How I wrote a 160,000-word novel in 12 months

2020 has already started. New opportunities arise. It’s a time for reflection, goal setting, and action.

Do you (finally) want to write your book this year?

Perhaps you dreamed of it for years, but you have no idea where to start. The task seems daunting at first. An entire book? That takes ages. On the contrary, if you break it up in small parts, you can write that first draft in less than a year.

An average novel is about 80,000 words. Potentially, if you’re able to cram out 1,000 words per day, you can write it in 80 days. Or, with 500, 160 days. That’s less than six months!

Last year, I wanted to finish the first draft of my fantasy novel. Fantasy, especially epic fantasy, is usually longer than 80,000 words. 120,000 words are commonly “accepted” for the first installment in a series. I wrote 160,000 words for my first installment in a planned series of six books. I’ve got a lot of editing to do.

My idea for the books came to me in the summer of 2018. I suffered from burnout at the end of that year, and early 2019 I traveled for three months. In total, I’ve written the book in 12 months.

How do you go from idea to finishing the first draft in 12 months?

Determine what you want to say

What do you want to convey? It’s a simple question with a complex answer. What do you want to tell the world? What kind of message or messages do you want to bring across?

Think about topics you hold dear, things that bother you, societal developments, causes you care for, etc. Use your ideas to hold up a mirror to your readers. Give them something to think about. What themes can you connect to your ideas?

Then emulate your favorite stories. Emulate, not copy. In the world of creation, stealing is not a bad thing, as long as you improve on it. Almost every fantasy novel out there follows the ‘Hero’s Journey’ an ancient and proven storytelling concept that works every time.

In terms of fantasy, I love The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, The Name of the Wind, The Witcher, The Mistborn Series, etc. Naturally, these stories have inspired my writing. From worldbuilding to style. Find out what you like in books and emulate it.

What you love to read, helps you to love what you write. For when you love what you write, you’ll make it to the end.

Determine what style you want to use, the tense you want to write in if you want to write in first person or third person, how many Points Of View (POV) you have.

I opted for past tense and third person with three POVs.

The importance of plotting

I know this is not every writer’s strategy. But, I couldn’t have finished my book in 12 months if it wasn’t for plotting. Carefully plotting your story will save you a lot of time and sets you up for daily writing success.

It’s like creating a roadmap including an itinerary for your prose. You know how you want to get from A to B before you start writing. To me, it was liberating.

When you plot your story, the structure of the book is likely to become better. Everything will come together smoothly towards the end. The build-up, foreshadowing, and character development all culminate into a coherent whole. I love that. Especially with fantasy novels.

I roughly plotted the six-book series first. Then, I plotted book one in detail. This was a combination of the following:

Story plotting. What is the sequence of events in your story? What adventure will you take your characters on? What events will try to hold them back? Who will thwart their every move? What’s the bigger picture? Who did it at the end? What’s the outcome of all your posed mysteries? How is everything connected?
Character plotting. This might sound weird, but Libbie Hawker describes this perfectly in her book ‘Take off your pants’; your character will be different at the end in comparison to the beginning. What will they go through on their journey? How will they grow? Who and what will contribute to this growth process? This is tied to your story’s plot. Map out your main characters’ development from start to finish.
Chapter plotting. When you’ve mapped out your story and characters, break up the events and your characters’ growth and divide it into a story structure. For instance in three acts. This helped me a lot in structuring my book. Then, I broke these acts up in chapters and divided the story and character elements.
Scene plotting. Now that you know where your story and characters are going per chapter, you can further map out your story to make the writing process easier. You will not experience writer’s block because you will divide the story elements per chapter into scenes. You can even subplot these scenes with events, pieces of dialogue, character moments, twists, etc.

Leave room for serendipity

With that much structure, surely there’s no room for serendipitous plot-twists or other directions, right? That’s entirely up to you.

I don’t want you to be rigid and follow your plot to the letter. Have fun! If you decide your character needs to take a detour on their journey, let them.

If you decide that someone else defeats your villain, please do.

If you decide that one of your main characters has to die so another will get the right motivation to reach their full potential, please do. George R.R. Martin paved the way.

I have plot holes in my book because I shifted gears a couple of times. During the writing process, you will get to know your characters, world, and story better. Sometimes what you’ve plotted doesn’t add up. Or it isn’t exciting enough. Deviate from your itinerary and roadmap. You can always fix those plot holes later.

Write every day

Which brings me to the following: never stop. Always move forward. Don’t look back. Get those words out.

Writing every day made sure the story moved forward. It may seem a challenge at first, but if you make it a habit and pull through, you will finish that novel.

The first month is though. How? When? I switched from having a full-time job to being burnt-out, traveling, being jobless to working as a freelancer. Although my daily routines changed, one thing didn’t: I wrote every day first thing in the morning.

Naturally, there are days when things come up, you’re traveling, sick, in a hurry, whatever. That’s fine. Accept that. Try again tomorrow.

Because of this attitude, I wrote at least five days per week on average. On good days I wrote 1,200 words. On bad days, I wrote 200. I always scheduled about 30–45 minutes each morning before going to work. On average, I wrote 600 words per session.

It’s a great way to maintain a grip on your story and characters. You will know where you want to go the next day. You read back what you wrote the day before and you can dive in immediately. This way, you’re likely to be always inspired.

“Once I start work on a project, I don’t stop and I don’t slow down unless I absolutely have to. If I don’t write every day, the characters begin to stale off in my mind — they begin to seem like characters instead of real people. The tale’s narrative cutting edge starts to rust and I begin to lose my hold on the story’s plot and pace.” — Stephen King

The shitty first draft

But what about plot holes, mistakes, grammar and spelling errors, rusty dialogue, weak metaphors, and descriptions? Perfection is the enemy of progress.

When you finish your first draft, you’ll find yourself in a unique position few writers achieve. Perhaps only 1% of all aspiring novel writers in the world will actually finish the first draft. Read that again.

So finish first. May it be bad, rusty, and full of errors. Your foundation is set. You’ve bled on the page. You can edit later.

Mistakes happen. Too many words will be written. It’s all ok. Because now you can edit as much as you want. Although I plan on editing 1–3 times over a maximum period of three months.

“You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft — you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft — you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.” — Anne Lamott

Quick tips and tricks

Take breaks! Breaks spur inspiration. Taking a walk will give you an insight for your story you would have never had sitting on the couch watching Netflix.

Seek out new experiences, read a lot, go to a museum, watch a documentary, do research, talk to strangers, visit other cultures, etc. Make sure that well of inspiration doesn’t have a chance to run dry.

When I’m stuck, I leave the story for one or two days or work on something else or just take a walk.

If you’ve been on a longer holiday and lost touch with your story a bit, read back first. Plot some more. Determine what you want to do next. Then, get back into that daily routine.

Take sprints. They’re fun. I do this by renting a cabin in the woods every once in a while for a long weekend. Enjoy the quiet, enjoy nature. Do nothing but writing and reading.

Set a deadline for yourself and tell everyone you know about it. Write about your deadline. Make sure that you feel the deadline. I’ve chosen the last day of 2019 as my deadline. On December 1st, I still had three chapters to go. I felt the heat and it drove me to finish it all with almost 15,000 last words.

Last, make sure you love it and have fun. Write for yourself. Write the story you’d want to read.

How to Write a Novel This Year