can you write a novel in 6 months

How to Write a Novel in Six Months

by Monica M. Clark | 57 comments

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I finished the first draft of my 300-page novel in six months. I’m just a regular person. Therefore, if I can do it, you can do too. Wondering how to write a novel in just a few months? Let's talk about it.

Want to learn how to write a book from start to finish? Check out  How to Write a Book: The Complete Guide .

How to Write a Novel in Six Months

Want to start—and  finish— writing your novel in just six months? Here's the process you need to do it.

1. Pick a Start Date That’s Not Today

Yes, you can finish a novel in six months, but I suggest setting a goal that isn’t six months from today.  Doing so would be kind of like beginning marathon training when you haven’t even been working out. Unnecessarily hard.

Choosing a start date that is a week or month from now, however, gives you time to prepare both yourself and your novel. It helps prevent false starts and minimize inevitable frustrations.

2. Practice Writing Regularly

One way to prepare for the task knocking out a novel in six months is to practice writing regularly. Set a goal to blog weekly or journal daily, for example. Or maybe aim to write for one hour a week. Whatever it is, just make sure to pick something that you can do with relative ease.

This practice is the first step toward turning writing into a habit. During this period you will learn what it feels like to write on schedule, what time of day you're most productive, and random things like whether or not it’s important that you eat before writing.

Practice writing regularly to figure out what you need to accomplish your goal without the pressure of a novel looming over you.

3. Plan Your Novel

I planned my novel in great detail before I began writing. It took me a while to outline the plot and to create profiles of key characters. I believe this process of intensive pre-planning made getting the words on the page much easier.

That said, I’ve been writing for this blog long enough to know that the writing world is divided into two camps: “Planners” like me and “Pantsers,” who like to fly by the seat of their pants. Instead of engaging in a lot of advance planning, Pantsers like to see where the story or characters take them.

Even if you’re a Pantser, I think it’s worth doing some planning , even it’s not an outline of the entire novel. I recommend thinking about major plot points and spending some time getting to know your characters. Perhaps you can draft a simple summary paragraph to help you keep the big picture in mind while you’re writing.

Depending on whether you’re a Planner or a Pantser, this step can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to a few months. (Remember the six-month clock starts when you begin writing!)

4. Plan the Process

To finish a novel in six months, you’ll probably have to plan to write every day. Therefore, before the clock starts, you must determine your daily goals . Will you have a word count, page count, or time limit? (I had a word count, I think.) What will it be?

Other things to figure out in advance is the time of day you will write and where. What is your plan for when you inevitably miss a day? (Will you write twice as much/long the next day? Or will you give yourself permission to skip a day every once in awhile and commit to moving on and never thinking about it again?)

Also consider whether you have any major events planned during the six months (e.g., a vacation or a big work project). How will you adjust? Will you change your goal to six months + 1 week (e.g., a week off for the vacation), continue with your daily goals during that period, or do something else?

Try to anticipate potential issues and roadblocks, make a plan for dealing with them, and commit to that plan.

5. Start Writing!

After all that, you’re ready to start writing your novel! Write. Write every day.

The Key to Finishing Your Novel: Don’t Quit

There is going to be a point, perhaps around month three or four, when you’ve accomplished a lot but have oh so much left to do. This is the moment of truth and you may be seriously tempted to quit.

I suggest acknowledging that the process may not be as exciting in that moment as it was when you first started.  But then remind yourself that you have a different type of excitement to look forward to—being almost done!

Don’t quit. It’s just a first draft; it’s ok if it sucks—just keep going!

What roadblocks to achieving a writing goal have you encountered? How did you deal with them?  Let me know in the comments .

The topic is October. If you’re a Planner, take fifteen minutes to outline a short story or essay about the topic. If you’re a Panster, take fifteen minutes to write a story or essay inspired by the month of October.

When you're done, share your writing in the comments section , and be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers!

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Monica M. Clark

Monica is a lawyer trying to knock out her first novel. She lives in D.C. but is still a New Yorker. You can follow her on her blog or on Twitter (@monicamclark).

57 Comments

Just published my first novel last month, and it was last year’s NaNoWriMo project. I’m pretty jazzed about it, given the fact that both my husband and myself dealt with major health problems during the same time.

I’m definitely a pantser, but one who has learned the benefits of prepping. My final outline looked nothing like the first one, but the first one gave me a road map and direction and kept me writing. My characters simply decided on other paths…often!

I’ve prepped for NaNo this year, and am close to twenty scenes in. Just wish I knew if it’s a dark comedy or psychological suspense! Right now, it could still go either way! LOL!

Brava! I’m still editing my last year’s NaNo nove land wonder when I’ll publish it. You’ve been quick. Congrats!

Let me know when you do, Lillian!

I certainly will, felicia.

Congratulations, Felicia, from a fellow pantser! I finished last year, left mine in a file and went and did Other Stuff, lol. I want to do something different this year with mine.

Thanks, Bernadette! Good luck to you and I’ll be watching for your posts!

thanks ! ; ~ D !!

Wow, congrats!! So inspiring.

Hello, Monica, thank you for the article of how to write a book in six months. Your five points are what I have in mind when I start a novel, but, somehow I get lost along the way. However, when I return to read what I’ve written, I am inspired, and after some revision, continue the story. My road block is when I’m compelled to turn off my PC because some one needs something; usually my husband. That ‘something’ can take from ten minutes to a couple of hours and deflate my mood to write. I’m a panster and part planner, too.

Outline for my short story.

Andrew develops his love for horses when he learned to ride and show jump during the summer months at the Cavallino stables, near his home. He won first prize in a local competition, and is anticipating the National Show Jumping competition to be held in Trento next spring. He does not own a horse but hires one at the stables. He has learnt much about horses, and spends most of his time with Velvet, a three year-old, throughbred female horse. Andrew’s coach, Franco, acknowledges the boy’s talent, and prepares him for the competiton. Velvet is not always on her best behaviour, but Andrew takes to her and wishes his dad would buy her from Tony Di Bella. Andrew has many ups and downs during the six months before the competition, and at times he feels like quitting, but his affection for Velvet and encouragement from Franco, spur him on. Andrew’s father promises to buy Velvet if Andrew does well at school and if he classifies in the competition within the first three winners. Andrew works hard at school and at training with Velvet and is rewarded by scoring good grades at school and taking first prize in the competition. Finally, Velvet is his.

Ah! have fun writing!! My husband and I went horse back riding recently and it was such fun! What a great thing to write about. Yay for Velvet and Andrew!

Thanks, Bernadette.

This is a great start….where is October? Coming-of-age story?

Thanks, Joanna.

Hey everyone! I forgot to mention that NanoWriMo is a great opportunity to “practice writing regularly” (tip 2). It starts November 1st!

Hi, Monica! Thank you for your tips; I’ve read your articles here before, nice to read you again. I’m lucky that I started journaling ‘morning pages’ all summer this year (step 2) so I feel in ‘shape’ this year. I still feel a little nervous, however. This is my first attempt to site down with a timer to write about Nano in a collected fashion for this year. It is my second try at Nano and, like last year when I did finish, I’m feeling excited again to try. The only difference this year is my approach. Last year, I wrote by pantsing: a pretty pure roman a clef/memoir based/ coming of age story that was almost Laura Ingalls in flavor, a favorite book series of mine when I was younger. This year my theme is based on a passion of mine; the idea to write on something that is a passion comes from, I believe, advice I might have garnered here at WP, or from Positive Writer: to write about something you feel passionately about. I feel passionately about child and women sexual abuse and exploitation, and the many forms it takes in our society. So ironic: the prevalent and sudden place it has taken in our election the last couple of weeks since I’d decided to take the subject up. It has been a haunting subject most of my life; it seems to come up and then go away. At times I’ve found myself becoming even cynical about it, to the point that I’ve felt that children should be taught to expect to become a victim of it at some point in their innocent lives. They are already being taught about “stranger danger” and what “good touch, bad touch” is. And to go one step further, a curriculum of Recovery should be at our fingertips, so that we can just not go “there” with all the victimhood mentality, add the one more wound of Victimhood to the psyche before the child starts to heal. We ought to just accept that we do live in a sick society where inappropriate sexual violence is an accepted format for a certain types of sick powerless individuals to use a tool, as an ego booster, which is how I perceive the problem. My book centers around a woman/wife who has sexual abuse in her background, who loses it . She sees her husband, a powerful man, who is sexually inappropriate, start to take advantage of yet another young protégée. She wants to get rid of this protégée. The book is told through the eyes of a narrator who is powerless is stop it. It feels a little clumsy at the moment, at this stage of the game, but it feels true, to use that word, as a direction word. Almost like I’m discovering for myself how I’m feeling about the subject as I go along. I’m reading and researching on the subject as I’ve long as I’ve decided to write about this. I’m no expert in the subject; I’m not a psychologist or counselor; I’ve just seen things that are not right; things that I knew were not right since I was very young and saw them. I know I’m not the only one.

Monica thanks for this article.It came at the perfect time for me because through a writing contest, which I’m still trying to flesh out and get ready for Nov 1st, I feel I am not going to have it ready but instead turn it into a longer story eventually.

But for Nano I want to work on a cold case murder mystery. I am beginning to outline a few pieces and getting to know my character a bit more. Sometimes things just fall in my lap and are all jumbled up that I cant see the forest thru the trees.

I feel the same way!!! I feel like I’m chasing a giant Beach Ball that got away in the wind…..

sometimes what scars me is what direction do I throw the beach ball as you referenced when I do catch it… there are so many directions, or stories – well two in my case that are occupying my mind…. But I have had this problem before. Never able to focus on just one thing…. so nothing gets done.

I was just reading an article about that.the author suggested to stay focused on the one work and keep a separate notebook for other works.if thoughts about the other works intrude, jot quick in the nb, and get back to the main work. Does that make sense for you, Debra? Hee hee I’m ‘jealous’ you have so many ideas! lucky writer you ;-D

I have started to write my first novella last week. The plot of this story has been in my head for years. It is a romantic story involving a group of people who have complicated equations of attraction and relationships among them. The idea occurred to me after watching some incidents in real life. But I never had the courage to write it down as a story.

We must be sharing the same Evil Inner Critic…. lol!

Yeah! And sometimes this doubtful feeling is so strong that I almost decide to give up 🙁

Hi, about that last Inner Critic thing: there’s articles here to boost self confidence. Look under Articles and search under: Creativity and Inspiration, in the search box. It will bring up a long list; go through the list. Also, the “Positive Writer.com” website is all about boosting writer confidence. The other stuff, about holes in the story, building tension is stuff of the Re-Write, from what I hear. I’m planning to write the “prescribed 1667 words a day” to make the 50,000 goad for nano, by having 10 chapters approx. broken in 3 parts each? a kind of outline that way? and then as a back up plan and following others’ suggestion, back up ideas for “subplot things”: side trips or adventures…. YOU are Doing This!!! Yay!

Thank you. I’ll definitely check the list. Also each and every comment from fellow writers in the community boosts up my positive energy. And all the best for your writing for NaNoWriMo. This year I am all but a novice and also an unemployed person searching for a job! I plan to join the contest next year.

good luck on your job search, kikku! fingers crossed for you ;~ D hey! try rat race rebellion.com, to work at home, lol!

Kikku, Don’t ignore the voice, but DO CARRY ON! I think Sylvia Plath said that self-doubt murders creativity. Checking plot and pacing and all are great exercises, but I find I need to stop and acknowledge that voice that tells me I’ve nothing to say, I’ve no talent, etc. Like this: There’s that voice again, yep. Who’s talking? I tell the same stories, but no-one has my voice or point of view. So go away now, for I have writing to do… You can do it, please keep going!

1. This sounds like a good idea. Always be willing to adjust to what is actually working.

2. I write about my important incidents and then figure out where they fit in the story. Did something happen in chapter two far too soon? Then maybe that isn’t chapter two. Maybe it is chapter 12. Or maybe I can rewrite it without the incident.

3. Let the characters evolve. They may take you into a story you never anticipated writing. In fact, you may end up with more than one story! You may end up with a full novel, or you may want to change the names and have two different novellas. You might could even get away with both, if you do some rewriting.

4. Use that inner voice to make your writing awesome. I’ve read some very “mundane” stories that were quite compelling. (“Driving Miss Daisy” and “On Golden Pond” both come to mind.) The voice says your writing is terrible? Throw in another obstacle or two just to add conflict and keep the tension high. Remember, the romantic involvements aren’t the only source of conflict. What if character A loses a job, or character B loses a family member? What if someone gets robbed, or a natural disaster strikes? You don’t have to make it a thriller, what they do AFTER something horrible happens may be more interesting than the event itself.

Hope this helps to get you thinking!

Thank you. All the suggestions seem helpful, specially the last one.

When the charcaters start to do their own thing, I say let them. They will lead your story where it needs to go, even if that moves outside your original plan. If you try to stick to the plan and ignore the ideas for your characters the writing may feel like hard work. Good luck!

Oh by the way, remember it’s only the first draft. Your inner critic can go hang until the editing stage when it will be most welcome to find flaws and suggest better ways of doing it. -Sef

Great article, Monica!!

I’m a Nanite (NaNo participant). I wrote the first draft of my first full length novel last NaNo. Amassing a total of 67,000 words for the month. Yes, a portion of those were already written, and I let my inner editor lose on them during November, but by the end I had the finished draft. After numerous edits, the book is available for pre-order now and will be launching November 28. Yes, I’m doing NaNo again this year (drafting book two in the series), while also promoting the other. And yes, I’m crazy!

As of right now I only have a bullet pointed outline for this one, but will be working on a more detailed outline before November 1st. Will I include those words and scenes, however many I write, in my NaNo word count? You bet I will, as long as they make it into the draft intact.

If the story isn’t finished by November 30, will I continue, NaNo style, into December? Heck YES, I will! I purposely clear at a couple weeks of December as a contingency.

Once the first draft is finished, I’ll not look at it until at least mid-February, by which time I’ll hopefully have another window in my schedule to work through the first edit. From there, I’ll take an appropriate break to clear my head before moving onto the 2nd edit

Awesome!! Sounds like you’re well on your way.

Thanks Monica!

Hello, Monica. I have no problem in writing a novel since I have written eight. My problem, and it is a great one, is how to stop writing. I wish i could have written in english but I am not an english native speaker and I don’t master English at a level that permits me to start and finish a novel. In fact I write in French but I am not a frenchman and I don’t live I France. In my country it is nearly impossible to publish for an unknown author. According to you, what must I do, knowing that writing runs in my veins?

You need a translator? I hope you can find one, for some of my favorite authors have written in other languages, notably Paulo Coelho, and Isabel Allende.

You should try getting a translator. Also, I’m Portuguese and publishing here is pretty complicated too, the odds of you making it when you don’t have a name in the industry yet are slim. That didn’t make me give up, being a high school student is stressful yet I see writing as therapeutical. I do it on my free time and I’m writing my first book, I’m posted it on WattPad, I highly recommend you do the same. People get discovered and get publishing deals there and fans with lovely feedback, it’s one of the greatest finds in my life!

Marta. Have you tried any independent editors in Portugal? Such as Chiado Editora, or even Bertrand?

Then again, it will depend on your book, but I have a couple friends that have edited their Portuguese books through Chiado. I believe Chiado is the most prolific editor in Continental Portugal right now.

On the other hand it may mean you won’t have the attention you may desire (or even deserve)… but it will be on paper and out there. And if it is really good, it will stand out with time and public opinion.

A Fellow Countryman, Ivo Belfo

P.S-> I am now kind of correcting a friend’s book that was just released in Chiado. And for all his good ideas, he has quite a few incorrections and misspells. And it was published anyway.

What about self publishing via Amazon (your country’s Amazon I mean?) You could translate, or sell direct in your native language.

October is the tweener month which is bracketed by an enjoyed warm summer and an anticipated cold miserable winter. I have always found October to be a difficult month even though it is very often a beautiful one in terms of weather. I have spent too much time worrying about the cold nights and mornings, the shortening days and the impending winter assault, that I forget about the truly gorgeous autumn colors, warm and comfortable days and the beginning of my favorite seasonal menu…comfort food! In essence, October should be an excellent exercise in mindfulness and presence. If I live in the present, October has a lot to offer. Today for example I went for a one hour hike in a local forest with my wife and two dogs. The air was fragrant with pine needles, an absolute perfect temperature and just the right humidity to make me feel I could go on forever. My dogs ran and pranced like they had just been released from the prison known to them as “inside”. Jumping in and out of the bubbling stream, chasing each other and chipmunks was probably what they imagine dog heaven to be like. My wife and I simply watched on.

As I said..a great exercise in presence.

