Lesson 14: Create your writing schedule

It’s time set up your writing calendar for your book writing...

Now that you have picked out your ideal page count, you can create your writing plan based off that. Be sure to consider your writing personality to. Are you someone that does well to write daily or having weekly or monthly writing retreats? Honor your personality and expectations realistically.

This is a little math for ya, choose your word count and divide it by the length of time you want to spend writing it to figure out your word count for each month.

Here is the book writing plan algorithm:

(word count) divided by (months to complete) = (word count in a month)

(word count of a month) divided by (4 weeks) = (word count for each week)

(word count) divided by (7 days) = (word count for each day)

Below I am going to give examples of writing your first draft in 3, 6, and 9 month increments based on the word count. Choose whichever feels best for you.

To write a 60k word nonfiction or memoir in three months:

Write 20,000 words a month for three months Or 5000 words a week for three months Or 714 words a day

To write a 60k word nonfiction or memoir in six months:

Write 10,000 words a month for six months Or 2500 words a week for six months Or 357 words a day

To write a 60k word nonfiction or memoir in nine months:

Write 6,667 words a month for nine months Or 1667 words a week for nine months Or 238 words a day

Based off these examples above. Choose the length of time for your writing project and begin plug in your writing days into the calendar to meet your weekly or monthly word count. You can use the 60k amount above or calculate your own word count dividing by the number of months you hope to write it.

Want some inspiration from the greats? Check out these famous authors writing schedules..

Stephen King: 2,000 Words

“I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book — something in which the reader can get happily lost, if the tale is done well and stays fresh.”

Sarah Waters: 1,000 Words

“My minimum is 1,000 words a day... Those 1,000 words might well be rubbish- they often are. But then, it is always easier to return to rubbish words at a later date and make them better.”

Kate DiCamillo: 600-900 Words “My goal is two pages a day, five days a week. I never want to write, but I’m always glad that I have done it.”

Anne Rice: 3,000 Words

“I plunge into the work and write an episode; I can’t just clock in at 3,000 words. I have to have time free to resolve things. I write in episodic ways. But when I’m ready to plunge in, I write from late morning through all afternoon, all evening.”

Barbara Kingsolver: 1000 words “Write 1000 words a day, five days a week, before you do anything else. At the end of the week you’ll have 20 pages– a chapter.”

Whatever you choose for your writing schedule, I recommend consistent book writing days/ and writing retreats throughout the project for concentrated time and NO editing till the draft is finished. This is your first draft, let it be messy, but show up like your book depends on it, because it does!

Now it’s time to get to writing for real!