by Dave Haslett
Write an email
If you’re having problems writing your book, try writing an email to someone. Tell him what you’re writing about: the story, the characters, the topic, or whatever it is, and explain the problems you’re having. Most people find writing emails much easier than real writing, so this is a terrific way of working out what the problem is and finding a solution.
I’ve found that actually sending the email usually leads to better and faster solutions. In fact, the solution often becomes apparent within seconds of pressing the Send button. You then have to send a second email asking the recipient to ignore the first one, or explaining what the answer is. But at least you now have the answer you were looking for.
Ditch the word processor
Speaking of emails, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably noticed that your “quick notes” sometimes turn into epic pieces of writing without you even being aware of it. Wouldn’t that be a great way of writing your book?
Writing an email is (usually) far less daunting than using a big scary word processor like Microsoft Word. There aren’t any page breaks and there’s no word count display, so once you’re in the zone you don’t notice how much or how little you’ve written until the end.
If you have access to email at work, you could write your book during breaks and quiet periods and send it to your personal email account. It looks as if you’re hard at work – which you are, of course. All those emails, together with the other writing you do throughout the day, will soon add up to a complete book.
Many companies monitor their employee’s emails, so this might not be an option for you. You could still write your book as a series of emails, but you’ll have to print them out or take a photo of your screen rather than sending them to yourself. The drawback is that you’ll have to type the text in again when you get home – or give it to someone else to type.
A better option would be to copy the text from your email program into your word processor and save it onto a memory stick to take home. However, some companies prohibit this, or disable the USB sockets on their employees’ computers.
I’m not suggesting you work on your book in company time, of course; you should only work on it during official breaks and non-working periods.
You could stay on at work for an extra hour each day to work on your book. This is a great idea if you live in a noisy home. Tell your family you have to work late for a month to finish a special project. You’ll gain an extra hour of writing time every weekday. It could also do your career some good if your manager notices that you often work late. He doesn’t need to know what you’re really doing, of course.
An alternative approach
If the idea of writing your book in twenty-minute mini-sessions doesn’t appeal to you, consider writing it in one-hour blocks instead. Simply set a timer or alarm to go off in an hour’s time and stop writing when the time is up. Or, if you’re in the mood to carry on, just keep writing. Don’t worry about how many words or pages you write in that time.
Remember those dreaded exams when you were at school? If you’d learnt the subject well enough, you were probably able to fill page after page in just an hour or two. You might even have run out of paper and had to ask for more.
Imagine that you’re sitting an exam as you write your book. It’s a fantastic way of writing quickly and producing reams of material. Start by reading the relevant section of your outline – the equivalent of reading the question on the exam paper. Spend a few minutes thinking about it and formulating a plan. Then dive in and let the words flow.
If you’re having trouble imagining yourself in this situation, ask someone to watch you for an hour to make sure you don’t cheat. That should make the situation feel more realistic.
Many of the fastest and most successful writers do writing sprints where they aim to get as many words onto the page as they can in a given period – typically around thirty minutes. Some even hold races or challenges against other writers – the winner is whoever writes the most words in that time.
Goal!
It’s useful to have something to aim for as you write: a target, a milestone or a goal. Your ultimate goal is to finish your book, of course, but that’s much too big a goal to start off with. Choose a smaller goal that you can complete in one writing session, or in a single day, or in a week.
It’s important to define exactly what your goal is. You’ll also need to work out some sort of plan as to how you’re going to achieve it.
A good goal is positive. You should look forward to achieving it. It should never be something you don’t want to happen.
Here are some examples of bad goals:
My goal is to write a book.
This goal is far too big. You need to break it down into smaller goals that you can definitely accomplish. And you haven’t given yourself a deadline, so this goal is open-ended and could drag on indefinitely.
My goal is to work harder.
What are you going to do specifically, and by when? How do you define working harder? How will you know whether you have worked harder? How will you measure it? Will you spend more time writing? How much more time will you spend on it? Will you try to increase the number of words or pages you produce in the time available? How will you achieve that?
My goal is to write 50,000 words per day.
This goal is ridiculously over-ambitious. You have little chance of achieving it and most days will end in disappointment (and exhaustion). You need to be more realistic.
I’ll, um, you know, write some chapters and stuff, maybe in a week or two.
