What do you think?
Rate this book
How to Write a Novel in Ten Days
Even in today’s fast-paced world, the myth that writing fast equals writing badly—or, conversely, writing well equals writing slowly—persists. Now, USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith aims to shatter this myth once and for all with this latest WMG Writer’s Guide.
In a series of blog posts, Smith chronicled his process toward ghost writing a 70,000-word novel for a traditional publisher in just ten days. He wrote about his progress, his feelings about the writing, and how he approached and overcame obstacles. This book takes readers on a journey that demonstrates that writing fast, and writing well, comes from motivation and practice.
USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith published more than a hundred novels in thirty years and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres.
He wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.
He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.
He now writes his own original fiction under just the one name, Dean Wesley Smith. In addition to his upcoming novel releases, his monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly premiered October 1, 2013, filled entirely with his original novels and stories.
Dean also worked as an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He now plays a role as an executive editor for the original anthology series Fiction River.
For more information go to www.deanwesleysmith.com, www.smithsmonthly.com or www.fictionriver.com.
In a series of blog posts, Smith chronicled his process toward ghost writing a 70,000-word novel for a traditional publisher in just ten days. He wrote about his progress, his feelings about the writing, and how he approached and overcame obstacles. This book takes readers on a journey that demonstrates that writing fast, and writing well, comes from motivation and practice.
USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith published more than a hundred novels in thirty years and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres.
He wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.
He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.
He now writes his own original fiction under just the one name, Dean Wesley Smith. In addition to his upcoming novel releases, his monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly premiered October 1, 2013, filled entirely with his original novels and stories.
Dean also worked as an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He now plays a role as an executive editor for the original anthology series Fiction River.
For more information go to www.deanwesleysmith.com, www.smithsmonthly.com or www.fictionriver.com.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
76 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 8, 2014
15 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Dean Wesley Smith
822 books176 followersPen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley
Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.
With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.
Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley
Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.
With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.
Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Read
November 30, 2018The title is misleading. It should be "Diary of a pantser novelist on 10 days in his life, where he sleeps, eats, shops, takes naps with his cats, writes emails and a novel and lists his wordcount from hour x to hour y".
It is not a guide book, there is NO writing advice in there apart from "do the work" and "don't plot, never rewrite".
I can't even rate it, cause how do you rate a personal diary?
It is not a guide book, there is NO writing advice in there apart from "do the work" and "don't plot, never rewrite".
I can't even rate it, cause how do you rate a personal diary?
November 1, 2018
I know that Dean Wesley Smith is incredibly productive and prolific, though I haven’t read his novels. But this book couldn’t have been more boring or lacking in useful information. In the stringing together of a dozen blog posts, he mainly just tells us how many words he writes each day, and when he has lunch or dinner with his wife, when he cuddles with the cat, and how he “rolls” out of bed every morning. All of this frequently punctuated by grins — i.e., “(grin).” But nothing — nothing! — about his writing process, which information is what one would be reading this book to learn about.
I agree with the reviewer who said: “Ironically, the excerpt from another book on writing that he [Smith] wrote, at the end of the book, gave me more useful information than the entirety of the book I had just finished listening to.” That is, at the end of How to Write a Novel in Ten Days (at least in the Kindle version, and apparently the audiobook), the author provides Bonus Content, consisting of the entire second chapter from his Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing. This second chapter is titled “Sacred Cow #2: Writing Fast Is Bad.” Yup, it’s better than the main book, but it’s not terribly enlightening either.
The main lesson is just spend more time in the chair. I can’t believe any writer doesn’t know this. It’s just hard to make oneself do it. Smith does it, though.
I agree with the reviewer who said: “Ironically, the excerpt from another book on writing that he [Smith] wrote, at the end of the book, gave me more useful information than the entirety of the book I had just finished listening to.” That is, at the end of How to Write a Novel in Ten Days (at least in the Kindle version, and apparently the audiobook), the author provides Bonus Content, consisting of the entire second chapter from his Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing. This second chapter is titled “Sacred Cow #2: Writing Fast Is Bad.” Yup, it’s better than the main book, but it’s not terribly enlightening either.