This is the first draft( well part of it hope its good

Tacenda by helena1765 Even in silence there was chaos. No words needed to be spoken, but everyone was screaming with there eyes. We were on the brink of a war that would destroy us. No one dared breathe all there was a spoken fear amongst them. Anarchy had been an issue here and now some one finally took over, a ruthless man. The man was thick and muscular, he looked like he would squeeze the life out of you with his bare hands, people said he was a monster. Before Kalopsia fell we were fine, then our president committed suicide and we fell into the hands of anarchy. Our country was always corrupt, lies. Thievery and murder were not uncommon, but things had the illusion of being more beautiful than they really were. Everyone pretended that nothing was going on in the streets. This place was to pretty they said, we live in a paradise God breathed on and it was beauty beyond words, it was magical. The sky was always blue and the ocean was bluer. The sand on the beaches was white and at night a thousand stars danced in the night sky. When the sun rose a thousand colors danced in the sky. The mountains with a fresh ocean sent, crisp cool air and luscious green grass provided a whole view of the country‘s breathtaking scenery. Deep valleys with clean rivers so clear you could see all its depths. They say think of the prettiest place you’ve seen, and times it to infinity. Tourists came here and cried when they had to leave, but we cry everyday now. I can’t remember how or why president Juan Faldeja killed himself but he did. He wasn’t as corrupt as the other candidates but he did killed someone to get in office, we all assumed that his act of murder had haunted him to much and he couldn’t take the guilt anymore it was funny how so much corruption went on in a heavenly paradise. After his death our country closed down and then lost its mind. I remember the first night there was a riot. I’d never seen so much death and blood in the streets, but that’s what had happened. The monster man created a gang of people of all ages the youngest was nine. They started in the night dragging people with prized possessions and beating them in the streets for there things, burning things and breaking in stores for the meager amounts of food and water. Killing people for there clothes and houses, killing people all night long just to laugh. It lasted till the sun came up and they did it over and over. “We are falling apart” my dad told me, he laughed nervously and his intense blue eyes met mine. “But we are strong people, one day we will bounce back.” But things got worse, schools shut down because everyday kids were killed and schools were raided for the tiny things we had, a teacher got killed in the bathroom for a roll of toilet paper once! Then churches moved to homes and other secret places our buildings were taken over to house his people and serve as a way to intimidate us. The country flag in places that us people went to was turned upside down, it sent out the message we are in desperate times and only God can save us. Hospitals became the worst place to be on earth. Lots of dying people in the halls, each room had twenty people in it at least it was too much to keep up with. The ill and injured. You were better off trying too fight whatever ailed you yourself. Banks were worthless, if you wanted something you stole it before anyone else could. We were all hopeful and praying for God to save us, but God was only protecting us from the worst that was yet too happen. God would pull us through this, but people got mad at God so God decided to lift his hand. Eventually the monster took over everything, we were in total denial but, this is where we now are. One day the monster got his guts and he hacked the main radio system giving an order no one could ignore. “Everyone go to the presidents mansion NOW if you don’t my men find you and kill you and your family in the streets……… We got the message and there was no way to retaliate. So with fear we all crowded onto the front yard of the mansion. It reeked of dead bodies and blood stains were every where. He came out on the steps and his army poured out and herded us in with guns, no one had guns anymore all the bullets were taken and what good is a gun without bullets? There was no escape. He came out, he really was a monster he was a giant big buff and muscular with a cold smile like a serpents. He was healthy compared to us starving souls and stronger. He had a nasty scar on his pale face and the torches made him look more evil. The mansion was a big with mansion surrounded by palm trees, it had marble steps that led up to the grand house. His voice boomed over us a nasty, gravely sharp voice, he sounded like a monster. He stepped his foot on the marble and the earth shook no one dared breathe. We all looked at the monster but he wasn’t a monster he was just human. But that’s what made him a monster. every time you looked in eyes you saw all you feared. Funny how someone can have that effect on you right?’ he opened his mouth and spoke words no human would ever speak. “ I see we are in need…. Of a leader right? he snickered. Then glared at this crying baby. “ Shut him up, it would be tragic I made him shut up, right? then he pulled out a metallic gun and shot a kid while he was in his mothers arms, she wailed and then got shot. We knew where it was going when he told us what to do earlier, but we were to frightened to speak. “ NOW, he boomed with a evil maniac grin I am your new leader nothing comes before me and if you don’t want to die you will do as I say. I am capable of anything you saw the baby tha…… I never got to hear what he said, my dad took my arm and he ran with me he had a huge sack on his back with probably other bags in it too. We bolted off into the woods and my mother was with us too also with a large sack. We ran and ran gunshots in the background people falling over and an unmistakable silence, louder than any scream I ever heard, the world blurred by. I felt like I was death and blind to the world as we ran until there was nothing, nothing but three broken people in a vast plain under the unbroken midnight sky.

We finally collapsed into the surrounding darkness, all I heard was heavy breathing and distant gunshots and far off screams. I didn’t realize how far we ran until I saw how far the city was, it was just a tiny red glow against the black sky, the city looked like it was bleeding. My lungs were burning and my legs felt like they were on fire. My parents were setting up two tents for the night. We were sleeping here tonight, the night would conceal us. “ I will take the first watch,’’ my father said. You could only see his thin silhouette underneath the moon, there was only a sliver in the sky. My mother had nodded and whispered good night, her voice almost sounded broken,. But we were all broken people, living in this broken world. My father looked at me, his blue eyes pieced through the thick darkness around us. “ Aurda, we need to talk its important. My father never said things like this, his voice was on edge and his eyes looked like he hadn’t slept in days. I looked at the bleeding town and then my father’s eyes, he wanted to run away, didn’t he. But where would we run? No one takes refugees anymore, they are like needy children and beaten orphans. They ruin everything, right? People didn’t want to help because they were selfish and cold, they put blinders on like a horse not to see suffering of others but only there own problems. I walked over to my father, and sat down on the grass it was cool and moist and the air smelled like the ocean. “father, what is it are we….” “ yes, we are, how do you know?” he stared out in the distance. “its obvious dad! But how, how are we going to get away, this mons… guy is taking over everything, there is no way out. His people patrol…. “I have a plan I always have, don’t doubt me we will get to safety. He sounded so calm for someone in a crisis. Dad was always like that he had a head on his broad shoulders and a plan if anything went wrong. my father is a strong person, like my mother, nothing could break them. He reached in the black bag he had earlier. We were now bathed in silvery liquid moonlight, the moon was above us. “ This, my child is for you.” he had pulled out a light brown leather satchel. “it has everything you will need while we are on the run, trust me I thought of everything and so did your mom, she is very intelligent. Now, go get some rest. We must wake up early, and continue running. I will turn in myself we are safe. Good night my love.” “Good night.” I gave him a hug and went off to the tent with my mother. I looked at my father he stood tall and the moonlight cast a silver glow onto him making him look strong. He had long arms and legs and looked very athletic. I silently crawled into the tent were my mother lay asleep. She looked peaceful, her long red hair was braded and looked like a thick snake, her delicate features were tranquil. Her fair skin looked silver in the moonlight. I noticed my sleeping bag in the corner and crawled in. there was nothing but silence surrounding us. A thick heavy silence, a silence so loud I could not fall asleep.

We woke up to a sky full of the thousand colors, the sun was rising. My mom woke me up with a smile on her face, that’s what I loved about my mom she smiled through all of life’s storms bravely. “Aurda, its time to wake up…” she had a sweet voice. I sat up and smiled at her then I yawned, I didn’t sleep at all last night, but I was fine. We had already packed everything up and my father had explained our plans of escape that morning. We were to take a cargo train that takes passengers to the far Westside of Kalopsia, then there was a cargo boat that would leave the tiny country and head for Mangata which neighbored Kalpa, we had friends in Kalpa that would care for us. It was risky but, its what we had to do. So it was decided. “Aurda, go, go wash up, I need to talk to your father.” my father smiled at me. He looked casual but professional. He wore black slacks, black shoes and his blonde hair was combed back. My mom as well looked nice, she pulled her red hair into a bun and wore a green dress. She looked a bit nervous, but she looked like she was ready to take on anything. “ try to look nice, it will send a good message to the people on the train.” I was nervous our plan wouldn’t work. I went down to the river to clean up. The water was so clean and fresh I wanted to stay forever. I remember as a child my father and mother taking me here and swimming we stayed out and watched the stars. My fathers name is Orion like the constellation so he had a thing for stars my mom as well, her name is Mabel, she loved to stare at them and tell me stories of the stars. Once I had washed up I decided what I would wear. My dark blue jeans and the black and white blouse I got for my fifteenth birthday. My parents packed it for me, they packed lots of stuff but I didn’t have time to look at it all. “ come now we must leave.” my mother said, and so we were off. The train wasn’t far away by walk it only took an hour to get there. We passed through the vast plain we slept in and then at the base of Takene no Hana mountain. The mountain like the valley was too beautiful for words, the beauty hadn’t been spoiled here yet. Flowers of all colors grew in the valley and on the mountain. In the winter months the mountains were kissed with a fine white sheet of snow. The water on the mountains was the purest on the land by far and the air was always cool fresh and crisp with a little sent of the ocean which was nearby. The sun was warm today it was one of those days the tourists would love. The train pulled in a long dark sleek machine simple looking all it did was move people and things. Everything in the mountains is simple, even the people. Their was a family of them at the station with us they wore dark clothes and hats, keeping there eyes on the ground. You could always tell that they were from the mountain, all of them had heterochromia. One blue eye one green, usually very rare but due to interbreeding in families they all had the same eyes. The conductor comes out and yells. “All aboard the Takene no Hana express!” We all hustled on to the train and gave him our tickets. Then we departed. The mountain scenery blazed by in flashing colors, reminding me of the time when me and my friends ran through the mountains together. Then we stopped, something exploded and we were on fire. People were screaming and there was blood everywhere. “Passengers, this isn’t your conductor speaking…. Now put your hands up or die like Mr. conductor did. I recognized that voice, the monster was on board with us.

It was a feeling of sinking, deep slow sinking, my heart being pulled in to the deepest depths of the ocean, no air to breathe. Somehow I felt as if I was being torn apart alive, in two pieces. I saw it in my mothers eyes and my fathers first. The anxiety was written in everyone’s eyes, was this it, am I to die like the hundreds at the hands of a hungry monster? Is this how I die, I asked myself. Is it better to die now or die later, alone or together? As much as I wanted to run, my father stopped me. He squeezed my wrist so tight it turned white, it was like he didn’t want me to move. my mom had passed out. No one dared move, everyone was like statues frozen in time. Then the monster came out of the front of the train with blood on his hands and shirt, the blood of the conductor. He was looking for his second victim, more blood to spill. “ Who wants to die first. No one spoke, just the smell of fear and blood. “c’mon, now its not that bad, just a bullet or to go through your body… its not that painful… “fine, we will just do it my way. with the flick of his hand, a storm began. A storm of bloody rain and thunderous screams. A hailing of bullets. Somewhere in that storm I got lost. I got mixed up in the bloody rain dodging the bullets like lightning and the falling bodies. in the blur of the storm I saw the monster smile. Somehow I managed to not die yet, I threw myself behind a booth and prayed for it to end. I hid while people were screaming, sending shivers down my spine making me shake. I saw bullets take off limbs and people fall to the floor in a daze with such a pained look in there eyes I felt there pain, a pain words can’t describe and even if they could I’m afraid to know such words. A child died, shot and he fell in front of me. Tears in his eyes he whispered for his mom, his soft whisper was the loudest voice there. “mommy, I’m scared. Mommy, mommy I need a band aid my boo- boo is bad and it hurts a lot.” the boy curled in a ball and cried harder. “Mommy mommy where are you? Momm.. His words became too soft to hear above the screams. But then the child saw me and screamed. Why couldn’t you save mommy! Why are you hiding!? Why are the scary peop… he never finished his sentence, he died by my feet. I placed my hand on his head and said, sorry, sorry I couldn’t stop the scary men, I just am not strong enough. The storm raged on and on and I couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. My parents were no where in sight but almost everyone was dead. The last few people had given up fighting, they knew it was inevitable they were going to die. My drowning feeling had only intensified itself, I was drowning in an ocean of fear so deep the top was no longer able to be seen. I never knew such a feeling existed until this moment I feared I’d lose everything that mattered, everything I loved. Then something snapped in me I didn’t fear the storm anymore, I feared what the storm would take.

I got up and faced the bullets none hit me. I wadded through the sea of lifeless humans and something died in me too. All the terror, sadness and anger was left on there faces. People holding children trying to hold them in a meager effort to save them. People holding hands and each other. The sun shone through the broken windows on the people and blood stained walls. A beautiful sunset, a canvas for a sky with oranges, soft gentle pinks, blood red streaks across the perfect canvas with the perfect touch of gold from the remaining sun. the colors were blended perfectly then broken into a mosaic by the windows. The golden light shone brightly on a sea of something like a sea of red hair.., like mothers. I’m crazy right, maybe its something else. I prayed so hard, just let it be me. But I was wrong. The sun light danced on her face making her look like an dead angel. her once rosy checks were now gray. Her hair was loose a matted mess of blood but still looked beautiful. Her petite frame just lay there like she was asleep. Maybe I am desperate, but I yelled at my mom to wake up, I shook her but she never did wake up. She was dead and I knew it, but I hated to accept that truth. Next to my mom was my satchel and a little note. “keep on living even if I’m not there with you. Get to the light at the end of the tunnel.” With love mom and dad I had searched the whole train, but my fathers body was nowhere to be found. I pray he escaped and wasn’t taken by the monster for the experiments. The experiments were when they tortured people and saw which one seemed to put them in the most agony. I was to weak to keep on looking in the bodies, it was to painful. It was to painful to know that I was the only one that was going to see the light at the end of the storm. It was to painful to know that I was the only one today, the only one to see the sunset beneath the waves By helena1765

Except for the shortest pieces, and often the least important to me, I conclude that prior planning keeps me on task and helps focus my writing. So…. October: The Myth, the Reality What is October? 1.Reality: it is ten days into autumn 2. Myth: it is time to pause or hurry A. to look at summer a. dry weather allows me to extend summer activities 1) hikes before snow or rain 2) last minute planting of over-wintering crops b. wet weather suggests looking at future indoor pursuits 1) inventory sewing projects, buy supplies 2) sort, file and elaborate on writing notes 3) focus on comfort-food cooking projects B. to anticipate winter a. put away garden items, hoses, mulch b. last gutter-sweep for storm prep c. new filters for furnace, complete linen change, wardrobe swap What is October? 1. Reality: month after September, before November A. generally still a part of harvest season 2. Myth: a time of special moods A. Stormy nights make us think a. of witches and black cats b. cocoa and marshmallows What is October? 1.Reality: Holiday pre-season A. Buying candy for Halloween B. Drawing up guest lists and gift lists a. depression- no fam or friends b. isolation, alone in lousy weather, low light 2.Myth: Future family togetherness A. Generosity a. candy for kids b. gifts for friends and family c. gifts for me too! B. Social outlets a. parties and sleepovers b. vacations in sunny spots I’m tired now! This took WAY more than 15 minutes! B. B. Love

Wow! October is a busy month for you.

Actually, Lillian, a lot of this is only thinking! And it is aimed at some audience(which I did not think too deeply about). So, there is a bit of scramble to get the hoses put away, but not a lot of outdoor stuff in winter-prep. Also, I don’t celebrate holidays per se, so that was thrown in there for “the audience.” I was just demonstrating an outline. Doing the work, ya know? Thanks for comments!

October. Sacred in our world as the month of pumpkin spice lattes and boozy halloween parties. It’s become something of a…mockery. Every year, children go out to stuff their faces with overflowing pumpkin heads of candy, and teens and adults take it as an excuse to do one more party, but dressed up. It seems as though everyone’s forgotten its true name: All Hallow’s Eve. And it seems as though they’ve forgotten why it was so significant- October 31 is the day where the veils between the our world and the Otherworld are the thinnest. It’s not the only date where the veils are weak, but it holds the most powerful It seems humans have forgotten that what lies in that world is not just silly bedsheet ghosts or ugly witches on broomsticks, but old things, forgotten ones. Those that were born from its mists, those so reheprenhisibly evil that they were sealed into the Otherworld. These are the monsters humanity turns its eye from, the very ones who would dearly love to shred the veil between the two worlds and crunch the flickering light bulb of humanity between their hungry, hungry teeth. It makes us humans a rather easy sport, you see. I wouldn’t classify humans as stupid, but most of them, especially the city dwellers, have forgotten a belief in the supernatural, or only bring it up whenever a new awful jump-scare movie comes to town. And ever so often, a creature that is cunning, powerful and hungry enough will slip through into our world. That’s what we’re here for. The rest of my group and I, I mean. The children that walk among the veils of the world. We fix holes in the veils and banish monsters that do manage to slip into our world. We are of both the Otherworld and this world- it is our duty and destiny, from the day we were born, to preserve the veil. To make sure that it is never gone. It would be absolute chaos if the two worlds were to slip and collide into each other. So of course, this story is about the day the veils collapsed and our worlds became absolute chaos.

