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More than 80% of people say they want to write a book, but fewer than 10% actually go on to do it. What do you want to say at the end of this year? That your draft is still incomplete, or that you finally finished the book you always dreamed you would write?

If you're wondering, "How am I going to finally finish my book?" you're not alone. I'm a book editor who has spent the past 10 years helping authors complete their drafts, and this year, I'm finally writing my very first book of my own. But I know that I have a huge task ahead of me. So, as I looked at my calendar, I wanted to craft a simple, effective action plan that guarantees I'll meet my goal this year. I thought, why not share it with you? If you want to finally write your novel from start to finish, this guide will help.

1. Break Your Book Writing Goals into Milestones

The first step admittedly requires the most thinking and planning, but it's going to trick your brain into reconceptualizing how much work you have ahead. To get on track to finish your book, first create milestones for yourself. Writing a book from start to finish is a huge undertaking that typically requires months or years of your time, energy, and effort. Setting a goal to write a full-length novel—typically 70,000 words or more—can feel overwhelming without a clear writing plan. So first, we're going to take that huge goal of finishing your book and break it down into smaller, actionable milestones that you can visualize yourself achieving. These milestones should fit into your calendar and schedule. You shouldn't have to move mountains to complete your goal because that's ultimately not sustainable or realistic.

Just last week, my co-author and I sat down to set our schedule for completing our manuscript draft, and here's what it looks like. You'll see that we have already completed two chapters as part of our book proposal, and we have six chapters to go. We allotted two weeks to complete each chapter because that's about how long it took us to complete those past chapters. We will each work on a chapter simultaneously, and then we've baked in one week to review each other's chapters and add our comments and feedback. If we stick to this schedule, we'll have a full draft by April, which gives us plenty of time to work on it and revise it before submitting it to our publisher.

If you're curious to hear more about the book and how we got the book deal, check out my video where I break it down.

Setting chapter-based milestones like we did may or may not work for your particular project, depending on how it's structured. For instance, many novelists use word count goals because their chapters might vary in length, or they may not be conceptualizing their story in chapters to begin with. You could experiment with a goal like writing a thousand words three times a week. Or, if you don't want to set word count goals, try time-based goals where you sit down to write for an hour so many times a week and produce as much as you can in that allotted time. Either of those tactics is completely valid.

The goal is for these milestones to be specific and measurable so that you can clearly track whether or not you are achieving them. Ultimately, these smaller goals will feel less overwhelming to tackle and will add up over time, even if they seem small in the moment. For example, if you set a goal of writing 200 words per day, by the end of the year, you would have a 73,000-word manuscript. That means that if 200 words a day sounds super doable to you, then you can absolutely finish a book this year.

Now, I'm not saying you should write every day or have to write every day to achieve this goal—most authors don't write every single day. After all, life gets in the way. Having just one, two, or three productive writing sessions per week will absolutely allow you to achieve your goal as well.

In general, when setting milestone goals, I recommend erring on the side of caution. Don't set a goal to write every day if that's not realistic with your schedule, because that's just going to set you up for failure and disappointment, which could lead to you feeling discouraged and never picking up your book draft again. Set ambitious milestones, but make sure you work in enough wiggle room in case things come up.

2. Make Writing a Habit

Now, most authors create these milestones and then stop there, but there's another critical step you need to take if you actually want to finish your book this year: make writing a habit. I hate to break it to you, but if you say you're going to fit in writing whenever you feel inspired or whenever you find some free time, you'll never end up writing.

I've worked with authors on their books for 10 years now, and the most effective and successful authors have some semblance of a writing routine. This is how they guarantee they'll make consistent progress. I saw a quote the other day that really inspired me: "The story you're writing will become someone's favorite book, but that person will never get a chance to read your story unless you finish it."

So this year, make it a goal to integrate writing into your weekly routine so it becomes a habit—something that you naturally incorporate into your schedule without thinking about it. To do this, I love the method of habit stacking. You pair the new habit, which is writing for a given amount of time or to a specific word count, with another habit you already do on a daily or weekly basis.

For example, that could be: "After I make my morning coffee, I sit down and write," or "After I get home from the gym, I sit down and write." By pairing writing with another habit or routine that's already in your schedule, it's going to be so much easier to naturally integrate it into your day. You'll start to establish a pattern that signals to your brain when it's time to get into that creative flow.

For me, my habit stacking plan is to sit down to write after I take my dog out for his morning walk. I find my head is clearest in the mornings when I haven't gotten into my emails or started working on manuscripts for the day yet.

To hear from best-selling authors about their writing routines and get weekly writing motivation delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for my newsletter, Chapter Break.

3. Kill Your Inner Perfectionist

Once you create your writing routine, it's only going to work if you shift your mindset and put yourself in the right headspace to complete your draft. Many authors fail to take this next critical step, which is to kill your inner perfectionist. First drafts are meant to be messy, so embrace that. What's important right now is getting what's in your head down on the page.

