5 Tips to Write Your Novel Faster

In today’s blogpost and video I share some tips on how you can write your novel faster — these are my lessons learned as I’ve continued to write novels.

A quick note:Sometimes I’ve noticed among Indie Authors, where they compare themselves to each other. Some writers end up feeling insecure and feel like they are failing because they aren’t writing as fast as other authors.

It’s simply not true.

You don’t have to be like anyone else. You just need to write the way that is best for you.

Don’t compare yourself to other writers. I’ve personally struggled with this — seeing people writing so many books a year — and I can’t do that at least right now.

Some people only write 1000 words a day and that’s all they can do.
When you get caught up in comparing yourself to other people — you get into a toxic relationship with yourself and other authors.

Every author is constantly working to get better at something in their writing journey.

When I started I could only write 200 words a day. I had so many fears and worries and so much anxiety around my writing when I first started, and it hindered my progress.

Since that time, I’ve learned some tips on how to accelerate your writing.

In the video or in the blogpost below, are some ideas that have helped me write faster…

Tip #1: Get Rid of Distractions.

If you have notifications on your desktop, laptop or phone — you won’t get a lot done.

Turn on airplane mode on your phone.

See if you can carve out time in your day where you can be completely distraction free.

Set a timer — 25 minutes. Removing distractions will help you to write faster.

Something else to try: Decide to write a set number of pages that day. For example, bestselling romance novelist Debbie Macomber writes 20 pages a day. So her goal is to shoot for a specific number of pages she’ll write per day.

So you could try both ideas and see which one works best for you.

Tip #2: Plan in advance what you will write that day.

Visualize your scenes in your mind’s eye ahead of time.

Whether you’re a plotter or panther — important to have a good idea of what scenes you’ll write that day.

If I sit down to write — and don’ have an idea of where the story is heading — then the writing goes slower.

However, if I take 5 minutes and write it down and visualize the scene, the writing goes so much faster.

After you’re done writing that scene — write what the next logical scene would be. Think: Action and Reaction or Scene and Sequel.
Visualize what just happened on the screen.

Then, think about what happens next in your story.
That way, when you come back the next day to write your story — it can make a huge difference on how quickly you get write the next scene.

Tip #3: Let go of the feeling that your writing needs to be perfect.

It’s okay to just allow the words to come. Especially in a rough draft.

In the first draft, think of writing your story — like you are writing for an audience of one… YOU!

It’s easy to feel intimidated by the blank page. That was exactly how I felt when I wrote my first historical romance. I was very worried that I would get the words written just right… and that I would portray the history accurately… I poured over 10 history books just for that one book alone — and spent at least a year researching.

In some ways, I think that much time in my case, I was overdoing it… and looking back — I think took more time than I needed to — on researching the history — because of fear of writing the story. I was procrastinating big time in that first novel.

So if you are intimidated by the blank page and questioning things like: Am I getting the exact words; am I pulling across the right emotion — then I want to encourage you to don’t focus on those questions. At least not in the first draft. You can think about those details when you’re in the polishing stage of your manuscript.

Writing quickly — let go of the picky word choices — just let the story out — and when you’re editing you can revise and change the words at that point.

Say what needs to be said — and let it go.

Embrace that feeling of flow.

Getting into flow state when you are writing — is the best and funnest part of writing for me. You will know when you get there… because it’s like almost everything around you seems to quiet down and it feels like you have stepped inside the movie screen of your story.

For me it’s like watching a movie screen in my mind and then I’m just writing what I am seeing. Sometimes it almost feels like I’m taking dictation.

So embrace that feeling of flow. It might take 10 to 15 minutes to get into that state of flow(at least that’s what it takes for me) but you’ll get there. Just be stick with the story — stick with the writing process — and you’ll get to the point where the story will come to you easier.

TIP #4: Do your best to Keep at the writing and stay consistent.

If you write and wait 3 weeks until you pick up the story again — it will be more difficult than if you would write your draft every single day.

Visualize what you’re writing.

If you take Sundays off.. but you haven’t been working on your story 4 or 5 days a week — then that will help you.

We want to edit our books later.

But rough draft just let the flow of the words to come out of you.

TIP #5: Explore different times of day & locations to write your novel.

You have a routine — experiment with different times of day and locations.

Get up a little earlier to try morning writing.

Sit down with notebook — jot out all the times for this upcoming week — where you can write when you don’t usually write.

e.g. write at a coffee shop — does it help or hinder your writing?

Maybe you feel like you can start trying writing in the evening?

What times of day work best for you?

Try writing in different areas of your home. Track it. If you say consistently when you write in the coffee shop you get more done.

Experiment with some of the tips above — and see if they will help you write your novel faster.

You might even want to try one tip a day for each of the 5 days in the work week. That way it hopefully won’t seem overwhelming or make you stressed.

I encourage you to track your progress. Write down how you explored each of these 5 tips and what worked and what didn’t. That way you will know how to move forward in the tips that will truly help you write your novel faster.

I hope those ideas inspired and gave you helpful tips to finish your novel.

Happy Writing! 🙂