đ§ But SHOULD you write a book in 90 days?
Is this a trick? Clickbait? Or something more?
Hi writer,
Thereâs something I always tell my 90-Day students right up front, but I realized Iâve never told all of you.Â
90 Days to Anything is a trick.Â
Itâs clickbait for the productivity brain.Â
Okay, itâs a love trick that gets books written, and the clickbait is the healthy kind, but this 90-day time limit? Itâs arbitrary. I could also walk someone through writing their book in a year or nine months or four weeks.Â
The Difficult Truth:
You will spend approximately the same amount of time writing your book whether you stretch it over three months or three years.
You can feel this truth in your bones, right?
If it normally takes me 78 hours to get through a first draft of a book, itâs going to take me 78 hours, whether thatâs over three months (6 hours a week) or over two years (45 minutes a week).
I know how much time I end up spending on writing a week if Iâm not being encouraged along, and itâs closer to zero hours than one.
Donât forget: the quality of your writing isnât better if you take it slow. In fact, if youâre moving at a steady clip, itâs easier to stay inside the story instead of fighting to remember what you were doing when you worked on it three weeks before (who left this dragon in the bakery and why did I do that?).Â
I love the timed container of 90 days because itâs a reasonable amount of time to write (or revise) a draft.Â
Important: No one walks out of 90 Days to Done or 90 Day Revision with a fully polished manuscript, ready to send to an agent or self-publish. (I mean, thatâs doable, sure, but itâs a huge stretch requiring enormous amounts of time and energy, and I prefer to work with people who have real lives, who are building a sustainable writing career, not one made of speed-induced panic.)
In 90 Days to Done, writers finish the first draft of their novel or memoir. (It will need revision.)
Not enough people talk about how much support is needed to keep wading through a pile of your own shabby words that donât shine the way you hoped they would. In 90 Days to Done, you keep wading, and by doing so, you find writing gold all the time, just by showing up.
In 90 Day Revision, writers complete a second (or later) draft of a book. Itâll need more revision, but thatâs okay because youâll leave with every tool youâll ever need to continue revising your book (and each of your books thereafter).Â
Not enough people talk about the fact that revision is not simply making the sentences better. Revision is when we rip the book apart and then rebuild it, and itâs best done in layers, fixing the big things first. We work macro to micro. Only when everythingâs in place do you make the lines sing.Â
Picture This:
Writing a first draft is like building a house â by yourself â with no instruction other than YouTube videos. You have a hammer with a head that keeps falling off, a can of crooked nails, and a rusty saw. When youâre done, something is standing but youâre not sure it could even be called a chicken coop, let alone a house.
Revising a book is like hiring a licensed contractor to evaluate this self-built house. Youâll have to take out this chimney, and you need extra pilings here, and the bathroom canât go there, and oh, god, THIS is a fire hazard. (And then you have to do all of those things yourself.)
You donât have to do either of these things by yourself.
Why Choose 90 Days?
Because in 90 days you could have your next draft in hand.
Or in 90 days, you could wonder where the time went (again).
People who take classes with me end up with polished manuscripts because theyâve found their true, best processes. They choose a path, make a commitment for 90 days, and do the work.
At the end of class, not one student has ever said to me, â90 Days was a lie. I should be published by now.â Instead, they say, âIâve got a plan for my next 90 days. Want to hear what Iâm going to do?â
This is the only way I teach/coach right now.
I wonât be running these classes again till mid 2025 at the earliest.
These will sell out. Grab your slot now if interested!
All The Details Are Here:
And whether or not you take a class from me, do consider putting a time constraint in place for yourself? 90 days is such a convenient container. Let me know how it goes!
Onward!
Rachael
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Scholarship Opportunity:
I'm offering two full-ride scholarship positions to BIPOC/LGBTQIA+/disabled writers, one in 90 Days to Done and one in 90 Day Revision - please contact me directly by filling out this form if youâre interested! I'll hold a lottery, winner to be notified by Aug 18, 2024.