome work, Kate! I'm rooting for you! :) -Josh

As an aspiring pro writer; I honestly work better with goals than deadlines. When I have deadlines I procrastinate. But when I set a goal to write X words in a day, I usually succeed; and then I get to feel good about myself. Also I'm so glad I'm not the only writer who has to let ideas marinate before I actually start to work on them. I've always found there's this huge delay between when I have the initial idea (or find the initial idea; sometimes I stumble across an interesting prompt or something) and when I'm actually mentally able to develop it to the point where I have a story and can start writing it. Until then, it just has to kinda simmer in the back of my mind.

I absolutely love watching your writing process. 13k in 19 hours is a great accomplishment. I always put a deadline on my projects, even though I suck at holding myself to them, constantly miss them, readjust them etc etc. So really, deadlines to me are rather worthless most of the time. (Need to sort this out.) I am planning various writing challenges for NaNoWriMo when it hits- time and distance based so I can work out what type of writer I actually am. Looking forward to the next writing experiment!

18:11 OMG IS THAT DYLAN IS IN TROUBLE I SEE?!?!?! 😍😍

I'm a simple person, I see a Kate Cavanaugh video, I click on it.

I know it's weird for an aspiring writer, but I've honestly stopped setting deadlines for myself, especially for first drafts. I used to write faster (participating in lots of wrimos has that effect), but now I deliberately take time to brainstorm, let the story marinate & figure it out more slowly because that gives me better quality than just pushing through as if I were on a deadline. Idk how well that would work with publishing deadlines, but I'm happy with it for now!

I saw Dylan in the background. Fellow Troublemaker, eh?

I do hope to get published one day, and because of that, I always feel like I should be writing faster than I do. It takes me a long time to finish the first draft, and then a long time to edit as well. I try to put deadlines on myself, but honestly, most of the time I end up breaking them anyway, because there are no consequences to not finishing on time ... 😅

Rewatching this in May of 2023, and getting so nostalgic to see Duke!...🥺🥰💕

Well this is clearly 'sabotage'. I sat down to prep for the write in and saw this video go up...I forgive you though ;)

Ok at the 10 min mark you say you’re not fatigued because your looking at distance rather than time. IM THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE. When I do writeathons based on word count I feel so exhausted, where as when I focus on time I feel so much more relaxed. Haha, I love watching how different we writers are

The word count going up at 21:48 is so satisfying! Another great video!

I’m lucky to get 50-100 words average in 20 minutes. And you got 779? 🥺 You’re so inspiring!

I am actually just now hitting the point where I think I need deadlines, although I have consistently been setting goals. (I.e. finish draft of project x by the end of month y) The mental shift from a *goal* to a *deadline* is surprisingly impactful.

I have binging your videos for the last day and a half. My favorite thing is how you collapse with laughter when you don't know where your thought is going and the edit is always a perfect. Love your videos and information!!

So... last year I decided to dedicate to editing a novel and submitting. My goal was originally three months, because I was pitching at a conference. They both requested fulls (yay!). I missed that, but was determined to submit by July 1, and fell so woefully short of that. And then it was the end of the year, and I made that, submitting on 12/21. I got lucky, the editor bought the manuscript (and three more). And another publishing house bought a novella. And I had already committed to doing a novella for an anthology. All at the same time. So now I'm juggling six deadlines (and a co-writing project). God that made me tired to write. But now I'm VERY deadline driven, and I have to work on multiple projects at a time. So I do a weekly spread of my tasks, since I still have a full time job, and work out what hours I have to write. Projects are in different stages with different deadlines, so the split of time between them isn't even. And it's a struggle, and tiring sometimes. Being proactive and waking up early is a necessity for me, so if I'm exhausted at the end of work and I pass out, I still got my 2500 words in, or I still planned my two chapters, or whatever. And once I turn in these next two manuscripts (I turned in one today, one due 8/15, another due 8/26, I'm taking off until after Labor Day). Those breaks are just as important as the going whole hog.

I literally watch your videos for writing inspiration. You have been such a great help!

I totally love your spirit and enthusiasm for writing! Flipping back and forth between my writing and your videos is a real motivation boost! But, as a time traveler from 2020...I cannot believe you could just walk into a public café with no mask etc. It's crazy how much can change in just one year!

Great challenge! Good for you for getting 13k words in a matter of 2 days! Very inspiration video- keep up the good work!! ♥

This leaves me thinking it's a good idea to see how long does it take me to rewrite my first book, but make it a 5 day limit and film it.

this is perfect to have in the background while crocheting!

I love see you struggling, i'm a artist, and i let your vides on the background while i draw and paint to motivate me.

Watching your videos always gives me a surge of energy to just write and write! Boy I can feel that carpel tunnel creeping up

18:11 Are you a Troublemaker??? lmao I just finished watching one of his videos before clicking on this one lmfaooooo

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL!!!!

