: Re: How to write a 40+ page story in 3 weeks What is the best way to write a 40+ page story in 3 weeks? The story I am writing has to be spot-on and close to a professional level and is
Welcome to the forum.
First, to put your mind at ease, each November, many writers participate in a mad rush of writing that averages 1600 words per day per writer. (50,000 words in a month, about 200 pages of standard margin, double-spaced 12 point font text.) You have three weeks and need forty pages (at standard formatting, about 10000 words). You can do this.
I can't speak to the quality of your storytelling, but it's certainly possibly to write forty pages in a week and polish it up. I suggest creating a framework first, to make the writing easier.
Question: How to write 40 pages of a story in three weeks?
Answer: Here is one possible way.
Week 1 (best to do this in ~four days instead of seven, because you might need the cushion at the end):
Identify the story and structure you would like to most closely pattern after. If you create a sense of the 'route' you are following, you'll be able to keep making progress. Think of it like a map. You want a map through the wilderness.
Identify characters and a general story structure--the outline. Write a few scenes to 'limber up' but don't commit to keeping them. You want to get to know your characters, and the story. What is the central conflict? What is the goal of each character? What is each character actively doing to achieve their goal?
Week 2:
Crush out 1400 words per day; roughly six pages per day. (better to hit 1500 words per day because you will likely lose words in revision, which will be week three.) Force yourself through the story. It will feel rushed, and awkward. Don't worry. When you hit a patch you are unsure of, put in a few (xxx) or other indicator that allows you to get past the speed bump and keep going.
At the end of week two, plan to have fifty pages or more of a complete story. Don't worry if it is bad.
(If typing is a physical issue, you can use tools, like the voice-to-text dictation software in your Word or other processor. Fifteen hundred words a day for a week is doable, but it will be major thing in your life for that week. Do it.)
Week 3:
Revise. Every day, work through your story to clean it up. Check the arc, the dialog, the language, the motivations and goals, the tension, the conflict, and so on. Balance dialog, setting, action, plot. This is the week where you clean up the thing you created in weeks one and two.
If you have days at the end of your three weeks, give yourself a rest day and then read through the whole thing in one sitting. Out loud, printed on hard copy.
If possible, get feedback from a friend at the beginning of week three.
Good Luck.
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