Finding the time to write a book is one of the greatest challenges of any would-be author. Transforming that idea into a fully-fledged manuscript after all isn’t easy, and neither is penning a book that’s ready for publication when juggling a full time job and busy family life. But as our self-published authors prove, it is possible!

Here we share our top tips for finding the time to write your own book and becoming one step closer to becoming a self-published author.

Remember planning makes perfect

Dedicating a good chunk of your time to the book planning process may seem like wasted hours (or even days). With careful planning however, you’ll find penning a great manuscript more straightforward.

Use research to set out the main components and plot lines of the book, identify who will want to read the finished article and why, and decipher what journey your narrative will take the reader on. You should even go as far as devising aims you want to achieve with each chapter to make the writing process more seamless and succinct.

Slow and steady wins the race

Writing a book is a long and time consuming journey, which makes scheduling time for book writing into your everyday particularly important. With just an hour a day, you could have your first draft completed in a few, short months.

Take a look at your daily schedule, and pinpoint the unnecessary tasks that you can put on the back burner to concentrate on book writing. Activities like mindless social media strolling for example take up a lot of time, which could be better spent writing your book. You could even schedule book writing into your diary to make it as important as any other day-to-day task.

If there are no tasks you can ditch from your busy schedule, why not delegate to free up some time?

Set yourself a writing goal

As well as dedicating a set amount of time per day to pursuing your book writing ambitions, be sure to set a weekly word count goal. The average word count for a non-fiction book is between 40,000 and 50,000 words, whilst a fiction book generally needs 80,000 to 100,000 words.

Make your writing goal as realistic as possible and commit to achieving it to complete your first draft with ease.

Keep an eye on the future

Staying inspired is the key to maintaining the concentration and focus you need to achieve your book writing goal. Knowing what’s next in your journey to becoming an author is therefore vital. Take a look at our self-publishing packages and keep an eye on the future.