Write Your First Novel in Only 90 Days or Less
Yes, it’s possible
In the beginning, I could never finish a novel. I would always get distracted by a new story idea, and then suddenly start another book.
In September 2021, while in the middle of writing my new book at the time, I was arrested by another story idea. But this time, it was different. This time, I wanted to write the book to the very end. If I wanted to be a novelist like I claimed, then I must finish at least one novel in my life, I reasoned. Three months later, I was done with the first draft with over 150,000 words. But it took me another nine months to revise the whole thing.
Since then, it’s taken me a shorter and shorter time to finish my novels, and the first drafts are not as bad as they used to be. In January 2023, for example, I wrote the first draft of a novel in less than 30 days.
Two main reasons account for this change in my writing life:
1. The power of an outline
2. Writing without editing
The number one reason I never finished a book in the past was because I had no outline. Even pantsers, who create the story as they go, need some form of outline to give them direction. I am a plotter through and through; imagine what a nightmare it was for me when I didn’t have an outline.
Once I started using one, though, things changed for the better.
My other problem was that I wrote and edited at the same time. Instead of focusing on writing the story, I would tweak the same chapter over and over without moving forward. So I was always stuck.
When you solve these two problems, finishing a novel in only 90 days or less days will be more than possible.
However, if you’ve never written a novel before but want to really to write one…
…don’t start with a novel
Writing a novel is like scaling Mount Everest. You don't start with Everest if you’ve never been rock climbing.
Writing a novel is like lifting a 200kg weight. If you’ve never done any workout, had any physical training, or even stepped in a gym before, you’ll be insane to try and lift a 200kg weight.
In both analogies, trying any of those things without adequate preparation is a death sentence.
Of course, you won’t die if you try to write a novel as a newbie. But you’re going to be unnecessarily frustrated throughout the entire process.
Like a rock climber or weight lifter, you need to train first. As writers, our version of training for the big goal (writing a novel) is writing scenes.
Novels are made up of scenes. If you learn to write great scenes, you’re well on your way to writing a great novel.
Other short-form and medium-form pieces like short stories, essays, and articles are also great for practicing.
Study the craft by reading different types of writing and practice what you learn.
As you do that, you improve exponentially. This makes it much easier to write your novel than if you had no writing experience.
But I’m going to assume you’ve been practicing and now want to write your first novel. Awesome. I’ll show you exactly how you can start your first novel and finish in as little as 90 days.
1. Prepare yourself mentally
Writing a book is more psychological than physical. It takes a lot of time and effort, which will require you to make many sacrifices to accomplish. Without preparing your psyche for the arduous task, it will be incredibly difficult to finish the book.
Hell, you might even give up entirely.
To avoid such a problem, ask yourself this question before you start:
Why do I want to write this book?
What is the motivation — the why — behind it?
Your why will determine whether you’ll be able to stick to the very end or just give up right in the middle. Because trust me, it’s very easy to quit when you can’t come up with a good reason why you’re doing something.
I was able to finish my first novel after I became candid with myself about what would happen if I never finished it. Firstly, I would regret it forever. I wanted to become a novelist. How do you do that if you can’t even finish one novel in your life? I couldn’t let that happen, so I worked hard to write at least one novel. That was in 2021.
Today, I have five novels. And I’m currently in the middle of writing my sixth novel — a sequel to my paranormal romance.
All this happened because of a change in my mindset. I had a story to tell and I couldn’t afford to not tell it before I die. So, I did.
Identify your why, and if it’s strong enough, it will keep you going when it gets really hard. Because it will.
2. Find the central idea or theme of your story
One reason writers go in circles, eventually sinking in the quicksand of the middle is because they don’t know what their story is about at its core.
You can’t just say you want to write a novel and not know the central idea or theme of the book. That’s like being a speaker at a TedTalk and having no idea what your talk is about.
Novels entertain. Sure. But they communicate a central idea that has been interwoven into the story. The theme does not necessarily teach a moral lesson — although that’s also probable. But it unravels the human condition based on the writer’s perception of the world. It’s the controlling idea that ties the entire story together.
What’s that core value you want people to take from your story? What are you trying to say?
Do you want to show that tyranny can be crushed by a rebellious spirit or that tyranny can destroy even the most rebellious spirit?