I was going to write a story about halloween parties and psl lattes, but somehow it turned into this. Guess I really am a bit of a pantser.

I love what this became! My practice, too, became something else. Well done. Let me know when I can purchase the book this is destined to become.

Have you ever heard the term ‘sleeper agent’? Well, writing was my sleeper skill, talent (kinda) and passion. I did it as a child but, after primary school, stopped. In the beginning of this year I put pen to paper again and starting writing again. This time, it was real, I had started writing a Teen Fiction novel and I planned on posting it on WattPad. Six months later, aka now, it’s got around 3.000 reads and 600 votes on its current 19 chapters. This was an even bigger challenge due to the fact that I had an audience now and that I wasn’t writing in my native language, which is Portuguese, I was doing it in English, a language I started learning in 5th grade. The feedback has been amazing but the progress will be slow since you, like everyone else, start off as as undiscovered author with 0 practice but you will get better and you’re audience will get bigger if you committ to your books and follow your heart! If you want to share your work, create a book on WattPad and see the magic happen, good luck!

Wow, well done for sharing and getting some devoted readers! That should motivate you to finish! Later you can think about converting those readers into customers on Amazon! -Sef

Thank you so much, hopefully one day I’ll make that change ☺

I’m a pantser. Planning leads to too much self doubt, especially if I read any How To Do Writing type advice whilst trying to plan. Yet I DO plan – in my head. I think about what I’m writing all day, every day. This means that when I sit down I know what scene I’m writing and where it will go.

My main barrier to finishing has always been boredom, i.e. seeing another shiny new idea whilst still busy with the sludgy middle section of the last one. Solution? Write faster.

I have an idea I’ve been excited about for over a year, and writing on and off throughout that time (between other projects.) Right ow feels like the right time to complete that first draft. Can I do it before November and Nanowrimo when I have another project I want to do? I don’t know. But we’ll see. I’m avoiding setting myself deadlines and targets for this one – I tried that earlier this year and boy did it not work for me, psychologically.

I usually write between 1100 and 2500 words a day, mostly late at night after work, or in my lunchbreak. Finishing a novel in 6 months sounds more than possible to me – if I can keep momentum. Fingers crossed! -Sef

October Tale by Bruce Carroll

A real-life story about the month of October.

Ever year, for five or six weekends in September and October, monsters invade the theme park.

It is all part of Fright Fest, a spooky celebration at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. I have worked as one of the scaractors (scary actors) in the park for five seasons, now. I’ve played a zombie pawn shop owner, a demonic “Founding Father” figure, and a clown (or as we scareactors like to refer to it on social media, a klown). There are monsters in haunted houses and monsters on the midway. I’m usually one of the “street actors,” delivering my scares on the midway.

Last season, there were two major changes to Fright Fest. First was a new guideline referred to as #NoMercy. The monsters come out at six p.m. Anyone in the park after that time is a fair target. We are allowed to scare anyone, of any age, virtually anywhere in the park. The second change was the addition of a new character, Nox, the Demon Overlord of Fright Fest.

Nox is big. Nox is scary. At just a tad over seven feet tall with a strong baritone voice, Nox easily inspires terror in the hearts of nearly every guest in the park. But he also inspires admiration.

This past weekend, a little girl came to the park. She met Nox and became a huge fan.

That very night, she went home. She had an idea; a creative project she wanted to do. She asked for her parents’ help, and they gladly gave it.

The next day, the little girl came back to Fright Fest. She was dressed as Nox himself! Her parents had helped her modify a mask to look like the Demon Overlord. Nox saw her, and was pleased. (His response was, “I have no words.”) He dubbed this new, junior demon Nyx.

I don’t know what other name you go by, Nyx, but I am glad to have you as a part of our monstrous family. Let the scaring begin!

It was adorable. I’ll be recycling this practice as a blog post on Monday; the post will include pictures of both Nox and Nyx.

authorbrucecarroll.com

Monica, from the article (especially the first paragraph) I wasn’t sure whether you meant getting the first draft out in six months or the whole ready-to-publish novel. I’ll assume you’re talking about first drafts here.

I’m a pantser, and I’ll let the characters run and plot the whole mess as I go. I might have more than one alternate ending, depending. So my first draft will have a lot of wrong turns and experiments that go nowhere. I’m perfectly okay with that. My idea of a first draft is to just to get the story down on paper. I’ll figure it out later, before starting second draft.

I normally do first drafts during NaNoWriMo months. No reason, it’s just there. But I’ll pound out my first drafts standing up, on a big noisy 1940s-vintage manual typewriter. I love the noise, and the act of writing becomes borderline violent.

Hey Monica,

Thank you for this timely post. I’m starting to write a visual novel recently as a hobby and it’s great to hear others’ work process.

What I like the most is that you mentioned the importance of planning before hand. When I first started, I though writers has to be those self-inspired folks who are able to create all sorts of things once they sit down and type.

But that’s not always the case. Sometimes you’ll need to plan, sometimes you’ll need to push through the will to just give it up.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers, Anh

Really great ideas. I’m both a Pantser and Planner. I find that I have an idea and sometimes will start writing it out. When my brain starts to delve an entire story without the details, I’ll write an outline and then fill in the blanks. I’ll even make a to do list of questions, research, creations.

The problem I’m having with this story is that I had a storyline/outline and when I was writing some scenes down that I knew will at least be in there (not sure where exactly) an idea of the story came to mind which actually may change my original theory.

Which isn’t bad – just makes things more interesting lol

The drunken old lady muse in my head, adds whatever pantsiness to any planning I do (which is over 2/3 of this game …) … I am down to “her” as my last remaining muse … I said good bye to Drs. Phil and Oz as my muses …

Best thing that happened? She’s less abusive to me than she was. Still feisty, as in any boss-of-self that matters. She wants me to do only touch challenges like this one.

Pretending this is my ¼” quad ruled paper I write this on:

A. Writing a story about a Halloween party “gone wrong” 1.

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How to write a book in six months – the key milestones

If you’re thinking about writing a book, how long will it take you to do it?

I believe a good timeline is to give yourself six months to write a book.

In December, I ran a Book Masterclass when I went through the process of writing and publishing a book, focusing on the 10 Authority Principles from my sixth book, Becoming An Authority . I shared an infographic showing what needs to be done and when if you want to get your written and published by Christmas 2020, 12 months from the date I wrote this blog post.

So what needs to happen and by when to write a book in six months?

Preparation.

The biggest mistake that many business authors make is writing their book without a plan. The first four Authority Principles are all about the preparation, which will make it easier to write your authority building book.

Things like…

Starting with the end in mind . You need to be clear about what you’re writing, who you’re writing it for and what problem you’re potentially addressing. You need to be clear on what you want your book to do for you, your business and the lives of your readers.

Then you need to get focused on your subject . If you’re like most business owners, there’s probably tons of information you can share, so what needs to go in this book? If you don’t know, do your market research before you get started.

What makes you different? What’s your hook or secret sauce ? This is the third principle. When there are hundreds, if not thousands, of books written on your topic, what makes your book stand out?

And then it’s time to hone the structure . Your book should take your readers on a journey. What’s the first thing you need to cover? The second thing? Etc… When I work one-to-one with clients, we map out the book in a fair amount of detail before they start to write it.

Scheduling and scribing – the writing bit

Let’s now take the writing part. If you can dedicate half a day a week, then you should be able to write your book in five months.

And when I say four hours a week, I mean four hours a week of productive and uninterrupted working time. Not four hours when you decide to check your social media first, reply to your emails or put the washing out!

Let me break this down.

If you could write for four hours a week, based on writing 2,500 quality words, whether this is in one focused block or for an hour each day, then you would be able to write a 50,000-word book in five months.

It doesn’t have to be perfect at this stage, but it needs to flow, as otherwise the editing side of things will be painful. Believe me, I know!

Then it’s time for editing your book, peer review, and a few tweaks before reaching final manuscript stage. Plus thinking about your foreword, reviews, oh and let’s not forget marketing it!

With the copy-editing, proofreading, design and publishing taking around four months, you’ll be well in time for Christmas 2020!

How to make your book happen

If you are ready to make your book happen, how can I help you?

As you can imagine, there are lots of fiddly bits involved with getting a book out there. It’s not as simple as writing something, uploading it to Amazon and sitting back to let the money flood in!

If you’re writing a book to build your business, then it’s important to focus on how you can make this happen and what needs to be included in the book – and what needs to be left out – to ensure that it happens.

And having accountability, support and a place to go for advice will help you to get there. Plus marketing hints and tips so that you can build your community whilst writing it.

That’s why I launched the Smart Author System in 2020. When you’re ready to write your book,  click here  to join all the other authors self-funding their progress in a way that pretty much guarantees their future readers will love the content. And funds your publishing!

Lastly, here’s the Infographic I mentioned above.

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12 Steps to Write a Bestselling Novel (in less than 6 months)

Hi, I’m John Fox, and as an editor I’ve helped hundreds of authors write, edit and publish their novels.

If you’re planning on writing a novel, you’ve come to the right place. Let me guide you through the process.

Now, you’re probably intimidated to write a novel. You should be. At least a little. They’re difficult labyrinths and most writers get stuck at the beginning or halfway through and they never finish.

But you can do it. No, it isn’t easy, but it’s not as painful as many would-be authors think.

The trick is to ignore about 90% of the advice out there. Because there’s lots of robot-like corporations and wannabe writers out there dispensing advice, and most of it is washed up and cliche.

I’m going to give you true and honest advice that will be the best you’ve ever gotten — I swear it. This is advice I’ve assembled after editing hundreds of novels and guiding hundreds of authors to award-winning books.

By the time you’ve finished reading this, you will have learned how to:

• Come Up with an Idea
• Figure out the Storyteller
• Select a Starting Point
• Propel your Story
• Develop Your Character
• Create Supporting Characters
• Develop a World
• Advance your Plot
• Bring in the Bigger Picture
• Take the Plunge
• Write a Smash-Bang Climax
• Close out the Story

1. Come up with an Idea

You probably already have an idea for your novel. So my goal is to help you refine that idea so that it will sell lots of copies (you want to sell lots of copies, don’t you?)

Bestsellers are not made through marketing and hiring marketing gurus — bestsellers are born when you come up with a fantastic idea for your book.

A good way to find your idea is to ask the question, “What if?”

• What if dinosaurs were brought to life and put in a zoo, but then they escaped? ( Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton)
• What if a missionary was sent to convert aliens to Christianity? ( The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber)
• What if a black man tried to reinstate slavery and segregation in modern America? ( The Sellout by Paul Beatty)

Your book should sound as interesting as those do — it should immediately pique the reader’s interest.

Now you need to take that “What If” and phrase it as a single-sentence statement. It should have several components:

• Main character
• Opposition/Conflict
• Surprising Element

Here’s one from Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island :

Another way to generate a one-sentence pitch or logline for your book is to use this formula:

The protagonist + their goal + opposition.

This example is from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”:

Then try out your one-sentence description on some folks. Do they seem excited or bored?

You want to make them say: “Oooo, I’d read that in a heartbeat.” Then you know you’ve struck gold.

2. Figure out the Storyteller

There are three steps to figuring out the right storyteller for your novel.

1. Pick your Storyteller

This isn’t as obvious as it seems.

Sherlock Holmes never got to tell his own tales — Watson was the one who narrated every single mystery .

In “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold, the murdered girl tells the story. Yes, from beyond the grave.

Don’t be afraid to pick someone on the sidelines of your story to tell the story, or someone 30 years after the story is done, or a narrator who isn’t alive. Unusual narrators make for fascinating stories.

2. Pick your Point of View

• First Person — I shot the robber.
• Third Person — She shot the robber.
• Omniscient — The sad orphan shot the robber.

First person is easiest if you don’t want to mess anything up. Just talk about what the storyteller knows.

Third person can be difficult because most writers tend to slip out of the point of view of this character (they accidentally start using omniscient).

And omniscient is great but many writers get flummoxed by the sheer possibility of a trillion story opportunities (it’s awfully complex).

3. Pick your Psychic Distance

This is what most beginning writer’s forget about. How close will the reader be to the storyteller?

• Sometimes readers are right inside their heads, listening to every breath and every thought.
• Sometimes readers are seeing the bird’s eye view of characters’ actions, from far away.

You have to decide how intimate you want the reader to get with your characters.

First person tends to be more intimate, while omniscient tends to be more standoffish, but not always — some writers reverse this.

Pro tip: If you have a disagreeable, unlikable character, don’t get too close in terms of psychic distance. The reader will recoil.

And if you are writing omniscient, make sure to take advantage of that all-knowing eye. Talk about minor characters, talk about characters’ pasts and their histories. Talk about details about the world only an omniscient character would know.

3. Select a Starting Point

Most of the time, writers pick the wrong place to start their book. Even really smart, well-published writers like Jonathan Safran Foer .

It took him months of writing to realize that the beginning of his novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” wasn’t the right place to start, so he deleted the first 12 pages and started on page 13.

Here are three options to help you pick a place to start your book:

• Start close to the inciting incident (preferably, in media res , meaning in the middle)
• Start with conflict and action
• Start with an event that showcases your character’s personality

Don’t be afraid to flail about and write a chapter to discover the true beginning of your book. You might have to delete that early writing, but remember that writing is a process of discovery. You don’t get it right at the first moment.

I’ve written about starting a novel before, so if you’re stuck, I’d recommend checking out these posts:

• 20 Strategies to Write Your Novel’s First Paragraph
• 25 Terrible Ways to Start a Novel

In general, try to start as close as you can to the true beginning of your novel, meaning the event that launches the plot.

How Quickly Do Novels Start?

Many start right away

Most start quickly

Rarely, books start late

What does it mean to “start” your novel? Well, to reveal the central conflict or issue that will propel the storyline.

And from the graphic above, you can see that 95% of the time, that happens in the first chapter (often on the first page).

That means a prologue, which doesn’t involve your main character and doesn’t launch the main storyline, is not as common as most writers think.

4. Propel Your Story

After the first chapter or two, where you should have started your story, now it’s time to accelerate your story into the middle.

Since the beginning of your novel launched the problem, at this point you need your main character to try to solve that problem. Often, this means your character is changing from someone who gets acted upon (passive) into someone who acts on others (active).

Try using Carl Jung’s character archetypes to clarify this point in the journey:

• In your first chapter, your character is an Orphan (suffered a loss, a tragedy, a problem)
• In your early novel, your character is a Wanderer (trying to find solutions to his problems)
• In your middle novel, your character is a Warrior (fighting for a solution)

3 CHARACTER ARCHETYPES

In the 1st Chapter, your orphan has suffered a loss, a tragedy, or has a problem.

In the early novel, your character is a wanderer, trying to find solutions to their problems.

In the middle novel, your character is a warrior, fighting for what they want.

So for this early novel, how will your character “wander?” What steps will he or she take to solve the problem of the beginning of your book? Here are some examples of wandering:

• Start a journey
• Make a huge decision and act on that decision
• Try to figure out the solution for a problem

For an example, let’s look at The Martian by Andy Weir, where an astronaut is stranded on Mars (played by Matt Damon in the movie).

In the early novel, this astronaut is wandering by:

• figuring out how to farm
• figuring out how to avoid suffocation
• figuring out how to communicate with earth

5. Develop Your Character

Characters sell books.

Characters ARE books.

You can’t write a book without a character. And no bestseller has characters that are lackluster and forgettable.

I would suggest coming up with a character by combining three pieces. This is my strategy that I outlined in my “ Triangle Method of Character Creation ” course. You will take one thing from each category and combine them to create a new, fictional character:

• Friend . I take one personality or physical trait from someone I know. Perhaps they hate heat. Perhaps they are easily insulted.
• Yourself. You should take one element from yourself. Make this the most personal one: perhaps you’ve always hated your mother or your father.
• Imagination . Make one thing up entirely. This is a piece that’s needed to fit your particular story. For instance, the character’s occupation is underwater welder.

Combine all three of those elements and you have a newly minted character, someone who has never existed before. Congrats!

I’ve written at length about developing characters in my article on “ 12 Steps to Develop a Memorable Character .” Check that out to continue to fuel your character building.

Now that you have a character, it’s time to get to know them a little bit better. Run through this simple exercise and you’ll feel like this character is your new best bud.

