You might think, no one can write a book in 100 days. And certainly not a good book.
You might even feel a program like our 100 Day Book Challenge is just a quick fix. Writing a book should take longer. It’s about the experience!
But let me ask you this: When was the last time you spent 100 days completely focused on your writing?
I finished the first draft of my 300-page novel in six months. I’m just a regular person. Therefore, if I can do it, you can do too.
Want to start—and finish—writing your novel in just six months? Here’s the process you need to do it. Whether you like to outline every last detail of your novel before you start writing or prefer to fly by the seat of your pants and discover the story as you go, these five steps will set you up for novel-writing success.
You finally finished writing your book. There’s a glimmer of hope that the end is near. It’s time to pass your rough draft on to an editor to clean it up, right?
Not so fast. Have you revised it yourself yet?
What a lot of bestselling authors and writing coaches will tell you is the hard part of writing a book is not writing the book. The hard part is rewriting your book.
I have been opposed to outlining since childhood. I distinctly remember a time in middle school when I was required to write essays and turn in my outline as well. I couldn’t do it.
The necessity of the outline had a paralyzing effect on me—I couldn’t write anything if I had to know everything I was going to write beforehand. I took bad grades on good essays because I refused to do the outline. (To me, that’s like taking points off a bicyclist at the Tour de France for not using training wheels, but my teacher didn’t see it that way.)
I know many writers who say they can’t write without an outline. While it can help people organize their thoughts, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary for anyone.
Running a marathon is a lot like writing a novel. Both are long-term goals that require incredible patience and discipline to achieve. In fact, I find myself applying lessons from my marathon training to novel writing all the time.
When I first decided to train for a marathon, the idea of running a million miles was overwhelming. It was enough to make me want to quit on the spot.
You might feel the same way about writing a book. Apply these marathon training lessons to your writing, and you’ll be able to persevere to the end.
Do you have a book inside of you?
No, I didn’t mean, “Did you eat a book?” I meant, “Is there a book you have always wanted to write?”
I have several books inside of me. And they will stay inside of me until I can figure how to write a first draft.
