How I wrote (and published) a book in 30 days

An intuitive, yet disciplined method

Last year I self published my first book, "The Magic Shop", which tells a story about Amy, a young adult who feels trapped in other people's expectations of her. As she stops running at the pace set by society, however, she finds refuge in a magic place.

The book is also a retelling of one of my favorite music albums, 'Love Yourself: Tear', by BTS, and utilizes some of its songs to illustrate Amy's journey into her own fears, sorrows and dreams.

The Magic Shop was written and edited in (unintentional) 30 days. After that, I published it on Amazon KDP in less than a week. For reference, it has about 100 pages (depending on the format — digital or paperback). And just so you can access the full picture, at the time, I was working as a freelance legal translator and editor. By the way, this is not a self praise text, I promise. Bear with me.

Here is how I did it

Writing a whole story can take years, and I say that as someone who is working in a novel since 2019. Also, while working in a solo project, we need to deal with schedule issues, inspiration processes, finding the right tools and, of course, maintaining focus and discipline.

Many authors will give you unrealistic advice, such as "commit to a writing schedule", "write 2 hours a day", "write first thing in the morning". But the thing is: not everyone can have this type of commitments because life is happening in ways they cannot control.

As a woman, for example, I am aware I have a hormone cycle that extends for about 28 days, and there are those days when I feel so exhausted and unmotivated (or even in pain) that committing to a schedule becomes unsustainable.

Besides, as a writer, I need to remember that not everyday will be a productive day for my creative processes to flow. And for me, writing should be an enjoyable experience, or, at the very least, a moment for connecting to our soul, and letting it speak for us. Not a job, not an appointment, but a positive commitment to ourselves and our dreams.

So, this is the process I created to write a book in 30 days.

Step 1: making room for writing

It is important to start by acknowledging your context and, of course, having a general ideia about the book you want to write, as not every book will fit this schedule, obviously.

Regardless, you can use this method to write more extensive content; just be aware that different books require different times, resources and energy to write.

I started by taking note of my schedule and being realistic about the time I could set just for writing. I only had to work for about 20 hours a week, and this allowed me to have a very ample writing schedule.

But as I said, I was very grounded and respectful of my energy and time, so I decided I would work on my book for, at least, 10 hours weekly. If, hypothetically, I needed to work for 8 hours a day, I would probably set smaller goals, like writing for 5 hours a week or maybe even less than that.

Once I have established my goal, I literally and figuratively started making room for my writing: I decided where I would work and cleaned the whole space. It is important for me to have different rooms (or desks, or whatever is possible in my environment) for different purposes.

In my case, I decided to use the kitchen table to work on my translation jobs and the study to work exclusively on my book. By doing so, I was more than organizing the environment, setting clear intentions about what I would do whenever I approached the study.

Also, I had to create a time window where I could fit my writing. I decided to use my afternoons exclusively to work on my book, even though I didn't write every afternoon and, to be honest, spent several late nights writing (I will talk more about that in a minute).

The point is: I have cleared my schedule for the afternoon so I could take this project seriously and not allow myself to do "more important things", such as freelancing, during this time.

It is very important that you recognize your own context and be mindful about what time and place you can set for your writing. Don't push yourself too hard, and do what is possible at the moment.

If you decide that writing for a single morning every week is what is possible for you, then this morning will be enough, because what really matters is the quality of your working hours.

Step 2: writing hours

This is where my method gets more intuitive than practical.

I am a huge believer of art in its most mystical form. For me, any type of artistic expression is also an expression that comes from the soul. So it is only natural that producing art, or writing, can not only be about the results — is this piece going to be successful? How many people will read what I wrote? How much money am I going to make? — but about the process — how will this piece help me to heal? What kind of impact will my writing cause? How much am I growing as a person and as a writer with this work?

I can see that for many people, writing is a source of income and is seen more as a job than as a type of art. And this is fine. I would never disagree with people who live by this understanding. It is as valid as mine. For me, writing is an intuitive and even spiritual process, and because of that, it can not be tied to an inflexible plan or schedule.

This is why I was able to write a book with an amazing flow: I only wrote when I felt inspired.

I had 30 days to write a book, but I probably only used 15 of them for (actively) writing. The other 15 were used to brainstorm ideas, editing, resting and consuming art that would help me find inspiration to write.

So whenever I felt inspired, I sat down and wrote for those 10 weekly hours and even more, because I was in a flow state. I spent at least 5 late nights writing without being able to stop.

But here is an important detail: I have never failed my appointment of working on my book for 10 hours a week. Whenever I felt uninspired, I used some of these hours in other, but still productive ways.

Step 3: facing blockages (aka editing hours)

There is no revolutionary value to this step; I have seen other creators sharing similar tips. But here we go: when you feel uninspired to write, focus on other aspects of your work.

Personally, I have found editing to be the most productive way of giving continuity to creating a book. That is because, while editing, besides still being productive, we are also opening space to have new ideas that complement our story, or to make the story better and more detailed.

By reviewing the things we already wrote, we will most probably notice there are several details, paragraphs and even chapters we would like to add or change.

Also, the editing process brings within itself a motivational factor: it is a form of measuring our progress and also a tool we can use to validate our efforts and accomplishments.

Publishing

Self publishing a book requires more than good writing, and I would like to explore this topic in more depth in another post. But for reference to all the still-not-published authors out there, my book was made available by Amazon KDP and the process is somewhat simple and easy.

How to buy my book

This year, I have published the second edition of The Magic Shop, both in Portuguese and in English. In case you're interested or curious, you can find my book in my Amazon Author Page or you can scan the QR code below to access my website.