The main lesson is just spend more time in the chair. I can’t believe any writer doesn’t know this. It’s just hard to make oneself do it. Smith does it, though.
January 18, 2018
[Reposted from Audible]
When I bought this book, I was under the impression, from the title, that this book would offer tips, or guidance, or similar, on how to get a novel done in a short time. In reality, this author--who appears to be a very proficient and proliferate author--mostly just tells us how many thousands of words he's done each day, and how he also manages to get other daily stuff done, then tallies up his words after 10 or 11 days, and says, "See? I did it. Now you know it can be done."
The author is a proud "pantser," which means that he writes his novels "by the seat of his pants," or rather, without designing the novel ahead of time. I understand that he was ghost-writing a novel while he did the blog posts about it which he used for material for this book, and that he was contractually obligated not to tell us whose book he was writing, but he almost shared nothing about his process, whatsoever. Maybe he doesn't actually *know* his process, since he is a pantser. It is possible that he has just built his writing process out of certain patterns that work for him, and he just automatically falls into them when he novelizes. I find it unlikely that this is the case, since he apparently teaches writing courses and workshops when he is not writing. I was a bit disappointed with this, however, and I wish he'd added more useful info.
It was a little interesting, and I won't say that having someone demonstrate his example wasn't at least a little inspiring, but his lessons, or tips, or whatever, can be summed up by the following:
- Stay at it, and you can do this, too.
- Treat it like a fun hobby that you make money at, and trust yourself to write well.
He kept mentioning the comments on his blog posts, and how important it would be to read them, but they were not included in this book, so ended up being irrelevant. I wish they'd been included, as that would have added more in the way of useful information, I'm sure.
Ironically, the excerpt from another book on writing that he wrote, at the end of the book, gave me more useful information than the entirety of the book I had just finished listening to. I'm probably going to buy that book, even though this one was barely worth the $2 I paid for it.
The narrator, on the other hand, was AWESOME, and had just the right tone throughout this work.
When I bought this book, I was under the impression, from the title, that this book would offer tips, or guidance, or similar, on how to get a novel done in a short time. In reality, this author--who appears to be a very proficient and proliferate author--mostly just tells us how many thousands of words he's done each day, and how he also manages to get other daily stuff done, then tallies up his words after 10 or 11 days, and says, "See? I did it. Now you know it can be done."
The author is a proud "pantser," which means that he writes his novels "by the seat of his pants," or rather, without designing the novel ahead of time. I understand that he was ghost-writing a novel while he did the blog posts about it which he used for material for this book, and that he was contractually obligated not to tell us whose book he was writing, but he almost shared nothing about his process, whatsoever. Maybe he doesn't actually *know* his process, since he is a pantser. It is possible that he has just built his writing process out of certain patterns that work for him, and he just automatically falls into them when he novelizes. I find it unlikely that this is the case, since he apparently teaches writing courses and workshops when he is not writing. I was a bit disappointed with this, however, and I wish he'd added more useful info.
It was a little interesting, and I won't say that having someone demonstrate his example wasn't at least a little inspiring, but his lessons, or tips, or whatever, can be summed up by the following:
- Stay at it, and you can do this, too.
- Treat it like a fun hobby that you make money at, and trust yourself to write well.
He kept mentioning the comments on his blog posts, and how important it would be to read them, but they were not included in this book, so ended up being irrelevant. I wish they'd been included, as that would have added more in the way of useful information, I'm sure.
Ironically, the excerpt from another book on writing that he wrote, at the end of the book, gave me more useful information than the entirety of the book I had just finished listening to. I'm probably going to buy that book, even though this one was barely worth the $2 I paid for it.
The narrator, on the other hand, was AWESOME, and had just the right tone throughout this work.
October 10, 2018
It's a collection of blog posts, about 40 pages from start to finish in which he checks in at various times over the course of his day (for ten days) to note how many words he'd written or what life stuff had gotten in the way.
It was interesting in that it paints a very clear picture of his process, and how he manages ~7k word days. For the most part, he writes ~1k words in ~an hour, then takes a break, then does it again. Sometimes his break is only a handful of minutes, sometimes he does errands between sets.
