How a First-Time Author Wrote 102,000 Words Over Six Months

Revealing my top 7 coaching tools that pushed them over the finish line (they were stuck in chapter 1 for years before we met)

Today, one of my clients, sent me her whole book! After she had been blocked for years. Here’s her story, and how she applied seven simple tools to get over the finish line and submit 102,000 words over six months.

When we met for the first time, she had been stuck in chapter 1 for years, and felt she’d never finish her book. She had a great idea of seven linked short stories which I loved, but none of that came onto the page.

Six months later, she has completed a full draft. More importantly, she started enjoying the writing again, and learned her craft in small, weekly steps.

You can do it, too.

Here are the 7 most important coaching tools for writers to get to completion of your piece (even if you’ve been stuck for years and never find time to write).

I applied each one of them with the first-time author until the words flowed onto the page, and she said the magic words: “I’m enjoying writing again!”

1. Learn to say “no”

Most people are conditioned to people-please, but there are strategies to set boundaries around your writing (even if you have a busy day job).

My writer helps family members, takes in rescue dogs, and has lots of professional requests on her time. She reduced most of these for a limited time period to complete her book — and she never regretted it!

But what still held her back was a schedule that didn’t work well for writing.

2. Make time for writing

When other tasks or family obligations are ‘in your face’ it will feel you can’t write. With a few tweaks to your schedule you can free up more time to write (and stop over-preparing your teaching/admin/work stuff).

My writer started writing at specific times each week, no matter if last-minute requests came her way. She attached writing times to “right after walking the dog” or “an hour before the gym”. Her new schedule worked, the habit was established within weeks.

Most writers can get new momentum, but after a while, even a perfect schedule won’t save you from procrastination. Here’s what helped her keep writing every day.

3. Accountability

Without deadlines, most people don’t write. Find collaborators, colleagues, or a coach to hold you accountable and you’ll finish within week what would take you a year. Sadly, friends and family are not ideal for accountability.

I held my writer accountable each week, with email submissions of chapters. Sometimes, they came in the form of bullet points. In other weeks, I received almost publishable work. But we moved forward, week by week.

With accountability came a specific, new way of setting goals (holding someone accountable to write 100,000 words in one go wouldn’t work.)

4. Goal setting

If you think of a 10000 word chapter, you’ll get overwhelmed. Create weekly tiny milestones with specific deadlines, and you’ll write again.

My writer stopped thinking about “the book” and started planning small chunks of e.g. 500 words per day. It felt manageable, and she did it.

But how did she avoid blank page syndrome when she opened her laptop?

5. Flow ritual

Discipline and being harsh with yourself won’t work. It’s like a muscle that wears out. Instead, create a flow ritual every time before your write (e.g. headphones on > coffee > write down one goal and set a timer). Works for ALL of my clients.

My writer had a specific place in her house where she wrote, and could see the same painting. Going to that place, sitting down and opening her laptop was her ritual (and it worked).

The ritual worked for weeks and months — but a few times the inner critic stopped her. And then we did the deep mindset work.

6. Reframe negative thoughts

The inner critic will always show up. That’s the nature of who we are, and the toxic academic system isn’t helping. Gently bring your attention to the fact that those critical thoughts are not the truth. Reframe them and trust that you can build new thought patterns (this mindset work takes a bit of time).

Whenever my writer mentioned, as a joke, that her writing was rubbish, I reminded her that she was a first-time author and it was expected to write whatever comes for the first draft. With each round of edits, she got more confident. Towards the end, she started saying things like “this character needs to be a bit more fleshed out” or “I’ll polish the dialogue later” — she became a real pro, and changed her thinking patterns.

And there is an even bigger problem with thinking patterns that might stop someone from writing their book. The ‘victim mindset’ (I’ve had it, too).

7. Get out of victim mindset

As an academic, I felt micromanaged and undervalued. As a business woman and coach, I still slip back into this feeling that others control my success. I learned coaching methods like the Future Self method, where I envision myself 4 years from now, being free and strong, doing things I love. The more I envisioned, the more space for action I created.

My writer was, luckily, not stuck in this mindset. In fact, she had such a successful 40-year career, that she was not at a point where she empowered herself by writing her book. But during writing, she looked back on her life, and realised that in earlier years she had suffered from victim mindset. By writing the book, she realised how she got out of it, and writing her book was almost self-therapy.

This week, the writer and I celebrated her 102,000-word-long book manuscript. I emailed my trusted editor for line-by-line editing. And my writer is going on well-deserved holiday. Just before we ended our zoom call, she said, “I can’t believe I’ve done it. I’ve written a book.”

And I couldn’t be prouder.

If you apply even just one of the tips above, you can significantly move forward your own writing project — no matter how many months or years you were stuck. Scroll back up, and pick one of these to start today.