How to Write a Book in One Month: A Week-by-Week Plan

In our Partner Spotlight series, an ALLi partner takes over the ALLi blog to share their expertise, experience, and hard-won wisdom on all things writing and publishing. This week, ProWritingAid, the team behind Novel November, walks us through one of the most exciting challenges in the writing calendar: drafting a whole book in a single month.

Are you an ALLi partner or author member? We'd love to hear your pitch. Get in touch and tell us your idea.

Thirty days, one finished draft.

Sounds impossible, right?

It's not.

Thousands of writers have been doing this exact task every year as part of the Novel November challenge.

How do they do it?

By having a plan, keeping up their momentum, and pushing forward, even when it gets hard. In this article, we'll break down exactly how to draft your book in one month by giving you a week-by-week plan.

Setting Yourself Up to Win

Writing a full draft in 30 days is as much about the preparation you do before the challenge begins as it is about what you do during the 30 days themselves.

Here's what to keep in mind:

• Pick your 30-day challenge: The first and most important thing to do is pick your challenge. You may choose to take on a challenge yourself, or join a group challenge, like Novel November. When you join a group challenge, you'll get a fixed start, a fixed finish, and thousands of other writers crossing the line with you.
• Decide how much you want to plan: Some writers need a detailed outline before they write a single word, while others want to discover the story as they go. Whichever camp you fall into, it is possible to finish a draft in a month. The most important thing to do is to pick an approach that works for you. If you need to write a full outline, make time to write a full outline. If you prefer to start fresh and see where the writing takes you, that's fine too.
• Find a way to measure progress: You'll need a way to track your progress and see how your draft is coming together. Measuring your progress helps you see how far you've come and will provide motivation when things get hard. Tracking progress may look like a spreadsheet or a purpose-built dashboard, like the one used for Novel November.
• Set your daily targets: Figure out your overall goal for the end of the 30 days. Maybe you want to write 50,000 words in a month. Maybe you need to write 100,000. Whatever your goal, divide it by the number of days that you'll actually commit to write. You may choose to draft every one of the 30 days, or you may choose to write on only specific days throughout the month. When you divide your overall goal by the number of days you're going to write, you'll have your daily target.

Week-by-Week Plan

Here's what to keep in mind, week-by-week, as you try to draft your novel in 30 days.

Week One: Build Momentum

Week one is the most exciting part of any 30-day writing challenge. Mood and motivation are high.

In the first week, your idea is fresh, and your energy is high. Use that to power you through. Try to silence your inner editor. Don't agonize over the perfect opening line, just get an opening line down on the page. You'll probably rewrite that line later, anyway.

This week, if the words come easily, keep going. Any extra words you bank during week one will help you later in the month, when fatigue sets in.

Week one is also a great time to find your writing rhythm. Do you write better in the morning or in the evening? Can you sneak in words on the train during your commute? Find the spaces in your day where you can build momentum.

Week Two: Survive the Slump

Somewhere in week two, your momentum will start to fade. The new challenge energy disappears, and fatigue sets in. 30 days starts to feel very, very long.

This slump is normal. Every writer will face it, whether you're on your first 30-day challenge or your tenth. Here's what to keep in mind when you're stuck:

• Writer's block doesn't always mean you have nothing to write. It often means you have nothing good to write. But your work doesn't need to be good at this point. So keep writing anyway.
• If your daily target feels too much, just focus on writing the next sentence. Some days the words will come easy and some they won't. Don't let the discomfort stop you from writing anything.
• Try a change of scenery. A new café, a different place in your house, a park bench outside. Shifting your surroundings may shake something free.

Week two is also a great time to start introducing rewards. Hit 10,000 words? Treat yourself. Snacks, an episode of your favorite show, a gold star on a sticker chart. Whatever gets you excited.

Week Three: Silence the Inner Critic

By week three, you'll likely have a decent chunk of manuscript under your belt. At this point, it can be tempting to go back and read what you've already written to see how you can improve it.

Whatever you do, don't do this.

In order to write a full draft in 30 days, you need to be completely focused on writing. If you start to think about editing, your momentum will stall and doubt may creep in.

If you struggle to silence your inner editor, try leaving yourself comments in your draft if there's something you know you want to fix, rather than fixing it right now.

It's okay to capture future work, but you don't want to start doing the work now.

Week Four: Sprint to the Finish

In week four, the finish line is in sight. The excitement creeps back up, just like it did in week one.

Week four is the time to squeeze every spare minute out of your day. School drop-off line lagging? Stuck in a huge queue at the grocery store? Those are perfect times to squeeze in more words.

Remember, wherever you end, you should be proud of how far you came. Even getting down a few thousand words during the month is more than most people will ever accomplish.

Ready to Write Your Book?

You don't need a perfect plan or the best idea in the world to write a book in 30 days.

You just need to keep showing up.

And it's a lot easier to show up when you're not doing it alone.

That's where Novel November comes in.

Every November, 100,000 writers around the world take on the challenge together, with one shared goal: 50,000 words in 30 days.

When you join, you get:

• Daily cowriting sessions. Log on, write alongside other writers, and get your words in without the blank-page loneliness.
• Expert guidance. Advice from published authors, editors, and writing coaches to help you plan, push through the slump, and keep your story on track.
• A community that gets it. People who'll celebrate your word count wins, help you through the tough days, and remind you why you started.
• Built-in accountability. A fixed start date, a clear finish line, and thousands of writers cheering you on in between.

The best part? It's completely free.

So stop waiting for “someday.”

Your first draft is 30 days away.