May 21, 2025
Do you want to write your book quickly, like a speed drill? You may have good reasons to want to get your book written as quickly as possible:
Whatever your reason for wanting to write your book quickly, you can reach your goal with these 10 tips.
Any writing project starts with knowing your exact word count. Is your book a short summer romance, or is it an epic fantasy adventure? If you’re writing nonfiction, are you writing a short, handy self-help guide, or a sweeping view of a historical era? Once you know your genre and topic, word count should be at the top of your list.
For many of us, it’s easier to think about word counts in terms of page count. A word count of 30,000 is about 100 printed pages. So, for a book that’s 80,000 words long, that’s going to be about 250 printed pages. A 40,000-word book will be roughly 150 printed pages.
You’ve got your word count. Next, figure out how much you must write every day for the next few days, weeks, and months that you have available.
How many words can you write every day? Most people can commit to 500 words. That’s about two handwritten pages or one single-spaced page on a word processor.
If you’re a fast, experienced writer with enough time set aside, you can speed drill and produce 1,000 words a day. That assumes you have several uninterrupted hours of writing time a day. If you’re not that fortunate, you will have to scale back to 500 words.
If you can’t even manage that, set your goal to 250 words to start with. That’s about half of a printed, single-spaced page. It’s a small, manageable goal that most people can reach.
Is your book 80,000 words in length? At the rate of 1,000 words a day, you can finish your book in 80 days. That’s about three months if you write five days a week and consistently churn out 1,000 words.
If you’re doing half that amount, hitting 500 words every day, you can hit your goal of 80,000 words in six months. That’s writing five days a week and producing 500 words every month.
People are often surprised when they see this number breakdown. If you thought it would take years to write a book, you may be pleasantly surprised to see that you can write book quickly as you speed drill through. At the longest, it will take you a year.
If you want to write book quickly, daily writing is essential. The world is full of authors who only write when the muse hits them, and who have a drawer full of scribbled pages and unfinished manuscripts to thank for it.
The fact is, you’re not going to feel “inspired” every day. There are days when you will dread sitting down at your desktop. You need to push past the lack of inspiration and speed drill through. To write your book quickly, focus on getting words down on paper, and do it every day.
Although we use word processing for most writing tasks, many writers still prefer to write their novels or nonfiction books in longhand. Some write longhand for the first draft and follow up with editing on a word processor. The list of longhand writers includes many famous, bestselling writers whose books you have admired.
Others use a combination of tools, for instance, using the computer to research material or create plot outlines while still writing the bulk of the book by hand. Others go straight to the typewriter or word processor. There’s no right choice. There’s only the choice that feels right to you.
This is often an afterthought for many writers, but it deserves full consideration. You’re going to spend a lot of time in this spot, so it should be comfortable, neat, and located away from other household distractions. There’s only one desk or table where you can realistically sit and write.
Once you’ve chosen your writing spot, keep it free from distractions. Put your phone far away. Some writers like to keep music or TV on at a low volume while they work, others prefer nature sounds or total silence.
Are you a night owl like former president Obama, who preferred using the long, quiet hours of the night to write his most important speeches? Perhaps you’re an early bird like Haruki Murakami, who gave this description of his writing routine to Paris Review:
“When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at four a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for 10 kilometers or swim for 1500 meters (or do both), then I read a bit and listen to some music. I go to bed at nine p.m.”
A writing routine is a series of steps you take every day before you write. The idea is to establish habits that clear your mind and prepare you to write. Your routine doesn’t have to be elaborate. It could be as simple as five minutes of meditation, or a 20-minute walk, followed by brewing and preparing your first cup of coffee. Once you’ve had your coffee or your walk, it’s time to write.
Ernest Hemingway famously wrote standing up. He would place the typewriter on the top of a chest of drawers and bang away from early morning until late afternoon. Charles Dickens used to take two- or three-hour walks before coming home to eat lunch and spend the rest of the day writing. You don’t have to do anything that extreme. Just find a routine you can do every day that will get you in the writing mindset.
If you have favorite productivity tools you use for your other work, use them to boost your writing productivity. Whether it’s a favorite app or the Pomodoro method, apply it to your writing to write your book quickly.
You could also take this advice from John Steinbeck, who once wrote a letter to a good friend and fellow writer who asked for John’s productivity tips. Here’s part of what he said:
Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page each day. It helps. Then, when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
Write freely and as rapidly as possible, and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
Writing a book is not easy, but it doesn’t have to be a hard slog, and it doesn’t have to take that long. With these tips, you can write book quickly. Before you know it, you’ll have a finished book. When you want it printed, contact Publishing Xpress.
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