5 tips to write a book in 30 days
Do you want to write a book in just 30 days?
On paper, it’s a very appealing and doable notion—right up until it comes time to, well, put things on paper. Let’s break down exactly what it entails.
If we set the minimum length of a novel at 50,000 words (slightly longer than The Great Gatsby) you’ll have to write 1,667 words every day for a month. The average typing speed is about 40 words per minute. So that’s about 42 minutes of typing every day or about 21 total hours for the month. Meaning it’s, theoretically, not only easy to write a book in a month, but in a single day.
Of course, in practice, it’s not so simple.
All those words need to make sense and form a story that is (hopefully) satisfying. Satisfying to a reader if you plan to share the story and at least satisfying to yourself whether or not you plan to share around.
Every couple of years I try to do something called National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo). There used to be a whole, big, organization behind it that ended up collapsing in spring, but I think the term NaNoWriMo and the notion will persist (evidenced by a bunch of other groups launching alternative websites/communities/groups for people to use to motivate them on their book).
I have only ever “won” NaNoWriMo twice:
The first time was in 2018 when I wrote the first full draft of my now published novel The Wilderlands. The second time was for an unfinished novel that will probably never be completed and will almost certainly never be published.
This year, I’m hoping to use the November to round out the first full draft of the the sequel to my young adult fantasy novel The Unspoken Prophecy.
As I take the rest of October to prep for a month-long writing marathon, I wanted to share some of my tips for how to get ready.
1.) Make sure you don’t burn out
Rule number one of NaNoWriMo prep (and really any creative project) is make sure you don’t burn out.
Yes, finishing NaNoWriMo feels great! But you know what feels bad? Having a strong start where you’re writing 2,000 words every day for the first week and a half, then crashing hard immediately after and never get past the 14,000 word mark.
Having a completed but imperfect draft of 50,000 words is better than having a perfect 14,000 words that you’ll never return to. Being passionate about a project is preferred over being sick of it.
Accept that there are going to be some days that feel a lot worse than others. (I’ve felt downright delirious toward the tale end of projects.) Know your limits and what you need in your normal life outside of this. Our goal is to endure, but if other things in your life are more demanding, the novel can wait.
Going forward, I’m going to talk about what works for me and what I think could work for you, but I think if you make sure you make NOT burning out prematurely your main goal, you should be in good shape!
2.) Plot and plan, then do both again
There’s a truism that writers tend to be either plotters (people who intricately plan each story beat in their book) or pantsers (people who ride—and write—by the seat of their pants). I probably generally tend to be a plotter, so perhaps take this with a grain of salt.
I think that if your goal is to write a cohesive 50,000 words in a month, then having a plan of some sort is going to be your best way forward. Even if that game plan changes.
Again, the average person would write for 40-ish minutes and be able to hit the goal of 1,667 words. But when you don’t know the words you’re going to write yet, you end up spending a lot of extra minutes thinking about your words.
Thus, do as much of the thinking/planning as you can in advance of doing the writing part. That, for me, makes the words come easier.
For example, I estimate that the book I’m currently writing will be about 80k-90k words. The book preceding it in the series is about 77K words and is 37 chapters long. That’s about 2,000 words per chapter. So I could reasonably plan 40-45 chapters of story for this book with the plot beats I want to hit along the way.
It doesn’t have to be extensive planning either. Here’s what I have written out for a portion of my book planning:
Chapter 11: Tackle Erin; Talk w/ Lithrail
Chapter 12: Crow & Lithrail, training
Chapter 13: Wygam & Sangunce, ship attack w/ sea serpent
All of that’s borderline nonsense, but it’s enough for me since I know the rough throughlines I want to exist chapter-to-chapter. On top of that, the plan isn’t set in stone, things can change if the story is pulled in a different direction while writing.
Plan enough that you feel comfortable, but not so much you can’t adjust.
