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Do you want to learn how to accelerate your writing productivity? In this interview with bestselling Indie Fiction and NonFiction Author and Screenwriter Scott King, he shares how he wrote his political thriller, Ameriguns in only 5 Days – from start to finish.

Listen/watch/read the interview to learn how you too can write your stories faster 🙂

In the intro, I share how focussed questions from a chat with Scott after the interview, helped me to uncover more ideas and get clarity on my 1920’s novel.

Talking through my story seems to help me get more ideas to get unstuck, but each writer is different. That’s why it’s so important to learn what works best for you to help you discover your story.

I also share books I’ve been reading lately. The 5 Day Novel, by Scott King, includes really practical tips for writing fast and he also includes several chapters on how fiction writers can restructure weak spots in their writing like: overused words; weak verbs; passive voice; how we better use colour and big words. Another book that is a gem for writers who are new to the writing and self-publishing industry is 10 Step Self-Publishing Boot Camp, by S.K. Quinn. Sue makes a full-time living with her fiction writing and gives amazing tips in this book. Also, for writers who want to learn how to make money from writing and as creatives, there’s a New Release by Jeff Goins out now called, Real Artists Don’t Starve.

Click Here to Watch the Video Interview

Interview Summary:

Scott King began his writing career as a screenwriter, by optioning three of his screenplays while in college. His goal was to move to California to pursue movie-making, but his dad got very sick and Scott made the tough decision to stay close live closer to his parents.

He decided to switch to writing novels and to pursue self-publishing. Since that decision, he’s written and published a documentary graphic novel, several middle grade novels, a thriller, the nonfiction book for writers called The 5 Day Novel and another nonfiction book on screenwriting called, Finish the Script!

After Scott spent six months writing an epic fantasy novel, he felt frustrated at how long it took him to finish the book. He was inspired by how today’s romance authors were writing and self-publishing great novels to their hungry readers at bi-monthly or monthly rate and he realized that many romance authors were fast writers.

He wanted to try it too.

That’s when Scott decided to challenge himself and write The 5 Day Novel. His goal was to see if he could write 50,000 words in one day. He didn’t do any preparation for writing his novel, except for research for two weeks before the beginning of the challenge.

Even though he didn’t finish 50,000 words in one day, he did have a finished novel – Ameriguns – with revisions and the draft sent to his editor in only 5 days!

[Tweet “If you want to be a writer, you need to know why you are doing it…  @ScottKing”]

Scott shares a breakdown of his workflow on how to write a novel in 5 Days:

Day 1: Prewriting – Decide on your protagonist and figure out what it is they want, what’s in their way and what genre you’re writing in. Then begin your outline.

Day 2: Write – In his book and in this interview, Scott gives great tips on how to get through your first draft as fast as possible. Some strategies include: writing the first draft, without worrying about edits; preparing and freezing your meals for a week, etc.

Day 3: More Writing – Scott shares tips on how to be productive: When working through your first draft, focus on solving the big problems of the story and skip little problems. If you feel lost and don’t know how to get back on track to finish your novel, got back to your pitch and ask yourself why you are writing this story.

Day 4: Rewriting – On this day, you’re at the point where you find the problems with your manuscript so that’s a concise and understandable story. Some common details that go wrong with a first draft are: Plot holes; weak characters; passive characters; generic character voices; too much or not enough descriptions; lack of clarity in descriptions; misuse of POV; pace is off; lack of conflict and drama; tone is off, etc. Scott’s tip: When rewriting always start with the big problems and work your way down to the small ones.

Day 5: Polish – This is where you fine-tune your manuscript. At this point the story is set. The characters are fixed and there shouldn’t be any plot, structure, or creative problems in your novel. This is the day for nothing but line edits – where you look at every sentence in your book. This is when you get it ready to send off to your editor.

Scott mentions at the end of the interview, that it is challenging to write a novel in 5 days. His goal, has been to share his tips and strategies from his own workflow to show writers that it’s possible to get your novel written faster, in hopes that those listening/reading will find this process useful in improving their own work flow.

The best piece of advice on writing Scott was given…

“When I was in grad school, I met Brad Meltzer – a NY Times bestselling Political Thriller author.  He said to me,  “If you want to be a writer, then write.”  That’s all it has to be. You have to make it a priority and once it’s a priority you have to actually do it. And then once you do, you’re a writer. It’s so simple and yet it’s so hard to actually do and achieve.”  Scott King

If you want to connect with Scott you can find him at his website and on Facebook and Twitter. Also, check out his new release – a Dystopian Thriller titled, Resist Them.

 

What helps you to be a more productive writer? Please share your thoughts in the comments 😉