Here are five things every author should know about their characters:

• Their Addiction . I’m not only talking about drugs or alcohol. I’m talking about coffee. Video games. A sense of power or control. Feeling like a victim. Sex. Nobody is free of addiction. Every character NEEDS something, they crave something, and once you figure it out, you’ll draw a much more accurate picture of them.
• Their Body . Not just what they look like, but how they dress. What they hate about themselves. What has hurt their body in the past. How they exercise (or don’t exercise). If you know a character’s body, you will know how they live and move and exist in the world. We all live inside bodies — know what your character’s is like.
• Their Social Life . Are they introverts or extroverts? How do they treat authority figures? Do they have lots of friends or few friends? Are they forthcoming with people or do they hide it all inside? What is their relationship with their parents? Knowing how your character reacts to other humans is essential.
• Their Backstory . Every character has something that has happened to them in the past. You must know how those experiences shaped them. Not just traumatic experiences, but also the great memories as well.
• Their Beliefs . Every character thinks something about the world. They have ideas and philosophies. They have political beliefs, and religious beliefs, and economic beliefs. How do these impact who they are and what they do? To have a motivated character, you need a character with strong beliefs.

If you want to develop your character even more, I would recommend using my 4 Questionnaires for Characters , with more than 60 questions and exercises to help you get to know your character better.

6. Create Supporting Characters

No protagonist does it all on their own.

They need characters to help them along the way, characters like:

• an antagonist

Well, that last one doesn’t help them exactly. But it does help you to tell a much more interesting story!

The point is that you need to do characterization for sidebar characters, so the reader feels intimacy with them.

To develop these characters, you need to figure out three questions:

• How are they different from your main character?
• How do they impact the plot?
• How are they different from each other?

If you want to learn more about supporting characters, I have a whole video and exercise for supporting characters (and how they’re different from minor characters) in my 36-video course, “ Write Your Best Novel .”

And of course you need to come up with incredible names that are memorable and very different from each other. Consult my resource on 13 Strategies to Name Your Character to help you with this.

7. Develop a World

If you’re writing sci-fi or fantasy or dystopia, you are literally creating a world out of scratch.

You get to decide the:

And obviously if you’re writing historical fiction, you’re assembling a world through your research.

But even if you’re writing literary or crime or romance, writing in our normal, current world, you’re still doing world building. Every detail you select creates a portrait of what the universe of your book is like.

Even something as trivial as describing breakfast can tell the reader a ton about these characters and this world, as Margaret Atwood notes :

“I like to wonder what people would have for breakfast, and where they would get those food items, and whether or not they would say a prayer over them, and how they would pay for them, and what they would wear during that meal, and, if cooked, how, and what sort of bed they would have arisen from, and what else they might be doing while having the breakfast … Breakfast can take you quite far.”

Part of world creating is choosing surprising, unusual details. And choosing unusual character mannerisms .

You would think that all these small things don’t matter as much as the plot, but you would be wrong. All these little small details that you wedge into your story, alongside the plot and dialogue and character building, they create a texture for your book. They make the reader feel like they’re being transported.

Three quick examples of fun details:

•  “Then one of the monkeys caught sight of some life form in the hair of his little girl and reached up and snatched it off her scalp and swallowed it.” (Ann Patchett, State of Wonder )
• “The baggage-claim crowd was like a group of colorful stragglers in front of some third-rate nightclub: sunburns, disco shirts, tiny bejeweled Asian ladies with giant logo sunglasses.” (Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch )
• In a funeral pyre for his mother: “The toes, which were melting in the heat, began to curl up, offering resistance to what was being done to them.” (Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger )

8. Advance your Plot

Okay, so you’ve had your character desires struggle and flail against obstacles and escalated obstacles, but you’re only two-thirds of the way through your book. What do you do now?

Let me give you four additional techniques that writers often use to throw a wrench in their protagonist’s plans, just before they reach the climax.

• Examples: Reveal the true identity of the informant — it’s the main character’s son! The bomb is actually in America, not in Afghanistan. He has two wives, not just the one.
• Examples: The guards came back early. The wife came back early. The baby was born with health problems.
• Examples: The Martians who were their allies turn out to be turncoats. At first they wanted to sabotage a gathering of world leaders, and now they want to protect it.
• Examples: After decades of being a pacifist, your character decides to kill someone. Your character decides to head behind enemy lines. Your character decides to marry his best friend’s fiance.

The overarching strategy for moving your plot forward is escalation. Every single step of the story should get the reader closer to that climax. Things need to be tougher. They need to seem like failure is right around the corner.

If you get stuck on plotting, look at my 9 story structures — it’s a very helpful resource to help you sketch out the plot of your whole book.

9. Bring in the Bigger Picture

Good stories never exist in a vacuum. You have to connect your book with the conversations that your reader already knows.

Here are three ways to connect your book to the world:

Connect your story to history . Whether you’re writing during the time of 9/11 or the Civil War or a pandemic, books that take place around historical events have weight. Find what is happening in the world during your story and connect your small story to that larger story. Readers instantly connect with your book because they already have an emotional connection to the historical event.

• All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer took place during WWII, and that gives the book gravitas and meaning.
• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen takes place during the Vietnam War, both in Vietnam and in the United States.
• The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck taps into the struggles during the Great Depression.

Connect your story to ideas . What is the bigger picture idea you’re wrestling with in your book? It could be about the price of freedom, the ethics of reproduction, the responsibility to the environment, the struggle between the genders, duty to one’s country, or the difficulty of romance. Make your characters talk directly about these big picture ideas.

• John Green’s The Fault in our Stars talked about the endurance of love in the most difficult of situations (both teens have cancer).
• Patrick DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers wrestled with the immorality of greed (they find a huge gold deposit).
• Ann Patchett’s “State of Wonder” dealt with the ethics of reproduction (they found a drug that enabled women in their 60s or 70s to have babies).

Connect your story to an argument . Make sure you know what you want to say with this story. In other words, have a point to make. You shouldn’t start your story with an argument in mind, but it will arise naturally as you write the book. Make characters and plot most essential, and layer in your argument as the story unfolds.

• Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale was an argument against patriarchal societies and the imprisonment of women.
• Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea was about the perseverance of the human spirit against nature.
• Dave Egger’s The Circle argued that privacy is necessary and good, and social media can be dangerous.

10. Take the Plunge

So many writers make the mistake of being too kind to their protagonist. They never really bring them to their lowest point.

Which is a shame, because readers need that low point — or plunge — to make them feel the tension. Bring your protagonist to the lowest point of despair:

• Make them believe everything is hopeless
• Make them believe they’re worthless
• Make them believe that they’ve failed at their goal

Unless you bring your character to their absolute low point, you will never convince the reader that things might go badly. And so when you have a happy ending, it won’t feel very satisfying, because the reader was never worried.

Ideally, you want the plunge to happen just before the climax, so the contrast is strong.

• Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”: The father dies just before the boy is rescued .
• Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects”: The daughter is depressed and letting her mother poison her before they solve the murders .

11. Write a Smash-Bang Climax

Oh, this part of the book is a boobytrap for writers. It’s easy to trigger all sorts of tripwires and fall into so many spiked pits.

Let me save you some trouble by telling you what a good climax should do:

• Should fulfill the main character’s desires . Whatever the protagonist has been going after for the whole book, this is where you deliver that desire. (or fail to fulfill, if this is a tragedy). If you’re writing a bittersweet book, you can fulfill one of the character’s desires (to the win the girl’s heart) but not other (they lose the championship game). Bittersweet endings are excellent because they make the reader happy and also avoid being cheesy and unrealistic.
• There are certain expectations of, say, the romance genre. Most of the time the couple gets together. Sometimes they don’t. But either way, the relationship question has to be resolved.
• Historical: stick with history, but also deliver a surprise between the lines of history. The climax is often a better known historical event. HOW is happens must be a surprise.
• Fantasy must deliver a climax that uses the magic in their world in some way: a climax that’s reliant upon the rules of worldbuilding you’ve done all along in your book.
• For literary works, there’s often a certain amount of subtlety or ambiguity or complexity about the climax.
• Give Every Character a Role to Play . The hero can’t succeed on their own. This is the most common mistake I see in climaxes. For example, in Dune, our main hero Paul is unconscious. And it takes his mother and his girlfriend to help revive him. They have to play detective to figure out why he’s comatose. Only then can he lead everyone in war. Without those two supporting characters, the hero would never have succeeded.
• Resolve all the conflicts . This climax should resolve the main conflict of the book, the internal conflict of the protagonist, and any other loose conflicts (otherwise, you better resolve them right after the climax).

12. Close Out the Story

Once you’re ready to finish up the story, you need to take these three steps at the end:

1. Show Character Change

As you’re trying to wrap up your book, the most important question is: how has your character changed?

Character change is one of the most satisfying elements of storytelling. A character who remains the same is a boring character.

So ask yourself:

• How has this character evolved or shifted over the course of the story?
• What have they learned?
• What will they do differently from now on?

2. Tidy up Plot Strands

If there is a minor or supporting character who has a story, make sure you tell the reader how it ended.

If there are any questions left in the reader’s mind (but what happened to X?) then this is the place to resolve those questions.

The end of a story works like a piece of music — you want to resolve to the tonic chord, so everything seems right with the world. That means you need to provide the answers that the reader has been seeking for the whole book.

3. Highlight your Theme

The most difficult part of a book is knowing how to write the last few paragraphs. Here are three tips:

• End on dialogue. At the end of Walter Tevis’s The Queen’s Gambit , the heroine asks, “Would you like to play chess?” It’s the perfect line of dialogue to wrap up a chess novel.
• End on a thematic note . What is your book about? P.D. James’ The Children of Men is about a world where no one can have babies any more. The human race is dying out. So of course the book ends on the birth of a baby, the first baby in decades.
• End on a departure . Just as the reader is about to say goodbye to the book, have a main character say goodbye. In “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’engle, Mrs. Whatsit departs in a gust of wind.
• End on a decision . At the end of Alexander McCall Smith’s #1 Ladies Detective Agency, a man proposes to the main character. And even though she has refused him before, this time she finally says yes.

Here on Bookfox I have a post about how to end your chapters, and many of the ideas are relevant when you’re trying to end your book: 12 Ways to End Your Chapter .

Lastly, I have a post which gives 100 examples of story endings , and which can be very useful in helping you generate possible ideas for ending your book.

How long does it take to write a novel?

Most writers can finish a rough draft in about 6 months. But I’ve seen some writer blaze through a draft in 4 weeks, while others take two or three years.

How long are most novels?

Don’t write a novel more than 100,000 words — it’s tougher to get it published. And if you write something under 70,000 words, it’s too short.

So aim for 70k – 100k words (and never cite page count — writers only use word count).

Can I actually finish a novel?

Yes. Absolutely, you can. I’ve helped hundreds of writers, most of whom had never written a book before, finish their novel. It is possible. All you need is to follow the advice above (and if you want extra help, take my course on how to write a novel ).

What if I get Writer’s Block?

Writer’s Block is part of the creative process, and it’s natural and normal. To get past it, I would recommend:

• reading my article on 25 Ways to Defeat Writer’s Block
• watching my YouTube video
• taking my online course, “ Master Your Writing Habits .”

Should I self publish or traditionally publish?

So for self-publishing, there’s lots of upsides: there’s no wait time, and you get complete control of the project (such as cover art and illustration), and there’s not that much of a cost if you do it all yourself.

But … you have to do all the marketing yourself, and you don’t have anyone to guide you through the process, and you don’t have the prestige of being published by a traditional publisher. You should do self-publishing if you’re a real go-getter and you think you can get the word out there about your book. (Here are 7 self-publishing success stories ).

For traditional publishing, there are also many upsides: you would get an advance (money is nice!), they would handle all the proofreading, ISBN, illustrations, cover art, etc, and they would give you some guidance with how to do the marketing and promotion.

But … it can be very hard to get an acceptance from a publisher. Sometimes you have to send the book out for a year or two, submitting to a hundred outlets or more. Go this route if you have a lot of patience and you want the book to reach a wider audience.

Please comment below with any questions you have and check out my course on “ Write Your Best Novel .”

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Very interesting and informative.

“John Matthew fox” I’ve been reading his articles for months now and I can say, they’ve all been amazing. His articles and post are just the right food a writer needs to move on and complete a story. His not only an awesome author but also a great editor and mentor.

I really appreciate your advice. It made sense and very helpful. Helped me alot with my current book I am writing. Thank you.

Just so you know, a piece of music ends on the tonic, not the dominant. Other than that, thanks for the article.

Wow! I wish I had discovered this advice 30 years ago. But better late than never. I would be thrilled to write my novel at age 70!

What if you have many ideas inside your head? I mean, several universes all at once? And you just can’t decide on a single one? What to do then? How to single out that one idea to work on?

Every writer NEEDS this book.

It’s a guide to writing the pivotal moments of your novel.

Whether writing your book or revising it, this will be the most helpful book you’ll ever buy.

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Last updated on Feb 21, 2022

How Long Does It Take To Write a Book?

Of all the questions that arise when you're learning how to write a book for the first time, the most pressing of all might be: just how long does it take to write a book? After all, you wouldn’t embark on a road trip without knowing how many hours you’d be in the car. It’s only natural to want to have a timeline in mind for this journey, too!

To that end, we’ve created this post all about how long it takes to write a book, including typical figures and factors to consider when adjusting your expectations. And for those who want to speed things up, we have actionable tips to help you shorten your writing time and get that manuscript done!  Now, since time is of the essence, let’s begin.

How long does it take to write a book?

Based on data from a 2021 survey Reedsy conducted, it takes most authors six months to a year to write a book. A writer's timeline depends on the genre of the novel, the word count of the story, the amount of research you do, and the time you spend editing the completed draft. 

Of course, every author is different, and there are famously wild outliers from the range above. Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in just three weeks, whereas The Catcher in the Rye took J.D. Salinger 10 years to finish! (Though to be fair, he was pretty busy fighting in World War II at the time.) Even a single author may have totally different timelines for different books — for example, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks, while David Copperfield took him over a year.

All this is to say that there is no wrong amount of time to write a book. If you manage to write all day, every day, maybe it takes less than a month! Or if you’re meticulously constructing a thousand-page historical fiction novel, it might take an entire decade. But if you’re writing a typical novel ( 50,000 words or more ) on a typical schedule (a few hours of writing per week), you’ll likely fall somewhere in that 6-to-12-month range.

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How long does it take to write a children’s book?

We’ll include the caveat here that writing a children’s book does take less time than writing a full-length novel. Though one can’t underestimate the degree of care and effort that goes into writing for kids , the fact of the matter is, their books are shorter and therefore less time-consuming to create.

Here’s how long it takes to write children’s books, on average:

• Picture books (500-1,000 words) — 1-2 weeks
• Early reader books (1,000-2,500 words) — up to a month
• Chapter books (10,000-15,000 words) — 1-3 months
• Middle-grade novels (25,000+ words) — 3-6 months

Keep in mind that with a kids’ book, you’ll probably spend more time thinking about the story than actually writing it. This is especially true for picture books and early reader books, which need strong concepts behind them in order to sell! While there may only be 500 words in a picture book, every single word needs to count — so don’t assume it will be easy just because the writing time is relatively short.

How much should you write per day?

The other burning question when it comes to writing timelines is: how much should you actually be writing every day? While we can’t give a universal decree, we’d suggest that beginners aim for 3-4 writing sessions per week, at around 500 words per session.

How did we conjure up with these session and word count goals ? Well, based on our collective experience and testimony from other writers , 500 words/session seems to be the perfect balance of substantial and manageable: enough to make progress without getting too overwhelmed.

Indeed, many writers advocate not just 500 words per session, but 500 words every single day. While you might work up to this eventually — and if you’ve had lots of writing practice, you may already be there! — we still recommend starting off fairly easy with 3-4 sessions a week. Once you’ve got this schedule down pat, you can move onto more frequent sessions and higher word count goals. In the meantime, we have some calculations to help you along.

Here’s how long it takes to write a book based on our daily writing guidelines:

• 50,000-word book — 5-8 months
• 75,000-word book — 8-12 months
• 100,000-word book — 1-1.5 years
• 125,000-word book or more — 1.5+ years

PS. Curious about average word counts in your genre? Check out this post!

How many pages is 500 words?

In a standard word processor, 500 words = 1 single-spaced page or 2 double-spaced pages. However, in a book, it’s about 1.25-1.5 pages.

So if you’d prefer to think in terms of pages rather than words, try to write about 5-10 book pages per week. Most people stick to word count-based goals for convenience’s sake — otherwise you’ll have to translate your word processor pages into “book pages” every time. But if you think tangibly tracking your pages will help, you can always write on the Reedsy Book Editor , which automatically formats your book as you go.

Should you do NaNoWriMo?

If you’re hoping to get a first draft done ASAP, you might consider participating in NaNoWriMo — an annual event during which writers attempt to complete a 50,000-word novel in a month. NaNoWriMo can be a great incentive to write quickly, and the NaNo community is an amazing source of advice and support. If you can handle the intensity, then by all means, go for it!

