How to Write and Edit a Novel in 120 Days

It’s not too late to check this one off your resolution list.

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m all about going slow and doing it right — when it comes to writing. Not about much of anything else. But writing? Definitely.

I do have a method, though, for writing and editing a novel relatively quickly and I thought I’d share it with you today. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll be able to write a novel and edit it in 120 days.

The basic steps are these:

• Understand plot.
• Write every single day.
• Write toward your climatic scenes.
• Do not edit until your first draft is done.
• When you do edit, edit in layers.

I like 120 days because it’s fast, but it’s not insane. You’ll be able to actually do this. Let’s get into it.

Understand Plot

I don’t care who you are or what your method is— if you want to write quickly and actually write well, you need to understand how stories are put together.

In a novel, there are essentially four acts — Act I, Act II (which is divided in half at the midpoint of the book), and Act III.