How to Fast Draft a Novel in Two Weeks

Write Twenty Pages a Day to Meet Deadlines

Jan 2, 2010
Suzanne Pitner

Fast Draft Writing Makes an Author Write Fast - Ginny Lynni

Fast drafting, the process of completing a novel in two weeks, is sweeping the online writing world. This new writing method isn't fun, but it's effective.

Advice abounds all over the Internet and in bookstores on how to write books. However, in the past six months, fast drafting has been the talk of writers on blogs, forums, and Twitter.

Developed and taught by Candace Haven, this method of writing forces an author to pound out a first draft in two weeks. As if NaNoWriMo, writing 50,000 words in a month, wasn’t enough of a challenge, writers are flocking to this new writing method. It might even be called a Fast Draft craze.

How Fast Draft Works

The premise behind fast drafting a novel is simple. Unplug the Internet, turn off the phone, and write 5,000 words a day for two weeks. It can also be done by page count at twenty pages a day. In two weeks, a 70,000 word rough draft of a novel will be finished. In twenty days, a 100,000 word first draft can be completed.

Authors who use this method swear that it immerses them in writing a story, and at a certain point, they can’t wait to get back to the manuscript each day. Once the first phase is complete, the author moves directly into revision. Some writers complete a project from first draft to finished novel in just a few weeks this way. The method works just as well for experienced writers as new novelists. It works just as well for plotters as pantsters.

Finding Time to Fast Draft

Writing 5,000 words a day takes time. Some writers say they can do it in two hours each evening. In order to pump out words at that pace, it’s crucial to learn how to write fast. The article How to Write Faster and Reach Word Count Goals gives some tips and tricks for increasing word count.

Authors who write books for a living find that deadlines often arrive all too quickly. The Fast Draft method helps them give full attention to the manuscript at hand and meet publisher’s deadlines, keeping agents and editors happy.

Prepare for a Fast Draft Challenge

For people who want to write fiction and for those who write non-fiction, having a goal for the book in mind before starting is critical. Know how long the manuscript should be, and know the highlights and key points, at the very least. A detailed outline can be created for those who plot books in advance.

Having an accountability partner will help in reaching writing goals. With a partner or a group of writers working together, each can cheer the other when hitting writer's block and also when things are going well. After the first revision, these accountability partners might be helpful writing critique group members.

Stock up of coffee, tea, food that’s simple to prepare, and get ready to write. It may be that a new novel is only two weeks away.

Suzanne Pitner - Suzanne Pitner is a teacher and published writer. A member of RWA and YARWA, she writes fiction as Suzanne Lilly.

Fast Drafting Works with any Writing Genre - Rolve

Write a Novel in 14 Days with Fast Draft - Luca Baroncini

Comments

Feb 6, 2010 5:53 PM

Guest :

this is so brilliant. never knew about this stuff, and all the articles here are so helpful. thank you so much for the insight!

Feb 9, 2010 10:52 AM

Guest :

Have these people got no patience whatsoever??? Yeah, it's fast... but there may be side effects like sleep deprivation, social ineptitude, and sore fingers!! =)

Feb 26, 2010 11:42 AM

Guest :

ONE MORE SIDE EFFECT TO ADD THERE...A BAD NOVEL!! TOTALLY AGREE THAT A GOOD BOOK SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN THE AUTHORS OWN TIME!

Feb 28, 2010 9:57 PM

Guest :

Very resourceful article! I am really going to look into doing this. Kudos!

Apr 8, 2010 3:41 PM

Guest :

It scares the bejeebus out of me. I'm going to try it.

Jul 30, 2010 3:12 PM

Guest :

This is a fine thing to try. After all, it's only two weeks!

I did this once years ago--wrote 5K/day on a fantasy novel. It was fun and relaxing. I'd done a bunch of research ahead of time and was excited by my story. The problem was ... I wrote myself into a corner. I've reread the ms several times since then and each time I wind up scratching my head. With structural problems this severe, how the hell can I fix it??? If I were to work on that novel again, I would have to set the draft aside, restructure & replot the whole thing, and then write it from scratch.

Normally it only takes me 4 mos to write a short novel. At that rate I feel completely unhurried. I have time to polish each scene after it's done before moving on to the next. For me, it's like exploring a landscape in total darkness: you can stumble around the book-sized ms for 50-100K wds and still be confused. Or you can focus on one scene at a time, feel it out, get to know it really well, achieve a version you're happy with, and then move on to a new patch of the story. The story grows itself like a tree when you do that. With fast draft (mind I did this years before I heard the words "fast draft"), it's more like a blizzard hits the page.

The six novels I've finished and completed are all much better than the draft I wrote in two wks.

I think Fast Draft is most useful for extremely reluctant writers. People who go slowly and unwillingly to the keyboard.

Oct 29, 2010 7:58 AM

Guest :

I've written four novels, sold two, edited two other (nonfiction) books that were published, and I have four more books in my editing pipeline.

So here's my (unsolicited) advice about this method.

It's thought-provoking, but the following scares me: "Authors who write books for a living find that deadlines often arrive all too quickly. The Fast Draft method helps them give full attention to the manuscript at hand and meet publisher’s deadlines, keeping agents and editors happy."

Nowhere in that article is the reader mentioned...it's all about the writer, the agent, the editor...and so: what about the quality of the work? In other words, what about keeping the readers happy? Readers don't care how quickly a novel was written…they care about how much it satisfies whatever the need was that prompted them to buy the novel in the first place.

There are certain writers who can get away with speed-writing. Robert A. Heinlein wrote "Starship Troopers" in something like a month, for instance. And as a training technique for aspiring writers this method may have some value. But I'm guessing that in most cases the quality of the end product will suffer because of the emphasis on word count over all else.

Yes, you go straight into the "revision" period after the two weeks are up. But how much extra time does it take you to revise your MS because you rushed through it the first time around?

I think a writer should do what's right for her novel, and not necessarily what's right for her. If this method is what it takes to get the novel on paper, then try it, by all means. But if a slower, more thoughtful route will get you to a better end product -- then take your time.

Jan 18, 2011 8:41 AM

Guest :

In response to some of the comments, I don't believe that writing quickly makes for a bad book. That's what revisions are for. I don't agree with immediately going into revisions. A writer should spend time away from their book before polishing, no matter how long it took to write the first draft. But assuming a fast writer doesn't care about its readers or that the book won't be of good quality is a completely different matter. Writing fast and writing well aren't the same thing and the first doesn't negate the second.

Oct 10, 2011 1:36 PM

Guest :

I see there are some writing snobs commenting on here. They should remember that some of the most amazing writers wrote in as little as a week etc. So how long it takes you to write has no bearing on the quality of your finished work. I do some of my best writing in a major rush, and the words just flow, perhaps thats why I have published more books than most authors who have been writing ten years longer?

9 Comments