How Quickly Can You Write an Amazing Book?
So how long does it actually take to write a really good book? Let's say you've always wanted to write a book, but you have a full-time job and a family. When are you supposed to find the time? Doesn't that kind of thing take people years to do?
It can sound overwhelming to commit to writing a book. I know it's a huge project, especially when you have other stuff going on that you're not able to sacrifice or don't want to sacrifice.
Well I have good news. Writing a book, and not just any book, but a good book, doesn't have to take over your life or take forever. In fact, you can write a solid draft in 45 minutes a day, five days a week, and finish in just a few months.
I'm not even talking a year, but rather a few months. It's basically like carving out time for a workout plan and people do that all the time, right? And today I'm going to tell you exactly how to do this.
First, I want to tell you about Graham. When I met Graham, he'd been trying to write his novel for five years. He had several first drafts of the same novel, all of which petered out around 30,000 words, which is about the halfway point or a little less.
When we started working together, he finished his novel in five months while holding down a full-time job and the rest of his life. He didn't upend his social life. He kept doing all the things that he loved to do. He got an agent, and that agent is now sending his book out to publishers.
So how did Graham do it?
There are two mindsets, the writing mindset and the revising mindset
The first and most important thing is to understand that there are two mindsets, the writing mindset and the revising mindset. If you try to combine these two things, everything tends to fall apart. It also takes a whole lot longer.
Let yourself truly believe that revising is for later, which means you don't edit as you go. When you're writing your first draft, you are in the writing mindset, which means you're just letting the story come to you. You're writing the story down as it's being told to you, by the little voice in your head.
You're not editing as you go. You're not going back and rereading what you've written. You're just moving forward. And if you need permission to do this, think about the fact that you're not going to be very good at revising yet anyway, because you don't know what the story is yet. So you don't have standards by which to revise.
Your future writer self is going to do a better job editing and revising—two terms that are somewhat synonymous. They're a little different, but we don't need to get into that right now.
Your future self is going to be better at editing and revising than you will be when you are still writing. So trust your future writing self to fix all of the things that you're not going to worry about right now, because you're just worried about getting the story down.
Make a plan
The second thing you want to do is make a plan. You have to make a plan. If you were at work and doing a work project, that work project would involve a plan. You'd have a plan of attack. Who's going to do what? When are they going to get it done? And when are we going to get this whole thing done?
That plan of attack wouldn't be based on no information. You would gather data. It’s the same with writing your book. You want to start by gathering data.
When can you write? What's convenient for you? Is it before work? Is it for 20 minutes on your lunch break? Is it both? How many days a week do you want to write?
I encourage you to be ambitious, but realistic, about this. Don't say seven days a week because you're going to burn out if you say seven days a week. I tend to sort of binge write and get obsessive when I'm really working on a project and even I don't do it seven days a week. But decide what's realistic for you.
For example, when are you going to write? Don't go crazy, just pick a handful of times. I recommend choosing a few times that add up to three to four hours per week, if possible. More is fine, but let's say minimum three to four hours a week in total, at least to start.
And those writing times don't need to be in hour long chunks. They could be in 20, 30 or 45 minute chunks if you want, but somewhere in your week, find that time to write.
Figure out your writing speed
The third thing you're going to do is figure out your writing speed. How many words do you write in an hour? Now most people don't know this yet. You don't know this about yourself and you've probably never paid attention to it, so it's going to take a little bit of work.
Do some writing and then just count up the words. How many did you write in an hour? How many did you write in a couple of hours?
And this is important—I don't mean how quickly do you write when you are editing as you go, because remember we're not going to do that anymore. We're not combining the writing and revising mindset.
You're just going to be in writer mode. And when you are just in writer mode, in the flow without editing because you're trusting your future self to edit, how quickly are you writing? How many words per hour?
Is it a thousand words in an hour? Is it 500? My guess is that it's probably more than you think. When I tell writers to do this, what I find once they really do adopt the writing mindset is they come back to me and say, "Oh, I write faster than I thought I did."
Do the math
Finally, you're going to do the math. At your speed, writing during the times you've allocated, how many months will it take you to get to 70,000 words? Now, I say 70,000 because that's really a good target for a first draft of any adult novel. It's sort of a minimum you could say.
It's okay to be over, but you really wouldn't want to be under 70,000 words. It’s a good target for a first draft because you'll add some words when you're revising. Calculate how long it will take you to write 70,000 words, and that's your goal date.
If you can write 3000 words in a week, for example, it will take you 23 weeks to get to 70,000 words. 23 weeks is about five months. If you can write 5,000 words in a week, that's only 14 weeks, which is about three months.
That's usually my personal sweet spot by the way, about three months. But there's no one time frame for everyone.
I have one more super important tip for you. But before I share it, I just want to tell you that before I had published any of my three novels with Harper Collins, I was a former lawyer trying to publish a novel that had taken me six years to write after dozens of false starts and scraped drafts.
But one day something finally clicked, and three books later here I am. I'm a published author and writing coach here to share what I learned along my journey so you can streamline your path to writing your dream book and save yourself years of the trial and error that I went through.
I want to help you learn how to actually get your book written, and cross the finish line to becoming a professional writer, and how to do it joyfully, because writing doesn't have to be scary or painful. It should be fun most of the time actually.
So let's make writing fun again and write your best book together. Now let's get back to my last tip.
Set your goal date
My final tip is to set your goal date. Based on how long you calculated it will take you to finish your book, pick an actual date. And I don't mean July. I mean July 17th or August 3rd, I'm going to be done with this book.
I put the goal date on a poster board, and it's sort of a calendar where I write down every single day between now and that goal date and then I write a line next to each date where I will add how many words I wrote that day. If that sounds a little intense, don't do it. But I like that kind of thing. It keeps me accountable and accountability is what we want.
Even if you don't want to write down every day between now and the day you plan to finish your book on a poster board, pick a specific goal date. You're not going to hit your exact goal date. You're going to overshoot it or undershoot it, meaning you're going to finish either sooner or later than expected.
Believe it or not, I often undershoot my goal dates and finish my drafts sooner. It doesn't matter if your goal date is the date on which you actually finish your book. The point is to have a specific time when you plan to finish because having that concrete date keeps you moving forward, which is what matters. We just want you to keep going.
Ready to write your book?
Do you want to see some sample writing schedules and calendars that some writers I've worked with have used to finish their drafts in just a few months?
Well, as a three time published novelist and writing coach, I've put together a free training for you on how to write your dream book while holding down a full-time job, and I include those sample writing schedules in it.
In this training I also teach you the exact process I use to write my books, and all you have to do to get the free training is apply, and be accepted, to my program, The Book Incubator. It's just two questions. You can do it in under five minutes, and there's no obligation to join the program. But if you're admitted, I'll send you that free training right away. So click below to apply and I'll send you that training. It'll be so worth your time. I promise.
