When I set out to try and write a romance novel in 7 days, I didn’t quite know if I was able to do it. I thought I was. I had the outline, I had the determination, and I had the time. Then, I started. If you weren’t sure, or if you didn’t follow along with the challenge, I did technically write the book in 7 days, but for the sake of the quality, I took another 7 to edit and polish what I put out there on Amazon. As I reflect on the experience, I wanted to share some insights into what I learned during this crazy process.
What Worked
Having this challenge up and posting about it every day brought an incredible sense of accountability. I couldn’t slack off, couldn’t put it off for something else, and couldn’t get distracted if I didn’t want to fall flat on my face in front of the internet strangers that were actually watching and hoping I made it. There were so many lovely supportive messages that were given, and my competitive streak absolutely wanted to succeed!
Technically, I DID succeed in writing and releasing the romance book, so that was a huge win.
What Didn’t Work
Everything was extremely rushed. I watched the word count not quite reach the goal, but because of the short deadline, I didn’t have time to sit and decide what, if anything, could be expanded out. If I wanted to make this more of a full length story and shade out the rougher spots, I didn’t have the time. While I did go through it and get the really obvious things fixed, I couldn’t make it the absolute best it could be.
What I’d Never Do Again
While I had fun, it was a great creative experiment, and was technically successful, I would never write a book in 7 days again. I wanted to see if I could, and the heavy and complex writing of a fantasy book had been long, so the process itself was a nice break. It was just not the way to get your best work. There were no beta readers, no feedback (outside of grammar on ProWritingAid) and even then, no chance to really fine tune. For this reason, the short time span on a week would never again be my go to for a book… maybe something else, but not a book.
What Surprised Me
I think part of me was surprised I actually made it, and the other surprise was how much I actually enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting a short deadline to spur me on with energy, but it did. I managed to actually stay on task and not get distracted. I wish every book came together this way. Having said that, maybe a similar model (though not 7-14 days) might be useful for writing in the future. Editing, however, is another story.
How It Shaped My Approach to Book 2
The experience made me realize that I can write with a quick turnaround, and that was extremely useful information to gather. While I can say confidently that I won’t be doing a book in 7 days this time, I think having a challenge that uses regular online check-ins and accountability might do the trick. While I’ve already started a few chapters of book 2, I think doing another challenge is absolutely worthwhile.
After this experience, I am confident when I say that for a book, 7 days is not the go. It was a rollercoaster whirlwind that I’m happy to leave in the dust. I am so proud of what I accomplished, however, and would do another challenge to get the sequel out there into the world.
I did it! The book is released and available as an eBook on Amazon and I can now proudly (somewhat) say that I have written and released a book in just 14 days. Was it the 7 days I was hoping for? No. Is it better now, having given myself another week for structural edits. Yes. Let’s look at what it took to get this book out there into the world.
The Book Itself
So, what the heck is the book about?
Bex isn’t looking for love; she’s just trying to buy a truck. But one misdialed number lands her on the phone with Nick, the owner of a small‑town construction company who drags her into his plan for payback. What starts as a funny mix‑up turns into the realization that Nick is Bex’s new boss… but she doesn’t date co-workers.
When Bex moves to his quiet coastal town with her retired parents to start over, she finds more than fresh air and friendly faces. When she stars working in Nick’s office, she agrees to use her background in banking to try and solve the mysterious issues the company is having. Nick is trying to ignore their chemistry, now that Bex is working for him, but seems determined to keep her close, even when she insists she doesn’t need protecting.
Sweet, cozy, and full of heart, this closed‑door romance blends small‑town charm with a touch of intrigue. And it all begins with one wrong number.
So, the goal of this was to see if this was possible. An exercise, if you will, of my creative genius (just kidding… chaos, is more accurate). Going into writing this, I don’t think I would have done it without a pretty in depth outline. Knowing exactly where the characters were going to end up, how the chapters were going to be written, and having a full week off with not much else to do.. all of that went into it being possible. Having said that, once the initial grammatical edits had been made, it was pretty clear when I got a manuscript analysis that A LOT was missing.
Before I go any further, apparently it’s important for some people to know this: I DID NOT USE AI IN THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK.
Whew. Sorry to yell at you, but I wanted to make that crystal clear. Does this mean I would recommend authors to write a book and release it in 7-14 days? No. I would not. I know that I did, and I posted it, and I’m even working on the next few books in the Hartwell Grove world, however under normal circumstances, yeah, this was not a great plan. It was difficult, stressful, and in general, not an incredibly creative experience. Having more space to write these will definitely make the output a lot better. Eventually, I may look back at this first book (which length wise really sits more comfortably in novella territory) and give it an update, but for now, we’re rolling with it.
