: Re: Is it possible for an author to release a novel every week using dictation technology? I have heard that authors can do 5000 words an hour with dictation. For a six-hour day writing, that

@Welton431

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In theory this could be possible, but such an author would burn themselves out after a couple of days with such an intense schedule. A novel is more than just 100,000 words thrown together. There needs to be a story and characters. You need to engage the audience, ensure there are no accidental contradictions. This requires planning and revisions and this is time not spent writing, but making sure everything flows together to capture the audience. This time spent developing a story from an idea is important, and it would be plain wrong to just ignore it when it comes to writing a novel.

From another angle, 5000 words an hour is 83 words a minute. Not too bad and definitely possible. Now keep it up for 6 hours straight, while maintaining focus and building your story from scratch. It's a bit harder.

Another comparison would be that the average typing speed is 40 words per minute. Or 2400 words per hour. A more advanced typist can reach up to 120 words per minute or 7200 words per hour. Which means they could pump out novels even faster by typing (Maybe once every 3-4 days).

The flaw in your comparison is that you assume 5000 words is a long term and consistent average. It's not. People won't be able to consistently work in a super high intensity environment for such a long period non-stop, and during the development of a book, time has to be invested into a lot more than pumping out 100,000 words as fast as possible.

As a final comparison, using Stenography, handwriting speeds of up to 350 words per minute can be achieved [From wikipedia]. This means 21,000 words per hour or an entire novel could be written in just a single day.

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