By Koundinya, founder of Bunsho · 4 October 2026
The 1,667 Problem: Why Word Count Alone Won't Save Your November Draft
Every November, hundreds of thousands of writers try to draft 50,000 words in 30 days. The arithmetic is simple: about 1,667 words a day. The trouble is that the arithmetic is the only part of the story it looks after.
Why 1,667 words a day?
Because 50,000 divided by 30 is 1,666.67, which everyone rounds up to 1,667. Hit that every day and you cross the line on November 30. The advice that comes with it is good advice: switch off your inner editor, outrun your doubts, keep typing.
I’ve written a novel and I’m drafting a trilogy now, and I believe in fast drafting. A first draft that exists beats a perfect one that doesn’t. But anyone who has drafted at that speed knows what happens around week three.
What goes wrong in week three?
The story stops holding together. Not the prose, which is supposed to be rough. The facts. When you write that fast, nobody is keeping track of what you already said, least of all you. By day fifteen, mistakes like these creep in:
The mentor who comes back
He died in chapter 6. On day 15, writing fast, you give him a line of advice in chapter 12.
Knowing too early
Your hero doesn't learn who the villain is until the end of act two. In a scene you drafted at midnight, she already calls him by name.
Two places at once
She is locked in a cellar at the end of chapter 8. In chapter 9 she is ordering a drink at the inn.
The detail that drifts
Grey eyes in chapter 2, brown by chapter 14. The innkeeper's name changes once, and only once.
None of these is hard to fix on its own. The damage is everything you build on top of them. Write another 5,000 words in which your hero acts on something she couldn’t know yet, and you aren’t fixing a line in December. You’re rewriting the middle of the book.
It happens to everyone. When we ran Bunsho on Great Expectations, it noticed that Jaggers speaks “with a short laugh” a few paragraphs before the book tells us “Mr. Jaggers never laughed.” Slip, or character? Dickens isn’t around to ask. In your own book, the author is right there: you.
Daily writing goals, now in Bunsho
So we built goals for the way a drafting month actually goes. Set them once, then forget about them until you need them.
A daily goal
Pick 500, 750 (about three pages) or 1,000 words, or type your own. For November, that's about 1,667. The Goals button in the titlebar shows where today stands.
A streak
Every day you reach your goal adds a day to your streak, and the streak counts across all your books. From the evening on, if today's words aren't in yet, the Goals button tells you how many more keep it going.
A finish date for the book
Give the book a target and a date, say 50,000 words by November 30, and Bunsho works out the pace: about 1,670 words a day. Once you have a few days behind you, it also shows your recent average and when you'd finish at that rate.
Your history
Every day you wrote, laid out by month or by year, for one book or all of them. Open any day for its numbers, and keep an eye on your personal records.
A reminder, if you want one
A note at 7 pm if you haven't written yet today, and one more at 10 pm when a streak is at stake. Move it or turn it off whenever you like.
Only your writing counts. Today’s words are what you wrote today that’s still in the book. Pasting in an old chapter of more than 2,000 words doesn’t count, and neither do imports, restored versions or text you move around. A streak you can’t fake is a streak worth keeping.
Goals are on every plan, including Free, and your writing record lives on your own machine with your manuscript.
A November routine: write every day, check once a week
Writing and checking are different jobs, and they don’t belong in the same hour. Here is the routine I’d use.
Before November 1
Set your daily goal and the book's finish date. That's two numbers. Then stop fiddling with settings and go plan your story.
Every day: write, and nothing else
Keep your inner editor switched off. Bunsho checks nothing while you type, so there is no pop-up, no red underline, nothing pulling you out of the scene.
Once a week: check what you wrote
Pick a quiet evening and run Check this chapter on the week's chapters, or Review changes to cover every page that changed since its last check. You see the cost before anything runs.
Judge each flag, then move on
Every issue quotes both lines, the one that set the fact and the one that breaks it. Fix it now if it changes where the story goes next. Otherwise leave yourself a note and get back to your words.
December 1: a full review
When the draft is done, run a full review of the whole book before you start revising, so the first thing you fix is the thing that matters.
More on what a check finds: the continuity checker and the plot hole checker.
Frequently asked questions
How many words a day is 50,000 words in November?
50,000 words in 30 days works out to about 1,667 words a day, every day (1,666.67, rounded up). If you plan days off, divide 50,000 by the days you will actually write: 25 writing days is 2,000 words a day.
Should I edit while I draft in November?
No. Fast drafting works because you keep moving. But don't wait until December to look for contradictions either. A weekly check catches the ones that would send the rest of the month in the wrong direction, and leaves everything else for revision.
Do Bunsho's writing goals cost anything?
No. Goals, streaks, the finish-date pace and your history are on every plan, including Free, and writing is never metered. Continuity checks use credits, and you always see the cost before one runs.
Does Bunsho upload my draft?
Your manuscript and your writing record live on your own machine. Only the pages you ask to check are sent for analysis, and they are never used to train models.
Chase the plot, not just the count
Fifty thousand words is a real achievement. Fifty thousand words that still make sense on December 1 is a book. Set your goal, write every day, and spend one evening a week making sure the story is still the story you meant to tell.
More posts on the Bunsho blog.
Set your November goal
Bunsho is free to download for Mac and Windows. Set a goal, write your draft, and see what it finds. Write fearlessly.