This was originally published on Tumblr on October 2, 2024.

I’ve written over 2 million words of fiction since 2021. That’s a lot, more than many people write in a lifetime.

This is despite the fact that I also write 22,000 words every week for my day job. I do around 10k of creative fiction a week. And there’s also the time I spend writing these articles, which is around 4-5k per week.

So, all told, I probably do around 37,000 words (creative, informative, and otherwise) every single week.

I did that by following these tips.

Separate the work into stages.

First, let’s outline the stages of work (or at least the stages I use). You may have a different setup, and that’s fine – if you do have a system that works for you, then you probably don’t need my post at all. Keep doing what you’re doing and ignore my advice.

But if you do not have a system, consider mentally separating things into these parts.

Active Writing.

When I am busy doing the draft. It is both the most precarious and productive time; everything else related to books goes on the backburner. I am doing nothing writing-related but writing. No discussing the work unless I’m stuck somewhere, no making moodboards, nothing. This is my sacred time when I am in the thick of things and I put Writing Blinders on.

Percolation.

I am done with the first draft. I set the piece aside and do other things like reading other novels, outlining another story, playing with moodboards, or putting everything aside and focusing on other hobbies. This is so I can come back to revisions with a fresh set of eyes. It keeps the story in my mind and can even help me discover new things I want to add.

Revision.

After I have had a beta reader check things out, I go back and start fixing things. Then it percolates again. I repeat percolating and revising as many times as I feel necessary. Many times, I will have one beta reader look at it, then revise, and then have another beta reader look at it, each one getting a slightly different version of the story so I can compare what they liked or disliked.

Prepublishing.

Most authors’ least favorite part: marketing and telling people about your book so that they want to read it when it is ready. That includes stuff like making mood boards, creating marketing material, sending out ARCs, setting up ads, posting on social media, and so on.

Again, one step at a time. Do not blend all of these into a slurry.

I will say that with Pride Before a Fall, I ordered the cover before I was done with the book because I had a very clear vision of what I wanted.

Talk less, write more.

The more you talk about your story, the more you trick your brain into thinking that you’ve done the work when you categorically have not.

Plus, the time you spend talking about your book is time you spend not writing your book. We can’t do both simultaneously.

I don’t really talk about my stories while I’m doing them, not even with my family. I may post a line or two, and I may tell people the basic plot, but I’m not spending hours discussing them with anyone unless I need advice on what to do next. Even then, it’s more like “hey what do you think about this? Good? Cool, off I go.”

Please get out of the habit of exhaustively picking apart your work with other people during the Active Writing stage. That can come during the Percolating and Revising stages.

Devote all your love and attention to one story.

I need to emphasize just how important it is to write stories one at a time. Working on a million things at once is not efficient; it’s scatterbrained.

Force yourself to do one story. Just one. Not two or three or five. one. Don’t tell yourself, “oh, I can get more done if I do a little bit on this one and that one and that one.”

Can a chess player win three games of chess if they play all of them simultaneously? Uh, probably not. Each of their opponents is devoting everything to one game while their concentration is split between three different boards.

And you’re not going to win either if you’re playing twenty games of Write the Book simultaneously.

Do not mess around with moodboards, tag games, character questionnaires, playlists, etc, during Active Writing.

Do all of that stuff later, after you are done, as a marketing tool. It’s procrastination, plain and simple.

Any time I get sucked into tag games or moodboards while writing, I get less done because I’m devoting time and energy to something that doesn’t actually enhance my book.

It’s one thing to do character questionnaires while you’re figuring out a character, but quite another to stop what you’re doing and tell everyone what your character’s favorite food is.

Is that helping you get the project done? No, it is not. Log out of Canva. Turn on Cold Turkey to block Tumblr or Twitter. Leave that stuff alone.

Read short stories.

You know you need to read to become a good writer, but taking hours out of your day to read a novel while you’re drafting your own novel can take away from your writing process.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever read novels, of course, but you can do that while you’re in between projects.

During my active writing phase, I like to read a short story before I get started on working. This gives me inspiration and primes my creative pump so I’m excited to do my best.

Reading short stories also helps me focus on brevity rather than long-winded diatribes, which lets me pack more into a story.

Don’t reread your work during Active Writing.

It’s easy to get sucked into rereading and then not get anything new done; plus, this makes you want to revise, which should come later.

Reread only as much as you need to fix plot holes or remind yourself of where you’re going. Refusing to reread also lets you look at your work with fresh eyes during revisions.

Make a writing ritual.

You need to tell your brain that it is writing time. This could be anything, like brushing your teeth right before you sit down to write, or drinking coffee out of one specific coffee cup when you are in writing mode, or putting on a playlist that you only use when writing. If you do this every time you’re ready to write, you’ll be able to get into the mood better.

When it’s done, it’s gone.

Many writers fall in this complacency trap where they will finish a project, celebrate, and then not do anything else. They sit and reread their project over and over again, basking in its genius; now they don’t want to start anything new.

This is how you get writers who do one singular book and then never do another one. They’re too stuck on that first project and can’t move on.

I have not reread 9 Years Yearning since I published it, and I haven’t reread Pride Before a Fall since I put it up for preorder. (Btw, it’s coming out in just a few days!)

They are no longer my book babies. I don’t need to wring out any more dopamine from them. There’s brighter pastures ahead.

If you find yourself constantly rereading a finished project and picking at it even though you know it’s done, shut the document. Archive it if you have to. Move on to the next project. Pretend you never even wrote it.

When it’s done, it’s gone. Force yourself to stop thinking about it and keep going. You’ll find yourself able to write more because you’re not mooning over your last book.

That’s about it, though I may write another post with more tips. I hope these are helpful to you, even if you don’t like them.

Sit on them, think about it, and give it a try. You might find yourself spending more time writing and less time just thinking about writing.