This goal is too vague. How will you know when you’ve reached your target? How many chapters is “some”? Is your deadline one week, or two weeks, or could it be more than that?
I will not write less than three pages per day.
That’s a realistic goal, but you’re focusing on the negatives – “not” and “less”. Rewrite it so it focuses on the positive aspects: I will write at least three pages per day.
Good goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.
Here are some examples of good goals:
I will complete chapter three by Thursday lunchtime.
I will write at least three pages every day.
I will complete this topic by the end of the day.
All of these goals are specific, achievable, and have a deadline. You’ll definitely know whether or not you’ve achieved them.
You might not achieve every goal, but that’s okay. Goals should be challenging enough that you have to push yourself to achieve them, and you should feel a sense of accomplishment when you do so. Most days you will achieve your goal – and you’ll feel great.
Charting your progress
For your first book at least, it’s a good idea to keep a chart to record your daily progress. It’s inspiring to see the lines on the chart building towards your target.
Once again, you’ll need to decide how you’re going to measure your progress. Will it be the number of topics you’ve completed? Or the number of chapters? Or scenes? Or pages? Or words? Or will you use some other form of measurement?
You’ll also need to decide what your end target is. How many topics are there? How many chapters are there? How many scenes are there in your novel? You can get this information from your outline.
Most writers measure their progress by word count. It’s useful to have a rough idea of the total word count you’re aiming for – i.e. the length of your book. If you divide that total by the number of days you plan to spend writing your book, you’ll get a daily word count target. For example, to write a 75,000-word book in 30 days, you’ll need to write 2,500 words per day – which is a specific, measurable and achievable target.
At the end of each day, count the number of words you’ve written and make a note of it on your chart, or on a calendar or in a diary. This is a simple way of tracking your progress, and it shows how you’re performing against your daily target.
Here’s the progress chart I created for the first edition of this book, which took me twenty-three days to write:
If I’m writing a non-fiction book, I measure my progress by the number of chapters I’ve written, aiming to write one per day. If I’m writing a novel, I usually measure my progress by the number of scenes I’ve completed.
I usually have an idea of the total number of words I’m aiming for in the finished book, but I don’t count them until I’ve finished writing the entire first draft. In the second draft, I add, cut or tighten the text to achieve my target.
Ask for feedback
Do you know how good (or bad) your writing is? If you want to write books quickly – and you want them to sell in large numbers – you need excellent writing skills. But how do you find out if yours are up to scratch? The answer is that you need feedback.
The thought of asking for feedback terrifies most of us, but it’s something you have to do. If there’s anything wrong with your writing, you need to know about it now. You can then learn and practise any aspects that are giving you trouble, rather than wasting your time writing a book no one will buy.
Your first thought might be to take the easy way out and ask your friends and family for feedback. Unfortunately, that’s a bad idea. They won’t want to upset you, so most of them will tell you your writing is brilliant even if they think it’s terrible. But they’ll tell each other how terrible it is, and they’ll probably laugh behind your back. So I wouldn’t let them see anything you’ve written until you’re sure it’s as perfect as you can get it.
It’s much better to seek an expert opinion from someone who doesn’t know you and who isn’t worried about offending you. I recommend sending a sample of your writing to a professional critique service. They charge for their services, but you’ll receive detailed feedback, and they’ll pinpoint any issues you need to work on.
I firmly believe that every writer should do this at least once. It could be one of the best investments you make. The feedback you receive, and the work you do to correct any problems, will stand you in great stead for the rest of your career.
Critique services often advertise in writing magazines. Writing Magazine’s own critique service is also highly recommended.
Another option is to submit a sample of your writing to an online critique group, where the other members will comment on your work and give you advice. Most critique groups are free, but it’s important to remember that they are communities rather than services. You’re expected to comment on other members’ writing in exchange for the help you receive with your own. Search online for “critique group” and the subject or genre you write in. For example: “critique group historical romance”.
Once you’ve joined a critique group, you can keep resubmitting your sample piece over and over again as you improve it, and the other members will help you make it better. As long as you remain an active member of the group and comment regularly on other members’ work, you’ll also be able to submit new pieces of writing for feedback.
Many writers use critique groups to help them turn their early drafts into professional pieces of work. And many short story writers use critique groups to help them win competitions.
