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How to Tackle Writing a WHOLE Book!

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Writing an entire book can seem like an ominous task to new writers. And there are as many ways to do it as there are writers! The following method gives both a sense of momentum and has flexibility too. Here are some great ways to consider the entire task and then plan it out in very reasonable and palatable segments. In other words, you CAN write a whole book. In whatever timeframe works for your lifestyle. Just consider the following:

WHERE ARE YOU NOW - WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE?
Do you have a full outline or synopsis at this point? Or a partial one? Do you have a goal of the number of words you want this to end up being? If you don’t have a word goal yet, look for publishers of the type of book you want to write. Research them to determine the preferred number of words they ask for. These answers will help you hone in on your own goal for total wordage.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Then you divide the various actions or big scenes of your plot into chapters; you might get somewhere between 20 and 40. This assumes you have at least a vague outline in mind. And vague is fine for now. Because this is a very loose and fluctuating process, nothing iron-clad. But it will start to give you the sense of scope and length you'll be working toward.

Take the total number of preferred words you’ve determined from above and divide by 22 if you plan to take a year to complete the book (use 11 for 6 months, 6 for 3 months.) The resulting number would be the goal for the number of words to write and complete every two weeks. So for a 100,000 word book, planning on one year, you'd have a goal of about 4,550 words every two weeks. You'd start that two-week period by writing your heart out in a fast flourish for the first draft. Some writers can do that in a single 5 to 8-hour day, but most are best taking three days, writing about 1-1/2 to 2 hours each and getting about 1,500 words out for three days in a row. But take no time to care for punctuation, spelling, research, and absolutely NO revising! There is a freshness to this approach that you’ll find stimulating. Then take 1 or 2 days without working on it. Then use the rest of the two weeks to revise, add the research, clean and hone.

SHARING THE TASK
In the meantime, if you are using my “Write-As-We-Go” method, I will have been reviewing your previous chapters and will get them back to you. Those chapters will possibly require a couple days of consideration and possible changes. So in that two-week period, you'll have 3 days of writing a first draft, a couple days of revising the previous chapters (which you might do as you let your mind rest from the new material you just wrote) and the rest of that time to clean up the new one you just wrote. All this involves a couple of hours a day, 5 days a week, for 44 weeks in a year. The remaining 8 weeks a year will be for normal life activities (vacations, etc.) plus the occasional break where you find you might need to reconsider the book on a larger scope. Because the further you get into it, the more complex all the pieces will be as they start to fall together and--occasionally--fall apart! It is a big process after all. But if you approach it with a goal for each two-week period, it is very manageable, realistic and exciting as the book comes together for you.

THE FAST TRACK
For the tighter timeframes, of 6 months or 3 months, you’ll be devoting either more days to the first flush of writing or more hours in those first three days of the period. Either way, the whole process still works out with a completed book.

THE SPEEDWAY!
Want a really fast and thrilling way to write a book? Click to the National Novel Writing Month website. I've joined (and succeeded!) in writing an entire book in a single month of a flurry of words, joining thousands who are doing the same with their own book. It's fun and dangerously addictive! YOUR UNIQUE APPROACH
All that said, again, every writer does their own thing. I have one client who never outlines at all. She hasn't a clue (pun intended!) who the killer is in her murder mystery. She just keeps writing. There is a freshness to her stories, as the reader is surprised by each event--which is true because the author is just as surprised too! So there is value to her approach. Of course, this approach also requires considerable plotting revisions after the full book is finished, since clues, plants, motives, etc. will afterwards all need to be worked in to suit the outcome. But .. that happens to be her method. And it works for her. Others have such a complete outline before they even start writing that the book is just about done--they just have to fill in the blanks of the details.

So take whatever approach works best for you. Keep in mind that EVERY WRITER HAS HIS OWN APPROACH! And every approach is just fine so long as the words--eventually--get down on paper. But one workable method that helps you succeed is to make a solid plan considering overall wordage versus your timeframe -- and then GO FOR IT!

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