I will tout the value of a so-called "crappy first draft" all day long. I see so many authors get stuck because they're comparing their first draft to published books they admire, and they feel discouraged that their writing isn't up to par. But this comparison is not valid. That published book you love so much has gone through rounds and rounds of revision, and yours will too. It will get to that point in time.

As a book editor who revises manuscripts for a living and truly believes in the power of the revision process, I don't want you to get so caught up in your first draft being perfect that it prevents or paralyzes you from completing it. Ultimately, these expectations of perfection are only going to be counterproductive and detrimental to your writing practice.

Practical Tips to Kill Your Inner Perfectionist

Try Writing Sprints Writing sprints are a method many authors swear by. Set a timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes—whatever works for you. Then, write as much as you can in that time, take a short break, and repeat. By giving yourself a mini time crunch, you'll focus more on output—getting the words on the page—and won’t get so caught up in perfection.
Use Placeholders If you’re the type of writer who gets stuck researching or figuring out specific details, placeholders are a great tactic. Any time you reach a point in your draft where you're not sure what to write, just put the letters "TK" in all caps. Once you complete the section or chapter, go back and fill in the missing details. This allows you to get the majority of the material onto the page without losing momentum on sections that require more thought or research.
Scene Sketching Scene sketching is similar to the placeholder method but applies to entire scenes. Say you have a scene that needs to be in your story, but you’re not sure what to do with it yet. Sketch it out in a few bullet points and move on to the next scene that’s already fully formed in your mind. Writing out those other scenes may even give you inspiration for the earlier ones. Remember, no one says you have to write your book entirely chronologically—I certainly don’t!

The Debate: To Revise or Not to Revise as You Draft

Let’s quickly talk about one of the ongoing debates in the writing community: whether to revise as you draft your manuscript. There’s no right or wrong answer—it all comes down to what works for your personal writing process.

Revising as You Go: You might save yourself some time in the subsequent revision process.
Fast Drafting: If you write your novel without stopping to revise, you may have more work on the back end.

My advice is to allow yourself the space to revise if you feel compelled to do so, but don’t let it prevent you from getting new words on the page in any given writing session. A good balance might be to spend about 25–30% of your time revising and devote the rest to drafting new material.

4. Hold Yourself Accountable

Now you nearly have all the tools you need to finally complete your book this year. But without this final step, you're nearly guaranteed to fail: holding yourself accountable. It's one thing to say you're going to finish your book this year and a very different thing to actually achieve that goal. After all, more than 80% of people say they want to write a book one day, and less than 10% actually do.

From working with hundreds of authors over the years, I've seen so many creative ways writers keep themselves accountable and on track. Here are some of my favorite techniques:

Get an Accountability Partner: Simply sharing your writing plan—those milestones we created in step one—with someone else makes it feel more real and tangible. Ideally, this could be a friend who has set writing goals for themselves. You can meet weekly or monthly to check in on your progress and brainstorm how to overcome any roadblocks.
Plan Your Rewards: This is my personal favorite technique. Our brains are hardwired to seek rewards for the effort we put into tasks. Motivate yourself to complete your novel by planning small rewards for hitting key writing milestones. It could be something simple like treating yourself to your favorite takeout, watching a favorite movie, or taking a relaxing day off. Even small rewards can make you feel more inspired to sit down and write.
Visualize Your Success: Apps like Wordle and Duolingo use streaks to keep users motivated, and you can adopt a similar strategy for your writing. Visual trackers like calendars or milestone lists are great tools to stay motivated and monitor your progress as you write your novel. This becomes your personal streak. Keeping it visible—on your desk or in your workspace—will serve as a daily reminder and motivator to maintain momentum.

The beauty of the beginning of the year is that it feels full of possibilities—it feels like we can do anything we set our minds to. But if you set your goal to finish your book now in January and then forget about it until June, you’ve just given yourself far less time to complete your goal, making it much less likely that you'll achieve it.

So, I challenge you to set calendar reminders for yourself right now. These reminders should inspire you to check in on your progress. Whether they’re weekly or monthly, make them fit your personal writing schedule.

Remember, finishing your book is entirely within your control and entirely possible. You just need to create systems that empower and enable you to do it. By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to writing your novel from start to finish and achieving your goal of completing your book in 2025.

Since I'm also finishing my book this year, rest assured I am right there with you on this journey. So let's keep each other accountable! What’s your personal writing goal this year?

To set yourself up for success, once you finally have that complete draft in hand, make sure to download My Story Self-Assessment Worksheet. I created this free resource to help you evaluate your manuscript like a developmental editor. Grab it here, and take the next step towards publishing your novel.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to get weekly writing tips and inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.

Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!