And Writing More of What You Love - Writing Better

Buy this book!

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of books for writers. I know, because I've been persuaded to buy many of them. This might be the only one you need.

Rachel draws on her own personal writing experience, shares how she struggled, and then provides step by step directions on what she did to improve. Her guidance saved me from near disaster, I'm sure. The directions she provides are things anyone can (and probably should) do as well. This isn't for the published author who's getting a 5 or 6 figure advance. This is for the budding writer who wants to become one of those well known authors.

Do not be misled. The title of this book suggests she will show you how to write more, or write faster. While that is true, that's only part of the book. She first keeps her promise of showing you how to increase your word count and speed, but she doesn't stop there. After addressing this issue of volume, she then proceeds to take you through the steps to planning your story including character development, plot planning, and getting to the finish line.

As you know the first draft is an accomplishment. When a writer can actually type the words "The End" it's a call for celebration. But then the work of editing begins. Here again, Rachel over-delivers and instructs the reader on how best to accomplish that part, and even how to enjoy it.

This is the most comprehensive "how-to-write" book I've ever read. And (he said sheepishly) I've read a bunch.

Just cracked open this baby today and already on page 34. I can't put it down. This book is everything I never knew I needed. It's been two years and I hadn't even finished writing my first chapter. Here I am less than an hour with Rachel's guide and I feel so inspired; I've always known I can do more and believed in myself as a writer, but this book is really giving me that push I needed to get on it. I'm in tears as I'm writing this review because for the first time in a really long time, I think I finally have the missing puzzle pieces to help my writing.

Every writer needs this book in their home library. To say it's beneficial is an understatement like you have no idea.

Normally, when I pick up those self-help 'write it faster, better, stronger, etc.' books, I'm disappointed. Typically these books, the very ones written by writers for writers, are so full of fluff (I'm looking at YOUR book, John Locke) that you put it down and wonder why you wasted the time even bothering to download it.

Not this one!

Rachel Aaron definitely nailed the specs of her book right out of the front door, wasted no time in telling you how she achieved her higher word count (look at how the book isn't on how to sell more copies of books, either, but on word count, which is huge for an author struggling through a manuscript and fretting over that number that'll decide if there's enough content in the document or not to make it a book-like object) and best of all, she even gives examples using her own works! I'm not one to finish these books, but this one was finished in hours, and I quickly made a game-plan to put the tips to use in my next manuscript to see just how far it takes me.

This isn't just a book about increasing your word count. It is a phenomenal book on the basics of writing a novel.

When a story idea reveals itself to you, should you decide to invite that idea into your being, and when you have never sauntered down the path to completed novel, there are certain fundamentals you need to know.

I've purchased many other titles that claim to help you get started with the fundamentals but none of them do. I always felt there were a few steps missing from those titles. Rachel's book fills in those gaps and gives you the wood, bricks, concrete, nuts and bolts to build that foundation.

There are a few typos but so what? They don't detract from the book and its message. When you finally get to writing that book, you quickly learn, if you are at all honest with yourself, that typos happen to all of us.

All in all, a great book. I'm glad Rachel took the time to write it and help us out.

There are some valuable ideas in here, the most challenging and useful of which has caused some blowback from other readers. Here's the gist of it:

If you don't love writing it, ie if a scene bores you or you find it a grind to get through, chances are very high readers will feel the same way. Either cut it or retool it. Period.

Ouch.

This horrifying statement is unfortunately more true than not. No doubt why so many writers recoil at this notion and proclaim it to be nonsense. Few of us like to endure the excruciating process of having to rip out entire scenes or sections and redo them. Why? Cuz it's hard mother effing work and writing books is plenty hard enough. It's far easier to cry "bullsh*t!" and carry on with our lazy, lackluster writing than admit the unhappy truth that we just may have some hard work ahead of us.

But the author speaks an unavoidable truth here. If your intent is to entertain ( as all marketable, popular fiction should ) then you'd better be damned sure its first audience (you) enjoys it thoroughly. If YOU don't, why on earth would anyone else?

This book is an easy, yet powerful read. Rachel lines her pages with a quirky sense of humor and writes in such a way that makes it hard to put the book down.

I did everything she mentioned in the book and almost one month down the line, I'm up to just over 4K words a day (up from just under 2K).

This might not seem like a significant number to a lot of people, but it is to me, especially considering I've only made a few small tweaks and I'm only writing, on average, 2 hours a day.

I like to consider myself a fair reviewer. I would give this book 6 stars if i could. I really do love this book and I will continue to refer to it throughout the year.

I totally, totally loved this book. It was one of the best books I've read for budding authors on how to get things done, how to avoid getting bogged down, and how to be a better, more productive writer. I can't say enough about it, except I'm going to read it again!