However, note that NaNoWriMo is designed to help you write more , not better. Many NaNoWriMo winners — especially first-timers — find themselves doing extensive rewrites and edits in the months that follow, because the first draft is usually a hot mess.

This may not matter to you if your first priority is getting words down on the page. But if you want to minimize the editing time ( and editing costs! ) on your book, you should probably skip NaNo for the time being.

Tips to cut your writing time in half

Speaking of minimizing, we certainly wouldn’t leave you without a repertoire of time-saving tips! If you follow all our advice, it’s definitely possible to write your book in just three to six months — essentially cutting the average writing time in half.

That said, it takes some serious discipline to get a book done that fast . Don’t set goals that you aren’t prepared to meet, lest you end up more discouraged than ever. But if a few months of sacrifice sounds like a worthy tradeoff for a finished manuscript , read on!

1. Work from an outline

As most experienced writers will know, the work always goes a lot faster when you outline first . For some, outlining will be second nature, while for others it’s like pulling teeth — especially if you’re a “pantser” who prefers to improvise as you go. But regardless of your natural inclination, if you want to cut down on writing time, outlining is the only way forward.

Now, your outline doesn’t have to be intensely detailed, nor is it impervious to change! You just need a framework so you don’t either a) write too much irrelevant content that later gets cut, or b) find yourself stuck on what should come next. Both these scenarios are massive time-wasters that can set you back weeks if you’re not careful.

So pantsers: suck it up and make an outline. It can be a standard chapter-by-chapter synopsis outline, a “mind map,” or a character-based plan. Whatever helps you stay organized, do it! An organized outline is absolutely paramount to reducing how long it takes to write a book.

2. Set deadlines and track your progress

Experienced writers will also know that having the outline isn’t enough. You'll still need a concrete plan for filling it out — that’s where deadlines and progress tracking come in.

You already know that your word count goals should be around 500 words per writing session, but how does this translate into chapter deadlines? Well, most chapters are 2,000 to 5,000 words long , so it should take you about 1-3 weeks per chapter when you’re first starting out.

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What you should really do is determine how long each of your chapters will be, and give yourself appropriate deadlines for each. For example, a short chapter can be completed in a week, whereas a meatier chapter with more important details may be closer to 2-3 weeks. Be honest about how much time it should take — don’t set a lazy three-week deadline for a 2,000-word chapter!

And how do you make sure you’re meeting the deadlines you set? Progress tracking! There are some great writing apps, like Ink On and Word Keeper , to help you keep track of your word count goals, time your sessions, and maintain summaries and stats for all projects.  You can also create a simple spreadsheet and keep track of your session times and WC milestones in there; again, whatever helps you stay organized!

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3. Find an accountability partner

Other than progress tracking, having a writing partner is probably the best thing you can do for your productivity. Indeed, those who have trouble staying accountable may find that another person is just the motivation they need.

That doesn’t mean it has to be someone you know IRL. Though it’s great to work together in person, you can always find a writing buddy (or several) through online writing communities and forums, which include people from all over the world. This may even be better than working with someone you know, because you’ll be more objective with each other: about goals, deadlines, and even feedback if you decide to swap manuscripts.

The key thing with a writing partner is to stay in constant contact. That way, if one of you falls off the writing wagon, the other one can provide a pep talk — and maybe some gentle guilt-tripping — to get them back on right away.

4. Never go more than two days without writing

Remember when we mentioned “long breaks” as one factor affecting your writing timeline? Well, it might sound obvious, but if you want to finish your book faster, don’t take breaks. Or at least, don’t take breaks for more than a day or two.

This is because, if you’re aiming to write a book in three to six months, you simply can’t afford it. Not only will you lose precious writing time, you’ll also lose the “flow” that you obtain after writing for several days in a row. Even a 24-hour break can wreak havoc on your creative sensibilities, so try to write at least a little bit every day! Remember: 100 words of “flow maintenance” is still better than nothing.

5. Get used to the “pressure cooker”

The truth is, if you’re trying to write a book in under six months, it’s going to get intense. Most writers have day jobs, many have families, and of course there’s the constant juggling of hobbies and social obligations. Cram in writing on top of that, and you might feel like your head is literally going to explode.

But don’t give up before you’ve even started! The first few weeks are the most painful, and after that — well, things don’t get easier , per se, but you grow accustomed to the pressure cooker. Believe it or not, it’s actually better to be busy; when you don’t have very much free time, you tend to build extremely efficient habits.

Still not sure you can do it? Well, perhaps this next section will inspire you…

How long did it take these famous authors to write their books?

We mentioned Kerouac, Salinger, and Dickens earlier, but here’s some more trivia about famous authors and how long it took to write their novels!

👦🏻 John Boyne took 3 days to write The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

🔥 Ray Bradbury took 2.5 weeks to write Fahrenheit 451

🔎 Arthur Conan Doyle took 3 weeks to write A Study in Scarlet

🧛 Stephenie Meyer took 3 months to write Twilight

🤴Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took 6 months to write The Little Prince

💔 Emily Brontë took 9 months to write Wuthering Heights

👒 Jane Austen took 10 months to write Pride and Prejudice

🌪️ L. Frank Baum took 1 year to write The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

🧟 Mary Shelley took 1 year to write Frankenstein

👻 Toni Morrison took 1.5 years to write Beloved

🍾 F. Scott Fitzgerald took 2.5 years to write The Great Gatsby

👩 Gillian Flynn took 3 years to write Gone Girl

⚔️ George R.R. Martin took 5 years to write A Game of Thrones

⚡J.K. Rowling took 6 years to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

🌬️ Margaret Mitchell took 10 years to write Gone With The Wind

💍 J.R.R. Tolkien took 16 years to write The Lord of the Rings

We’ll end with this: how long it takes to write a book is almost entirely dependent on you. If you want to finish it as soon as possible, the best thing you can do is start today! So get off the Internet, and get cracking on that manuscript.

Another way to speed up your writing time? Find a piece of writing software that lets you stay organized, leaving you free to do the important stuff: write!

2 responses

Harvey Stanbrough says:

28/09/2019 – 13:05

I'm flat flabbergasted. It's difficult to think of worse advice than is offered in this article. I don't consider myself "prolific," but with over 50 novels and novellas and almost 200 short stories in under 6 years (and making a good living), I would never offer advice like this.

↪️ Mystic replied:

29/10/2019 – 15:24

(and making a good living) You shouldn't need to be asking for people to financially support your blogs. Also, your Amazon bio reads like a washed up comedian routine. Dude, seriously, this wasn't a definitive guide. This was a motivational read if you will, with some good tips. Relax and allow us newbies find all the resources we can too help us along with the craft.

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How To Write A Book In Six Months

We are often told that writing a book can be a long, drawn-out process that takes up loads of time and energy and requires serious dedication from the writer.

This is true, well almost true.

The real truth is that writing a book takes as long as it takes, but if you want to give yourself a challenge, there is no reason why you couldn’t get the first draft of your novel written in as little as six months!

Here’s how:

Once you’ve decided this is what you want to do, you have got to give it everything. Be wholly committed to the writing process and don’t let anything get in your way. The most important thing is having determination and commitment above anything else so get yourself fired up before you begin, and don’t give up, no matter what.

Tell others

Once you’ve decided what you want to do, don’t be afraid to share your secret. Tell your colleagues, your friends, and loved ones, tell anyone who will listen. The more people you tell, the harder it will be to go back, make excuses or to lose momentum!

Make a plan

Before you start writing get all your research out of the way and have chapter outlines to help you stay focused. Making a robust plan and plotting your novel in this way will keep you going and help to make the process much more fluid when you do start to write.

Be mathematical

While many writers may argue that a book is as long as a piece of string, if you are trying to write one in a short space of time it’s good to have some idea of how long you want it to be. Say you are aiming to write a novel that’s 90,000 words. From here you can work out how many words you need to write a day in six months to get there.

Create a schedule

If you want to get a book written in six months, you need to identify precisely when you can write. Block out any available time you have and make this your writing time. Shift things around, even give up some of your other commitments if possible to ensure you have as much time as possible to write.

You are the only one who can make this happen - you know what you have to do to get there so just do it!

So there you have it, are you up to the challenge of writing a book in six months? If you have the commitment, dedication, and energy for it then use the tips above to help you, and good luck!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

About Ty Cohen

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Consider the mis-spellings, grammatical mistakes and lack of $1000.00 words that you may or may not find on this site a reminder to you to focus on the things that will "really" prompt publishers to become interested in your book or potential fans of your writing to want more and more and more..

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Writing a Novel in a Month: Is It Possible and Should You Try?

Have you ever considered writing a novel in one month?

It’s an interesting idea, right? By this time next month, you could have the next great American novel, or at least a good start. But is it even possible to write a novel in 30 days or less? Should you even attempt it?

In today’s post, we’re tackling all those questions and more. Let’s get started!

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Is It Possible?

It’s definitely possible. In fact, if you’ve ever heard of the wildly popular National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for short), you know that countless writers have gone on to create epic (and published) novels in the span of 30 days.

When you break it down, you’re actually writing less than 3,000 words per day, depending on the size of your novel. If you’re aiming for a really short novel (around 50,000 words), you’ll write approximately 1600 words per day. If you’re writing an industry standard length novel (around 80,000 words), you’ll increase your daily limit to about 2,600 words per day.

Of course, you can write more than your limit, but it’s best to never dip below that. Then you’ll find yourself having to play catch-up, and that’s never fun.

Did you know that Stephen King writes 2,000 words every day (even on his birthday)? If he can do it, so can you—at least for 30 days. It’s time to get your Stephen King on, and here’s why:

The Pros of Writing a Novel in One Month

So, what are the pros of writing a humongous novel in just 30 days?

+You’ve actually written an entire book in one month

Hooray! You can now proudly proclaim, I’ve written a novel!

At the end of 30 days, you’ll have a great sense of accomplishment. I can’t imagine that climbing Mt. Everest is more thrilling than actually completing a novel—especially since you’re doing it in half the time.

+You’ll ignore your excuses

Excuses like these:

• I’m not inspired.
• I have writer’s block.
• I can’t think of what to do next.
• What if my story isn’t good enough?

Insert anything you tell yourself to justify not putting pen to paper.

Here’s the thing about inspiration: it generally comes after you start writing.

Image Courtesy of Quotefancy

When you enforce a strict timeline on yourself, you’ll be too busy to wait for the exact moment of inspiration. You’ll start writing and then meet it along the way.

+It hones your writing skills

Writing, just like any other skill, gets better the more you do it. What better way to exercise than with high intensity training, such as writing 50,000 words in a 30 day period? You’ll improve your writing skills just by virtue of constantly writing.

+You get used to the habit of writing daily

By the end of 30 days, you’ll be able to teach a monk a thing or two about self-discipline. Writing every day is a great habit to have as a writer. It puts you in the “creating” mindframe. You’ll teach yourself how to just sit down and write—which is harder than it looks!

+You can write the whole

My writing teacher always taught us to “write the whole”. In other words, don’t edit yourself and write more than you probably should about the story. Then, during the editing process, you’ll have so much more to work with in creating the story. You won’t have to insert—you’ll only have to worry about taking away.

The benefit of writing a novel in one month is that you can allow yourself to get carried away. Plus, it’s so much easier to follow your tangents when you know that they count towards your daily word limit.

The Cons of Writing a Novel in One Month

Of course, writing a novel in one month isn’t for everyone. Here’s some things you should definitely consider before diving into the deep end.

-It’s a huge time commitment

You thought you had no social life before? That’s cute. Get ready for full-blown hermit status. By that, I mean hunched over your computer screen for hours on end, forgetting to eat, and barely acknowledging your friends and family.

If you have a day job, you’ll have even less time to write, which means the time that you currently devote to your friends and family (and yourself) is gone—long gone. Your only friend now is the blinking cursor.

It’s only for 30 days, but that’s an entire month out of your life that you’ll never get back. That’s why you make it count (no pressure).

-Burn out is real

After you’ve written your novel, you won’t want to look at another word for a long time. You may even suffer from creativity fatigue. This happens when you’re constantly calling upon yourself to find new ideas (without replenishing these ideas because you don’t have time to do anything but write).

-There’s no time to edit periodically

Many writers choose to edit their novels periodically as they’re writing. It’s common to come to the end of a chapter and then go back and edit it for clarity and cohesion. This is called editing as you go, and it’s popular because it provides you the ability to shape aspects of the story while it’s still fresh in your mind.

However, with such strict time constraints, you won’t be able to edit as you go. Out of necessity, you’ll have to wait until the end to begin editing.

Now, this is only a minor con because all novels (good novels) go through various edits, but if you’re accustomed to working on the clay while it’s still wet, it’ll be difficult to adjust to this type of editing schedule.

-You will cringe

So, the clay is dry now. You’ve finished your novel, and it’s time to read what you’ve written. Brace yourself, you will cringe hard. There’s no getting around it. Your novel-in-a-month is, at best, a rough draft.

But, cringing is part of the writing experience. You may surprise yourself and actually enjoy most of what you’ve written.

By the way, before you read back, take a break. This break can be anything from a few days to a week. It’ll allow you to come back and see your writing with fresh eyes.

-There’s a lot to edit

Once you get past the cringing, you’ll start to see the diamonds in the rough—these are the places that can be polished to create a killer story. That’s the whole point of writing a novel in a month: creating a valid and engaging story. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be edited.

If you’re writing 50,000 words with a 30 day deadline, you will have to edit. You’ll need to sort through lots of stuff to get to the core of your real story. And that may take much longer than it took to actually write the novel. Plus, you may end up rewriting the whole thing.

Best Practices

If you’re planning to write a novel in one month, here are my favorite tips:

Start With a Plan

While some writers can just start writing without giving much thought to story ideas, outlines, or characters, that’s never worked for me. I find it’s so much better to start with a plan—especially when you need to write a cohesive novel in 30 days. Here is a rough idea of what to include in your plan:

• Create a general outline of what you’d like the story to be about.
• Sketch out the protagonist and a few of the main characters.

Of course, you can delve even deeper. You can outline how many chapters you’d like to write and what happens in each chapter. You can also create character bibles to help you as you start creating the story.

Have a Notebook/ System to Capture Ideas

Ideas strike at the craziest times. You can’t follow every rainbow when you have self-imposed time constraints. Instead of going crazy trying to remember those ideas (and failing), keep a notebook by your desk to jot down ideas, thoughts, and inspirations as they come to you.

Set a Daily Word Limit

We’ve discussed this before, but it bears repeating. Set a daily word limit and try to go over that limit each time.

Alternatively, a weekly word limit may work better for you—especially if you can’t write for the same amount of hours every day of the week (for example, you may have a full time job but be free on the weekends).

Turn Off Your Internal Editor

Writing a novel in 30 days is akin to jumping hurdles. When you stumble at one hurdle, you’ve lost a lot of time that you may not be able to make up.

Hurdles include misspelled words and poor word choice. These are small issues that can easily be cleared up in the editing process, but disrupt and derail us when we write.

Turn that editor off, both in your mind and on your word processor, and write freely without the distraction of squiggly red lines.

Inspiration

Need some inspiration before you go? The following novels were all written (or at least originally drafted) in 30 days, and now they’re best selling, highly rated, amazing novels.

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (Image Courtesy of Amazon)

Fangirl: A Novel, by Rainbow Rowell (Image Courtesy of Amazon)

The Beautiful Land, by Alan Averill (Image Courtesy of Amazon)

Should You Try It?

I take the “why not?” approach. You may just like it. I believe the pros far outweigh the cons, and it can benefit you. The most compelling reason to go for it is that you’ll finally publish your thoughts onto paper. You’ll have something tangible to polish and make shine. So yes, go for it! And then let us know how it worked for you.

Enter your email for your FREE 7-Day Bootcamp and learn:

• 5 Unconventional Techniques to help you finish your Draft
• The Key to Getting Readers to Care About Your Characters
• How to Master Dialogue, even if you’re a First-Time Writer
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THOMAS EMSON

HORROR WRITER. DOG OWNER. MONSTER MAKER. COFFEE DRINKER

HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL IN 6 MONTHS

Have you always dreamed of writing a novel?

Are you worried that you can’t do it because you’re too busy?

Is it something you really want to do, but you’re not sure how to go about it?

This book will show you how. It will help make your dream a reality. If you follow its guidelines, and stick to the advice it contains, you will finish your novel in six months.

In this 20,000 words guide, you will learn:

• How you can write a novel without letting it take over your life
• Where to get your ideas and how to develop them
• How to structure your novel using scenes and sequences
• Why you don’t have to write every day to finish your novel in just 6 months
• How to make sure you finish your book
• And a whole host of writing advice that will ensure you fulfil your ambition of writing a novel

The book also includes extracts from the outlines of Thomas’ novels Skarlet and Zombie Britannica that will help you develop your own.

