by Dave Haslett
The Fastest Way to Write Your Book
Second Edition
Dave Haslett
For Lorraine
Copyright © Dave Haslett 2019
E-book edition published in Great Britain in 2019
by ideas4writers, 19 Crow Green, Cullompton, Devon, EX15 1EW
ideas4writers.com
The right of Dave Haslett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Cover images by Arek Socha and Pixaline from Pixabay
Icons by Dave Gandy and Puppets from flaticon.com
All rights reserved
The contents of this work may not be stored, copied, transmitted, sold, or reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Why write a book and why write it fast?
3 Before you start
4 The fastest ways to find great ideas
5 What you already know
6 Research
7 Planning and outlining
8 Finding time to write
9 Getting started
10 Let’s get writing!
11 Fast fiction
12 Fast non-fiction
13 You have the technology
14 Cheating (part 1)
15 Cheating (part 2) – using other people
16 Writer’s block
17 Staying motivated
18 Conclusion
Appendix: Advanced affirmations
Bonus: 200 What Ifs
Bonus: free book
Resources
Index
1. Introduction
Welcome to the second edition of The Fastest Way to Write Your Book.
Since I wrote the first edition in 2005, I’ve written dozens more books using the techniques described here, and I can attest that they work.
Until I wrote that first edition, I’d always struggled to find the time to write the long list of books that filled my head. I wrote a novel a year between 1986 and 1988, but then various life events got in the way and I didn’t write any books at all for more than fifteen years. I even gave up my day job to become a writer, but I still couldn't find enough time.
Eventually, the urge to write books became so great that I decided to write a full-length book in thirty days or less, regardless of any hurdles that life put in my way. To achieve that feat, I planned to gather together all the speed-writing techniques I could find, adapt from other disciplines, or come up with by myself. And they worked!
I wrote the first edition of this book – all 240 pages of it – in just twenty-three days. And I was proud of it, especially as it proved that the methods within it actually worked. Readers loved the book too. But here’s the thing: I wrote it while I was still learning how to write quickly. If I’d known about the techniques from the outset, I could have written it even faster.
Today, I can write a full-length non-fiction book in around fifteen days, going from initial idea to finished second draft. That includes all the brainstorming, research, planning, outlining and writing. I generally write for around two and a half hours per day. A full-length novel takes me about eighteen days from initial idea to finished second draft.
Once the second draft is finished, I put the book away for three months and work on other projects. Then I print it out and go through the text with a red pen to fix all the errors. There are usually a lot of errors – I often get through two pens per book.
That whole process, including printing it out, red-penning it to death, and typing in all the corrections and amendments, takes around ten days.
I now have a complete third draft, which I send to a friend to proofread. He’s brilliant at finding the mistakes I’ve missed. Then I let a couple of other people read it, as I know I can trust them to spot any remaining errors between them. And that’s it: the job is done. The book just needs a good cover, some simple formatting, and it’s ready for publication.
The most important thing – to me at least – is that although I write each book in just two or three weeks, most of my readers don’t know that. If you use the techniques we’ll discuss shortly, you don’t lose any quality in your writing and your style doesn’t change. The words you end up with are the ones you would have written anyway. You just write them a heck of a lot faster.
If anyone asks you, I suggest you tell them you spent eight or nine months writing your book. They’ll not only believe you, they’ll admire your skill and dedication for doing it. Don’t ever tell them it only took you a couple of weeks. Half of them won’t believe you, and they’ll feel insulted that you lied to them. The other half will criticise your book without reading it, declaring it “garbage” that you churned out without giving it proper thought.
You might also want to adopt a pen name – or several of them. Why? Well, let’s think ahead to the end of your third year of writing books the fast way. Let’s say you written ten books a year and your thirtieth book is just coming out. And let’s say you claimed that each of those thirty books took you nine months to write. If any of your friends are mathematicians, they might start asking questions!
If you release your books under various pen names, and don’t tell anyone who knows you what they are, you’ll avoid those awkward questions about how you managed to produce twenty-two years’ worth of writing in just three years.
I write under four names. I use my own name for books on writing – like this one – and I use pen names for books on other subjects, novels, and … well, let’s just say “other projects”.
Dave Haslett
July 2019
Introduction to the First Edition (2005)
Here’s the plan: we’re aiming to spend one week coming up with The Big Idea, researching it, planning the book and creating an outline. We’ll then spend three weeks writing the first draft. That’s zero to finished first draft in under a month. Not bad, eh? We’ll still have to edit it and polish it of course, so allow another week or two for that. And then we have to sell it – as quickly as possible. That, in a nutshell, is what this book is all about.
