Book in a Week

An entire Book in a week?

Well, not when you first start, probably!

BIW, is a Yahoo group that "gathers" on the first full week of each month to encourage writers to write as fast as they can without editing. Prior to that week you post your page goal for the week. (Minimum is 10 pages. A page is 250 words.) And then every day during the week you check in with the list, posting how many pages you've written. This is to encourage you to meet your goal as well as encourage others on the list throughout the week.

And then each month, up your page goal to push yourself to the point where you can't possibly have time to go back to edit what you've written during the week. You can work on anything you want: story, article, book, as long as it's a first draft rather than something to revise.

"No editing, no going back over what’s been written. Write, write, write. What is important is getting the words down, creating a first draft. Editing and revising comes later. Allow yourself to write quickly and without worry. Get your ideas down first."

BIW challenges start Monday at 8AM Eastern and ends the following Monday at 8AM. (This month it starts August 6.) (They request a $3 Paypal donation for new members.) The dates are scheduled a year in advance and are listed at the website:

"The first YEAR I participated, I did NOT ever make my goal. But I kept trying. For some folks, it takes a while to let go of that need to edit. It takes time to feel free to just sit down and write JUNK. But when you finally hit it, it's awesome. And the point (for me) is this: Quantity is what develops quality. If you only write a page a week, because you're worried about how it reads, then you have so much less of a mind to dig in for those nuggets of gold. If you can free yourself up to write as many pages as you physically can, you will have a huge source of work to dive into and cull from. And out of that, over time comes pages and pages of great writing!"

-- Candie Moonshower, long time BIW member and published author