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It's very easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of a writing project, particularly if you are embarking on The Novel that you have been intending to write for most of your life. The secret of success is to approach this as you would any other large project - such as moving house or changing job.
- Firstly, think about what you want to
write, and what kind of timescale you are happy with. Do you want to write
a novel before you are thirty? Or a screenplay by Christmas? Or six short
stories in the next twelve months?
Whatever your longer term goal, break this down into smaller component parts. How much do you want to write in a month? A week? A day?
My rule of thumb for a novel is two years – though Stephen King recommends writing the first draft of a novel in no more than three months. I found that writing around five hundred words a day was enough. This clocks up to 3,500 a week, 14,000 a month and 168,000 words in a year. You won’t use all of those words, but you could chuck out 80,000, and you will still have well over 80,000 words left in your first draft.
Five hundred words a day sounds like nothing. So little it’s hardly worth bothering with. Easy to fit around just about any day job.
