The Almost Effortless Way To Write Books

My desk, where I write, is in front of a window.

Nearby, a new block of apartments has been built.

For weeks I’d see the huge crane being used to lift pallets of building materials up to the builders on all levels, and to remove all the big skips full of rubbish.

It was all quite fascinating to watch.

Then one day, as the building neared completion, the crane was taken down because it was no longer needed. I was interested to see how they did it because I’d never seen it done before.

Two men were at the top of the big crane, several men were on the ground below and they had a smaller crane on the back of a truck to help take down the big crane.

The two men up top worked carefully and methodically to dismantle the big crane piece by piece and working from the end of the long arm on one side to the balancing blocks on the opposite side. It was a careful process of knowing what to remove and when, to keep the top of the crane balanced.

Cranes that size rarely fall, but it can, and does happen.

The two men seemed to be following a process that they’d done many times before. They worked swiftly and efficiently so keeping the crane upright was not a problem. The whole job was done smoothly.

As I sat writing, I kept glancing up to see how the dismantling was progressing and I realised that they had a process for every part of the job, so everyone knew what to do so everything got done.

And I thought that it’s the same with writing books. It’s something I’ve done many times, so I know the process, and the more I do it, the easier it gets because I know every step in the process, making it simple and effortless to follow the steps:

Idea

Outline

Cover

Marketing

Writing

Editing

Proofing

Copyright page etc.

Publishing

Working through a writing and publishing process several times makes it faster and easier with less thinking and more doing.

It also makes the whole process more pleasant to do which makes me look forward to doing it again.

 

The 12 Month Writing Challenge

Does a Romance Novel Have to Have a HEA?

 

I write fiction and non-fiction.

Two of my fiction books are romance novels.

One of my books is called Stand By Me and one reviewer on Amazon complained that the story didn't have a HEA (Happily Ever After) ending so it couldn't be classified as a romance story.

But I disagree. I believe that a good story is a good story with or without a HEA, plus, I don't think a romance story necessarily has to have a HEA. A HFN (Happy For Now) is good enough. 

I also think my novel had a great ending that tied everything together.

And it was a Happy Ever After ending, although not in the traditional sense.

It's a story about a woman who wants her lover to live with her, but he won't. 

She tries to leave him and move on with her life without him but she misses him too much.

She even leaves him and takes up with a new love, but even though her new love is a wonderful man, she still pines for her old love, but he still won't live with her and she cannot for the life of her figure out why not.

To the reader and to the main character, his secrecy makes him seem like a bit of a ratbag, until she unwittingly learns the truth and realises that he's not a bad guy at all and now that she knows the real reason, she understands that they can never be together.

She is finally able to walk away.

That's a good ending isn't it?

She got the closure she needed and could move on whereas she couldn't before she knew the truth. She had been waiting for someone she could never have.

It is a surprise ending, and a good one. She discovers a truth that she could never have guessed.

So even though they never got together, they loved and laughed.

And then she was able to move on, and so was he.

Whether you think it's a HEA ending or a HFN, the ending still satisfies.

And because this novel is still selling, I'm having a HEA.

If you want to write a novel, write the one you want to write.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/SBM.html

How to Write 10,000 Words a Day

 

Photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash

A few weeks ago I was reading an article about how it’s possible to write a million words a years, and I thought, “That’s crazy.”

But it turns out it’s not as crazy say you think. Not only is it quite sane, it’s also quite do-able.

The author also said that we all write at the same pace, which is around 1,000 words/hour, which is only 16.6666 words per minute.

I pondered this, did a little math, and worked out that one million words divided by 365 days is 2,739 words a day. So if you wrote 2,739 words a day for a whole year, you’d have written a million words.

Hmmm. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable when you look at it like that.

So then I went back to the 1,000 words/hour. To write a million words at that speed, you’d have to write for 1,000 hours (1,000 x 1,000 = 1,000,000).

This means that if you wrote 1,000 wph for 2 hours a day, that’s 2,000 words a day which isn’t far off the 2,739 words a day needed to write a million words a year. In fact, 2,000 words a day is 730,000 words a year.

But what if you upped the ante and wrote 10,000 words a day? Even working a 5 day week you could achieve 50,000 words a week. That’s a whole book written in a week.

But is it possible to write 10,000 words a day?

According to the book, “2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love” By Rachel Aaron (https://amzn.to/3ruC0bd) it’s more than possible.

At 1,000 word/hour you’d have to write for 10 hours a day. That’s a lot of hours.

But look at it a different way.

If you’ve ever tried speed writing you’ll know that it’s possible to write ¾ of a page in 5 minutes. Speed writing is where you’re given a writing prompt, or 3 words, you set a timer for 5 minutes and start writing. If you’ve never done it, you should. It’s really eye-opening to see just how much you’re capable for writing in such a short time.

