Hitting Those Word Counts

How many words do you write per day? 500? 1000? 2000? More? If you are in the more camp, that's impressive, but for most of us we'd be happy to write a few hundred words per day. Though that isn't helpful when you are on a deadline. So how do you be more productive?
Well, building word count isn't an easy thing. You have to work on it over time. When you first start out, you might only manage a couple of hundred words, but when you have been writing for years, this has likely increased over time. The important thing is to work out a routine. When do you have time to write, how much time and are there any distractions?
Once you have that time carved out, I find a great way to build your word count is to make it a competition against yourself, or have a reward standing by if you succeed. (Honestly, I give myself the reward either way, but I pretend otherwise).
If you wrote 500 words yesterday, can you do 750 today? The likely answer is yes. Once you get used to 750, maybe you can push for 1000. Of course you want to be realistic and not push yourself too far. If you get frustrated, you will be reluctant to write and that's not what you want. 1000 words per day written without pushing yourself is better than 2000 for a few days before you have to give yourself a break because you are pressuring yourself. 
Everyone is different, and everyone goes at the their own speed. Don't worry if you can't hit certain targets, as long as you are putting some words on paper, you will get there.
Due to my ADHD, my word count varies enormously. Some days I can barely string together 50 words. My average is about 2000. But one ill advised attempt had me writing around 9000 in six hours because the deadline was that night. Yeah, I don't recommend that. I could not move my arms the next day.
Writing is a craft and a skill. You don't want to get too bogged down in everything being perfect, but at the same time you don't want to rush everything so you produce something of poor quality. 
Work out what you can comfortably write per day and stick to it. Then once you know you can do it without issue, add around 250 words on top. It does help if you break it down further in your head. Or at least it does for me! Saying you need to add 3000 words to a story seems like a lot. But if you have thirty chapters in the book, then you technically only need to add 100 words per chapter. Suddenly that seems a lot more doable. 
And of course if there are days you simply can't do it, that's okay. We all need a break sometimes. 

​Happy writing.