Jessica Brody on the Real Reason Most Writers Don’t Finish

In 2018, I published a book called Save the Cat!® Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need.

It turns out… I lied.

I should have subtitled it: The Last Book on Novel Plotting You’ll Ever Need.

Because here’s the thing. There’s a big difference between plotting a novel and actually, physically, sitting down to write the dang thing. Something I learned the hard way in the first half of my career when it used to take me 8-12 months to finish a single draft of my novel (even with my perfect beat sheet in hand)! That’s not including the months I spent working on novels that were never finished.

Back then, my process looked like this:

1. Craft a beat sheet I love
2. Sit down to write the novel
3. Immediately get sucked into a vicious spiral of rewriting and self-doubt, second-guessing every word, every beat, every decision

Until, nearly a year later, I’d finally finish the draft, feeling emotionally drained and creatively depleted.

As it turns out, though, I was lucky to finish at all…

It’s estimated that 97% of writers never finish their first drafts. (What???)

This isn’t a plotting problem. (Or a talent problem.) It’s a process problem.

No one teaches us how to write a novel, let alone how to write one efficiently. I’m not talking about story structure or character development, or worldbuilding. I’m talking about the day to day, moment to moment, daunting process of getting ideas from your beat sheet onto the page (in a way that doesn’t make you want to bang your head against the wall or throw your book out the window.)

Far too many writers just slog through, bogged down by perfectionism and self-doubt, because they just don’t know any other way to do it. I certainly didn’t! But I was tired of feeling drained, overwhelmed, and frustrated with my writing.

So I set out to create a new method for myself—one designed to bring speed, efficiency, and joy to the process. It took years of trial, error, and experimentation but I eventually created a method that was reliably repeatable for every book.

Now, on average, it takes me 3-12 weeks to finish a first draft. I wake up every single day excited to write. And I haven’t started an “unfinished” novel since.

When I discovered how well this method worked for me, I started sharing it with other writers through my online course, Novel Fast Drafting, and the results were inspiring:

79% of writers who took the course finished their first drafts. And of those writers, 81% finished in less than three months.

• Richard finished a 62,000-word middle-grade novel in less than 7 weeks (after his previous two manuscripts each took a year).
  
• Megan finished an 85,000-word draft in 8 weeks.
• Ron finished the first draft of his very first novel in 26 days.

Fast Drafting has helped thousands of writers defy the odds and finish their novels in record time.

Now the complete method is available as a book!

Page One to Done: Finish Your Novel in 30 Days with the Fast Drafting Method is out May 19!

It’s the last book on novel drafting you’ll ever need 😉

Pre-order by May 19 to get a ticket to my one-time-only LIVE “Prep with Me” workshop, plus a stack of exclusive bonuses you can’t get anywhere else! Pre-order and claim your bonuses here>>

I wrote this book because I’ve watched too many writers quit or take a frustratingly long time to finish a single draft—not because they lacked talent, motivation, or even a good beat sheet, but because they were using the wrong method.

That ends now.

No more stressing, second-guessing, and rewriting endlessly.

Let’s start finishing stuff! 💪