2K TO 10K: WRITING FASTER, WRITING BETTER, AND WRITING MORE OF WHAT YOU LOVE by Rachel Aaron is a new e-book inspired by her blog posts about increasing her word counts and plotting a novel. Although you may be asking yourself why you'd pay for blog posts that you can get for free, let me just say that this e-book contains not only expanded versions of the blog posts, but also chapters on plotting, character development, editing, and confronting problems with motivation. All that, and this e-book is literally cheaper than a pack of gum. What's not to love?

Rachel Aaron has written and sold several fantasy novels, so these aren't crackpot theories. In theory, she could do NaNoWriMo in five days. Heck, she wrote a novel-from the spark of an idea to complete product-in under two weeks. And she sold that book to her publishers too. Don't you want that kind of result?

This book is full of writing tips that seem head-smackingly obvious after you read them, but Rachel Aaron has such a friendly, humorous tone, so you never feel like an idiot for not thinking of them. You just want to start applying those tips ASAP.

Rachel Aaron advises a lot of data recording and creating some supplemental documents. And while you may think that this extra work will take away from time you spend writing, I think you will find that these tips will help you learn a lot about your writing style. You can then create the conditions that are most favorable for writing.

But look, it's not all data analysis and making little tweaks. When reading this e-book, you will see the joy Rachel Aaron receives from being able to produce at a high level every day. And I think that is a huge benefit of her system. Not only can you increase your word count, but you can find the joy of writing again. That will keep your but in the chair, and help you complete your story.

I recently started using her 2k to 10k plan to improve my word count, and I've had some great success. But in reading this book, I have been able to identify a handful of tactics that I overlooked after reading the blog posts. This is a quick read that will definitely reward re-reading. If nothing else, the checklists Rachel Aaron provides more than justify the price of this e-book. I can't recommend it more highly.

After finishing a ho-hum book on writing habits, I spotted this book in the recommended section and impulsively bought and read it. So glad I did! This book was everything I'd been hoping the other would be - practical, funny, and geared toward fiction writers.

As I am more of a go-with-the-flow writer, the amount of pre-writing Rachel suggests is a bit daunting, but she makes it sound plausible and fun. And not only is this a method to get more words down per day, she takes you through her entire writing process, from idea-generating (and more importantly, choosing the right idea) to final editing.

Highly recommended!

Do you want to write faster? More importantly, do you want to write better? Then scroll up and get this book now...and you will do both!

Mark Bowser
Author of “Sales Success” with Zig Ziglar
Co-author of “Some Gave It All” with Danny Lane (release date of May 2018)

Short, sweet and to the point on how to massively up your writing productivity.

I completed my first book last year in part due to some of the tips in this book. I certainly wrote my daily word goals faster!

I was writing non-fiction but the book applies to fiction too. If you are a writer of books, blogs or articles then this book is recommended.

Fantastic book. I gleaned many things from it that I will use to plan, write, and edit my books better. I highly recommend this book. I do believe I'll be reading it again and this time taking notes instead of just highlighting stuff. I'll have to check out the author's fiction now. It seems like she has a lot of fun writing which will probably correlate to her stories being a blast to read. She shares with you a lot of things are just better ways to go about planing, writing and editing that make so much sense but would have taken you a long time and many books written to come to. Great book and a fun read too. Not just great information.

After writer's block, time restraints, etc., but still having a strong desire is to write, this book gave me the tools necessary to accomplish my writing goals. Now a busy, aspiring author has no more excuses! This book is well written, with a concise plan of attack to break down any barriers to finishing my novels. Reading this book has eliminated any discouragement I may have felt and has inspired me!

I really enjoyed this book and the breakdown of all the tips, tricks and techniques. In only 60 ish pages, I learned what I needed to to double my daily word per hour/day output in about a week and a half. I think this book is vital not just for anyone who wants to write but someone who wants to optimize their writing with any amount of time they have daily. Using Rachel's method, I finished my novella ahead of schedule, which is always a good thing.

The only thing I took half a star off for (if the store would let me) is that the book needs some sort of outline or timeline to show the process. After reading it twice, I was able to make a little more sense of the nuts to bolts process she uses.

Just what writers need.

The book is quick and fun, easy to get through. But the perspective it gives and the anecdotes along the way are exactly what most writers need to stop fumbling around and find the perspective that makes their writing both more fun and less wasteful. No one book can teach you everything (and this is only 60 pages; I'm hoping Rachel figures out a 300-page masterwork some day), but this is the best one-stop-shop for getting writing into gear.

If there's a writer who shouldn't invest a couple of hours on this (even the folks already using most of these tips), I haven't met them.