These are two very different concepts that will lead to two completely different stories.
Of course, readers don’t want you preaching to them. And honestly, that’s not the purpose of a theme.
It gives your story a concrete foundation to stand on, so you know exactly what your story is about in its truest sense. If you can pinpoint the theme, you can easily summarize your entire story in one or two sentences. Your theme becomes your compass as you write; you’ll never get lost because you can always come back to it for direction.
When I wrote my first novel, I didn’t know about themes. It was probably why it took me such a long time to revise the book because the story had to change so many times.
But in my subsequent books, writing became more straightforward because I had a theme to focus on.
3. Plan your novel
When you want to write a novel, the first thing is not to start writing the book. That’s how a lot of people get lost. Myself included.
It’s a lot more efficient to plan your story. This is usually not a one-day affair. For me, it takes anywhere between three to seven days. It could be more or less depending on how complex the novel is.
But this step in the writing process is critical, especially if you’re a plotter.
Plotters need a detailed outline to follow before they can even write the first word of their book. This is me. And it might be you too. Before I wrote the very first word of my first novel, I planned the whole thing first. The entire plan (including my story outline and story bible) was more than fifty pages long. That’s like an entire book on its own. And it was merely a plan.
Yours doesn’t have to be long. If you’re a pantser, your plan could only be a few pages. Sometimes one page is all you need. Or even a couple of paragraphs or sentences.
But you need some sense of direction to keep you on track. As a newbie, you probably don’t know where you fall within the plotter-pantser spectrum. So try both styles and see what works. Once you identify it, stick with it.
Planning your story is the key to finishing your novel quickly.
But remember that your plan is not fixed in stone. It’s very much flexible. You may come up with even better ideas as you write. Update your plan accordingly. Think of it as a guide rather than a law. Things can change. It will change. So don’t be stubborn with it.
4. Start writing
You’ve cultivated your mind through the entire process. You have a theme and a plan for your story.
That’s half the work done. The other half is about writing the book itself.
You need to put in the time and effort or your book will never be done.
To finish your story quickly, I have three rules you must follow. Yes, this is me telling you what to do. If you don’t follow these rules, you won’t finish your book. Sorry.
Rule #1: Find the time
I’m willing to bet that the number one excuse people come up with for never writing their book (or doing anything) is that they don’t have time. Everyone says this. I say it too.
The truth is, it’s not true — everyone has time for the important things in their life.
If you don’t have the time to work on your novel, then chances are that it’s not important to you. And that’s okay. Just don’t lie to yourself.
There are 24 hours in a day. Even if you sleep for 7 hours and work for another 10 hours, that’s 17 hours in a day. What other things do you do in the remaining 7 hours? Showering, eating, getting ready for work, commuting to work, taking care of your family, medical emergencies? Okay. That’s another 5 hours gone. How many are left? Two hours.
What do you do with these 2 hours? TV, social media, going out with friends, family time, clubbing?
This is a rather simplistic way of putting it, and your day may be more or less packed than that. The point is that there’s a portion of your daily routine dedicated to things that aren’t that important as compared to working on your novel. Things like watching TV, scrolling through social media, going out every night with your friends, and so much more.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing these things. However, if you’re doing them and yet find no time to work on your novel, then obviously, they’re more important than your novel.
If you want to write a book, sacrifice is imperative.
You’re doing at least one thing that isn’t that important and needs to be cut out. I can’t tell you what that thing is. You need to find it for yourself. For me, it was my phone and movies. I was only able to write my first novel once I cut these things completely out of my life for the next three months.
And if you have a rigorous daily routine — like I did in 2023 when I was my mum’s primary caretaker — then you just have to wake up earlier and write. I’m sorry, but you just have to do it if writing is important to you.
In 2023, I woke up at 4 a.m. every day to write in the first three to four hours of the day. That was literally the only time in the day I could write. Beyond that, I had zero control of my time.
Now in 2024, while I have more freedom with my time because my mum does most things for herself now, I still wake up at 4 a.m. most days out of habit. So yeah, in the beginning, it will be hard. But you’ll eventually get used to it.
If writing a book is that important to you, you’ll find the time to do it no matter what. You could do it early in the morning, late at night, or within short bursts of time throughout the day (maybe every fifteen minutes of free time you get). There’s no right or wrong way. You simply have to go with what works for you.