Edits
ProWritingAid has a manuscript analysis report that you can run for one credit. When I signed up, I got a free credit, so I though this was the perfect moment to use it. Boy, it spat out a lot of information for me, and lots of it was really great advice. There were massive plot holes, pretty dangerous messaging that I hadn’t picked up, and in general, a few missing beats that needed to be cleaned up.
Once I went through a week of re-writes and 2nd draft style edits, I had the story in a MUCH better place that I was honestly a lot happier with anyway. I know that if I had been able to do a few more full book self-edits, it would have been even better still… having said that, I’m pretty proud of where it was at for just 14 days. There are plenty of Amazon released books that read like they had NO editing, so I’m already working with a leg up on the competition… I think
Cover Deisgn
One of the most important decisions you can make for a book, is the cover design. It’s what draws people initially to checking out your story, so it had to be good. Only problem was, I had no money to pay someone. Good news for me, though, is that I’m a graphic design student who LOVES designing things exactly like this. So, I did.
I’ve read a broad range of fiction, so I’ve seen a ton of different covers, including romance. I thought that, along with being a graphic designer myself (starting out still counts!), I was pretty qualified to create it, and I am so proud of the cover design, actually. Does it look like many of the other covers out there? Yes. Is that a good thing? Also, yes. It makes it clear to the reader what kind of story they can expect (along with them actually looking at the description, of course). Familiarity is a plus for this particular project. Deciding to screen record the process, was also so fun. I can now go back and watch the process any time I want 🙂
Release
Social media is not my fav to have to deal with, but I did post a bunch in the leadup and for the release of this book. A lot more than normal. While I don’t tend to get too much traffic generally, I’m hoping this does at least a little in terms of telling people about the book itself.
Now we get to the release decisions. There are a lot of options these days for releasing a self-published book, one of which is Amazon. I know, I know… Amazon’s business practices are not the best, but let’s talk about why I made the call.
Firstly, I knew that I only wanted to start out releasing this book as an eBook. I know a lot of people don’t actually read eBooks, and that’s okay. I wanted to get a feel for whether people would actually even care about this book before committing to other formats (although, I am a pretty good book narrator…). Amazon also gave me a few great options.
No ISBN
Last time I published a book, my ‘publisher’ handled the ISBN’s for me. I didn’t even know they cost money until I looked into this challenge. Fortunately for me, Amazon doesn’t require an ISBN, they give you their own version of this. However, I did originally plan on getting one anyway. The only problem? I’m broke, and they cost money. $88 for 10 ISBNs is not actually a large amount in the scheme of things, but I didn’t have it. So, by the time I released, I just had to roll with the free number from Amazon. Annoying for the future, but oh well.
Amazon KDP
KDP is a great way to get my book out there to readers who may not have originally considered buying it. They get to read it as part of their kindle subscription, and I get the views.. win-win. Maybe. There are a lot of competing books out there, so I still have to hope that mine gets its way to people, but fingers crossed.
Free Chapter One
Don’t worry… if you don’t support Amazon, I decided to give people a link to chapter one of this book for free. It will give people a chance to test out the story and see if they think reading the full thing would be worth it. The link won’t be up forever, but at least for now people can check it out and have a nosy look… then hopefully want to continue the story with the full book.
You know, after going through this process, I can safely say that writing this quickly is not super ideal. However, I also know that I can create something that I’m still pretty proud of in a quicker turn around time than one book a year… so long as it’s not a fantasy book because that world building is nuts!
Well, it’s day 7… so is Hard Hats and Mixed Signals being released today? Short answer is… No. The long answer is, even though the manuscript is technically ‘finished’ there are still some rough edges and additional scenes that need to be added.
In my exploration of using ProWritingAid, and even though it’s not a substitute for human feedback, the manuscript report pointed out some VERY GOOD things that really need to be addressed before the book can be released. So important, in fact, that I’m willing to say that even though Hard Hats & Mixed Signals was technically ‘written’ in 7 days, it’s not being published just yet.
I’m going to add those few scenes in, edit and update a few problems that the manuscript had, and then hopefully release the book in the next two days. My goal is day 8 or 9 (depending on how much writing I can get done) to officially have the book go live. In the meantime, I have A LOT of fixes to get started on.
I think this means I still technically completed the challenge, and I’m hoping the book is going to go live on Amazon in the next few days, so keep an eye out for an official announcement!
Okay, so I finished writing the first draft of my book Hard Hats & Mixed signals yesterday, so I thought I would knock out the editing in a day or so and have the book ready to go by the 7 day deadline (which is Friday by the way, and I’m writing this post on Thursday night). Yeah…. well, we might end up with a delay.
I decided to use ProWritingAid to help me with the grammar, structure and general information of my book because I a) don’t have time to get a real editor, and b) didn’t want to pay for it – especially since this book is being written and published (in theory) in only 7 days, so I’m not taking it too seriously. Having said that, here’s what I discovered, and what happened.