I’m going to guide you through over three hundred techniques that will allow you to write a book in the fastest time possible. The process won’t necessarily be an easy one, but I hope you’ll find it both fun and illuminating. The potential rewards are enormous: imagine writing ten bestselling books in a year. Or twenty in two years!
You won’t need to use anywhere near the three-hundred-plus techniques in this book. About twenty should be more than enough, as long as you choose the right ones. Somewhere in this book you’ll find the perfect combination that will work for you. It’s up to you to decide what they are, and to put them into practice.
This book is for:
Those who would like (or need) to write a book but can’t ever seem to find the time.
Writers who want (or need) to build up a large body of work very quickly.
Writers who don’t want to spend several hours a day slaving over a word processor when they could be doing other things.
But this book won’t teach you how to write; there are plenty of excellent writing tutorials and courses available. If you’d prefer to let your story develop slowly and find its own way, while you write at a leisurely pace, then this book is not really aimed at you.
Back in the mid 1980s, I wrote three novels. They weren’t very good, and the three (yes, only three!) publishers I sent them to rejected them. Each of those three books took me nine months to write. Since then I’ve started and abandoned two more. And then I finally learnt how to write books properly. The first draft of my fifth novel is
just about finished. It needs an extensive rewrite but I don’t have time to do it. The whole thing is sitting in my head, getting in the way of other thoughts. I need to get it written and out of my system.
The idea of starting the ideas4writers website was that I would have somewhere to put the hundreds of ideas I’d never have the time to use. The plan was that running the website would take no more than a week or two each month, leaving the rest of the time for writing. It didn’t work out that way, of course. The website and my various products are in a constant state of development and revision, so I still don’t have any time for writing. But at least I now get to choose my working hours.
Meanwhile, not only is this fifth novel cluttering up my brain, but I’ve had a great idea for a sixth one too – and a seventh and an eighth and a ninth. But novel number six is topical – I need to get it written and published before a certain forthcoming event happens.
It was obvious that if I wanted to write books and run the ideas4writers website and still have a life then I needed to find some other way of doing it.
I’d already read about people who’d written books quickly, and I found the whole idea fascinating. Barbara Cartland, for example, wrote twenty-six books in 1983 – an average of one every two weeks. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica she wrote a staggering 723 books in her entire career.
But she wasn’t alone by any means. Jack Kerouac wrote The Subterraneans in just three days. Georges Simenon allowed himself six days to write a Maigret novel. Ray Bradbury freely admitted that he completed the first draft of Fahrenheit 451 in nine and a half days. Walter Scott completed two Waverley novels in three weeks.
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, in less than three weeks. Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence and Evelyn Waugh all completed novels in six weeks. These examples proved it could be done.
Then there’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which takes place each November. The aim is to write a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. That sounds great, but according to the organisers, most entrants simply abandon their lives for the month and “write like hell”. And even then, only fifteen percent of them finish their books by the deadline.
Another issue I have with NaNoWriMo is that the organisers admit that writing this way is “stupid” and the result will be “c***”. According to them: “Aiming low is the best way to succeed”.
I disagree with that statement in the strongest possible way. If I’m going to spend thirty valuable days writing my novel, then I want the writing to be as good as I can possibly get it, regardless of the time-scale.
I’d also want my novel to be a full-length one – 75,000 words or more – not a 50,000-word mini-novel that no traditional publisher would touch. I’m obviously going to need a better strategy than writing like hell and aiming low.
Even more extreme is Canada’s international three-day novelwriting contest. But that’s just plain crazy. I can’t offer you any advice there, except “write like hell” or “don’t do it”.
A poke around the internet led me to several websites offering manuals and courses that revealed how you – yes, you! – could write a book in seven days or fourteen days or twenty-one days or twenty-eight days. Most of them cost several hundred dollars. Further research revealed that most of them were, sadly, very expensive scams. The little information they contained was basic and obvious – and other reviewers felt the same. That made me even more determined to find the real secret(s).
In fact, I’d already discovered many of the techniques I needed while researching ideas for the ideas4writers website. What I needed to do next was to put all the pieces together … and then come up with a lot more ideas. I also adapted several techniques from my former job as a computer programmer. There’s a surprising amount of overlap between the two disciplines.
Finally, I wanted to write a book using the techniques, to prove (to myself) that they worked.
Well, I’m delighted to tell you they do work. I wrote this book in twenty-three days, from initial idea to completed first draft. And I managed to write it without making any changes at all to my lifestyle.
I’m certain that if I can do this then so can you. So I offer you this book, which serves as its own proof that the methods within it genuinely work. I hope it brings you great success. Please let me know if it does.