Speed writing proves that it’s easily possible to write ¾ of a page in 5 minutes. So assuming a full page of writing is 300 words (it’s usually more), this means that you can write 2,700 words in an hour (¾ of a page in 5 minutes  x 12 lots of 5 minutes = 1 hour).

If you write like this for 5 hours a day, even if you drop the speed down to 2,000 words an hour, that’s still 10,000 words a day.

But the real question is whether or not it’s possible to write at this fast pace.

It is if you’re prepared. This means having a complete outline for your book so that you know exactly what you’ll be covering in each chapter.

Having a detailed outline leaves you free to write without stopping, just like speed writing. 

An outline means you don’t need thinking time, just writing time.

I work this way with all my books. Lately I’ve begun using shorter outlines, and while it’s possible to write a book this way, it slows me down because it means I need to have time to think while I’m writing.

But with a detailed outline, I can sit down and start writing straight away. Even if it’s been a day or two since I last wrote, I can look at my outline and see exactly where I finished and where I need to go.

Outlines make the writing process so much easier and faster.

And it only takes 2 to 3 days to go from idea to outline to detailed outline, and then you’re ready to start writing.

And even if you want to slow it down to just 10,000 words a week, you can still get your book finished in a month.

I wrote about this in the 4th book of my Monthly Challenge Writing Series, “The One Month Author: How to Write a Book Faster & Better.”

A simple step-by-step manual that leads you through finding an idea for a book, creating an outline, and turning it into a finished manuscript - in just one month.

Check it out now at:

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCWS4.html

4 Books Written in 3 Months

 It’s no secret that all writers look for ways to write more and earn more. And this time of year is when we’re all planning how much we can challenge ourselves in the New Year.

And as I’ve been telling everyone, I’ve been spending plenty of time reading about other writers’ plans for 2022. It’s always interesting to see what others are doing as well as collecting inspiration and ideas for myself.

And while I was re-reading my favourite time management book last week (How to Have a 48 Hour Day), which is so insightful as well as being entertaining as hell, the author, Don Aslett, talked about how he once wrote 4 books in 3 months.

What struck me about his achievement, was that at the time , he was vacationing at his holiday home and during the 3 months he was there, he also cut back over 100 feet of what he calls ‘the jungle’ (it’s a large property), laid several concrete steps, erected 100 feet of fencing, as well as catching up with other jobs like cleaning tools, weeding, and planting trees.

AND he still had time to write 4 books.

Inspiring?

Yes.

Makes me jealous?

Absolutely.

But it does spur me on to REALLY challenge myself next year to see not only how I can write more, but how to get more done in other areas of my life too.

Perhaps I can start having my own 48 hour days.

I’ll let you know when I finish my planning and hopefully it will inspire you to write more and earn more too.

https://amzn.to/2YbtGyw

Wanna Know How To Get an Idea and Write a Book?

Whenever I'm talking (in person or on social media) to other writers, they often tell me that they think that writing a book is too hard, so they don't even start. And that's sad because writing (and finishing) a book manuscript not only gives you an enormous sense of personal achievement, but it's also a great way to earn passive income from writing, if you publish it.

I sometimes think that the reason they think it's hard, and why they never begin, is because they don't know where to start. I mean, how do you come up with an idea for a whole book?

The answer is that you don't. All you need is an idea and then you grow it from there. It doesn't need to be a big idea either, just the germ of one.

If you want to write fiction, it's best to stick to the genres you like to read. This is for several reasons including that you already know what these stories need to contain because you've already read so many of them, and also because writing has to be fun so you need to write what interests and entertains you.

Then you just need an idea of what you want to write about. For instance (and I'm making this up on the fly as I'm writing), say you like reading romance novels, so you want to write a romance book. 

But what would make a great story?

How about if it was about a guy who was really shy and a woman who liked him, but because he was so shy she thought he only liked her as a friend because she mistook his shyness for disinterest. 

And then how about if someone else, another woman, comes into the picture and she's really domineering and talks the shy guy into dating her, and at the same time, another guy asks the first woman out and she goes but only because she thinks the shy guy isn't interested in a romantic relationship with her. Or the second woman can be already known to the first woman and it's someone she already dislikes.

Now you can expand this even further and have a huge rivalry and hatred between the two woman and it spills over into their relationships with the guys and it all climaxes in a physical altercation between the two women.

And then the backlash from that could be that the first woman ends up being arrested and the other trashes her belongings while she's gone, and eventually the shy guy steps in to put a stop to it all and that's when the first woman realises that he really does care about her and they end up together after all.

I know that you're thinking that it's not the greatest of plots, but it's a quick idea I just came up with (feel free to use it if you want to though) and it can be played around with and changed until it's a fantastic story with a few crisis and subplots that all culminates in the girl finally getting her man. Tada! A happily ever after if I ever heard one. Although all romance books end that way.