The next step
In the next chapter we’ll look at some techniques for writing fiction quickly. If you only write non-fiction, they’re still worth a look, because you can write better – and faster – non-fiction if you use a few fiction-writing techniques.
11. Fast fiction
How long should my novel be?
There are no hard and fast rules on how long novels should be. It all depends on your story and how much space you need to tell it properly. And, of course, if you ask different writers and publishers this question, they’ll each give you a different answer.
It’s important to keep your readers and publishers in mind.
A thin book might look cheap and flimsy, and appear to lack content – even if it’s packed with content, totally on-topic, and free of filler.
A thick, hefty book will cost a lot to print, which could reduce your profits or put off publishers. Potential readers might find a book of that size daunting, and that could harm your sales.
So it’s best to keep to the middle ground and make your book the same sort of length as others in the genre. I recommend using the figures below for your first few novels. Revisit the situation when you’ve released a few books and received feedback from readers, publishers, editors or agents. If they ask for longer or shorter stories, adjust the length of your next set of books accordingly.
If you’re writing a series of novels, don’t change the length of the stories partway through the series. New books in the series should be roughly the same length as the earlier ones. If your readers want longer or shorter stories, consider starting a new series.
If the books in your first series sell well, keep it going. You could write a new series to run alongside the first one. Consider alternating between the two series, releasing a book from series one followed by a book from series two.
Most writers and publishers measure the length of a book by the number of words it contains. This is more accurate than counting the number of pages, as the size of the page, the margins, the typeface and the font size can vary from one book to the next.
General fiction, comedy, mystery, horror and thriller novels are typically 80,000 – 110,000 words.
Aim for about 85,000 words.
Science fiction, fantasy, saga and epic novels are typically 100,000 – 115,000 words.
Aim for about 108,000 words.
Romance (Harlequin Mills and Boon) novels are typically 50,000 – 70,000 words, but the length varies depending on the category. Check their website for details.
Young adult novels are typically 55,000 – 70,000 words.
Aim for about 62,000 words.
These figures are only a rough guide, of course. You should always do what’s right for your story, even if it means writing a shorter or longer book.
If it turns out to be a really long book, consider splitting it into several volumes or adapting it into a series.
Here are some well-known real-life examples:
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is 46,000 words.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is 60,000 words.
J. K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, known as Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone in the USA) is the shortest book in the series at 77,000 words. The longest (Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) is 257,000 words.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is 89,000 words.
Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is 174,000 words.
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is 587,000 words.
How long should my chapters be?
Again, there are no definite rules. It depends on what’s happening in your story. They can be as short as a single word or as long as the entire book.
If you really want a figure to aim for, go for about 2,500 words per chapter, which is roughly ten pages of a paperback novel. Some chapters might be shorter or longer than that, but it’s really not a problem.
The modern trend is to have lots of fairly short chapters that people can read in a single sitting at bedtime or while commuting. If you’re aiming for that sort of readership, keep the average number of words per chapter to around 2,000 to 2,500 (eight to ten pages).
On the other hand, if you’re writing an epic novel aimed at people who spend hours at a time reading, your chapters can be much longer.
In either case, make sure the story works well in tha
t format.
Making your scenes and chapters work
The most common framework for novels and films is the three-act structure. You might recognise this from stage plays, where the curtain falls at the end of act one and again at the end of act two, dividing the performance into three parts. In novels and films the curtain fall is often replaced by a major cliff-hanger, where the hero is left in a dangerous or precarious position.
While most writers use three-act structure for their whole book or screenplay, it works for individual scenes and chapters too. And in fact, it makes things a lot easier.
We’ll look at three-act structure in more detail in the next section, but here’s a brief summary from a chapter perspective:
Act 1: the first quarter of the chapter is the set-up. In a 2,500word chapter, this section is about 625 words long or roughly two and a half pages.
Act 2: the middle section is where the main action takes place and things go from bad to worse. In a 2,500-word chapter, this section is 1,250 word long or roughly five pages.
Act 3: the big ending, climax and resolution come in the last quarter of the chapter. In a 2,500-word chapter, this section is about 625 words long or roughly two and a half pages.
It’s a good idea to put a cliff-hanger at the end of every chapter except for the last one, as it encourages people to keep reading, desperate to find out what happens next.
