What I learnt in writing 1,000 words a day last month

At the start of October I set myself a challenge; instead of simply claiming that I didn’t believe one could write a book in 30 days, I decided to try it.

After all, if I’m going to advocate for better thinking I need to practice that myself. I needed the experience of trying it to really be able to share a worthwhile opinion.

?Before I started the challenge, I speculated as to what I thought the pros and cons of this sort of approach would be. (You can see that post here.) Then I got started…

At the end of 30 days I had 30,040 words, but I didn’t have a book, so to speak.

I do, however, also have some much more robust ideas about the benefits and ‘watch out for’s of this method, that will not only help me to tackle lofty projects like this in the future, but could help others who are looking to write a book too. I’m lucky to work with lots of them! So, here goes…

You need a good plan – and that plan will be challenged

Before you set off, you need to have some idea of where you want to go. This seems possibly too obvious to mention, but you need to know more than just the topic header that you’re writing about. Know what change or impact you want your book to create and the key questions you hope it will answer. Are you challenging popular ideas about your topic or extending further on them? Get clear on the key things you need to cover in order to do that.

It’s a tricky balance between not spending so much time planning that you never get started, but dedicating enough time to have a solid and robust plan when you do embark. Your plan will be challenged at some point and you will get tangled, so you need to be able to adapt without coming completely unravelled.?

It’s about discipline more than inspiration

The tortoise was right; slow and steady can win the race. I predicted that this method might help me get out of my own (perfectionist) way and that was the case. The framework of 1,000 words a day broke it into mini-milestones and I felt like I was achieving something even when I was just inching forward. I focused primarily on the word count – just getting it done – which meant that I wasn’t waiting for inspiration to strike or feeling like I needed to ride that wave as long as it went while fearing it wouldn’t come again. Instead, I trusted that I could make more progress tomorrow. (This was also a much more life-compatible approach when concurrently stuck in lockdown with three small children.)

Down trumped perfect

With my eye on the word count, I was able to concern myself less with the quality of what was coming out. That’s not to say I wrote drivel, but I didn’t feel the pressure to craft it all beautifully as it hit my keyboard. I was able to really lean into the idea of getting it down over getting it perfect at that point. With this in mind I could get started – and keep going – more easily. I now have something (60+ pages of something, in fact) to edit, whereas you can’t edit a blank page! (And boy does it need an edit!)

You won’t write 30,000 awesome words

As above, the spirit of ‘done not perfect’, means you won’t write 30,000 great words. You can hit the word count, but it won’t all be awesome. (Trust me, even a seasoned writer can’t get it all out perfectly at that sort of pace!) Because the method advocates that you don’t have to write in order, there is a lot of linking to do, as well as set-ups and callbacks, to bring it all together cohesively. This is another reason that having a good plan is vital; it keeps you focused and avoids the time wasting of ending up with too many words that you simply can’t use.

There will be a lot left to do afterwards

In many cases, 30,000 words isn’t a full book. It’s likely too that some of what you’ve got there won’t make the cut when you come back to edit it (no matter how good your plan was!) You might have stories that you need to expand further, or points you can substantiate more with research, so you’ll get to the word count you need, don’t worry. My point here is that you will still have a lot of work to do after the 30 days is up. Factor this in.

It’s likely that you’ll feel like you’ve climbed a mountain and deserve a break. (A small one is definitely warranted!) Be mindful to schedule time for the next stretches of writing though. You can move away from the strict daily structure of the 1,000 words a day challenge, but you need to ensure you keep some momentum and don’t just stop cold. I’m finding this part a challenge currently – hence this post coming a full week after I intended to share it!

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Having made my way through the 30 days, I’ve become even more aware of just how big a challenge writing a book is – and why it’s so scary for people to take on a project of this scope. Even having written multiple books for clients, and having coached countless others through writing their own, I still found plenty of lessons along the way. We’re now putting those lessons into practice by developing a programme that will help people write and leverage their books (in a few more than 30 days though!).

Watch this space – more details to come soon.