It's said that everyone has a book inside of them, just waiting
to get out. But very few people every actually get that book
out. Many claim that it's because of a lack of time. But there
are writers that can get complete books written in only a week
or two! How do they do it? There's no one tried and true
formula, but there are a few tricks to getting the job done.
Get a three-ring binder. When you get an idea for a book, fill
the binder with blank paper and a few plastic sleeves (page
protectors) to store things in. As you go about your days, just
scribble down ideas that might be useful to the story plot.
Newspaper and magazine articles that inspire should be tossed
into the plastic sleeves. Webpages that inspire should be
printed and treated the same way. Don't make value judgements or
try to put things into order right away. Simply put everything
that might be useful. Also jot down pieces of dialogue or
questions related to the book. Anything and everything should be
collected in the binder.
While the collection process might take days, weeks, or even
months to accumulate, once you've collected enough material, you
should start to go through it and put it in order. This might
take you a complete day to accomplish, but once you're through,
you'll have a complete, detailed outline of your book.
Now comes the fun part - writing the book. Some people go to a
quiet place away from home. If you have a vacation home, this is
the time to go. However, most writers aren't so lucky. A hotel
room works too, but even just a quiet room in your home can be a
wonderful retreat. Just as long as it's somewhere that you can
write without distraction. If you're only planning to write a
short book of about 30,000 words, that's really only 5,000 words
a day for six days. For many, that's one chapter in the morning,
and one in an afternoon. Still seems a little daunting? Look at
it this way - you only need to write 750 words in an hour.
That's one word every five seconds. Seems a little easier now,
doesn't it? With everything prepared for you, the daunting task
of pecking out a 30,000 or more word book is straightforward and
simple.
Barbara Cartland, known as "The Dame" to a lot of romance
readers, used to write 10,000 words every day. You might not
like her novels, but there's no denying that she was very
successful at what she did. The only way that you'll ever be
able to get that book out of your head and onto the printed page
is by being organized and having a target to reach. If you wait
around for enough time, you'll see that you had enough time to
write seventy books!
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