Writing books are plentiful, but a few really rise to the top with sage advice. Rachel Aaron's advice really helped me finish the first draft of my novel, 'Just One Knight'. Like most authors, I kept track of how many words I wrote a day. I used to think a 1,500 word day was good. Ms. Aaron gave me several of those head-slapping moments where you just think, "Well, duh". I now plan ahead better, so when I sit down to write, I know exactly which scene I will work on. I know how many words I write per hour, what my most productive times are, etc. Now, I routinely write 3k to 4k in the same amount of time, and I believe I could reach 10,000 words a day, but my wrists give out before I can physically type that much! (OK, and the weather is nice and I am outside....you got me!) But seriously, this book really does give simple advice, and anyone can improve their writing with three simple steps. I highly recommend it, you will definitely get value for your money. It is my second favorite book, right after 'On Writing', by Stephen King. High praise indeed!

Not sure why some people are losing their minds over this book. I suppose all writers want a magic feather, and the title certainly promises that. The reality isn't quite so. Rachel has even said on podcasts that she isn't constantly mega-productive. She doesn't write 10K/day every day. You could just read her blogs and get the exact same information for free. There was a little more contextual stuff included in the book but I read it in a couple hours and I knew full well that I'd read this all in her blog posts long ago. I basically paid to be reminded of things that I already knew. Then again, Rachel took the time to write the blog posts and get an audiobook made of them, so I didn't ask for a refund. That's the nice part, is that she doesn't charge much to read this collection of blog posts.

Basically, if you plot out your entire story in advance, and it's so good that you're really excited to write it, you can increase your output. If you're a committed pantser, well, you just keep on keepin' on.

This book has probably contained the most helpful advice that I've found on writing in a single work. It is full of great writing advice, as well as a detailed strategy for editing your novel, effectively. Furthermore, it's clear, precise and compact. I appreciate what she shared and am so happy that I downloaded this book. It's given me a great strategy moving forward for writing with confidence and competence. I'd definitely recommend this book for new authors and even those who are experienced, if you'd like to polish up your own writing processes.

Having written 14 books, I thought this guide offered practical solutions to issues all writers struggle with. I walked away with a few suggestions I'm excited to apply to my writing style, especially in the editing process. Well worth my time and money to read this!

The title of this book got me excited. Could there REALLY be a way to increase word count??? I just made the huge leap from working full time to working for myself full time writing. I really needed this book's concept to work for me. While the three-pronged approach is a nice, well rounded idea what struck me most and for me was central to being able to generate 10k words was creating the outline. There were two things I did a little differently, springboarding off of this book. The first was to concentrate more on developing a micro outline of my book. I write non-fiction so outlines are extremely helpful. It takes a little longer than five minutes but the end result is possible because of this outline. Once I understood the concept of jotting down an outline to the extent that I figured out how many words per section I needed to give me my total word count, I was hooked. It broke down the book into tiny manageable chunks. More often than not, I found that I had more to say in each section than what was required by my word count. All the better! The second method I employed was to use my computer's voice recognition software. It comes standard with Microsoft's other programs so I didn't have to incur any additional cost. I plugged in my microphone headset and began speaking my book into text. This made things super fast! I can't say enough about these two methods combined! Today was my very first day of entrepreneurial freedom and it went better than expected! In 30 minutes I was able to write 1577 words! In two and a half hours I wrote 3,933 words! I am trying to write around 10k words total, so you can see the long term impact of how the prospect of finishing a book in a day (the first draft, that is) instead of the several days I had scheduled for it could play out for the efficient use of my time. I am beyond thrilled! This book is good to have in your arsenal. However, I would really recommend focusing on the two strategies above for a power packed word writing day!!

Wanted a starter book to help with my writing and found this book. It helped in a multitude of ways. Great help for someone beginning to become a writer or for one who's been writing for some time and wants to increase their word production/speed/quantity without losing quality. Highly recommend it.

Incredibly helpful! As I'm on my 4th manuscript and desperately need to write faster, I was intrigued by the leaps and bounds of progress Aaron was able to make, and the good reviews. I've already implemented some of her tricks and tips, and plan to really try her system when I start the next novel. I've not seen such a thorough account of someone's actual tried-and-true system before. This book is short but packed with clear, usuable knowledge rather than vague cheerleading. Thank you, Rachel Aaron!

Judging from the number of reviews (almost 500 as of this writing in March, 2015), which only one other book on writing, Robert McKee's "Story," approximates, "2k to 10k" is a rare MUST-HAVE! Unlike the essential and venerable McKee (a screenplay doctor), Rachel Aaron (aka Rachel Bach) IS a novelist. With "2k to 10k," you get way more than you bargain for, that is, if you took the title literally. You get the more-better-faster part with part one (the elegantly ingenious knowledge/time/enthusiasm pyramid) and then see it applied in practice with part two. The author snatches you up by the collar or puts an arm around your shoulder if you please, pulls you close, and tells it like it is (to live and work as novelist). I SO, SO enjoyed this little talk (I mean BIG talk), Rachel. I only wish I could tell you so in person. I am listening to "Fortunes Pawn" now and looking forward to the whole series. I really connected with you. You reach out across the page to me and make me feel like you made me a friend. Doggonit you inspire! I only wish you wouldn't use God's name in vain.

