I spent 632 hours writing a 2nd book. 13 tips for anyone who needs to get a point across.
By best advice for anyone with something to say.
This summer, I challenged myself to write a fiction book. Please keep in mind, despite being a published author, I haven’t written fiction since high school AP English.
Truly, these are practical tips anyone can use whether you’re handing in a sci-fi manuscript or a 60-second soda commercial script or a buttoned-up market report.
Writing a fiction book was prompted by two things:
Watching the second season of The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han on Amazon Prime. The popular YA (young adult, for those of you new to the world of literary shorthand), book series to movie.
Me saying: “I could never write fiction.”
My friend looked at me, utterly confused, and challenged me on that notion. I undertook this as a creative challenge purely to see if I could pull it off and attempt another genre, entirely out my comfort zone.
In the wise words of (my own book), PSYAG: “If you don’t go to the ends of your genius, then you’ll never really know how good you truly are.”
Actionable tips:
Tip 1: Set daily writing goals with a word count (or time tracker).
Blank documents are notoriously hard to stare at. To create the first draft of book #2, I wrote 2,000 words M-F. The writing didn’t need to be perfect, it just needed to be 2,000 words. Then, once the book was complete, I clocked 4 hours a day of edits. (I used Toggl, a free app). If I got up to re-fill my Mason jar with fresh water, I paused the timer. (I was that serious). 4 hours of edits turns into about an 8-hour workday with breaks. Overall, I spent about half my time writing the base and the other half my time editing it.
Tip 2: Read everything out loud.
After you write something, read it back to yourself. Edit anything that sounds unclear. You’ll hear it yourself because the text will begin to get confusing or you will have a hard time visualizing it yourself. That’s when you know your reader is also lost.
Tip 3: If you are skimming, so is the reader.
Is everything you write going to be sci-fi page-turner level? No. Sometimes you’ll be handing in a “2023 Inflationary Spending Market Report” to your boss. Regardless, if you find yourself snoozing off, skipping paragraphs, or starting to skim… your reader is too. I’d recommend cutting the section entirely (if you can), or edit it down to 1 line.
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