50,000 Words in 38 Days?

I have a self-imposed deadline of May 1st for my next book. It'll actually be the first fictional tale I self-publish, and I want to make it something grand. But can I crank out 50,000 words in 38 days given the sheer amount of stuff I have to do every day?

Why Only 38 Days?

From the time of this post, April 1st is just 38 days away. If I can finish the manuscript by then, it'll give me a month to have it edited and the cover designed before publishing it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Given the size of the book, I hope that'll be enough time.

I am aiming for a 90,000-word fantasy/gothic horror novel, and I'm nearly halfway through writing.

If I want to meet that May 1st publishing date, I'll need to be on the ball with edits and cover design. I already have an idea of what I want the cover to look like, I just hope I can get it done within a month.

How Much Does it Take to Write 50,000 Words in 38 Days?

In the grand scheme of things, 50,000 words aren't much for me to crank out. I write more than that on my blogs, Vocal, and YouTube scripts inside of two weeks.

I've been writing for a considerable amount of time.

It takes more than just whipping out 70 words per minute, though. I also need to make sure the story has a good flow and makes sense to the reader. It's a bit more difficult than, say, blogging. Sure, I have to research key phrases and search intent for the blog. But a novel has to be entertaining and a page-turner. Every word counts.

For me to write 50,000 words in 38 days, I'll need to at least grind out 1,316 words per day starting today. And in truth, I did twice that before lunch yesterday.

However, it takes me longer to write when it comes to my novels. Mostly because I scrutinize the flow as I write. Again, it's all about making sure the plot and character development make sense to the readers. So, it's a bit longer to crank out the words.

On some days.

There are days when the entire scene just seems to flow like a rushing river washing away a sandbar after a flood. But then there are days when the words are slow to come and I don't like where the scene was heading. And yes, I have a lot to remove from Kingmaker as I added plot elements that really didn't go anywhere.

How Will I Make Sure I Get Enough Time to Write 50,000 Words?

That's the crux of everything, actually. Because I am so inundated with the various things I do throughout the day, a lot of stuff gets set on the back burner. However, a lot of my time is still wasted throughout the day by getting sidetracked with other elements around the house.

It's easy to burn more than an hour when working from home as you get sucked into YouTube or even cleaning the house.

To write the last 50,000 words, I'll need to make it my number one priority in Asana every day. This means assigning at least two hours to write after my client's work is done.

At first, I was going to try to write late in the evening. I usually have more time to waste after 5 pm. Unfortunately, I found that by 6 pm, my mind is mush from staring at the computer all day that all I want to do is veg out.

Dedicating a solid block of time in the morning will help ensure that my next book gets adequate effort to meet my deadlines. This also means that some of my other projects will get less of my time every day.

What Will I Sacrifice for the Book?

To free up enough time to write 50,000 words in the next month, some things will have to be set aside for now. At least until I get a good rhythm going. So, out of all the things I am able to sacrifice, which ones make the most sense?

Until I'm done writing Kingmaker, I'll have to move the blogs to the "hopefully I can complete" section of my day. Lately, it seems the last two projects of the day are the ones that wind up getting sacrificed. Although the blogs do bring in a bit of money and have great potential to bring in more, I want to get this next book done and published more than anything.

I don't want to sacrifice my YouTube videos as I am trying to reach the illustrious 4,000 hours of watch time to get the channel monetized. But if I can't do a video that day, I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles.

The Best Case Scenario

If I can manage to divert myself from the trappings of life here at the house, I'm sure I can get a lot more done. Ideally, I shouldn't have to sacrifice much for the next several weeks. Of course, that completely depends on my ability to sit and do the work I've assigned to myself.

And it's not as easy as you might think. At least not for me.

It all comes down to the same problem I've been dealing with for the longest time: managing my day better. I need to be far more focused and mindful of the time I waste if I want to accomplish all of my goals for the year. Especially when you consider that I want to publish three books before the end of 2022.

Though, I'm starting to wonder how realistic that goal is given the nature of everything I do in a day. Sure, I'd love to be some famous author that writes best sellers in his sleep. But I have a lot of people who depend on me for help in everything from writing to weight loss.

It's a nice little slice of hell that I've carved out for myself.

Still, I do have a few experiments planned for the future that will help. For example, I plan on seeing if I can write a good book within 60 days. I might just do this experiment at the same time as my cover story challenge. In that instance, I am buying a pre-made cover and writing a story based on what the designer had created.

If anything, it'll be a lot of fun.

Kingmaker Comes Out May 1st!

Giving myself a deadline helps keep me focused. Instead of just getting into the mindset that, "eh, I'll get to it someday," I have a bit more pressure to actually put in the effort to get it done. Especially since I've been announcing it on YouTube recently.

Now, a lot of people are looking forward to the novel. Since I don't want to let my fans and followers down, I need to turn up the heat on the writing.

As I said, 50,000 words in 38 days shouldn't be difficult at all for me to write. Think of it this way; it's only taken me 44 minutes to write this 1218-word post. I'm sure I can manage to finish my book before April.