This is an invaluable guide for those of you who want to write a novel, and also for many who may have already been published once, and who are struggling with book two.

If you want to write a novel, this is the book for you.

The critics: Fantastic book. Very easy to read and understand. It sets out clear goals and ways to work in order to get your novel written in 6 months. The writer very much inspires me. Amazon reviewer

How To Write A Novel In 6 Months

Thomas emson.

103 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 20, 2013

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Writing a novel in a month: 10 tips for plotters and pantsers

Streamlining your writing process is useful. Whether you’re gearing up for a novel-writing challenge such as NaNoWriMo, or simply have a personal deadline. Here are 10 tips for writing a novel in a month:

• Post author By Bridget McNulty
• 16 Comments on Writing a novel in a month: 10 tips for plotters and pantsers

1. Make preparations, even if you’re a pantser

Aspiring authors often describe themselves as either ‘plotters’ or ‘pantsers’. Pantsing (writing ‘by the seat of your pants’) without an outline has pros and cons. On the one hand, you have the freedom to follow your story down any surprising avenue without a rigid outline limiting options.

On the other hand, the advantage of plotting is that you have a guide to help you if you get stuck. You can make it as rigid or as flexible as you like, and keep it like a map in your back pocket, one that shows you through the densest thickets of your story.

Types of preparation you can make if you’re a pantser:

• Character profiles and interviews: Brainstorm details about your characters. Interview them as though they were public figures or celebrities. What memorable anecdotes do they have? What were the most formative experiences in their lives?
• A good writing schedule:  The only way to finishing writing a novel in a month is to have a regular writing regimen. Divide the word count you need by the days available. NaNoWriMo recommends participants aim for 50, 000 words in a month. In a 30-day month like November, that’s roughly 1667 words per day. Block out, in a a calendar, when you will find this time.
• A synopsis of your central idea:  Even if you don’t have a complete outline, a synopsis of the central idea generating your novel will help you to keep in mind the most important details of your plot. [Use the prompts in Now Novel’s Idea Finder to brainstorm your own central idea now ]
• A list of characters and the relationships between them:  As a pantser, you might only discover some of your characters along the way, as you take your starting cast into new territories and situations. Yet list the characters you know you want to write about already

The NaNoWriMo rules stress that you cannot use any previously written material towards your NaNoWriMo target word count (NaNoWriMo’s recommended 50, 000 words). You are allowed some preparation and outlining, however, so here are some more tips:

2. Write a general synopsis: Know where your novel is headed

The problem of not outlining is that it’s easy to work yourself into a corner, plot-wise. If you’ll be writing a novel in a month, you’ll need to have a clear concept of the general arc and purpose of your story from the outset.

To start preparing, write a synopsis of your story idea in two to three lines. Include the ideas you have so far for major objectives for your central character(s) and any primary conflicts. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

For example, for Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , we could write a synopsis that reads something like this:

‘In Long Island, New York in the 1920s, war veteran Nick Carraway rents the house next door to a mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby. Carraway enters Gatsby’s social circle, eventually learning scandalous secrets that culminate in tragedy.’

3. Summarize ideas for each scene’s purpose when you write

Writing 1667 words or more per day is an ambitious target. You need to use every bit of writing time productively.

Avoid having to backtrack a lot to make scenes more purposeful and link them to your story’s main themes later. Instead, try summarizing each scene’s purpose before you start writing it.

This will help because instead of just launching in blindly, you’ll create direction before each writing session. On a blank page, write a header ‘Scene Summary’. Underneath it, note what you intend to happen in the coming scene. For example:

‘Party arrives at the ancient forest and must pass through to continue their quest, yet they discover an eerie, grim truth at its heart. Death of [Character X], yet party can’t stop to grieve as they must reach [Location Y] within the next two days.’

This will ensure your story has a sense of continuity and that each scene drives towards an important goal that furthers the overarching story arc.

Although pantsing means not having an extensive plot outline, avoid stumbling in total darkness. Shine a torch a little ahead of you as you go using scene summaries. This will help you find your way to the 50,000 word mark.

This approach is also useful if you do have a more extensive chapter outline, and you can refer back to your outline as you go to make sure you remember broader continuity, and not only internal scene consistency.

4. Divide your book into structured parts

A pitfall of writing a novel within a month is that you likely won’t have much time for structuring or re-structuring the narrative. You could, for example, end up with a 15,000 -word beginning and middle, leaving 35,000 words for the closing chapters of your book. This could leave your story feeling end-heavy.

During the preparatory phase, consider target word counts for each part of your book. If you plan on using three act structure, then you’ll write roughly 17, 000 words each for the start, middle and end of your novel.

Keep a tally of your total word count. As you write, take note of where you are in relation to your 17,000, 34,000 and 50 to 51,000 word count targets. This way you’ll know when you need to bring more complications into the narrative arc or amplify the buildup to your story’s resolution.

5. Do preparatory journal-writing

If you are preparing to write a book in a month, in spare moments write in a journal about your story idea, the themes that interest you, and any ideas for crucial scenes. Note things such as:

• Why you want to tell this story in particular
• What you think the hardest part of writing 50,000 words in a month will be ( staying motivated ? Creating story structure?)
• Ideas for how you will overcome these challenges
• Any places or subjects you need to research generally for the book

Keeping a journal is a great writing habit to form in general, since you’ll have a centralized source for snatches of ideas and inspirations you can dip into whenever you feel stuck.

6. Plan how you will stay motivated and focused

Motivation and focus are two crucial components of writing a novel. There are various strategies you can try to keep yourself fired up to write. For example:

• Create target-specific rewards:  For example, for every 1000 words take a brief walk somewhere scenic or relaxing, or do something you enjoy that isn’t too time-consuming for 15 minutes (do yoga, watch a stand-up comedy clip – anything that will give the problem-solving portion of your mind a rest)
• Partner up with a writing buddy or writing coach:  External motivation and accountability are effective. Find someone who will encourage you and gently remind you of your shared objective.
• Chunk writing sessions more:  1667 words in a single sitting might seem daunting, but if you find a few ten-minute sessions per day you can divide your word count into smaller, manageable units.
• Make a checklist of milestones you can tick off:  Creating a visual reminder of how far you’ve come as you go will fortify the psychological sense of reward as you progress to your goal

7. Decide what type of outline you’ll use if outlining

If you don’t intend to ‘pants’ your way through your book but will outline instead, decide what type of outline you’ll use. Options include:

• Chapter by chapter summaries:  Write just a paragraph or even a few sentences for each. Limit detail to essential features of character, location and event
• Single-page synopses:  A one-page synopsis of the whole story is typically something you’ll write at the end of completing your first three chapters at least, but attempting one at the start is a useful exercise for seeing which parts of the story are clear in your mind already and which will need more work
• Three-act structure:  Dividing your story into three acts like a play can help you balance your beginning, middle and end so that one does not drag on

Read this post on outlining for further ideas, but remember to keep the outlining phase brief and take shortcuts – you’ll want to spend the bulk of your month on the draft itself.

8. Maximize your writing productivity

Whether you’re participating in National Novel Writing Month or rushing to meet a contest deadline, take steps to ensure you stay productive. We often think we’re ‘quickly checking social media’ but small time-sinks in the day add up. To make sure you keep writing, consider measures such as:

• Setting a timer for your writing sessions:  Don’t get up until your session is up
• Work out your most productive writing times:  Do you get the most done when your household is still asleep, for example? Consider small lifestyle changes (such as waking up half an hour earlier) if they’ll help you meet your goals. Make a list of these changes and paste it somewhere prominent to remind yourself to stick to your regimen

There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to becoming a productive writer. Yet these additional suggestions could kickstart your writing process.

9. Limit distractions

We often think ‘I’ll just quickly check social media’ or discount other small tasks as fleeting and speedy. Yet the minutes you spend on social media or on other non-essential tasks during the day do add up. Here are ideas for ways to limit distractions when you’re writing a novel in a month:

• Install social media blocking apps in your internet browser : You can get browser extensions that enforce you to limit your time browsing through status updates and albums
• Find a space with minimum interruptions:  That family WhatsApp or IM group constantly distracting you with cute videos? It can probably wait. Take an hour to write in a quiet part of your local public library with your phone switched off.
• Don’t allow shiny, new ideas to tempt you:  Some of us are brilliant at starting and not as brilliant at following through. New ideas are the procrastinating perfectionist’s best friend. Yet resolve to focus on this one idea only, for now

10. Allow yourself to be ‘bad’

If you’re writing under time constraints, there is a good chance your work  won’t  be perfect. If you’re doing NaNoWriMo for you, or entering your first manuscript publishing competition, accept a rushed first (or final) draft could have some major flaws. Treat this as a step towards your next rewrite (or even your next novel, your ‘debut proper’). Letting go of expectations will free you to focus on the most crucial tasks: Exploring, creating, and getting the writing done.

Join Now Novel to find writing friends for mutual critique and encouragement. Or partner with a writing coach, one-on-one, to get your novel done.

Related Posts:

• Writing styles: 10 tips to master ways of writing
• 10 steps to writing a book: 100 writing tips (Part I)
• 10 steps to writing a book: 100 writing tips (Part 2)
• Tags how to write a novel in a month , NaNoWriMo

By Bridget McNulty

Bridget McNulty is a published author, content strategist, writer, editor and speaker. She is the co-founder of two non-profits: Sweet Life Diabetes Community, South Africa's largest online diabetes community, and the Diabetes Alliance, a coalition of all the organisations working in diabetes in South Africa. She is also the co-founder of Now Novel: an online novel-writing course where she coaches aspiring writers to start - and finish! - their novels. Bridget believes in the power of storytelling to create meaningful change.

16 replies on “Writing a novel in a month: 10 tips for plotters and pantsers”

Thanks for the tips! I’ve decided to give nano a try this year. My typical word count is appx 500 words per day, so 1666 will be a challenge!

It’s a pleasure, Conrad! All speed with your NaNo novel. Break it up into smaller chunks, 10 X 167 words is a lot easier than 1666.

I’ve never done NaNoWroMo before, but would like to try this year. I’ve been wanting to do it for years! Worst case, at least something will get done!

That’s a great attitude to have, I’d say. I think using it as a springboard to commit to your story and get stuck in is the best way to go about it.

I missed it last year, but am thinking to give it a go this year. Xx

Do it! As Christine said below, the worst case scenario is you’ll have more of your book written than before.

Thank you, Bridget, ?I am doing it this july at camp nanowrimo. ?

This information as always is very useful/

Thank you, Memphis.

Great. I will thank you for the insight. Do you all offer assistance for how to get a writing copyright?

There’s a good Q&A with a copyright attorney over here on Jane Friedman’s blog you might find helpful, Memphis: https://www.janefriedman.com/qa-on-copyright-with-an-attorney/

I’ve been writing this novel for a few years now, and I’m down to my last two chapters. My biggest issue now is finding a editor and someone to give me major feedback.

Congratulations on getting this far, Memphis. That’s fantastic. Feel free to submit extracts in the members area of the site for critique. We do also offer editing services, otherwise you could find a beta reader through a writing forum. I hope you enjoy the final stretch!

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What a great post! National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, is one of the most unique novel writing contests.

Thanks, Wayne. Are you doing NaNo this year? Good luck if you are.

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How Much Should You Write Each Day; and When Should You Stop Writing?

Kirk McElhearn  /  15 MAY 2024

When you’re writing a novel or another long project, it’s a good idea to have a daily target. How many words should you write, and when should you finish your writing session?

When you’re writing a novel or another long work, it’s like running a marathon, not a sprint. You won’t finish it in a few days or a week, and you have to work at a rhythm that allows you to remain creative and achieve the appropriate word count over time. Slow and steady writing will eventually get you to your goal.

How much should you write each day?

If possible, it’s a good idea to write every day, even if you can’t write very much each day. You can set a target, which isn’t a hard goal, but which is something to aim for. Some writers are happy with 500 words a day, others with 1,000 words, and some, who write full time, may even strive to write 2,000 words a day. If you do the math, even if you only write five 500 words a day, that comes to 130,000 words in a year. That means you can write the first draft of a novel - with room to spare - in twelve months, if you remain consistent.

Many writers can’t write every day, so they set aside a couple of days a week to write. If you plan to write 1,000 words a day for two full days a week, that’s more than 100,000 words a year. The key is consistency and maintaining your momentum.

How do you decide how many words to write a day? A lot depends on how experienced you are, and what your writing rhythm is. In On Writing , Stephen King says, “As with physical exercise, it would be best to set this goal low at first, to avoid discouragement. I suggest a thousand words a day, and because I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll also suggest that you can take one day a week off, at least to begin with. No more; you’ll lose the urgency and immediacy of your story if you do.“

Anthony Trollope had a day job at the General Post Office, but he would write before going to work . “It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5.30; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. [...] It had at this time become my custom, and it still is my custom, though of late I have become a little lenient to myself, to write with my watch before me, and to require from myself 250 words every quarter of an hour.“ This meant that he could write up to 3,000 words each morning, and this is how he wrote dozens of novels and other works.

Scrivener has useful tools to help you set and meet targets . You can view the word count of your current document in the app’s footer, and you can view the total word count of your project by hovering your cursor over the Quick Search box in the toolbar.

You can also get detailed statistics of your project by choosing Project > Statistics:

And you can set and view targets for each writing session, and for your overall project.

When should you end your writing sessions?

So when should you stop writing? Should you set an alarm, time yourself, or write precisely for one or two hours? If your target is a word count, should you stop once you hit that number, or keep going if you feel the juices flowing?

Some writers push on to reach their daily sessions, but this can be counterproductive. When you’ve lost your mojo, there’s no point trying to force it. Sometimes, you just can’t meet your target.

Other writers may choose to end their writing session when they finish the chapter or a scene. The fact of completing something, even if you haven’t hit your session target, can be very satisfying.

However, some other writers like to end their writing session in the middle of a scene, paragraph, or even a sentence. Ernest Hemingway said , “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck.“

And consider Anthony Trollope, who, if he finished a novel by 8:30 would immediately start writing the next one. This is probably not practical for most writers who need to work on multiple drafts to finish a novel. Trollope was immensely prolific, and, in his time, novels were not revised extensively, so he could easily move on to the next one at will.

It’s up to each writer to determine how much they should write and when they should end. Many factors influence this decision: how much time you have to write, how many days you can write, and what your writing goals are. It's a good idea to develop a rhythm, and you can take advantage of Scrivener’s features to set session and project targets to help you meet your goals.

Kirk McElhearn is a writer , podcaster , and photographer . He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener , and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener .

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How to Learn a Language in 6 Months According to Experts

Can you really learn a language in just half a year?

When it comes to learning a language fast, a few experts are cited repeatedly: Chris Lonsdale, who gave a popular TEDx talk entitled “ How to learn any language in six months; ” Benny Lewis, founder of “ Fluent in 3 Months ” and Tim Ferriss, who also purports to answer the question “ How to learn any language in three months. ”

In this post, I’ll highlight tips for your own six-month language learning journey and the most important themes from each of these three experts.

What Should You Do to Learn a Language in 6 Months?

Step 1: start using your target language today, step 2: familiarize yourself with the core language, step 3: set smart goals, step 4: use learning material you care about, step 5: look up the grammar, step 6: keep it enjoyable, can i learn a language in 6 months what the experts say, chris lonsdale says: start using the language immediately, benny lewis says: “hack” language studies for faster learning, tim ferriss says: use the 80:20 to achieve a lot in a little time, and one more thing....

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This is something all of our experts agree on, but it might sound counterintuitive to beginner language learners. How can you start using a language before you’ve learned any of it?

In all languages, you already have some words you can access, and when you’re speaking face-to-face or online  with someone you can use hands, facial expressions, noises, props and so on to get your meaning across . As you’ll see below, this idea comes from Chris Lonsdale. 

I had a very memorable conversation with a Korean learner of English in Seville, who was using limited vocabulary to explain to us the history of a particular Korean liquor. It was (intentionally) hysterically funny, so don’t worry about your speaking partner getting irritated!

Find a native speaker near you, take a trip or go online to find chat buddies. It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes—you will!—as this is all part of the process of learning. As you begin to speak, you’ll get familiar with building sentences, listening to the sound of the language and hearing common phrases and expressions.

A common theme from our expert friends is that you need to focus your early learning on core language. In English, for example, this would include functional words like  and, the, a , pronouns, such as  she ,  I ,  they  and the most commonly used verbs like  to have ,  to be and to do .

When you’re in the early stages of learning a language, there will be a steep upward curve as you start to see how you go from saying single words to sentences, and learning these words will form the basis of that.

