How to write a book in five days

No, but I did the three-day novel writing contest once.

That was brutal enough and not really enough time to write much more than a novella.

Five days would be enough time, but I think I'd lose it. I was already running out of sanity and endurance by day three.

Nanowriteweek?

MookyMcD said:

Nanowriteweek?

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I haven't started mine yet! It has evolved into a procrastinational experiment.

I haven't quite done that but for Nano I count on the thanksgiving break to do the bulk of my writing.

Man, I couldn't do that. I did a first draft in 21 days (while still working full-time) and that sapped my energy for the entire month afterwards.

Yeah, you write a book in five days and spend the rest of the year trying to assemble energy to write again. At least that's what would happen to me. I never push myself too hard or else I'll regret it later ):

But I am waiting eagerly to hear stories about such feats.

The sound of that is just so unappealing to me. I can only imagine a dazed, hungry, and sleep deprived me wandering blindly on the street, muttering about how I only had 50k left. If I have no obligations, a lot of drive, and even more sleep I can manage 6k. Maybe even 7k (I did 6.8 once and felt like a dead person for a few days after). That adds up to 21k max. No way I could write a whole novel. That would require a writing performance drug.

Such a drug exists. It's called caffeine.

I wish caffeine had that effect on me. Or anything. I've had half a tub of Ben & Jerry's tonight and all I can do is listen to pop music over and over and over.

EMaree said:

I wish caffeine had that effect on me. Or anything. I've had half a tub of Ben & Jerry's tonight and all I can do is listen to pop music over and over and over.

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The dog goes bow wow but what does the fox say?

fivetoesten said:

Book sprint at Google Summer of Code Doc Camp

Have any of you guys ever participated in a book sprint?

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This appears to be a group effort (yes, I read the link) to write a non-fiction instructional book (which jibes with the Google Summer of Code thing), pretty different from the usual novel thing. Also, I'm guessing each person only wrote a fraction of the book, even if all participants read it over.

I know people who have done the #50kday November 1 for Nanowrimo (by having quite good typing speed, and staying up and writing for 24 hours), and then go on to write another 50-200k for the month.

A couple years ago I wrote 9.7k the last day of Nanowrimo to hit 50k. With what I've written so far, I'll need at least four of those days this month.

The most sprinting I can do is for NaNoWriMo. I did 107k for it one year (note to self - never attempt this again unless I no longer have the day job.) But even that was only maybe a couple of thousand words on work days and extra on weekends and holiday days, which isn't all that much. I'm a slow typist with a day job and I got there.

I have written 10k in one day and then 7k the day after. But I can't really sustain that for long. A steady 2 k a day, sure. 10 in a weekend, fine. But if I try to get 6, 7, 8k for too many days in a row I burn out and can't write for a few days. My brain just turns to sludge and I need a couple of days off to recover, do I don't really gain much.

Wow. Sounds impressive, but what is the quality like for a book written so quickly? If someone can write a full-length novel and not compromise on texture and depth in such a short time then I take my hat - and everything else - off to them!

I type very fast, and my first 2 novels were written in under one month. They ended up being paired down, re-drafted, re-written, edited and re-edited ad nauseum for the next 3 months. Drove me nuts, but at least they were picked up by a good publisher.

With current wip I am forcing myself to take it slower, hoping I will produce a more thoughtful, better written first draft. One which will need less re-writes and therefore inspire less tequila-fuelled meltdowns.

There's some ridiculously impressive NaNoWriMo wordcounts happening over in AW's NaNo Overachievers thread. Ashley has a goal of 150k this month, Gena 100k, and quite a few others at the 75k-80k mark. They all seem to be on track as well.

I dunno how they do it, but I suspect they might all be magical, superhuman beings. Possibly demigods.

EMaree said:

I dunno how they do it,

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At a guess I would say lots of preparation and a high typing speed.

fivetoesten said:

Have any of you guys ever participated in a book sprint?

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I can't think of a single reason why I would want to do such a thing. Writing is a cerebral, creative activity. It isn't a race that goes to the swift. I put a lot of thinking time into my stories, and I like to think through every single scene before a sit down to write. Unless I have a deadline for a project, I reserve ticking clocks for inclusion WITHIN my stories, not in their construction.

PulpDogg said:

At a guess I would say lots of preparation and a high typing speed.

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For sure. Having the whole novel figured out really helped me to achieve a high word count.

The best I've ever done is 18 days. I had been bitten by a brown recluse multiple times and was on heavy drugs and unable to walk on the leg. If I didn't the book to the publisher on time, we would lose our pub slot for the season. It wasn't a pretty few days, but it was a complete 100K book.

The most I've ever written in one sitting, as someone who's just starting out. About 4 pages on an A4 notebook, maybe more. (My laptop wasn't working at that time).

I'm quite proud of it, as I tend to have small handwriting. And when I typed it out later, it came close to 1k words.

Nowhere near any other other counts I see on this thread.

NaNo is hard enough (actually, not possible for me this year) so I can't even begin to imagine what a sprint like that would require.

If I could put the rest of my life on hold for a week, maybe...

I honestly think I could pull that off. But in order to do that, I'd have to do nothing but write—no girlfriending, no gaming, no surfing, no going out, nothing.

Which brings me to the biggest question regarding something like this: why? Why rush to write a book? Does finishing a book in five days make it better than a book that was finished in five months? Or five weeks, even? The only advantage to writing a book in five days seems to be being able to say, "Teeheehee I wrote a book in five days!"

Then again, I suppose it's like people who memorize glitches and fastest routes through levels to speedrun games, even when the game doesn't give you anything of any sort as a reward/bonus for speedrunning. Some people must find that fun, I suppose. I just don't see how.

bookworm92 said:

I'm quite proud of it, as I tend to have small handwriting. And when I typed it out later, it came close to 1k words.

Nowhere near any other other counts I see on this thread.

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I find it pretty challenging to get a thousand words per day written. I've managed it for a few weeks at a time, but that took a lot of discipline and planning and it didn't feel like a natural pace for me. You should be proud of your 1k.