So, I didn’t know anything about ProWritingAid until I looked into using it for this book. What I didn’t realise, was that I could look at the basic grammar information, but it only worked for 500 words at a time. So, I split my manuscript up into 500 word sections and started working at it, only to realise that there was A LOT of other feedback and grammatical information that I was missing out on my not having the premium version.
What I was getting was the general grammar, but also a very limited amount of the ‘premium’ examples that would have more detail if I subscribed. Otherwise I got vague messages like ‘better phrasing’ which helped me to look at the sentence again and try to make it sound a little better – still useful (also a generic example to select). I also ran through the very limited reports I could run without realising it, so I was stuck with extremely limited options, and some pretty substantial edits that were suggested. Which I wanted to do. Even though this book has a quick turn around, I still wanted to put out something that was of a pretty good standard.
So, I made the choice to get the premium subscription based ProWritingAid only to find out… the price had been in USD, not AUD. Too late. The money came out of my account. I still need to purchase the ISBN numbers too, though, so I’m up for more money again. Here’s what they cost:
ProWritingAid: $176
ISBN 10 Pack: $88
This experiment was costing me a bit more money than I had anticipated, and because there are A LOT more edits that I now have to look at (worth it, by the way), I may end up having to push back ‘release date’. I am still hoping that if I stick at it tonight, and work all day tomorrow, that I can have the book ready to be released on day 8 (which would be Saturday)… but I’m not sure. Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing just how much better the book turns out once all the edits are done.
I cannot believe I am officially saying this, but I have FINISHED writing my romance book – Hard Hats & Mixed Signals. I am looking forward to doing edits for a full day tomorrow, and a half day the next if I still need it. Normally, I would do multiple self edited drafts of a novel, but due to the nature of this challenge, we aren’t doing that. Instead,
Now, you get to have an EXCLUSIVE Blog only cover reveal (a day before everyone else!):
In case you were wondering what the word count is currently, here you go:
Tomorrow, we go into editing mode, and see if ProWritingAid is worth it or not. See you then!
Writing for this book is coming along pretty well at this point. So well in fact, that I thought I might introduce you to our two main characters.
Nick
Nick is the owner of a small construction company in Hartwell Grove. His father started the business, and now he does his best to run the company well. He gives off golden retriever vibes, but there are also plenty of moments that he wishes he could take back and never talk about again. When it comes to Bex, he lets her take the lead if she wants to, but isn’t afraid to step in where required. He has a (sometimes frustrating) desire to save Bex, but she makes it pretty clear that she doesn’t need to be saved. Trusting, loyal and kind hearted, Nick is going to get swept up when Bex comes into town and helps him discover a few things.
Bex
Bex is starting her life over, and is living back at home with her parents in her 30’s while she gets qualified in what she really wants to do with her life. With a bad break up behind her, and a new life that doesn’t include dating her co-workers, Bex just wants to start her life and do what makes her happy. A little fiery, a lot headstrong, and ready to prove that she can rescue herself and make her own choices, Bex is going to discover that sometimes it’s nice when someone cares enough about you to keep trying. Soon to be interior designer, and current administrator working for Nick, the two will delve into a mystery and try to save the day.
I am having so much fun with Nick and Bex, two people who are determined to pretend they aren’t attracted to each other, and don’t want to be together. Will it work out for them?
I had another goal today of hitting 10,000 words written. Did we make it?
I am so excited for the next day or two of writing, where I can hopefully make a really solid dent in this book and get it finished, because next… it’s time to edit!
Well, we’re around halfway through the challenge (practically), and I am INSANELY behind on the writing. Having said that, it’s been a pretty good day overall in the writing process.
As I get closer to the deadline for this book, I thought it might be time to share something fun with you about the book itself. This is a small town romance book, and the name of that town is…. Hartwell Grove.
I’m really hoping that tomorrow gets another amazing word count, but until then, we’ll just have to keep going and hope we hit the deadline.
Well, I’m not going to lie, it’s been a bit of a slower start than I imagined. I have managed to get the book cover design started, and I wrote a grand total of 2,470 words on the first day. For those of you who are even a little bit good at maths, you’ll realise this was nowhere even close to enough words to make the deadline I currently have going.
To make things more complicated, I woke up on day 2 feeling unwell, so I already have lost any sort of momentum that I might have had from yesterday. While two thousand is quite a ways off 10,000 that I really need to aim towards each day, I will say that any progress is progress (of a sort).
Today, I managed to feel better in the afternoon, so we got a chunk of writing done then. Grand total of words written now is…
I am truly hoping that tomorrow I wake up feeling energized and ready to go, because I have hours of writing ahead of me if I want to get even a little bit close to my goal of getting this book done in a week.
In the meantime, here are some hints at what the story is going to be:
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