There, now you don't even have to read it.
It was interesting in that it paints a very clear picture of his process, and how he manages ~7k word days. For the most part, he writes ~1k words in ~an hour, then takes a break, then does it again. Sometimes his break is only a handful of minutes, sometimes he does errands between sets.
There, now you don't even have to read it.
June 11, 2014
Really interesting account of Dean's writing days. Take note of routine, napping, work ethic and matter of factness in his approach.
December 17, 2018
This may be better titled, "A series of blog posts I wrote about my daily errands including lots self congratulations and daily word count while I ostensibly wrote a novel"
There was almost no practical or useful writing advice or suggestions in this overly priced collection of once free blog posts.
There was almost no practical or useful writing advice or suggestions in this overly priced collection of once free blog posts.
June 3, 2018
Blog entries, not a book. "How to Write a Novel in Ten Days," AKA, how one professional writer writes a contracted book in 10 days with zero helpful tips. Great clickbait title though.
October 6, 2018
I can boil down the whole book for you. Write faster, and spend more hours doing it. There you go.
June 1, 2020
Now that was one major waste of time.
This was mostly about when the author stands up in the ‚morning‘ (somewhen in the afternoon), when he eats and how his wife calls the cat. This might be helpful for him as a diary, to see where one could improve the daily schedule to gain more quality of life, but it tells you NOTHING about writing a novel in ten days. What would have been helpful would be:
- How to get an idea quick and big enough for this to work and fill the word count demanded by publisher/yourself.
- How to write a first draft good enough that it does not need the normal 3-5 edits until it is ready to be sent to the publisher/paid editor.
- How to write that much while also getting the 10k steps and 30 minutes of sports, fresh air, fresh and healthy food and relaxation needed on a daily basis for a healthy life.
All this would be helpful. Just hearing about an author who lives a life that at least seems unhealthy and unsustainable to the outside eye and getting ZERO advise on writing was NOT helpful.
Also, I do believe that having more than 10% of the book filled with adverts for other books is illegal. Here it’s 20%.
This was mostly about when the author stands up in the ‚morning‘ (somewhen in the afternoon), when he eats and how his wife calls the cat. This might be helpful for him as a diary, to see where one could improve the daily schedule to gain more quality of life, but it tells you NOTHING about writing a novel in ten days. What would have been helpful would be:
- How to get an idea quick and big enough for this to work and fill the word count demanded by publisher/yourself.
- How to write a first draft good enough that it does not need the normal 3-5 edits until it is ready to be sent to the publisher/paid editor.
- How to write that much while also getting the 10k steps and 30 minutes of sports, fresh air, fresh and healthy food and relaxation needed on a daily basis for a healthy life.
All this would be helpful. Just hearing about an author who lives a life that at least seems unhealthy and unsustainable to the outside eye and getting ZERO advise on writing was NOT helpful.
Also, I do believe that having more than 10% of the book filled with adverts for other books is illegal. Here it’s 20%.
October 11, 2018
I love these quick-writing challenge books Dean Wesley Smith puts out. I have followed DWS for a few years now and I know he has always claimed to be a slow writer. He hunts and pecks on the keyboard with a four finger approach, so I just love reading these. If you have not read any of them, he basically blogs about a challenge he is doing (write a 70,000 word novel in ten days, write a 40,000 word novel in 7 days, write a novel in 5 days while traveling, etc.) and describes how the process for that day went. So these books collect the full blog series into one volume and it is pretty inspirational. Any of these he puts out, I'm sure to be the sucker who buys it. And it is money well spent.
January 13, 2019
A rare look inside a prolific writer's daily routine
This was such an encouraging and funny read. The author isn't a speedy writer and has a busy life, but is dedicated and loves what he does. The daily naps with the cat cracked me up. I love how the author practices what he preaches about writing into the dark and trusting your creative voice. Great to actually see an example of this in detail. Surprisingly insightful.
