I am currently taking some time out of paid work to have a break and write fulltime (long story) so I write every weekday and sometimes at the weekend. However, I tend to be quite hard on myself if I only manage to write 1000 words that day. Other times I can write more but just wondered if I should be more disciplined or less harsh on myself. I'm not always happy with what I've written and go back and edit frequently. I know we are all different in what we write but just wondered if others feel the same about their writing.
Don't worry yourself about words a day. Some days are more productive than others. I edit a lot as I go along and can sometimes spend 15 minutes to get a single sentence the way I want it.
Being a working mother with two teenagers makes it difficult to write for long periods of time, but I make an effort to write at least 300 words a day, on a busy day, and when I have more time I write for at least 3000 words.
I try to aim for a minimum of 500 words whenever I sit down to write. But really, this is an arbitrary figure. It can vary wildly.
For me, I find it helps enormously to first read through the text I wrote at the last sitting, just to get my head back into working mode. Then I read through my notes and establish what it is I am trying to put down.
Some days I will not get past that 500 word target. Other days I will find myself consumed with a strange vigour that results in an outpouring of words.
Some days I like what I read back. Other days, I see vast errors that require editing or scrapping altogether.
For me, the value of that 500 word limit lies, not so much in adding another pile of words to my novel, but in the discipline it instills. My brain gets used to the daily process of having to think and to write. That is the valuable aspect of it.