Finally Finish Your Book: A Practical Plan for Writers

How long should it take to write a book? Hopefully, not forever. But, some unfinished manuscripts have hung around for so long that it feels like a family pet. If asked whether you’ve finished your book, you take a deep breath, hit them thank them for asking, and then walk away mumbling,  How do other authors actually finish their books?!

It’s a great question. Generally, most veteran authors will tell you, “Well, you have to sit in that seat until it’s finished.” That’s true, but this answer isn’t very helpful.

Today, I’m offering a writing schedule structure for three types of writers who would benefit from a schedule:

• Writers who spend more time daydreaming about their book than actually writing

• Writers who write by the seat of their pants but end up with random chapters instead of a cohesive book

• Writers who write, re-write, and repeat for years without ever finishing

Do you see yourself in any of these categories? Tell us about it in the comments. We are glad you are here!

Let me introduce you to an adaptable writing schedule based on Patrick Lencioni’s best-selling book, The Six Types of Working Genius. Lencioni defines six working styles, which is personality + natural giftedness, using the acronym WIDGET:

• Wonder – Natural ability to ponder, question, and reflect
• Invention – Generates new ideas or creative solutions
• Discernment – Strong intuition about what will work
• Galvanizing – Motivates, rallies, and mobilizes others
• Enablement – Comes alongside to help and support others
• Tenacity – Finishes strong and ensures completion

The book helps readers understand where they are most naturally productive. If you aren’t familiar with The Six Types of Working Genius, you can read my previous Books & Such post here. However, you don’t need to know the full model in order to keep reading today’s post.

The goal here is to help you plot your writing schedule for your initial draft. More than simply blocking time on a calendar, this schedule helps you move through each chapter if you are prone to getting stuck or spinning your wheels. Let’s go!

Establishing Your Working Genius Writing Schedule

Step 1: Determine your chapter count
If you’re not sure how many chapters your book should have, use this equation:

Total Number of Words ÷ Average Words Per Chapter = Number of Chapters

Examples:

• Non-Fiction: 55,000 ÷ 3,500 = 15.71 chapters → plan for 15 or 16 chapters

• Novel: 85,000 ÷ 2,250 = 37.77 chapters → plan for 37 or 38 chapters

Step 2: Mark weeks on your calendar
Look at your calendar and mark off the same number of weeks as chapters. While one week per chapter might seem like a lot, remember that some weeks you will write more than one chapter, but you will also lose time to something we all know as “life.”

Step 3: Plan your writing time per chapter
I suggest twenty hours per chapter. It may sound like a lot, but many people spend weeks or months thinking without writing. This structure keeps you moving and limits procrastination.

Using The Six Types of Working Genius as inspiration, here’s a chapter flow to help you brainstorm, research, draft, and review before moving on to the next chapter. While this is skewed toward non-fiction, novelists can adapt it as well.

The Working Genius 20-Hour Chapter Process

4 hours – Wonder Phase

• Brainstorm new ideas

• Explore possibilities

• Make notes

8 hours – Invention Phase

• Research

• Draft the chapter

• Hit your word count target

1 hour – Discernment Phase

• Review your draft

• Evaluate content

• Highlight what works and what doesn’t

• Make sure the content connects to your proposal

• Resist the urge to fix grammar at this stage

1 hour – Enablement Phase

• Ask: What do I need to make this chapter work?

• Do I need feedback from someone? New stories? More research?

• Make a list of what is missing. You don’t need to solve everything now.

4 hours – Galvanizing Phase

• Revise or re-write the chapter into a solid second draft

• Aim for “good” not “perfect”

2 hours – Tenacity Phase

• Review the chapter one last time before moving on

• Do light proofreading

• Use comments function or notes to flag sections for later revision

• Celebrate and move on!

A Few Final Thoughts

• This framework is meant to guide you, not lock you in. Adjust as needed.

• If you are easily distracted, a slower writer, or someone who loves research, add more time to the twenty hours.

• Notice which phases energize you and which ones might slow you down. That awareness will help you pace yourself, ask for help, or set up accountability.

The best, hopeful outcome is that you can see where you are making progress and have a map to keep moving forward when you feel stuck.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: What do you do to help you plan out your writing time or finish your book? If you like the idea of this writing schedule per chapter, what appeals to you? We’d love to hear all encouraging stories of what you do to finish your books!