Sometimes my daily word count impresses people. I don’t seek to impress anyone, but often writers find it difficult to write a large number of words in one go. Or even start writing a novel. That’s normal. But for some reason, I don’t have that problem.

People say, ‘How many words did you write this week? 15,000? Oh my goodness, you’re so prolific.’

Please notice they aren’t saying, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re so talented.’

That’s because talent and hard work aren’t the same thing. A prolific writer writes lots. A talented writer has good ideas, good words, a very good editor and happy readers.

I’ll leave that one there. This blog post is about typing and thinking quickly, that’s all.

But JK Rowling and Stephen King both say they write 2,000 words a day, so if I’m writing for five days a week and I do around 3,000 a day, then I’m in good company. JK Rowling says she’s happy with most of the words she writes. I can work with that – I write in a state of hyperfocus and return to what I’ve written later, usually quite happy too, to edit out all the detritus and repetition and mistakes, and upgrade the chapter.

I’d say I need to edit what I write about twenty five times at least until I’m almost happy with it. I suppose we all do that.

It took James Joyce a whopping 17 years to finish Finnegans Wake! I love Joyce. He probably wrote 90 words a day, based on the 8 years it took for him to write the 265,000 words in Ulysses. I adore that book.

Does it follow, then, that less words means better ones? Not at all. Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame says he has written 10,000 words in a single day. He suggests that “Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own.’

Very wise.

One’s daily word count is a personal thing, depending on so many criteria, like how much time you have available, how focused you are, whether you’re – as I often am – on a roll. Graham Greene found he could write a novel every nine months doing 500 words a day. Charles Dickens knocked out 2,000 words a day, working in his study from 9:00, where he stayed until 2:00 in the afternoon. If he’d stayed until six, as I do, he’d be on a par with me.

Anne Rice, who wrote With the Vampire, managed 3,000 each day. John Creasey, between 6-7.000.Maya Angelou, 2,500. So I’m in good company.

Recently, I was writing a new novel – it’s not out until next year – and I was so emotionally invested in the final chapters that I wrote 5,800 words in one day, starting at nine and finishing at six.

I crawled from my writing room on my knees, but I was so happy. I got everything I wanted into those chapters and it was cathartic. I was in the zone. I was pretty useless for the rest of the evening though.

I know some writers write a lot less- Ian McEwan writes 600 and Ernest Hemingway managed 500 words a day. Or 17 words, if you’re James Joyce, but they’re great ones. That’s fine. It’s not a competition. We’re not all the same. We don’t need to be.

But I find I get very immersed in writing a novel to the point of ridiculous concentration. Big G could poke me in the back with a stick and I wouldn’t know he’d done it. He could shout and I wouldn’t hear him. He often comes into the room and I’ve no idea he’s been there. I’m just so absorbed.

The state of intense and prolonged concentration to the point of ignoring everything else helps me write lots of novels, although it can also lead to neglecting important things. Communication. Cleaning. Lunch.

But who cares? I’m enjoying it. And the novel gets done. Then edited again and again.

Afterwards, I can collapse exhausted and read for a week, or walk for a long time. Friends will drag me out. Big G will take me for dinner or we’ll go somewhere for the day. I can blow the cobwebs away. I can do something different. Balance is everything.

But I have to admit, the 5,800 words in one day was a record, and not something I want to do too often. It probably took a few hours from my life. I was in another world: but the time I spent there writing the final chapters was magical. As it always is.

You won’t hear me complain.