Targets worth putting into Quillmark

• Contemporary romance, debut: 80,000
• Cozy mystery: 72,000
• Literary or book-club fiction: 85,000
• Fantasy debut: 100,000
• Historical fiction: 100,000
• YA contemporary: 70,000
• YA fantasy: 85,000
• Middle grade contemporary: 40,000
• Chapter book: 10,000
• Picture book: 500
• Memoir: 80,000
• Self-help or business: 55,000
• Narrative nonfiction: 85,000

An 80,000-word draft at 500 words a day is 160 writing days; at 1,000 words a day it is 80. The daily target is the number you can log. Revisit the manuscript goal at the end of the first draft, not in chapter three.

Set the number in the ledger, then see how to choose a daily word count.