This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. For five days, from June 26-30, 2018, I wrote a 50,000-word contemporary romance novel after an epiphany at a writer’s retreat. I journaled about it here in Part 1. Her Billionaire Bodyguard is now published. You can check it out here.
These were the steps I took before I even tried to write a 50,000-word novel in 5 days. I followed these steps for the first book of a to-market series, but the tips can apply for a non-series book as well.
1.Plot a to-market series and how this book fits in with it. My goal was to have a viable quality draft quickly so I could have it start making money for me soon, too.
2.Write a short, catchy synopsis that reflects the tone of your book and gets to the heart of your story. Re-read this often to keep your draft on track. If you can’t come up with a three-sentence summary, your plot is too vague and your draft will most likely have plotting issues.
3.Make sure you are excited about it. If you aren’t excited about the book, it’ll be hard to get motivated to write. And you will be writing a lot. The advantage of fast writing is hopefully you won’t get bored with your story. Plus, if you get ideas for other books, you know you will be able to get to them quickly after this one.
4.Make a mock or actual cover. This is optional, of course, but to me, this was a very helpful step. (I do this for all my books.) The picture of my MC increased the romance quotient. As exhaustion set in, looking at my cover kept me going.
5.Write a detailed outline. Tweak it so that the story makes sense, but do not obsess. It does not need to be perfect, and even the best-laid outline will need to be flexible. Include key scenes and even dialogue, if they come to you already. These keystones will prime the pump.
P.S. I have been a pantster, too. Which can be fun. But it is going to be tough to write a 50k-word draft in five days that will not require major revisions without some sort of a plan or direction. I’ve been there done that, and though I finally published those projects, I had to practically gut them and start over at the revision stage. Not fun.
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