OH my god! I just noticed she was watching Dylan Is In Trouble. Kate has good tastes

The pupperoni masks his excitement well. A true poker face :))

Re-watching this now is giving me so much nostalgia - times when we could go and write in a coffee shop… *sigh* ;D

You're a Troublemaker?! I'm so excited!!

Happy birthday Kate! 🥳🎂🎊🎉

Yay I've been so excited for this :D

Lol I live for these challenges. They are too funny 😂.

Your Texas mug is the most Texan thing I’ve ever seen! It’s great

"That's not even how temperature works." We love you. XD

Aww man this night is getting warmed up yeahhh

Happy birthday!! 🍧🌄📚

We stan a long writing video

I aspire to your level of focus because you write 80 words in 25 minutes and I write 800 words in like...two hours, although that's two sessions with lots of breaks and distractions. Even with the things like the Forest app to keep me from opening other stuff, sometimes I just space and have a hard time initially getting into it, maybe it's just my ADHD. If I get really into it, I have written 500 words in 30 minutes or a 1k in an hour, but you are next level 👌 #rolemodel

Me: I'm going to get ahead in my camp NaNoWriMo count today... *procrastination kicks in* Or I could watch someone else write, lol. ~~~ I don't know if you've seen this poem, but I found it a while ago and I love read it! I thought I would share it with you in hopes that you may also enjoy it :) "Set fire to my pen. Ignite my words until they're seared into your memory. When emotions smolder and paper turns to ash, sift remnants for lyrics, pull verse from remains, until inspiration sparks and my pen is lit again." -Christy Ann Martine ~~~ Love seeing your challenges and experiments! I find it very interesting to see how they work, and watching you exploring these different avenues. While I don't really mix up how I write, perhaps I should shake things up and try something new this summer--when I get the chance! Also, I think you may have mentioned this before, but Wattpad has an amazing community in their forums--a place to chat with readers and writers alike. There are many areas for all kinds of people. I'd love to see you check it out. Maybe I'd even see you there, lol.

This is such an interesting concept, both the video idea and the story! :D HAHAHA "Someone take my computer away from me, I don't deserve this!" XD Great job!

You were like "I'm at 12,221 words" and I was like "oh, she should be done soon"... and then I saw there was almost 8 minutes left... and I was like, "same". My first drafts used to take forever! My currently novel only took me a year and three months, and I was super surprised (although I am attempting your zero draft method for another project so... I'll keep you posted on that...)

Thank you for inspiration!

As you know, I'm a time writer! I think I go back and forth a bit though. Like right now I'm not getting through the draft quickly enough for my liking, so I might switch to word count goals for a couple of days, and then return to minutes after.

I love your idea for making text white. I've had a few....of those "Oh, wow...that sucks" moments lol

Happy birthday, beautiful!

I was planning to do Camp NaNoWriMo this month but forgot about it and remembered it halfway in. I do feel better knowing that if I did, I probably would’ve been too distracted by Kate’s videos to win.

Kate: It's currently 7:56AM... *Me looking at the time* Time: *7:56AM* Me: YoooOOooOOo!

Hey Kate, glad to see a new video they always put me in a writer mood. How's your Camp Nano story going? I'm taking a break from mine for a few reasons. Also I would love to try this. I think the most I've written in a single day is between 10k and 15k I don't remember the exact number though.

Omg when you first said headlights I thought you said head lice! Lol. I feel like word count is more incentive because you know if you push yourself you can be done quicker lol. The time never goes away. We like to subtract things from our life, not add. If that makes sense.

DYLAN SPOTTED !!!!

Your camera falling over is a BIG MOOD 🤣

Watching you at the airport going back home. Didnt watch any youtube while I was in Michigan (I have missed you LOL)

I always think about time when I'm writing and I let the words take care of themselves. I write about 1400 words an hour, so if I sit down to write for 2 hours I know I'll get around 2500, give or take. I generally don't slow down. I always track the progress of my writing sprints and some days it's just really hard, like today when the scenes were a mess and all over the place, even though I knew what I wanted to write. But I just feel more comfortable to sit down and trust myself to get the words. I can't control how easy the words come but I can control how many hours my butt sits in this chair, so I control that and have faith in myself to get the words. The most words I've ever gotten in 1 day is maybe 5k, not sure. I think my brain would drip out of my hear if I tried some of your shenanigans!

When you were reading off 12,221, I was surprised you didn't make a Clue reference XD "1+2+2+1" Thanks for another great video!

It is amazing to know that I'm not the only one that struggles with writing.

happy late birthday, kate!!

I did not think i would watch the whole video, I was wrong. Really interesting to watch.