How do you know which words to learn? Learn the most common words first . Tim Ferriss lists the 100 most common words in written and spoken English, which you can use if you’re an English learner, or otherwise compare to key words in your target language.

You could also try searching for your target language with the term “common words” on Memrise , a digital flashcard app. There are many such lists covering Spanish , Korean , French , Dutch and much more.

All the while, you should be going back to step one: whenever you learn something new, incorporate it into your speaking . For example, in Italian I’ve been trying to correctly use phrases featuring the word  ecco , which is similar to the French  voila. This means I’ve recently been walking around like a child, pointing at things and shouting “There it is!” Now I think I’ve got it.

While a lot of learning will happen naturally as you speak and listen and read and write, you can’t take that for granted. You’ll of course have to put in effort.

Moreover, set SMART goals . It’s one thing to say you want to be fluent in six months, but what does fluency mean for you?

I can give you an example of a goal I set myself last fall. By Christmas, I wanted to be able to hold a full conversation with my Italian girlfriend’s five-year-old niece. So, it was:

• Specific: A successful conversation with a specified person.
• Measurable: Did I do it or not?
• Ambitious: She speaks no English and, as a child, doesn’t always understand that not everyone gets what she says, so it’s a challenge!
• Realistic: I wasn’t expecting to debate the finer points of continental philosophy with a college professor.
• Time-bound: I knew I had to get it done by Christmas.

This was a huge help. I focused on language that would allow me to have that conversation—school, family, toys—and I practiced it whenever I could. The result: success!

Our experts note that you need to practice your target language with material that matters to you.

You might consider music to help with your listening . You can use YouTube to find all sorts of different videos. While I was learning Spanish, I picked up a great deal from the rap group  Calle 13 . Finding music you love in your target language is a fantastic thing to do, as you can listen to it over and over, understanding a little more each time.

Nowadays you can find news sites online in any language, and these are really useful for your reading skills. The language tends to be very functional and informative (whereas literary works are often a little challenging in the early stages). The language is also relevant to a wide range of learners since it gives you up-to-date vocabulary that native speakers are using in their day-to-day lives.

You might also find it useful and entertaining to watch movies and TV shows to learn a new language. I don’t recommend watching passively, though: actively harness the power of movies and TV shows to immerse yourself in the language.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

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The right material can make your studies more engaging, which can then spur your learning speed and efficiency.

You can practice all you like, but you still have to understand the grammar, right? Well, yes. But grammar study doesn’t have to be the repetitive trawling through books and verb tables that it was in school—this can be the thing that really hampers your attempts to get fluent fast.

If you notice a certain grammatical form when people are speaking to you, look it up! It’ll elucidate the reasoning and allow you to incorporate it into your speaking, which is far better than studying grammar in isolation.

Makes sense, right? Drilling dry grammar rules out of a textbook will only get you so far. For most people, that’s so boring as to kill your drive to learn. But even for people who thrive on book learning, if you’re not seeing and using grammar rules in context, they’ll have very little impact on your actual, measurable language development.

All of this ties into the core principles we’ve been discussing. Make all of your learning relevant and comprehensible, and you’ll hit your target in no time.

Learning a language should be a challenge but not a chore . If you’re reading this blog, I’m sure you’ll agree that one of the great joys in life is to be able to communicate in a new language, and ultimately speaking is far more important than passing an exam.

So  make sure you have fun in your language studies to keep that motivation up for all six months of your study plan. If you’re not sure how to do this, here are a few ideas that have worked for me:

• Make it competitive. I’m an incredibly competitive person, so for me, adding elements of a game can make it extra rewarding to learn a language. This could be with another person. Although this shouldn’t be about one-upmanship, finding a friend who wants to learn and testing yourself against each other can be a big help.
• Write a song. Use some of the vocabulary you have learned to create ditties or translate your favorite song into your new language.
• Use humor. Ask your language partner to tell you some jokes. Once you start understanding foreign-language jokes, you really know you’re getting proficient.
• Eat! Food is obviously the best thing about any new culture, so find some recipes in your target language you can try out and cook for your friends.

What do the experts have to say about this topic? All these guys take a different approach to tackling the problem, but there are some common themes across all of them. 

Lonsdale bases his approach around a set of language learning principles and actions. Here are some takeaways from his TEDx talk that are most important to our goal of learning a language in six months:

• Listen to your target language a lot , right from the start.
• Remember that understanding is more than knowing all the words.  Use facial expressions, body language, context and style to get meaning right from the get-go, even before you worry about knowing every vocabulary word.
• Focus on core language . In other words, focus on learning high-frequently vocabulary that’s most relevant to you. Lonsdale notes that for most learners, this early “core” language will include sentences like “How do you say that?” and “Can you repeat that, please?”
• Get a language partner  (or in Lonsdale’s terminology, a “language parent”). This is a native speaker who’ll support you on your journey and speak to you regularly.

Unfortunately for us, Lonsdale doesn’t exactly answer the question of how to get there in six months. Nevertheless, we can use these actions to help us when we’re creating our study plan.

Irish blogger Lewis is a well-known polyglot who gained a strong online following over the years. He gave a TEDx talk on “Rapid Language Hacking”  to lay out the foundations of his language-learning-fast philosophy:

• Forget the idea that language is a “talent” you either have or you don’t. He claims to have thought he was completely useless at them before starting with Spanish! This myth of language learning talent also comes up in Lonsdale’s talk.
• Remember, it’s almost impossible to know  nothing  of a language. With nearby languages, there are cognates, i.e. words with the same root. For example, English shares roots of -tion­  words with Latinate languages like Spanish and Italian.

As an Italian learner, it’s very useful for me to be able to guess words like nazione  (nation). Meanwhile, even the most unrelated languages now have a shared vocabulary (Coca-Cola, anyone?).

• Take advantage of the internet to start communicating right away. If you live in a city, there will almost certainly be people who speak your target language around. Otherwise, find friends of friends who would be able to talk with you online from time to time. You can even check out italki to find a professional tutor for one-on-one lessons.
• Use mnemonics to remember words and expressions. This could be thinking of a sound the word reminds you of, or singing an expression to a simple melody.
• Create SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, Time-bound. In other words, you should pick concrete goals that’ll challenge you without overwhelming you, and give yourself a deadline for achieving them. 
• Like Lonsdale, Lewis says that you should use the language right away. And make mistakes! This will help you to learn and to get over embarrassment about speaking with native speakers.

Lewis uses a lot of different languages in his talk, which lends authenticity.

Taking a different tack from the motivational TEDx style of Lewis and Lonsdale, Tim Ferriss takes a more theoretical approach to the goal of learning a language in a few months. He has a three-point approach to language-learning, which incorporates the following:

• Effectiveness : Pick learning materials that’ll work for you and your goals (i.e. “effective”).
• Adherence : Keep motivated and prioritize learning in your life so that you adhere to your study routine.
• Efficiency: Make sure your study regimen and tools are propelling you forward at a reasonable rate.

Importantly, he refers to the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80:20 rule . This is the idea that 80 percent of results of any task come from 20 percent of the input, material or effort. He applies this to learning a language, arguing that—although total language mastery might take years of applied learning—it’s perfectly possible to achieve conversational fluency in three months .

How? Like Lonsdale, Ferriss emphasizes relevance of learning : Don’t read something you wouldn’t care to read about in your native language, as it’ll make it harder to understand, engage with and remember. So, if you’re a Japanese learner interested in baseball, reading about the Japanese leagues might be a perfect place to start.

So there you have it! Use these tips from the experts to get a hard start on your six-month language learning journey. Good luck!

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I can see the writing's on the wall: Kyle and Summer's marriage is doomed

Having watched the way that Kyle over-rode Summer and hired Claire as Harrison’t nanny, there’s no way that they are going to remain together. Summer will be livid and Kyle will undoubtedly find himself drawn to Claire. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but remarriage doesn’t usually work out, at least that’s been my experience. There’s always Chance waiting in the wings----if the character is recast, that is. And can you imagine how Phyllis is going to react when she gets the news? She’s a mama bear fiercely protecting her cub. I sure would not want to be on her bad side.

They’re not married anymore.

They have been divorced for months… What was actually not only stupid but cruel to Harrison Kyle asked how would you like Claire to be your nanny…he did not in fact ever hire Claire and she tends to listen to grandpa Victor who said NO WAY will you ever work for an Abbott so what if she says to Kyle thanks but I can’t how will he explain to his son

NJ_SOAP_LADY says: What was actually not only stupid but cruel to Harrison Kyle asked how would you like Claire to be your nanny…he did not in fact ever hire Claire and she tends to listen to grandpa Victor who said NO WAY will you ever work for an Abbott

It’s just another demonstration how Harrison is a prop for Kyle to use against Summer and as an enticement to reel Claire in as Harrison’s Nanny and Kyle’s boink buddy.

Kyle’s a sleaze.

I thought they were already divorced.

Oops. I forgot. Thanks for clarifying.

I wasn’t thinking of things that way. I guess I’m just favouring Claire, because she’s had such a hard life and was trapped with Harrison when “the witch” held them captive. Kyle really shouldn’t have don that, in retrospect and I can feel for Summer. I think she really believes that Claire is not a good fit to be Harrison’s nanny. I’m glad you guys are seeing the forest instead of all the trees.

Claire is an interesting character who is now being set up for uninteresting job with an uninteresting man. But I still have Sally and Audra, so it’s fine.

And CW is interesting now. My thinking is Claire is being stuck into this SL to create a triangle we don’t need with Kyle, Summer and Claire. Then again if it reunites Kyle and Summer that’s fine. By Fall Claire can be at NE.

I think there will also be some drama with Victor in regards to Claire working with Harrison. If it’s written well it could be interesting, but that’s a big “if”.

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How to Write an Ebook in 30 Days: A Step-by-Step Guide

A re you interested in writing an ebook but are intimidated by the process? Maybe you want to write but are worried that it will take you months or even years to finish your book.

While writing an ebook in 30 days isn't practical for everyone, it's definitely possible with the right tools and motivation. This article will introduce a plan for how to write an ebook in 30 days, with the preparation, editing, and formatting accounted for separately to better your chances of success.

Can I Write an Ebook in 30 Days?

Writing an ebook is simple enough, but writing one in 30 days is a different story. If you make it a goal to write your ebook in 30 days during the month of November, you can participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) event.

What Is the NaNoWriMo Event?

NaNoWriMo is a worldwide event that takes place every November. Participants around the world set a goal to write at least 50k words from November 1st to the 30th (this equals 1,666 words per day). There are a lot of incentives to participate in NaNoWriMo, including local events, workshops, merch, fun badges you can earn, and more.

There are many popular books that started out as NaNoWriMo books, including the smash hit Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree . Writing your book during NaNoWriMo can give you that push you need to finish quickly, so you can publish your book in a reasonable amount of time.

If we're being honest, it's pretty difficult to produce a quality body of work that will be ready for publication in 30 days. But if you break up your book into different phases, you can make the process less intimidating.

• Planning: Two to four weeks
• Writing: 1,666 words per day for 30 days (50k words total)
• Editing and Formatting: Two to six months
• Release & Promotion: Two to four months

Phase 1: Planning Your Ebook

If you want to succeed at writing a book in 30 days, spend a few weeks planning your book beforehand. There are a lot of things you can plan in advance, including the plot, chapters, and character development. You can also think about what extra features you'd like to add to your ebook , including a map, index, glossary, or foreword.

There are several tools you can use to put together a thorough plan for your book.

Pinterest is a fantastic place to get some visual inspiration for your novel. Make boards for the scenery, different characters, and whatever you feel like. While writing your book, you can refer to your Pinterest board for ideas and inspiration.

If you want to plan out scenes, timelines, etc., Notion is a great place to get organized. Notion is highly customizable and powerful, meaning you can craft intricate worlds and complex characters, all while keeping the information easily accessible.

Like many writers, you may feel dubious about using ChatGPT to help you write a novel . However, if used as a tool instead of a ghostwriter, ChatGPT is great for inspiration. Try these ChatGPT prompts to help you develop book characters .

Campfire is a planning and world-building software divided into different modules for accessibility. If you find software like Notion too daunting and prefer something that has guided prompts, Campfire could be a good choice for you.

Phase 2: Writing Your Ugly First Draft

Now that you've got your book planned out, you can focus on writing for the next 30 days. If you're writing during November for NaNoWriMo, you shouldn't have too much trouble with staying motivated and on target. You can also participate in Camp NaNoWriMo during the months of April and July.

If you're writing during any of the other months, here are some tips to help you hit your goal:

• Create a daily word goal. Between 1000 and 3000 words is ideal.
• Set your intentions before each writing session; what scenes are you going to write?
• Join an online writing community for support.
• Try an online "work gym" to help you stay focused during writing.
• Take care to avoid getting distracted while writing on your computer.
• Read an inspirational book like "On Writing" by Stephen King to pump you up for the task ahead.

Choose Your Software

There are many different software you can use to write your book . Scrivener is a popular choice for writers, and as a bonus, NaNoWriMo participants can receive a 20% discount—create a NaNoWriMo account and then click My Offers from the homepage.

Other popular software include Ulysses , Notion, and of course, old standbys like Google Docs and Microsoft Word.

Before splurging on software, see if it offers a free trial, so you can try it before you buy. You can also watch tutorials on YouTube to see if the UI looks appealing and easy to understand.

Once you find software you like, you can focus on writing your "ugly first draft" over the next 30 days.

What Is the Ugly First Draft?

In writing, many people refer to the "ugly first draft" as a means of writing quickly at the expense of spelling, grammar, and formatting. Think of it like a sculptor working with clay: first they create the shape, then they carve out the fine details later.

Writers will often engage in writing sprints where they attempt to write as much as possible during a specific amount of time. During these sprints, writers can't really afford to be "pretty" with their writing. It's more of a stream-of-consciousness way of writing that, while messy, gets the job done fast.

If you make a habit of doing writing sprints every day with the ugly first draft in mind, you'll have plenty of material for your book before you know it. Just make sure the writing makes sense to you, so you'll have an easier time editing it in the next phase.

Sit Down and Write

If you've thoroughly planned out your book in advance, have your software of choice, and are ready to write messily, all you need to do now is sit down and write. Of course, this is easier said than done, but remember that writing something bad is better than writing nothing at all.

Try to plan out a schedule for the next 30 days to help you stay on track. Schedule at least one or two reading sprints every day to make sure you hit your 1666-word goal. If you miss a day, you'll need to make up the word count on a different day so that you don't fall behind.

Very few writers can write 1666 words every day for 30 days straight without a hitch. There are going to be setbacks; you might get busy with other things, have writer's block, or simply not feel like writing that day. Therefore, set a cushion for yourself.

If you write 3000 words one day, don't take it easy the next day just because you're "ahead" of your goal. Aim to write every day even if you crushed it the day before. That way, when the chips are down and you're actually struggling, you'll have a bit of wiggle room.

Phase 3: Editing and Formatting

If you finished writing your first draft, congratulations! You're over one of the biggest hurdles of writing an ebook in 30 days. Now comes what is possibly the largest hurdle: writing the final draft and editing your book.

Though many books have been written during NaNoWriMo, very few get published as-is. Whether you want to edit the book yourself, hire a professional editor, or participate in peer editing, it's going to take a significant amount of time.

You'll also need to spend some time formatting your ebook for publication. You'll want to make sure it looks good on a variety of devices, including Kindles, phones, and laptops. Think about designing a book cover too, because despite the saying, people really do judge books by their covers.

If you want to publish through Kindle Direct Publishing , Amazon can help you with the formatting.

Phase 4: Release and Promotion

Now's the time to spread the word and promote your new book. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time for this step and don't get discouraged if your book doesn't start selling right away. Read up on different ways to promote your book if one strategy isn't working for you.

Write Your Ebook in 30 Days

Although the planning, editing, and promotion aspects of your ebook will require more than 30 days, writing the story within this timeframe is possible. With the help of the right software and tools, and a lot of dedication, you can have your first draft ready in just one month. Refer back to this guide if you need some help getting started.

Fun Last-Day-of-School Activities to Wrap Up the Year

Hooray, you’ve made it to the end of the school year! With all testing and grading out of the way, it’s time to think about planning some fun last-day-of-school activities. The final days of school are a time to reflect on the year’s accomplishments, celebrate, and say goodbyes. Make your last day together extra special with one of these fun activities that are sure to send your students off to summer vacation with a smile on their faces.

Fun Last-Day-of-School Activities to Kick off Summer Break

Here are some engaging last-day-of-school activities you can consider adding to your repertoire.

Write letters to next year’s students

Are you looking for a last-day-of-school activity that will engage students in a productive writing task and meaningful reflections? Try having them write a letter to next year’s class! In these letters, current students can share their memories from the past year, give a sneak peek of what next year’s class will learn, and give them advice for the school year ahead. Your students will love being able to share their thoughts and advice from their own experiences in your class.