And of course, there’s no need to write for hours on end. Just one or two hours a day is all you need. Do this for thirty days and see how many words you write.
Unless you’re sick and writing will be detrimental to your health, you have no excuse.
Rule #2: Optimize your environment
If you have problems committing to writing, it has little to do with your willpower and everything to do with your environment.
Your environment determines whether you’ll build good habits or not. It will also determine if you’re going to commit to your novel.
Prepare your writing space and eliminate everything that will distract you from writing. Everything.
I have three major distractions in life:
My phone, my bed, and my TV. All in that order.
My writing desk is in the room with no TV. I don’t check my phone first thing in the morning. That will be a disaster. And I never sit on my bed to write. That’s unless, of course, I’m not trying to be productive.
These things distract me, so I keep them out of my writing space.
This is what I mean by optimizing your environment. Look, we’re human. No matter how much we try, we can easily fall into temptation. You think you have the willpower to do or not do certain things, but that’s not true all the time. The best way to enforce your willpower is to create an environment where those temptations are not there in the first place.
The day I opened Twitter early in the morning on my phone only to stop scrolling somewhere at 11 p.m. was when I realized how very little control I had over my so-called willpower.
Social media doesn’t only distract me, but it also drains my physical and mental energy.
Something as simple as a notification can immediately pull me out of writing and get me scrolling on my phone for hours. Since I know this about myself, my phone is now always on focus mode between 4 a.m. and 6 p.m.
In this mode, my phone blocks all the apps that distract me, especially social media apps. I also don’t get any notifications. My life has become much more orderly and focused ever since I put this in place.
Identify the things that distract you and eliminate all of them from your writing space. If you’re easily distracted by noise, go to a place where there’s no noise. Or invest in noise-cancellation headphones.
If you’re okay with writing outdoors, find a place to do that. Maybe in a local cafe, a library, or wherever you find pleasing to you.
Choose the right space for yourself. The more you write in that space regularly, the more you associate it with writing. Once you get there, you’ll have no other choice but to write. This isn’t some magical baloney. This is real. Try it.
Rule #3: Write first, edit later
I cannot stress this point enough. Write first, edit later. It’s incredibly important. Writers often never make progress because they write and edit at the same time. This was my hell back in the day.
Instead of writing the first draft without caring about making mistakes, I wanted my first draft to be perfect. When I wrote a chapter (sometimes even a paragraph), I would read through it several times, tweaking the mistakes over and over again. It was exhausting.
I never finished a book because for weeks I would be working on the same chapter. For weeks.
It was only after I stopped caring about writing the perfect first draft that things changed.
Here’s the thing, your first draft will never be perfect. As a beginner, it will be utter crap. With more experience, it might get better. Yet, it will still need revision.
So why not accept that your first draft will be imperfect? Why don’t you focus on simply getting the words on paper first? Later, you can edit it to your heart’s content.
Never write and edit at the same time.
Don’t even go back to correct a mistake. Just keep going. Don’t stop to think too much about your word choice. Use whatever word that comes to mind. It may not be the best word but it doesn’t matter. This is just the first draft.
In later drafts, you can think more deeply about it as you edit your work. That’s what editing is for.
But as long as you’re working on your first draft, none of that matters. Simply focus on finishing the book. That’s all.
Final thoughts
These are the basic building blocks to writing your first novel. Of course, other things go into the craft of writing itself. If you want to learn more about that, you may start with how to structure your story and how to tell a compelling story.
If you’re writing your first novel, it might seem hard. But that doesn’t mean you should quit. Just keep at it. And by the way, I know this article is about writing your book in only 90 days, but you don’t have to do that.
It’s not about the speed. It’s about the content of your story. So don’t be disheartened if you can’t finish your book in 90 days or less. Hell, I don’t recommend getting obsessed with it. Just focus on writing regularly. As long as you work on your novel as often as possible, you’ll finish it.
It doesn’t matter if takes a month or a year. The goal is to finish your novel. So keep writing. I wish you all the best.
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Torshie Torto is a writer, teacher, and storyteller. If you love her work and want to support her, buy her a coffee or grab a copy of her books.