Late seeing this but, I write on and off throughout the day. For me, this is because I write in small bits throughout the day so that I don't wear myself out all in one go; and I like to write a ten page (3,633 worded) chapter, with multiple small scenes to keep the story line going. I find that writing on and off throughout the day verses writing for one-two hours or more straight works best for me and ensures me that I can be productive and strive for my goals.

Measuring time is so hard. I've put like 12-15 hours of writing this last week and it was almost exclusively non-camp nano projects. Gah!

I love watching binging with babish and of course your videos :)))

I don't work well with deadlines. At the exact moment I put some kind of deadline it's the moment I got all blocked in my writing. I still need to find a balance between the carefree way of writing in which I am more creative and one more responsible way of writing with some discipline every day (or at least, a defined set of hours every week).

Happy belated Birthday!!

If I'd be worried about how long it took me to finish drafts I would be extremely worried. It is good to set deadlines, but you shouldn't beat yourself up if you don't manage to get them. Deadlines are super scary, and as long you are making progress, you can take a year to finish up a draft and it would be ok (also, 13k in 19 hours is amazing). If you try too hard or worry too much you might burn yourself out, so try to find the line between the two sides - where you do have deadlines but they're not sacred. (For me finishing a draft is usually finishing a project, I'm pantsing my way through and I just revise the same things so many times, I'm trying to change that in my current Camp project - I've written 25k words and haven't edited (almost) at all. This way, a single draft could take me years to complete bc I'm doing all of the drafts in the same draft lol). Either way, you are doing great, and keep the amazing videos and challenges coming!

Your pupper has very beautiful brown eyes. He's ADORABLE.

What do you suggest for paragraph breaks? Right now, my story is just really long with very few breaks in it..... makes it hard to read sometimes.

Can you do and "I write like Michael Crichton" video? I don't know much about his routine, but I read somewhere when I was looking up how many words to write per day that he writes 10k words every single day!

Ooh, Red Velvet Mochi... I'd love to try that. Also, damn, that's a lot of words in one day. I get 2000 and I'm done. As for your questions: Not really. I started this story some years ago, and it's still in the first draft. I actually don't have a deadline set for my story. I'm writing more for fun, though if I do one day finish it and get it published, that would be amazing. I think I could try this writing challenge. Though, I'd have to work my way up. I don't think I could get anything over 10K in a few days. Though, I do know that I do like to set distance goals overtime goals. If I can get so many words a day done then I'm that many words closer to finishing my project. And surprisingly, I find writing something like my Project Artemis novel quicker than writing my other stuff. Though, I think that's just because I know where I want the story to go right now. For those of you who write in different genres/story types, do you find some are easier to write the first draft of more quickly? Stay amazing :)

I'm in love XD

i've done a few 10k days for nanowrimo, and had some 8k+ days outside of it, and oh boy does my brain start to feel like it's melting around the 7.5k mark and getting progressively worse. to the point where i have "writing hangover" the next day. how does one avoid the brain melting? or is that just A Thing i need to plan for/accept?

When are you planning to publish?

Im 3 years late. But i was thinking, make the bartender the love intrest. Somethings up when the characters take over. Their telling you something.

Actually hit 13,000 words in what I'm working on while watching this video. So that's cool

4th week is uploaded o.o

I've noticed that you, Kate, use Scrivener to do most of your writing. And I notice that you use it to track word count at the end of a session. I've had it for years now, but I don't know how to find word count and the time the last writing session took. Perhaps you could do a sort of "tutorial" for Scrivener and make it interesting by incorporating some kind of writing challenge or "write like (I dunno...) Stanislaw Lem" sort of thing. (I don't think you'll find much about his routine, but his name came to mind first while writing that sentence. I'm not even sure I've read any of his stories, but...). Thank you, if you do this. Thank you, if you even see this. This video is just where I happened to be when this request occurred to me.

i just found out about you and I’m inloveeee with your content, and i’m looking forward to reading your books. Do you have any books that’s free to read?;)

I'm worried about finishing my the first draft of my novel just because I have a short attention span so I'm afraid I won't finish it if it takes me too long to write

No one: Kate: "iT's StArTiNg To WaRm Up!" For real though, what a fun and interesting video! It made me inspired to try out something a little bit similar! :D

Cafe du Monde coffee cup I see you 😍

I'm a hybrid free writer. I am able to do an extremely fast and accurate free-draft that will become the first draft. I can do about 1500 - 2500 words per an hour. On an extreme basis I can clock in 3000 - 3500 in about an hour if I type at my maximum speed. I start of slowly, but then begin to blaze through the process as if I'm a person interpreting a movie playing through my head. I once wrote 10,000 words in roughly four hours, but had completely shutdown for the rest of the day with a long nap you expect a cat to take throughout the day. I'll be honest. I only aim for 500 - 1000 words daily if it's during a weekday. Since I do have a day shift job. Then again, I tend to go for 1000 - 1500 words on a weekend, because I don't wish to over exert myself to a point of complete mental exhaustion.

i dont know if u answered this before (sorry if you did!) but what writing program do you use?