This was such an encouraging and funny read. The author isn't a speedy writer and has a busy life, but is dedicated and loves what he does. The daily naps with the cat cracked me up. I love how the author practices what he preaches about writing into the dark and trusting your creative voice. Great to actually see an example of this in detail. Surprisingly insightful.
October 14, 2018
A fascinating, entertaining, and comforting look at one prolific writer's process during a 10-day assignment to produce a 70,000-word novel. There are useful tips and insights along the way, and if you get the ebook then there is a bonus section at the end – a chapter from another book, this part covering writing and speed, including "the math of writing".
December 9, 2018
Quick, easy read following the author as he writes a 70,000 word novel in 10 days. While not strictly a how to, there is still stuff to be gleaned here. My biggest takeaway is not to let it get you down when life obligations barge in and throw you off your game. Get back in the chair and keep writing.
November 3, 2024
A blog regurgitation which simply gives a loose time and word count summary with a few other tasks such as eating and napping with the cat.
Worse, it was during writing a ghost-written novel, so we don't know what was written, and there's no mention of some of the craft/difficulties involved. Gives one the feeling DWS is a hack writer. I will have to try one of his books and see.
Worse, it was during writing a ghost-written novel, so we don't know what was written, and there's no mention of some of the craft/difficulties involved. Gives one the feeling DWS is a hack writer. I will have to try one of his books and see.
October 24, 2018
A quick read, dispelling the myth that books should take a long time to write. Giving me a major case of jealousy that he can write over 7,000 words in a day. I think the most I’ve done is about 2,500.
It gives me a goal to reach for during November.
It gives me a goal to reach for during November.
July 22, 2020
A great quick read. It's a long essay based on some blog posts which takes the reader through the process of writing a book by a successful author. Smith shares his techniques and philosophy toward writing works people will enjoy reading. It's enlightening.
January 18, 2019
There is no how in this book just a series of blog post journaling the author’s experience writing a book in ten days.
April 17, 2019
Many people complain that this book doesn't actually tell you how to write a book in ten days. They say it's just a daily journal as Smith wrote a book over a ten day period. If you were looking for a bullet point by bullet point, chapter by chapter breakdown of how to write a book in ten days, you will likely be disappointed. However, if you can put your preconceived notions aside, you will find this book invaluable. I know that I did.
This book is a ten day window into the life of an author who on his worst day in this experiment, still wrote 5000 words. Despite distractions, work responsibilities, and social life, Smith chipped away at his project daily and made the goal. More important than bullet points, we were given a peak into his thinking process, how he prioritized his daily duties, and, above all else, how he kept himself on track.
It's not often that we get to peak behind the curtain and see how things work behind the scenes. I took what I learned from this book and finished my next book within 29 days.
This book is a ten day window into the life of an author who on his worst day in this experiment, still wrote 5000 words. Despite distractions, work responsibilities, and social life, Smith chipped away at his project daily and made the goal. More important than bullet points, we were given a peak into his thinking process, how he prioritized his daily duties, and, above all else, how he kept himself on track.
It's not often that we get to peak behind the curtain and see how things work behind the scenes. I took what I learned from this book and finished my next book within 29 days.
December 15, 2015
Blog posts. go get them for free on his blog. Also, he needs to add a disclaimer that he has been writing for a long time, so pantsing a novel is much easier for him than a new writer. He has the story structure firmly in his mind. He can write by instinct easy.
It is literally his I did this today type of info. So if you want to know when he took a nap, go ahead and get it. It is a laundry list with no substantial details of what parts of the story he is writing. He doesn't even tell you where he is at in the story. Just his word counts and when he answered his email.
It all feels very self congratulatory.
It is literally his I did this today type of info. So if you want to know when he took a nap, go ahead and get it. It is a laundry list with no substantial details of what parts of the story he is writing. He doesn't even tell you where he is at in the story. Just his word counts and when he answered his email.
It all feels very self congratulatory.
March 10, 2015
This book is a journal of Dean Wesley Smith's project of writing a novel in 10 Days. He teaches by example, giving unique advice.
September 20, 2016
Man, I thought this was brilliant!
February 17, 2023
i can’t believe i paid money for this it’s literally just his blog posts 😂
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews