Wednesday, September 6, 2017
You say you want to write a nonfiction book. Maybe you plan to write a full-length book of 60,000 words or so, or maybe you have a smaller goal, such as to write a 7,000-word ebook.
What’s your plan to accomplish that goal? If you don’t have a plan, you’ll have a difficult time bringing that book into the world.
Without taking you through a detailed project-management process, here’s one thing you can do to create a simple plan: Develop a daily word-count goal…and stick to it.
And that’s your challenge for this month.
September Challenge: Develop a Daily Word-Count Goal
Here’s what I mean:
Let’s say you want to write a 60,000-word book. You plan to complete it in three months. (I know… That sounds like a really short amount of time, but it’s possible. I know; I’ve done it. So can you, as you will see…) How will you do that?
To create a plan to accomplish that goal, you must first createa a daily word-count goal. That means you need to know how many words you need to write each day—or however many days per week you intend to work on the project.
I’m going to assume you plan to sit at your desk and write five days per week. That means you need to produce 1,000 words per day; that’s your daily word-count goal.
How’d I come up with that daily word-count goal? Simple. I multiplied 5 (days per week) by 4 (weeks in an average month) and came up with 20 (writing days per month). I then multiplied 20 (writing days per month) by 3 (months), which amounts to 60 days of writing total. Next, I divided 60,000 (words in the completed manuscript) by 60 (writing days over the course of 3 months).
Do the math… You need to write 1,000 words per day to complete your manuscript in three months.
Develop a daily word-count goal…and stick to it.Click To Tweet
That’s pretty doable, right? Of course, it is.
Let’s look at the 7,000-word ebook and assume you will write 6 days per week for 3 months:
6 (days) x 4 (week) = 24 (writing days per month)
24 (writing days per month) x 3 (months)= 72 (writing days total)
7,000 (desired manuscript goal) ÷ 72 (writing days total) = 97 (words per day)
Obviously, you could finish writing the ebook much faster. For instance, you could change your goal from a 3-month completion date to a 1-month completion date. In this scenario, you could finish the book on time by meeting a word-count goal of writing 291 words per day.
Write a Book Fast
When I came up with the idea for blogging a book, I recommended writing just 300 words per blog post. I now suggest 500 words per post, but the idea is similar. Publish three 500-word blog posts per week and finish the first draft of a 60,000-word manuscript in 40 weeks. (Read aother post about using writing quotas to blog a book
here.) I blogged my book,
How to Blog a Book, by writing and publishing 300-word posts three to four days per week over the course of five months.
If you plan to write a book in a month during the
Write Nonfiction in November Challenge, aka National Nonfiction Writing Month (or even during National Fiction Writing Month), you need a plan. A daily (or even weekly) word count goal is essential to complete the challenge. (I’ve written a lot of posts on the topic of preparing for a 30-day writing challenge; you can read them
here.)
During my
Write Your Transformational Book Challenge, I encourage change-inspiring book authors to write 700 words daily for three months. In that time, they produce a 60,000-word manuscript.
Your turn. Determine the desired length of your book project. And then create a daily-word-count plan.
Once you’ve done so, just write as planned consistently—meet your goal daily. That’s the only plan you need to complete your manuscript in no time…and on time. But if you need more help, use the strategy in the
August Nonfiction Writing Challenge.
Do you have a daily writing quota, and, if so, how does it help you remain productive?
Need help developing supportive writing habits and mindsets?
Join the High-Performance Writer Group Coaching Program. Save $100 if you resister by midnight September 10.Equip yourself with the tools, strategies, habits, mindsets used by the most successful writers in the world. Learn more and register by clicking on this link:
ninaamir.com/HPwritergroup. And don’t miss the early-bird special…
Save $100 by registering before September 11.The post
September Nonfiction Writing Challenge: Develop a Daily Word Count Goal appeared first on
Write Nonfiction NOW!.
Nina Amir, the bestselling author of How to Blog a Book and The Author Training Manual, is a speaker, a blogger, and an author, book, blog-to-book, and high-performance coach. Known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach, she helps creative people combine their passion and purpose so they move from idea to inspired action and positively and meaningfully impact the world as writers, bloggers, authorpreneurs, and blogpreneurs. Some of Nina’s clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She is the founder of National Nonfiction Writing Month, National Book Blogging Month, and the Nonfiction Writers’ University. As a hybrid author she has published 19 books and had as many as four books on the Amazon Top 100 list at the same time. Her most recent book is called Creative Visualization for Writers, and tomorrow her 19th book will be released, The Write Nonfiction NOW! Guide to Creativity and Flow. Find all her books at booksbyninaamir.com or find out more about her at ninaamir.com.