: Re: How long does it take to write a 1000-word news article? I write tech articles for my blog and for a news outlet here in my country (mostly in French). I've been doing this for years,

@Murray165

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Your assumption about hours rather than days for the mechanical processes of writing (a feature article, for example) is probably correct.

I have "text entered" 1000 words in a day more than once. The proviso is that the work has been built and rebuilt in my head over several days (possibly weeks) before I commit to the keyboard. On those occasions when the work flows, it is almost as though I am transcribing a tale being told to me. I am not "writing" for those few hours because all that work has been done before.

On the other hand, there are days when I sit down to turn out my 700-800 word masterpiece and never get past 200 because something that worked fine when running around in my head reveals dreadful flaws when viewed on the screen or page. Some authors of how-to books advise that when that happens you simply keep typing as planned and do the fixing later. I always think that I would like to do that, but when the issue arises I stop and tinker.

As in most aspects of writing, the short answer to your question is "It depends on ..."

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