Writing the First Draft of Your Book: 17 Tips for Getting It Done

Writing a first draft can feel daunting. Rome was not built in a day and neither was a book written. However, professional writers understand that one day’s writing, day after day, is the key. It doesn’t have to be a chore — it can be fun and inspiring.

Maybe you have a full-time job, a family, and other obligations. No matter. You can still write your book. Many have. The question is, can you carve 30, 60, or 90 minutes a day out of your schedule for writing? Books have been written on lunch hours, in the darkness before dawn, just after baby goes down for the night between 10 and midnight. When does writing works for you?  Morning, noon, or night doesn’t matter. Just make a standing date with your muse. Don’t let anything else get in your way.

One helpful process is called time blocking in which you devote specific blocks of time to specific functions. Perhaps you can devote one entire day of the week to your writing. Better yet, a specific hour every day.

It also helps to visualize your ideal day, on paper. Draw a circle and put midnight at the top, 12 pm at the bottom, using military time to end up with 23 at the 11:00 position. Now draw out “pie slices” for your ideal hours for sleep, for awakening, meditating, exercising, family time, work time. Put your writing time at your best time of day. You’re not going to hit the target of your ideal day every day. But just visualizing it, imagining what it would feel like to have an ideal creative day, is like planning for a vaction. It helps you feel good. And that’s moving towards your muse.

CONNECTING WITH YOUR WRITING MUSE

So what is this muse character? For the longest time, I didn’t understand. But now I do: it’s connecting with the source of inspiration. Think of it like a radio station broadcasting 24/7 at 105.7 FM. Your mindset is the tuner. The most powerful simple practice for tuning in the frequency of station MUSE: meditate for 15 to 20 minutes first thing in the morning, before writing.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but stopping thinking is key.  That’s because thoughts weigh us down. And when we stop thinking, our mindset naturally rises. In their bestselling book Ask And It Is Given, Esther Abraham Hicks offers 21 processes besides meditation for “getting into the receptive mode.” It’s the difference between speaking and listening.  You want to be listening for inspiration. Not thinking. That’s because when your mind is quiet, then you can you hear your muse, the soft still voice feeding you great ideas. 

“There is a difference between thinking a thought and receiving a thought,” says Abraham.

Another helpful process for writing is called segment intending. A form of mindfulness, it’s about paying attention to what is going on, moment by moment. Every time something changes, express clear intention of positive expectations from the new segment. To learn more about the process, search YouTube “Abraham Hicks Segment Intending.” You will find dozens of short video explanations, most 7 to 15 minutes in length.

WRITING PROS COUNT WORDS, NOT PAGES

When you set writing goals, do so in alignment with the professional publishing industry which works by word count, not page count. That’s because page lengths can vary tremendously depending on typeface, point size, paper size, margins, and line spacing. And by the way, this is a small test of a professional vs. an amateur. You want to watch out for those who are not publishing professionals but scammers, who prey on authors.

Suppose you are writing a nonfiction business book. These range from 25,000 to 75,000 words.

Segment intend: “I will complete a 50,000 word first draft and I will do so by writing XXXX words per day for YY days, working Z days per week.” It’s simple math, based on how much time you have to devote and how fast you honestly write. Always set goals by what is easy. How many words per day you can easily write. If you can easily writer2,000 words per day, you’ll hit your target in 25 days. You get the idea.

Now transfer your writing schedule it into your calendar. And intend to follow it.

17 TIPS TO GETTING THE JOB DONE
  1. After meditating, go to a writing place without distraction. Libraries and coffee shops are great.
  2. Disconnect your laptop from the internet
  3. Turn off or put phone in Airplane mode
  4. Open a Scrivener project for your book, a long-work project manager, much better tool than Word.
  5. Imagine one single person you are writing to, real or imagined. Your ideal reader.
  6. Write a short description of that person: name, age, gender, and specifically her life situation or problem that you are best equipped to help with. Imagine that person pouring out her heart to you, and asking you, the authority, questions.
  7. Make each question or pain point a chapter, or a list of bullet points.
  8. Now you’re ready to write. Pick the easiest topic or question, and write the answer. (Always start your writing with the easiest thing — ease creates momentum.)
  9. Don’t worry about writing in order from the beginning, or writing the end. It’s totally OK to write in any order.
  10. Don’t worry about the “messiness” of the writing. Because this is your first draft. Cleaning up comes later.
  11. If you can’t think of anything, write about not being not able to write about anything. Just get momentum going.
  12. Break your writing sessions into 30-minute segments. Suppose your goal is 2,000 words per day, and you can easily write 500 words in a half hour, and you have time 2 hours. At the start of each writing segment, set the intention: I intend to write 500 words easily in this segment.
  13. Set a timer for 30 minutes and write until it goes off; a great free app to organize your writing tasks that comes with a nice Pomodoro timer is KanbanFlow.com
  14. Take a 4-minute break. Segment intention: feel refreshed. Move around. Do some sit-ups. Climb up and down some stairs.
  15. Before starting again, briefly review your outline and notes, looking for the next easiest piece to write.
  16. Resist the urge to re-read and edit what you just wrote. DO NOT RE-READ. DO NOT EDIT. This can be harder to do that it sounds.
  17. Repeat until you hit your mark of number of words for the day.

Now you are on your way to your finished book! I also recommend creating some kind of visual aid of progress near your desk or writing area. That’s because seeing your progress can be motivating. Also, plan a celebration when you complete your first draft.  Celebrate gathering all the building blocks needed for the foundation of your book — because you’ll be hitting a major milestone: one quarter of the way there! That’s roughly what a first draft is.

NEXT: Organizing the pieces: that’s what happens in the second draft.

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