It was a complete accident…

But I wrote the first book of my YA contemporary fantasy series in two weeks.

I think there were a few factors that led to this, and I’m going to talk about the ones I recommend, but first:

DO NOT SET OUT TO WRITE YOUR STORY IN TWO WEEKS.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with Stephen King’s recommendation to write a book in a season (summer, winter, spring, fall). It helps your mindset remain cohesive, and you’ve got the ~vibes~ to work with.

But goals like NaNoWriMo just aren’t effective — for me, at least.

For one, stories are going to do what they want. Caroline’s story is still fighting me tooth and nail, and Elle and Christopher took forever to finally show up for real. This story was begging to be written. The timelines for all three differed drastically, and that was okay, but it wouldn’t have been okay if I’d set unrealistic timelines for myself.

And you have no idea what’s going to happen in your life while you’re trying to meet that deadline. There was a tragic event that happened in April that completely shattered my resolve to work on Caroline’s story, and yesterday my family’s 13-year-old dog, who we’ve had since he was a puppy, passed away in my mom’s flower garden while I was in the middle of a writing sprint.

Life happens. And it’s more important than your writing.

But!

Here are some things I did this time around that really did help my process.

1. Write scenes you want to include on post-it notes. I know there’s a whole post-it note cult hidden somewhere, and that’s great, but for me, the process was simple. I wrote down the scenes I wanted on post-it notes, then organized them into a rough plot mountain. Then, I added the rough idea of my second POV’s perspective at that point in the book to give myself a direction for her chapters. I told myself I could move the post-its around or even change them if necessary, but they all stayed where they were for this draft.

2. Break the book into parts. My brain works in chunks. I set word count goals for almost everything. By giving myself three parts of the book, I could work on each “book” as a 20,000-word project, and at the end I had around 60,000 words, which was my goal. That made the daily word count I reached feel a lot more impactful, and it helped me push past my word count goals and remain motivated as I worked.

3. Write a brief chapter outline with show-like overviews. I’ve been binging shows since school let out as a form of self-care, and when I tell you that thinking of each chapter as an episode has changed my drafting, I mean it helped with thematic consistency IMMENSELY. Providing chapter titles was something I’ve never done before, but I can say with certainty it made a massive difference for this project.

4. Have four docs open at all times: your chapter outline, your rough scenes doc where you do the actual drafting, your rough draft doc where you copy and paste the chapters once they’re done, and your “vibes” doc where you write down all the random scenes, emotions, dialogue, and character dynamics that jump out at you during drafting.

The chapter outline and “vibes” docs were so helpful that I plan to use them to reverse-engineer some revisions for Caroline’s story. I’m not a plotter, but this loose plotting method really worked this time around, and I plan to use it in the future for the next books in my YA contemporary fantasy series.

And that’s pretty much it! I expect book 2 of the series to go quickly, too, because the POVs in that one have been exciting me since I decided to create these characters. But we’ll get there.

I’m back from vacation next week, so prepare for my return to Instagram and some more up-to-date newsletters in the future!

In the meantime, what drafting methods do you use? How do you maintain enthusiasm for a project?

TOMORROW begins Kayla Ann’s Kickstarter! Go support her and her debut novel!