By the way, if you decide to enter the next NaNoWriMo, do bear in mind that you’ll have an unfair advantage over the other entrants!
2. Why write a book and why write it fast?
Why write a book?
There are so many reasons that it’s hard to know where to start. Let me list three personal reasons.
First of all, I’m a writer and I need to write. When I’m not writing, I’m not happy – the urge to write nags me constantly, affecting everything I do.
Second, the ideas keep on coming. They accumulate like crazy and clutter up my head. The longer I spend not writing, the more ideas I have for things to write about, and the stronger the urge to write grows. I’ve put more than five thousand ideas on the ideas4writers website – and more recently into a collection of books – but I still have far more than I’ll ever be able to use.
Third, I want to be remembered when I’m gone. I want to leave a lasting legacy. Most people live fairly ordinary lives, and when they die they’re quickly forgotten by almost everyone, apart from their immediate family and closest friends and colleagues. I don’t want that to happen to me. I want the world to remember me and to value the contribution I made. What better legacy than a good book – or several of them?
Those are my personal reasons for wanting to write books, but let’s consider some others:
Sometimes people expect you to be a writer, even if you don’t consider yourself one. For example, if you’re a speaker, trainer, teacher or coach, people regard you as an expert in your subject. They expect you to be able to provide them with more information than you give them in your speech or course. They’ll think a lot more of you if you have a book they can take away with them. And you can increase your income by selling it to them.
You don’t need to write your book from scratch, of course. In this case, for example, all of the information you need is already in your head, in your course notes and handouts, in your slideshows, and so on. You just need to organise it into book form.
The same thing applies if you’re a great storyteller. Those who hear your stories will want a copy of your work to take away with them, so they can read your stories again and share them with others.
Once you’ve written a book, your credibility skyrockets. You stand out from the crowd. You’ll be in more demand as a speaker, teacher, coach, storyteller, plumber, hairdresser, basket weaver, stained glass artist, or whatever subject or profession you’re an expert in. You’ll get more customers and be able to charge more for your services. People will willingly pay it because your book proves you’re the expert. Many of them won’t even read it; they just need to know it exists.
Make sure your customers know you’ve written a book about the industry you work in. They might not want to buy a copy of it, but they’ll be impressed that you’ve written it. As a result, they’ll be more likely to choose you over your competitors – even if your prices are higher.
Another interesting point is that people will buy your book even if it covers the same material you’ve already taught them. They like to have something useful or entertaining to take home with them.
Having said that, it’s also a fantastic selling point if your book contains more information – or more stories – than you were able to cover in your speech or training session. If that’s the case, make sure everyone who attends your event knows about it.
Writing a book – and finishing it and seeing it published – will give your ego and personal pride a massive boost too. It’s something most people never achieve. Tens of thousands of people start writing a book each year, but few of them ever finish it. Countless
more say they plan to write a book one day – when they have more time, or when they retire, or when money and personal circumstances allow it. But they never quite get around to it.
There’s the fame thing to consider too, of course. Do you want to be famous? And if you do, do you want to be famous as a writer? Or do you want your fame as a writer to lead to fame in another field? If you’ve written a bestselling book, you can be as famous as you want to be. You could join the media circus and appear on talk shows, book-signing tours, radio phone-ins, quiz panels, and so on. Or you could shun publicity, stay at home, and work on your next book.
Or you might be looking for recognition. That could be recognition within your company, within your industry, or by the public – which is the same thing as fame. If you were to write a book about the industry you work in, or some aspect of it, it could do wonders for your career. You might scoff and say your boss wouldn’t think much of your book and it would do nothing for your career. And that may be true of your current boss and your current company. But there are other bosses and other companies, and many of them will be impressed by your achievement. Add your book to your CV or résumé and apply for another job. You’ll be streets ahead of the other applicants.
If you choose to stay with your current company, you might find that many of your colleagues treat you with new-found respect, even if your boss doesn’t. Writing jobs might find their way to you when the company needs to draft a new advertisement, or a brochure, or a business plan, or an article for the company magazine. Your writing talents will have been recognised.
Do you have something important to say? A book lets you disseminate that message to a wide audience. If you’re a storyteller, your message might be an entertaining one. It might be an uplifting message of hope, peace or love. Or perhaps it’s a warning, letting people know that their future is at stake unless they act now. Maybe you’ve found a new technique that will enrich people’s lives or help them improve their circumstances. Perhaps you’ve come across some vital new information. Don’t just tell your friends; write a book and tell the whole world. If it’s a powerful message, it will get out eventually anyway – and someone else will write a book about it. They might make an awful lot of money from it too, and you’ll curse yourself for not having written the book when you had the chance.