Writing a Book Series Part 19 The Writing and Editing Plan

The outline is finally done. It’s time to move on to the plan for writing and editing. You cannot rely on inspiration. Some days you will not have it, but you still need to move forward.

What does an author do? He or she writes every day.

Creating a writing plan

Rank the current priorities for projects in your life.
Decide when and where you will write or it’s not real. The recommended approach is to set aside a minimum of one hour per day to write. Data show that creativity peaks in the window between one hour after waking up and the next three hours. There is no such thing as the right place to write. Write where you get the writing done.
Recommended writing quota is 250 words per hour. At 250 words per day, you can complete a 120-page book in about 4 months.
How many days of the week to write? To maintain consistency, write at least six days a week with one day off.
Do the math: 3000 words per chapter. 250 words x 6 days of writing per week = 2 weeks per chapter. 1 week per chapter is crazy fast. 2 weeks per chapter is aggressive. 3 weeks per chapter is casual. 4 weeks per chapter probably means you don’t have enough time and shouldn’t be writing a book right now.
Give yourself 60 days to edit once the rough draft is done.
If it’s not in your calendar, it doesn’t exist. Schedule your time to write like you would any other important appointment.
Create social accountability. Announce to people that you are writing a book.

These are all great tips, especially for people who are new to writing. Fortunately, I established a daily writing habit a long time ago, so it’s just a matter of focusing on the content for my book. I would like to set a schedule where I write at the same time every day, but my job requires a lot of travel. I cannot keep the same schedule on the road as I do at home. Somehow I’ve made it work writing on this platform, and I will continue to follow my same approach.

Part 20 - Writing Your Book