But can you see how easily, in just a few minutes, I went from the idea or writing a romance novel to coming up with characters, crisis and plot? It wasn't the best but if I'd had more time I would do better.

So don't give up on writing a book. Think about what you want to write and then come up with an idea that you can flesh out until it's a useable story with a great plot. Or for nonfiction, think of a subject you want to write about, one that holds a lot of interest for you or that you know a lot about, and then expand that idea into topics you'd want to cover in your book.

And you can read more about how to go from idea, to outline to blueprint to finished manuscript in my latest article at https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2021/write-a-book.html.

It's called, 'This is How to Write a Book.'

Enjoy

The One Month Author
How to Write a Book Faster & Better

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCWS4.html

A Procrastinating Writer Wrote a Book About Procrastination, And It Was a Best Seller

Procrastination is a word that most writers know only too well because it's a thing we all suffer from time to time, or sadly, all the time.

And it was no different for Author, Rita Emmett, who procrastinated, started a book, procrastinated more and eventually (after twenty years) finished her book that was ironically all about beating procrastination. It's called, The Procrastinator's Handbook: Mastering the Art Of Doing It Now, and it went on to sell over 100,000 copies in just over a year. It also ended up being published in over 32 countries and is still selling well even today.

Then, using her own system for stopping procrastination, she wrote her second book in only 6 months. And that too was a bestseller called, The Procrastinating Child.

And if that wasn't enough, she then also wrote a third book (using her procrastination-busting system) in only 4 months. It's called The Clutter-Busting Handbook.

See how easily she did that? All she knew at first was that she was a massive procrastinator. So she looked at all the things that stopped her procrastinating and wrote a book about it. Ditto her next two books. She wrote about things she knew.

And that is easy for anyone to do.

Rita Emmett also helped other writers (several well-known writers) to get their books written too.

She also created a writing course called:

The Procrastinator's Guide To Authorship: A Step-By-Step, 7-Month Training Program To Complete Your Book, Get It Published, and Start Making BIG Money.

This course has been used by thousands of people to help them stop wasting time and get their books written. Not only that, but some of these books have been bestsellers and even won awards.

This course covers how to overcome procrastination, the writing process, and how to get an agent and how to approach a publisher. 

It really does take you from starting to write, through to publication and all within a few months.

And as Rita proved by her own results, once you finish your first book, it's easy to write your second.

Click the link below to read more about Rita Emmett, her own writing and publishing success, and her writing course that is helping thousands of authors all over the world.

It's an entertaining and motivating read.

https://bit.ly/3gBLPOP

Writing a Fiction Book. Advice For Beginners

When I first wanted to write for a living, one of the first things I did was take a creative writing course.

Unfortunately, this was back in the bad old days before the internet became a big thing, so I had to do my course via snail mail, so I was usually almost finished my next writing assignment before I received a response and corrections from my tutor about my previous assignment.

Yep, it was slow going. But I did learn a lot. In fact, I made my first few hundred dollars from short stories I'd written as part of my assignments, so the course really did pay for itself.

And now we have the internet which is full of online writing courses. And most of these courses are taught using video as well as written material and students have access to online forums and chat rooms, instead of only having badly printed pages of information to go through like I did.

One of the things I like about doing writing courses (and I've done several over the years) is that by the time I'm finished I've either earned money, or I have a completed manuscript ready for publishing. And the best thing is that all I had to do was follow the instructions that I was given, instead of trying to go it alone and sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper, not knowing where to start or how to proceed.

I love being able to write a book by simply sitting down and following instructions that not only tell me what to do next, but how to do it. And when I've worked my way through the course, voila! I have a completed manuscript. It makes the whole thing painless and simple, especially for beginners like I was.

So if you've always wanted to write a book, but you don't know where to start, try signing up for a writing course.

I recently come across a really comprehensive course called My Fiction Writing.

The course teaches fiction writing using video, workbooks, and planners, amongst other things.

It covers 6 modules:

~ How to Write a Novel

~ How to Write a Screenplay

~ Outlining

~ Story Structure

~ Plotting

~ Character Development

And this writing course is currently selling for less than half the usual price. So it's a real bargain.

Click the link below to have a closer look and see just how much you'll learn when you sign up for My Fiction Writing.

Or use Google to find another course of your own choosing. 

Either way, a writing course can make all the difference when it comes to starting and finishing writing a novel.

My Fiction Writing Course

https://bit.ly/3zqT1WS

Here’s How Easy It Is to Write an eBook a Week

Sometimes I don’t feel inspired to write, even though it’s the way I earn my living.

I sit down and start writing but I still don’t feel in the mood and I feel unmotivated to keep going. For whatever reason, I just can’t write. The ideas just aren’t flowing as easily as they usually do.