Good, if mostly obvious, advice. The "avoid distractions" bits resonate more with me than the particular approach to outlining, but overall I found the book worth a quick read. Still, I'd count it among the legion of writing "how to" non-fiction. Three stars because I didn't find anything that would especially distinguish it from the other.

I enjoyed this little book. Some great ideas on how to ensure you get the maximum of work output from yourself each day. Good ideas. I especially liked the process of tracking your output and locations, and time of day to get a better idea of when and where you are doing your best stuff.

She provided some thought provoking ideas that I can modify for myself and I hadn't considered. I am now more aware of the best time of day for me to write, and produce great stuff!

Great book. I really enjoyed it. Very helpful. In a nutshell she says figure out everything about your novel before you even write the first sentence. Know your characters, lay out your plot, map out your scenes. That way you just sit down and go and don't have to worry about anything. I've tried using her methods recently and it's been a big help. I recommend this to people starting their first book or those looking for a better and faster way to write their new ones.

I read this book at the recommendation of another author I love and was blown away. Rachel Aaron made it easy and fun to read and even easier to increase the number of words a day that I write. I just finished a short novel in less than a week, actually writing over 10,000 words today in just over seven hours! I would HIGHLY recommend this book if you are a writer, no matter how much time you have to put in per day. The results are phenomenal.

Even before I considered myself a writer, I had a "thing" for books about writing. I got this recommendation from a writer I admire and whipped through it (though it sat on my Kindle for a good little bit before I got to it). Though I don't write fiction (and don't intend to), I was nodding, because many of much of what Aaron says is true for any writing, including the nonfiction/freelance/web stuff I do. And hey, she's entertaining as all get-out. A fun read if you're so inclined.

I was a little doubtful, downloading this book. As a professional writer, I know what it takes to increase my word count - more time at the keyboard. However, this book makes a lot of sense, and the author is careful to point out that you don't need to do everything she suggests - take the parts that fit your style, and go with them. Even though I have yet to put the ideas into practice and reap the benefits, i can see where the principles mentioned would work for me.
Now I just need a book to help me with my procrastination. I'll look for one later.

For years, I've been trying to write faster while writing better.

It was like juggling. I could toss one ball--Speed. But add Better & I'd drop a ball. I added Knowledge hoping to improve Speed & Better. Instead, I dropped all balls. I came to believe writing Better with Speed wasn't possible.

Now I know better. It's like going from believing the geocentric theory to the heliocentric theory. Mind Blowing.

I've done my version of the Time Tracking Sheet. If you'd like a copy, come ask on [...]

Rachel Aaron's book about writing at a breakneck pace is interesting, but honestly it did not inspire me to write more at a stretch. There is a difference between words and good words. Still, it's good to know other people's methods. I think it might be better for writers to concentrate on writing less but doing it well since there is already so much stuff out there that readers cannot afford the time to read one hundredth of it.

Aaron's strategies are solid, and this was an enjoyable read. I've read a lot of writing books, so the methods in this book weren't new. However, I'm not so good about tracking my stats, and this book really lit a fire under me to do so. Aaron makes a compelling case for activating your left brain, and she has the stats to prove it. This is well worth the read, and at a good price point, too.

Bought this to try after reading Rachel Aaron's blog post on the same subject. If you're wondering wether this book contains extra info other than her blog posts, it definitely does have some extra insights. The chapter on editing was worth 5x the price; revolutionized the way I look at editing forever, and I will be referring to this chapter, as well as the rest of the book, each time I begin a new book project.

I've been writing since 1999 but only recently delving into the world of fiction writing. I was finding it difficult to stay focused when I'd hit certain roadblocks. This book really helped put a plan into action for me, therefor also a renewed focus that I believe will not only greatly increase my daily word count but also my motivation and organization during the process. I highly recommend this book to other fiction writers. Non-fiction writers will still find this book of value, though it is more geared towards the fiction writer. My gratitude to Rachel Aaron for sharing this information in such an easy to digest format.

I was leery about purchasing this book, because I thought it would be a "write faster edit later" kind of book, and this doesn't work with the way I write. But several writer friends recommended this, so I ended up buying it. Turned out it was more of a "plan well, write faster" kind of book, which works wonderfully for me. It's a short read, and I believe my process really improved after reading it.