3 Tips for Finishing Your Book’s First Draft Faster

I should’ve learned these lessons much sooner.

I accomplished a writing milestone today.

By nine o’clock this morning, I completed the first draft of my non-fiction book regarding my time in college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I couldn’t believe it.

All of the hard work, effort, dedication and pride I put into such work was finally done. Even though I am not completely finished with the book writing process, I still learned quite a bit.

Here are 3 trips for finishing your book’s first draft too:

You Have to Stay Disciplined

This first draft wouldn’t have been completed without my discipline to complete it myself. After months and months of early mornings, late nights and much editing, the project is done.

There were days I didn’t want to write. There were other days I didn’t know what to say. But I kept at it.

I showed up every day and kept writing no matter what. And that’s how I completed it in just a few months.

If you stay disciplined too, your book will be done just as fast. But if you don’t put in the effort, that blank manuscript will still be sitting there, never to be read by the outside world.

You Have to Be Self-Motivated

No one told me to write this book. No one said I had to.

First and foremost, I wanted to write this collection of personal stories because it means something to me. I’m doing this for me, first of all, and then to help and entertain as many readers as I can.

I wanted to see this work completed in no time, and that’s the motivation that kept me going. If I didn’t work on it, it wouldn’t be finished, and then I wouldn’t be able to share it with the world.

I haven’t done the latter quite yet, but because I stay self-motivated to finish the first draft, I will do the same with the rest of the process. In doing so, I’m making this all possible.

And that’s my motivation.

Believe You Can — And You’re Almost There

Writing any kind of full-length book is difficult.

There were days when I didn’t think I could do it. But then I believed in myself and miracles started happening. I wrote more and completed more of the book.

Before I knew it, I had finished the first draft of a manuscript. I believed I could do this and that’s half of the battle right there.

If you don’t believe in yourself and your writing, how do you expect anyone else to?

Closing Thoughts

Now, I’m going to let the book simmer for a little bit. Then it’s off to find an editor and a publisher.

Until then, I will be proud of this day in my young writing career, and I can’t wait for many more like these to come. The only thing better than this is to see the book in print.

And that will be the best day ever.

Noah Nelson is a graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in journalism with minors in political science and history. He served as a senior columnist for The Daily Illini, serves as a writer on Medium and the host of his blog called Nothing But Noah. His books “Life: A Collection of Short Stories” and “Dana and Me: A Memoir” are both available now on Amazon. Like what you read? You can write for Medium too!