But even on days like this, I keep going and eventually I get into the flow and then I can keep going for hours.

I’ve always found that on days when I don’t feel like writing, but I have a big project to work on, like a book or an ebook, I get out one of my writing courses (and I’ve bought quite a few over the years). I like courses that are step-by-step because they always help me to start writing and to keep going. 

It’s so easy because I just read, follow the instruction and bam. My writing is done. It’s so much easier than writing from scratch.

And that’s why I wrote all my books the same way so that you just read it, follow the instructions and bam. Your writing is done.

It works the same way with my 7 Day eBook Writing and Publishing System, which is still a popular book because it makes it easy to follow the step-by-step instructions to get an ebook written and published and make sales in a week.

It just doesn’t get any easier than that.

Click the link below to find out more about exactly what you’re going to get and how easy it is.

7 Day eBook Writing & Publishing System

How to Write and Publish an ebook and Start Getting Sales in Just One Week

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/7day.html

Writing From Theme and What It Really Means

 Have you ever heard of writing from theme?

Theme is the part of your story (or novel) that has an overall message. 

Some people get confused between topic/subject and theme.

Topic/subject is what your story is about (freedom), your theme is the message you want to deliver to your readers (freedom is an illusion). Or it could be a story about a haunted house (ghosts) and your theme is that ghosts don't exist, and your story is how you prove your theme, without actually stating it.

There are many ways to deliver a theme through your characters, symbolism, environments, character interactions with others, and many more ways besides.

But either way, as we all know, by the end of the story there must be change for your main character, either emotionally, psychologically or physically.

As the writer, your job is to demonstrate your theme to the reader throughout your character's journey through your story.

If you want to understand writing from theme more, and how to use it, I've written an article about it and you can read it at:

https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2020/Writing-From-Theme.html

Writing And Selling Children’s Picture Books

When you look at children’s picture books, they don’t look difficult to write. But they can be.

But there is a ‘secret’ to creating popular children’s picture books that many writers miss.

So I’m going to tell you what this ‘secret’ is which can make the difference between selling several dozen books and selling several thousand.

So listen very carefully…

Children’s picture books only contain around 600 words, and while that may sound easy, it’s not, because within that tiny word count, you have to include:

3-dimensional characters
emotion
gripping plots

And you have to do it all in 600 words or less.

Not only that, but it isn’t only kids that you book needs to appeal to.

It must first appeal to adults - namely, your agent, publisher and parents, in that order.

The great thing about children’s picture books is that it’s easy to sell lots of them because libraries love to stock them, with some carrying more than one copy because they get borrowed so often, more than any other type of book. And if you live in the UK or Australia, etc, you can also apply for Public Lending Rights.

And if you can create one memorable character that can have multiple adventures in a series of books, you can make even more library sales.

Read more about how to write children’s picture books that sell in my latest article using the link below.

https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2019/childrens-book.html

What Drives A Great Novel?

We’ve all done it. Read a book and thought, “That was brilliant.”

And do you know what it usually is that makes a book great?

It’s a great character.

Novels are character driven.

This is because whatever is happening in a story is based around a main character and several other characters too.

Even in movies that seem to be action driven, there is always a character’s personal life to care about. Even in Batman there is Bruce Wayne and in Spiderman everyone wants to know what is happening to Peter Parker.

And it’s the same with a novel.

Readers don’t even have to like your characters but they do have to care what happens to them.

That’s why it’s important for you to know your characters intimately before you put them in your next novel. You need to write out a complete bio for each of them including their life history, their looks, their fears, their goals, their age, their families, their likes and dislikes, and everything else about them so that they seem real.

Then make sure that everything that happens in your novel affects them in some way.

Then readers will finish your book and think, “That was brilliant.”

And then they’ll be eager to read your next book.

Read more about writing a novel at How To Write A Novel When You Don’t Know How Or Where to Start.

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See my latest romance novel at mybook.to/TWIC

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Start Writing Your Book Today
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/writequickly.html

From Blank Page to Manuscript

Writing fiction is fun. But sometimes it can be hard to know what to write about and where to find ideas.

So what you need is to have a workflow for this kind of writing.

You need to have a way of coming up with story ideas or knowing where to find them.

Next, you need to know how to take your idea and turn it into a novel.

I work by taking just one idea and expanding it by asking questions about where it will happen, why it will happen and who it will happen to.

Then I get my chapter ideas and figure out how one will flow into the other so that they all end with a hook to keep the reader turning the pages.

But I usually start with just one idea and I write it on my blank page.

Then I let the creative juices in my marvellous monkey mind get to work and before I know it, I’m filling page after page with settings, plot lines and characters.

And I’ve written about it in my latest article, How To Write A Novel When You Don’t Know How Or Where to Start

http://ruthiswriting.com/books/WB.html