How to Write a Book in a Month

Part 1 By
Elizabeth Rose

I’m sure you’ve read those articles here and there about how to write a book in a week. Well, I’m going to say right now, that’s a bunch of bunk. Expecting someone to be able to write a book in a week is ridiculous. It takes at least two weeks. I know, because I’ve done it. My first published novel, Eden’s Garden was written, edited and completed in a mere two weeks.

So, how did I do this impossible task you ask? It’s not really impossible. Matter of fact, it’s very probable and I’m going to tell you how, in these ten simple steps.

1)      Define your goal.
First things first. You need to define your goal before you start to write. We already know you want to complete a book in a month, but for which publisher? For which line? Know your targeted market, and find out how many words that certain line requires in a novel. For the sake of making this even easier, let’s say you’re targeting your book for the Harlequin Temptation line which requires their manuscripts to have 60,000 words. This is a short novel, but when first trying this, I suggest to start with one of this length. (The longer 100,000 word novels can be done in a month also.)
      Now that you know how many words you’ll need to write to get to your 30 day goal, let’s find out just how many you need to do per day, and how long it’ll take you to do this. If writing a 60,000 word book, you’ll only need to write 2,000 words per day in order to finish it in 30 days. That may seem like a lot at first, but let’s look at it a little differently.
      Let’s say you type at a slow rate—maybe 35 words per minute. Well, at 35 words per minute, you’ll be typing 2,100 words per HOUR. That means, you’ll have surpassed your goal of 2,000 words per day, not to mention you’ve done it in only one hour. I don’t think it should be too hard for anyone to find one hour a day to write.

2) Make a commitment.
Before you even write a word, you need to make the commitment to yourself that you will see this through to the very end. If not, don’t bother starting because you’ll only end up frustrated and feeling like a failure if you decide to stop half-way through. Know that you’re worth it. Stick with it for 30 days and it’ll become a habit.

3) Find your motivation.
What motivates you to do this? Know what your motivation is, and keep it in mind while you work. Make this motivation the fire that burns beneath you to get this story done. Do you perhaps want to enter the novel in a contest, and the deadline is coming up? Are you going to a conference and meeting with either an agent or an editor? If so, when you pitch the novel, they might ask for it. Maybe you just want to do this for yourself. That alone is good motivation. Just to prove to yourself that you can do it. To get disciplined. To feel good about yourself. Or, there’s always the motivation that spurred me on to finish my book in two weeks. Has an editor responded to that partial you had in the mail and said they liked it and wanted to read the whole thing? It happened to me when I only had a synopsis and three chapters finished. Actually, it happened a second time with my next book and a different publisher as well. Back to back! Believe me, if this happened to any of you, your fingers would fly so fast upon the keyboard, you’d have no trouble finishing that book quickly. Opportunities are great motivation. Don’t blow it!

4)      Avoid conflicts.
Make sure to avoid conflicts before they start. Choose a time to write when you know no one will be bothering you. Don’t answer the phone while you’re writing. That’s what caller ID’s are for! If it’s a telemarketer, you don’t need to talk to them and let them waste your precious time. If it’s your mother-in-law, let her talk to the answer machine. You can call her back later on your time. While you’re cooking dinner perhaps, so you can get two things done at once.
      Try to write when your kids are at school or napping, and your husband’s not home. As any married women has probably realized, husbands are very handy when doing home remodeling, but they tend to think you both need to do it together. They seem to come up with questions that they need to ask right then and there, not to mention need to do or get something right near your work desk. And they’re always hungry, which brings me to my next point.
      Make fast, easy dinners. There is no bigger time-waster in my opinion than cooking and doing dishes. Put something in the crock pot in the morning. Then when the family is hungry, they can help themselves and not bother you to get it. Or make up meals ahead of time on the weekends and freeze them. Then you only need to pull one out of the freezer and pop it into the microwave. Nice and easy. My favorite is the frozen pizzas. The kids love them, and nothing can be easier. Or my all-time favorite is to get your husband to order out. Bring it home and eat it rather than take the time to sit in a restaurant. That way you can eat while writing J or eat while you’re reading your work over later. Also, teach the kids (and husband) to clean up after themselves. Let them stack their dishes in the dishwasher and hang up their own clothes, or take out the garbage if they don’t do that already. This will free up a few spare moments for you.
      Now, if you are at work all day, this writing schedule won’t work. So if you have a day job, you’re going to have to write most likely after dinner and after everyone’s gone to bed. This is my favorite writing time because there are no phones ringing, dogs needing to go out, chores to do, dinners to make or errands to run. Just peace and quiet. Not to mention, if you’re cranking along on a story you don’t have to stop if you don’t want to.
      Of course, some conflicts are unavoidable. Like if a child is sick or there’s an emergency. Family should always come first, so don’t ignore the important things. But remember, if you miss your scheduled writing time, then you’ll have to make up for it the next day by writing an extra hours. Give up that favorite tv show to do it. Give up an extra hour or so of sleep. In actuality, you’ll need less sleep. The lift you get from doing this will give you the energy you need to survive on less sleep.

5) Avoid writer’s block before it happens.
Always be writing in your head and you’ll never be staring at a blank screen. If you sit down to write and can’t get past that blank screen, then get up and go do something else. Don’t sit there if you are not writing! Just like Pavlov’s dogs, we should be conditioned. When you sit your butt in that chair, you should be conditioned to do nothing but write. It should flow from you like a waterfall, putting those words and ideas onto the pages.
Write in your head by plotting, planning, visualizing your characters and hearing them speak as you go about your daily chores. In the car while driving, in the shower, or while trying to sleep when you can’t, be thinking of your novel. If you do this, then when you sit down to write, you will already know what to write. Also, if this is done enough, your story will actually come out in your dreams. If so, write it down immediately upon awakening. I have gotten so many plot ideas from nothing more than a dream. I actually met one of my heroes in a dream once when I was writing my first novel. That was wonderful. I saw the man I’d created and observed him, getting to know him even better.

Now I’ll give you time to ponder what we’ve gone over so far. These are the first five steps. You can find out the next five steps next month, so be sure to return.

♫ Elizabeth Rose

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How to Write a Book in a Month

Part 1

By Elizabeth Rose

By
Elizabeth Rose