Words of Wisdom – Letters to Future Students by Life with Mrs Wasik Grades: 1-6

End of Year Activity – Letter to A Future Student – End of Year Writing Project by The Creative Classroom Grades 5-9

Create a memory book

End-of-year memory books are a great activity for students of all ages to reflect on their progress and memories from the past school year. Plus, they make for a great keepsake to take home on the last day of school. Check out one of these fun, no-prep memory book activities to get you started. 

End of the Year Memory Book {Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade } by Haley O’Connor Grades: K-2

End of the Year Memory Book {Not Grade Specific} by Michael Friermood – The Thinker Builder Grades: 2-6

END OF YEAR ESL Memory Book Activities PRINT and EASEL by Diana Bailey Grades: 5-8

End of the Year Writing Activities and Memory Book EDITABLE Distance Learning by Tracee Orman Grades: 7-12

Set goals for the summer

With summer vacation (literally) right around the corner, you can use the final day of school to get students thinking about some of the goals and activities they’d like to accomplish this summer.

Summer Bucket List: Last Day of School & End of the Year Fun Activity by Enhance SEL Grades: 1-8

Summer Bucket List End of the Year Activities by The Scholar’s Source Grade: 3-11

End of School Year Reflection Pages and Goal Setting for Summer and Next Year by Success in Special Ed Grades: 7-10

When the tests are all taken, and the assignments all handed in, it’s time to get crafty! These end-of-school year craftivities are a great way to engage students and to sneak a little more writing and fine motor skill practice into the last day of the year.

End of the Year Sunglasses Bulletin Board Craft and Writing Activity | Last Day by Sweet for Kindergarten- Kristina Harrill Grades: PreK-5

Last Day of School Activities | Last Day of School Crown Craft | End of Year by Second Grade Smiles Grades: K-3

Activities for the Last Week of School

Need activities to cover the entire last week of school? We’ve got you covered. To make your life a little easier as the school year comes to a close, check out these low-prep activities to help you get through the last week!

Last Week of School Activities for Second Grade (2nd) by Cara’s Creative Playground Grades: 2

End of The Year Activities – Last Week of School Resource by Addie Williams Grades: 6-8

End of the Year Activities – Last Week of School Fun for Middle and High School by Cara McLeod Grades: 5-10

End of the Year Activities for Seniors High School Playlist Last Week of School by The Supported Teacher Grades: 11-12

Other Ideas for End of the Year

For more ways to end the school year on a high note, browse end-of-year resources on TPT or check out these posts for more ideas:

• End-of-Year Review Activities for Elementary and High School Students
• Celebrating Student Success: End of the Year Awards for Students
• Escape Room Ideas and Templates for Every Classroom

• Middle School
• High School
• Social Studies
• Social-Emotional Learning
• Back-to-School
• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
• Autism Acceptance Month
• Black History Month
• Hispanic Heritage Month
• Pride Month
• Indigenous Peoples’ Month
• Women’s History Month

Money blog: Gary Neville's hotel named among best places for hospitality jobs

A magazine has released its annual list detailing the top picks for hospitality jobs. Read about this and all the latest consumer and personal finance news in the Money blog - and leave a comment or your money problem in the box below.

Friday 17 May 2024 19:16, UK

• 'Good news' as major drop in household energy bills predicted
• 'Seismic shift' as number of bank branch closures passes 6,000
• The 'top places to work' in hospitality - including Gary Neville's hotel
• New Greggs stores to open in these locations
• Drivers hit by 'unfairly high margins' on fuel

Essential reads

• Lowest buy-to-let mortgage rates revealed
• Is more expensive steak better for you?
• The rise of Michelin starred 'fast food'
• Basically...  What is PIP - and what could government changes mean?
• How to make sure your car passes its MOT
• Cheap Eats:  Michelin-star chef reveals his top steals in London - including an unbeatable sub sandwich
• Money Problem: My workplace wants to pay us by the minute - what can I do?
• Best of the Money blog - an archive

Ask a question or make a comment

The Body Shop’s administrators are to launch an auction of the chain after concluding that an alternative restructuring of one of Britain’s best-known high street retailers was not viable.

Sky News has learnt that FRP Advisory, which has been overseeing the collapsed business since January, is to begin formally sounding out potential buyers in the coming weeks.

The move raises the prospect of new owners taking control of The Body Shop, which was founded nearly half a century ago.

Read more here ...

The UK's mega rich are dwindling - in a sign Britain's "billionaire boom has come to an end", according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

Published today, the list reveals the largest fall in billionaires in the guide's history - from a peak of 177 in 2022 to 165 this year.

While the combined wealth of the list's 350 wealthiest individuals amounts to more than £795bn - larger than the GDP of Poland - the guide's compiler says time will tell what impact a drop in billionaires could have.

"This year's Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain's billionaire boom has come to an end," Robert Watts said.

"Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away."

Top of the list is British-Indian businessman Gopi Hinduja and his family, whose wealth of £37.2bn is the largest fortune in the ranking's history.

But other familiar names in the list saw their riches fall, with Sir Richard Branson's total dropping by £2.4bn, which is back to his 2000 level.

Last year's top climber Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who bought a stake in Manchester United this year, fell two positions with a decline of £6.1bn.

Euan Blair, Tony Blair's eldest son, made the list for the first time, as did Sir Lewis Hamilton.

It comes as the UK continues to deal with a cost-of-living crisis, with new figures this week revealing a record 3.1 million food bank parcels were distributed over the course of a year.

The top 10:

• Gopi Hinduja - £37.2bn
• Sir Leonard Blavtanik - £29.2bn
• David and Simon Reuben and family - £24.9bn
• Sir Jim Ratcliffe - £23.5bn
• Sir James Dyson and family - £20.8bn
• Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family - £17.2bn
• Idan Ofer - £14.9bn
• Lakshmi Mittal and family - £14.9bn
• Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family - £14.4bn
• John Fredriksen and family - £12.8bn

A group of social media influencers have been charged in relation to promoting an unauthorised investment scheme.

The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) original cast member Lauren Goodger, 37, former Love Island star Biggs Chris, 32, and Celebrity Big Brother winner Scott Timlin, 36, also known as Scotty T, are among seven TV personalities alleged to have been paid to promote the scheme to their combined 4.5 million Instagram followers.

The others charged by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) include former Love Islanders Rebecca Gormley, 26, Jamie Clayton, 32, and Eva Zapico, 25 and TOWIE member Yazmin Oukhellou, 30.

The UK's financial watchdog brought the charges in a crackdown on "finfluencers" who use their online platforms to offer advice and information on various financial topics.

It alleges that between 19 May 2018 and 13 April 2021 Emmanuel Nwanze, 30, and Holly Thompson, 33, used an Instagram account to provide advice on buying and selling investments known as contracts for difference (CFDs) when they were not authorised to do so.

The watchdog said CFDs were high-risk investments used to bet on the price of an asset, in this case the price of foreign currencies.

It previously warned that 80% of customers lost money when investing in CDFs.

Mr Nwanze has been charged with running the scheme. He faces one count of breaching the general prohibition of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, and one count of unauthorised communications of financial promotions.

Ms Thompson, Mr Chris, Mr Clayton, Ms Goodger, Ms Gormley, Ms Oukhellou, Mr Timlin and Ms Zapico each face one count of unauthorised communications of financial promotions.

All nine will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 13 June.

The FCA asked anyone who believed they had sustained a loss due to the scheme to contact its consumer contact centre.

A hotel part-owned by Gary Neville and other ex-Manchester United legends has been named one of the best places to work in hospitality. 

Each year, The Caterer releases its top 30 best places for employees in the sector, with the top six featuring some familiar names.

The list is compiled via anonymous employee survey - with no input from managers or owners. 

Hotel Football, the only hotel with a rooftop five-a-side pitch, was among the top six venues selected by employees across the UK. 

The hotel's benefits package was particularly well-praised by those who work there - given that it "prioritises the financial wellbeing of employees during the cost of living challenge".

Management at the hotel, which is situated next to Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium, was also praised for enhanced maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave policies and a strong belief in diversity and inclusion. 

The other five to make up the top six are The Biltmore in Mayfair, Cycas Hospitality (which has 18 locations across the UK), Dalata (which boasts some 1,000 employees), Gleneagles Hotel in Edinburgh and Nobu Hotel in Shoreditch, London. 

The energy price cap is set to fall by about 7% in July, a leading thinktank has said. 

Cornwall Insights said: "For a typical dual fuel household, we predict the July price cap to be £1,574 per annum" - a drop from £1,690.

Looking further ahead, it forecasted the cap to rise again slightly in October, before falling again in January next year. 

Reacting to the news, Uswitch said the predicted drop was "clearly good news". 

"The future still remains uncertain, and with the price cap changing every three months – currently expected to rise in October before falling slightly in January –  it's crucial not to be complacent," Richard Neudegg, director of regulation, said. 

However, "a predicted 7% drop in energy prices in July is clearly good news, with the price cap looking likely to hit its lowest level in over two years", he said. 

He also urged  households who want to lock in rates for price certainty to run a comparison to see what energy tariffs are available to them.

"There are many 12-month fixed tariffs available at rates cheaper than the current price cap, and even some that are 2% below these new predicted July rates," he said. 

Cristiano Ronaldo has topped Forbes' list of highest-paid athletes for the fourth time in his career.

Ronaldo became the world's highest-paid athlete after his move to Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr and Forbes said the 39-year-old's estimated total earnings were around $260m (£205m) - an all-time high for a football player.

His on-field earnings amounted to $200m (£158m) while off-field he earned $60m (£47m) thanks to sponsorship deals where brands make use of his 629 million Instagram followers.

Spanish golfer Jon Rahm took second place following his switch to Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

Rahm earned $218m (£172m) and joins Ronaldo as the only two athletes to earn over $200m.

Third on the list is record eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi, who switched to Major League Soccer team Inter Miami, which helped the Argentine World Cup winner earn $135m (£107m).

The 36-year-old earned $65m (£51m) in on-field earnings but $70m (£55m) off it from deals with major sponsors such as Adidas and Apple.

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James came in fourth at $128m (£101m), while fellow NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks made fifth with $111m (£88m).

France football captain Kylian Mbappe dropped down to sixth with $110m (£87m).

French striker Karim Benzema, who also moved to Saudi Arabia, is eighth on the list with $106m (£84m), followed by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry with $102m (£80m).

Lamar Jackson is the only NFL player on the list, in 10th place with $101m (£80m), thanks to the signing bonus negotiated into his new Baltimore Ravens contract last year.

The number of new pupils joining private schools has fallen by  2.7% since last year, according to the latest figures.

Data from the Independent Schools Council (ISC) shows families are now paying more than £18,000 a year on average to send their children to private school.

This is an 8% rise in school fees for the 2023-2024 academic year compared with the year before.

But as fees soar, figures show a 2.7% drop in the number of new pupil applications - this is the biggest fall since the ISC started collecting data in 2011.

Every Friday we get an overview of the mortgage market with independent experts from  Moneyfactscompare.co.uk . Today, finance expert Rachel Springall outlines what's been happening within the buy-to-let market…

A handful of lenders moved to tweak the fixed rates they charge on buy-to-let mortgages over the past week. 

Paragon Bank launched some new "portfolio" and "green" fixed mortgages, and Aldermore pulled its limited edition five-year fixed rates, max 65% loan-to-value. 

Buckinghamshire Building Society also launched new deals onto the market, and Claire Askham, head of mortgage sales said: "The decision to increase our BTL lending to 80% represents a positive move for the sector as we continue to see landlords appraising their portfolios through divesting, refinancing and taking advantage of a variety of property-related opportunities as they arise."

Week on week, there has been minor moves to the overall average fixed buy-to-let rates, with the two-year remaining unchanged at 5.62% and the five-year falling by 0.02% to 5.59%.

This week the lowest two-year fix for buy-to-let customers at 75% loan-to-value comes from Metro Bank, priced at 4.19%, which charges a percentage booking fee of 5.00% of the mortgage advance and is available to second-time buyers and remortgage customers borrowing a maximum of £2m. 

There is another option from the same lender which carries an incentive package just for remortgage customers, but it has a lower maximum advance of £1.5m.

If you are looking to borrow more, then Suffolk Building Society has the lowest two-year fix for buy-to-let customers at 80% loan-to-value priced at 4.79% for second-time buyers and remortgage customers. 

The deal charges a percentage completion fee of 3.00% of the mortgage advance as well as a flat £199 booking fee.

Remortgage customers will receive a free valuation and free legal fees incentive.

A five-year fixed buy-to-let mortgage may be more appealing for you to guarantee your monthly repayments for longer. 

If you looking to borrow at 75% loan-to-value, HSBC has a deal for remortgage customers priced at 4.33%, which carries a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package but charges a flat £3,999 product fee.

If you are looking to borrow more, then Furness Building Society has the lowest five-year fixed buy-to-let deal at 80% loan-to-value priced at 5.39% for second-time buyers and remortgage customers. It charges a booking fee of £995 and includes an £250 cashback incentive. 

Remortgage customers will also receive a free valuation. This deal also happens to be a Best Buy for a five-year fixed deal at 80% loan-to-value.

Best Buy alternatives

The lowest buy-to-let rates may carry both a flat product fee and an arrangement fee which is based on a percentage of the mortgage advance, so a Best Buy package may be more suitable if you are looking to save on the upfront cost of any deal. 

You might also want a deal to cover a valuation or legal fees. A Best Buy buy-to-let mortgage could be the most cost-effective choice in this instance, but it's worth seeking advice before entering any arrangement.

This week the top packages on a two-year fixed buy-to-let deal at 75% loan-to-value comes from HSBC, priced at 4.69%, which comes with a free valuation and charges a £3,999 product fee and is available to second-time buyers. 

If you want a loan with a lower upfront fee, then HSBC also has a Best Buy deal priced at 4.94% at 75% loan-to-value, which carries a free valuation and charges a £1,999 product fee and is available to second-time buyers.

If you are looking to borrow more, then Furness Building Society has a Best Buy two-year fixed buy-to-let deal priced at 5.73% at 80% loan-to-value for second-time buyers and remortgage customers. It charges a fee of £995 and includes a £250 cashback incentive. Remortgage customers will also receive a free valuation.

A five-year fixed buy-to-let mortgage may be more appealing for you to guarantee your monthly repayments for longer. If you looking to borrow at 75% loan-to-value, HSBC has a Best Buy deal priced at 4.39%, which carries a free valuation and charges a £3,999 product fee. 

If you want a loan with a lower upfront fee, then HSBC also has a Best Buy deal priced at 4.64% at 75% loan-to-value, which carries a free valuation and charges a £1,999 product fee.

If you are looking to borrow more, then Furness Building Society has a Best Buy five-year fixed buy-to-let deal priced at 5.39% at 80% loan-to-value for second-time buyers and remortgage customers. 

It charges a booking fee of £995 and includes an £250 cashback incentive. Remortgage customers will also receive a free valuation. This deal also happens to be the lowest rate on a five-year fixed deal at 80% loan-to-value.

By James Sillars , business reporter

A lack of strong corporate updates did for the FTSE 100 on Thursday.

A flat end to the day has been followed by a flat end to the week, with the index falling almost 0.1% to 8,433 in early deals on Friday.

Very little around for investors to ponder.

Developments this morning included pharmaceutical firm GSK saying it had raised £1.25bn from selling its entire remaining stake in Haleon.

The consumer healthcare firm was spun out of GSK almost two years ago.

One other announcement of note came from Sainsbury's.

It revealed a five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft that will see generative AI used to boost personalised shopping experiences for consumers, improve search functions and make staff working practices more efficient.

The financial terms were not disclosed. Its shares were 0.4% higher.

Away from the equity markets, it's worth taking a quick look at how oil is finishing the week.

Brent crude is trading above $83 a barrel on evidence of rising demand.

Prices at these levels should not have an impact at the fuel pumps but small recent declines in average costs could be reversed if the upwards oil price trend continues.

Greggs will open eight stores in the next few weeks, as the company continues its expansion plans 

The bakery said it would open a total of 180 new branches before the end of this year. 

We were told earlier this year that the famous sausage roll-seller would open new stores in London, Cambridge and Sale, but Greggs has now revealed where its next eight new branches will be. 

Here are the locations of the eight new sights, revealed by the bakery to The Sun:

• Saffron Walden, Market Place, England
• Bangor, Carnarfon Road, Wales
• Birmingham Prime Park, England
• Brierley Hill, Merryhill, England
• Consett Delves Lane Drive Thru, County Durham, England
• Edinburgh, 60-61 Seafield Road, Scotland
• Glasgow, Argyle St, Scotland
• Porth, U3C Geilligron IE, Wales

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