3.) Know your real-life schedule
This maybe goes without saying, but it is something I’ve overlooked when I’m attempting NaNoWriMo. (And could probably even be better about this year.) Please, please, please don’t forget to plan around your real life.
For example, as I look at my November, I know that I plan to go to a live theater show on Nov. 14, I know I will probably end up seeing Wicked: For Good a week after that, and there’s a decent chance I try to do something for Thanksgiving the week after that. And that’s just the more social /leisurely stuff that’s fairly locked in.
This is just to illustrate that, before the month even starts, I know I’m probably going to miss being able to write 1,667 exactly on at least three days.
There’s two ways I combat this.
Firstly, I usually aim for 2,000 words per day. That way, if I write that amount 5 days in a row, I’ve technically earned myself a day off for when/if other stuff comes up.
Secondly (and I don’t recommend this one) I cheat. Not cheating by stealing words or having a machine generate words—rather, I typically go into NaNoWriMo with a few thousand words already in my novel. Partly because I used to write a lot more for work (meaning my days would be writing 2,000 words for work and then coming home to do the same for NaNoWriMo) but also to help create a cushion for myself if life keeps me from writing.
Again, I don’t widely recommend “cheating,” but it does represent me knowing what walls I’m going to hit during the month and trying to come to the project prepared. Maybe you work two jobs and want to finish a novel in a month. If you’re chipping away at some words through the year and then build on that for a sprint in November, even if you only end up doing 1,000 words a day, I think that it’s still worth doing and celebrating!
4.) Create a vision board/digest the media you want to write
Maybe this is just me, but with almost any book/project, I’m going to have at least days where I hate it after about 12 days of doing NaNoWriMo.
To help combat that, I recommend having a vision board, a playlist, a familiar book or show you read a chapter of or watch and episode of right before or right after writing to keep you excited.
I’ve heard of the act of writing/creating compared to exhaling. Eventually you’ll need to breath in again—you’ll need to see other people’s art to rejuvenate you.
It’s especially helpful if it’s a piece of media or art you feel relates to your novel. For example, when I was writing The Wilderlands, I was going back to passages of Grendel by John Gardner and listening to a lot of folk music and I even watch the 2007 Beowulf movie for the first time. (That last one is an interesting piece of media, I still don’t know how I feel about it.)
Now, as I dip into the Light Keeper Chronicles, I’m planning to rewatch Digimon: Tamers and probably read sporadic chapters of Eragon or trying to catch up on some of the Rick Riordan novels I haven’t read. These are things I was enjoying as a kid when I first had the idea for the book and both examples of Young Adult/Children’s media that found wide audiences.
I also usually like having familiar music on while I write and it can do a lot to both make the process run smoother and keep me fairly calm and un-stressed while writing.
5.) Make sure you’re having fun!
Like I said before, there are inevitably going to be bad days. But there are also going to be days where the words come easy, your imagination flies, and everything you writing is singing.
There are going to be days that are so much fun! As much as you can comfortably do, you should try to encourage those days of fun to happen more often.
For example, I liked doing “Fun Groceries” — this is when I go to Aldi or World Market or Trader Joes or a local market to get stuff that I can enjoy while writing. Usually some snacks that I might not normally try, maybe a scented candle, maybe a comfy sweater or blanket if I’m feeling rich.
One year, I pitched a tent in my backyard, brough a bunch of stuff I wanted to the tent, and spent most of a week in that tent: unplugging, hanging out, writing, reading, all of that.
I don’t know what your thing is, but I’d just recommend finding little stuff to look forward to that you can do while writing. That hopefully then makes the writing process a little easier to look forward to and, thus, a little bit more enjoyable in general!
*****
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The Wilderlands is available for physical purchase now from Barnes & Noble and Amazon or wherever you read ebooks. The audiobook is also out now on most major platforms.
Light Keeper Chronicle: The Unspoken Prophecy is available for physical purchase from Schuler Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon or wherever you read ebooks.