writing a novel... in 14 hours

This year, I'm aiming to have my debut novel published, the first novel in the Sapient Saga. This has had me taking a sobering look at my writing/publishing workflow to spot my most egregious bottlenecks.

What's holding me back from writing? Idea generating? Is it writing? Editing? Publishing? With KDP, a finished manuscript takes as long to publish as uploading and clicking "Publish". Proofreading and even cover design have been dramatically pancaked with AI tools, and a rough draft doesn't really take too long to edit if the story is still fresh in my mind. For me, the most time-consuming part has always been getting the first draft completed. Fix that one bottleneck and everything else gets 10x easier.

This summer, I devoured Chris Fox's notorious book 5,000 Words Per Hour, which inspired me to take a stab at his writing method. I can already type about 60-90 words per minute, so my top speed averages at about 3,600 words per minute. By the end of one hour of non-stop writing, I'm pretty spent. My fingers hurt, my wrists hurt... it's not a fun hour. Besides, the most I've ever written in a single day was 6,000 words... and that almost ruined me. Meaning, writing with Fox's method might be feasible, but it's not sustainable.

Even so, figuring out how to create a first draft quickly is the problem I need to solve if I have any hope of increasing my writing output. It is simply unacceptable to have a 90,000 word novel take years, or even months, to complete. Some writers pump out multiple books a year, like Diana Xarissa, whose Author Nation talk "A Book a Month" proves writing quickly is not as crazy as it sounds.

the word spoken is the word written

Eventually, I came across dictation... and heard something that blew my mind:

Using dictation, bestselling author Nick Thatcher wrote one 80,000 word novel in 14 hours.

To be honest, my brain went a little numb when I heard that. That would mean Thatcher "writes" 5,714 words per hour, which isn't completely impossible... but doing it for 14 hours? That seems like a Herculean stamina feat. I mean, what kinds of tricks is Thatcher using to dictate?

Thatcher's advice—which is backed up with other authors in the "Rapid Release" camp—is founded on outlining: plotting the world. Fleshing out characters. Getting a feel for your world, i.e., what it sounds like, what it smells like. Adrian Tchaikovsky does this, which heralds back to his time playing D&D. Once you can picture your world, a lot of fun interactions can arise from that rich backdrop.

Only after building everything out do you plot out a detailed outline. You list all the plot beats (i.e., all the things you really want to cover). You put the time needed into it until the outline clicks. There are grand events, moments of reflection, troughs of despair, an exquisite ending. And then...

...you start dictating.

behold, the word

Dictation has been an oft overlooked bastard child for years. Dictation technology was either clunky and/or too expensive: premium dictation software is $850, spoken punctuation, super high quality microphones, or humans were the only way to transcribe anything. Those friction points have meant dictation has been more trouble than it was worth. That always bummed me out because I've always known I can talk twice as fast as I type; if dictation ever became easier, I knew I'd have to give it a second look.

With the recent advances in AI transcription and easy grammar correction, dictation has finally transcended into the ultimate enabler tool. No more spoken punctuation, no more expensive transcription costs, no more super expensive microphones. If you are willing to speak your story—clocking in at 140-200 spoken words per minute—you can quickly create a first draft with relative ease.

After experimentation this week, I'm using MacWhisper as my new weapon of choice. Here's how I'm using it in my workflow:

1. Build the world. Characters, world rules, technology, climate, culture, etc. Create music playlists, mood boards, choose the tropes. Time: weeks-months, depending on complexity. (For a book series, this time investment is is a one-time spend.)
2. Create the outline. Iterate on scene setups, character intros, and how the plot develops to an unbearable crescendo... and then resolves in a fitting way. Time: 1-2 weeks.
3. Dictate the first draft. I'm using JustPressRecord and MacWhisper, but there are plenty of apps to choose from. Following the outline's beats, I can record each chapter quickly, and use a "Cleanup Fiction" AI prompt in ChatGPT (or natively in MacWhisper if I'm using paid credits in OpenAI) to autocorrect grammar and spelling mistakes only, which helps me skip over the time-sponge proofreading step. Then I copy over the output into Scrivener for editing. Time: 2-7 days.
4. Edit the draft. Mileage may vary here, but if the outline is solid, then going from first draft to final draft could go quickly. Time: 3-4 weeks.

Using this software/AI workflow, it's now feasible to reduce my novel writing timeline from 6 months to 6 weeks, all without sacrificing writing quality or leaning on AI to write anything for me. It also has the bonus of keeping everything fresh in my mind so I don't have to worry about losing continuity.

one novel, many novellas

To test my theory, I'm using a series of novellas to work out any kinks in the workflow. If I can use dictation to create novellas quickly, I should be able to port any lessons to my novel coming out in October. Since each novella is no more than 40,000 words, they'll all be long enough to be a good read, but short enough to write quickly.

I've already plotted each of the six novellas and have placed them within my Sapient Saga universe, too. I am now developing an outline template to make the dictation process run consistently. If I can successfully crack this code, then I may be able to dictate 40,000 word novellas in only 8 hours!

Thank you, Nick Thatcher!