I always love watching the descent into madness -muwahaha! As a kids books writer timelines and deadlines were never really a thing. I can crank out a zero draft in 20 minutes, do a rough edit in another 20 and then spend the rest of the hour storyboarding so I kind of know what my illustrations want to look like. It wasn't until I actually started working with an illustrator and my work tied into what someone else was doing that I paid attention to things like dates and deadlines... speaking of which I was supposed to get her another story by Monday... cake or hygge, that is the question...

I thought you were going to write 13,000 because why not. I am a bit odd like that though I never do anything the normal way because why not? Love your writing vlogs and videos. I have been binge watching them since I finished my novel.

22:09 I love Carrie and Sierra!

I just got back to writing last month, after 3 years of not producing anything, and I have noticed that I am more of a distance writer than time writer. I can only write late at night, when everyone's asleep except for the kitties and I, and I have tried the time related writing, but it seems a lot less effective than setting word goals for myself. As for the project I'm working on, it's a collection of short stories, and it is a lot easier to apprehend than my usual big and epic adventures. With this one, I also forced myself to have a bit more structure and outline before writing, and it seems to work quite well. I have an easier time getting into the flow and not stopping to think about what the heck I'm going to write for the next scene. I may need to take my unfinished projects and do that for them too, haha! As always, I love, love, looove these experiments you do. I found you through your "I tried writing like J.K. Rowling" video, and I was hooked.

I have a hard time sticking to the task of writing! I feel confused by the plot lines in a developing a story! Ha ha!

What if you're a distance person and a time person both? Lol. You say you think about already having like a percentage of your goal and stuff. For me, I do that too but I also kinda do the math with time. Being bored at work, oh you only got about 36% left etc. (Well, maybe because at work there wasn't really a goal on how many customers you have to attend to or anything...) but yeah, in writing I'm more about the words than the hours

That Dylan is in Trouble video in the backround :333

It takes me sooooo long to write a first draft! The first act is like two days honestly so quick, second draft is like a month, but the third act... THE THIRD ACT TAKES LIKE THREE MONTHS!!!! I wish I was quicker honestly!

What's the most you've ever written in 24 hours? I did 10K+ once and kept having the worse headaches thought out the day. 9K+ I've done a handful of times.

While it would be nice to not take months to write the 1rst draft, I actually don't care at the moment. I'm sure if I get traditionally published, it will matter a whole lot more. If I could find the balance between just having fun with the process and not taking ages, that would be amazing. I would actually be willing to do this challenge since it doesn't really have much impact on how I write now. I think it is less about being productive for me and which one doesn't make me feel like I'm under an extreme amount of pressure. Too much and I'd lose my motivation for writing. I haven't tried writing in another genre yet. Technically, I am planning a book at the moment that is a semi different genre than the one I'm editing. It is fantasy romance while what I'm planning is more like straight fantasy. I'm actually really intrigued to see if it is going to be harder to draft since I'm not used to writing straight fantasy.

It’s a lot of math...but I believe you 😆 Nice job!

I struggle with having enough words per chapter. I purposefully make a quota for word count or I'd never get anything done. I used to do 3,000 words per chapter (which is the typical chapter word count) but that didn't feel long enough for my book lol so I challenged myself to 8,000. It sounds like a massive leap for someone who, if they didn't have a minimum limit, would get like 500 words and call it quits lol. bUt if I write at least 2,000 words a day, I can finish those long chapters in a few days! However I don't exactly have a certain amount of hours I need to do them in. I take small breaks every now and then so my brain has a tiny rest, even if its for a couple minutes. I don't think I could do anything to this extent but I have reached my personal quota and I was SO close to the end of my chapter. I knew what I wanted to do for the end of the chapter at that time so I said screw it and did the last 2,000 xD. Over all, I can write around 4,000 words before I HAVE to stop. Writing that much took me about six hours lol at least one hour was of breaks and quick Google searches to check spelling or research alone! I've recently found your videos and I've been "rewarding" myself by watching a couple of them if I do some writing or basic editing! It's great motivation so thank you and your videos are awesome!!

My mom took a course in university that made you write I think 100 words in a minute or less, so if we go by that logic than it should take you about 130 minutes to write the 13,000 words. Of course there are gonna be other factors that inhibits the writing process but that's the general idea :) !

Hi, Kate! First time commenter. 🙋🏾‍♀️ I wondering if you do any sort of plotting or outlining ahead of these challenges?

Thisi is my first time trying to write something and took me 2 hours write about 1200 words xD... plus I work around 10 hours a day and have two kids that want's to be with mom one's I stop working... I'm not going to finish this "thing" at least in a decade hahahahaha