# How to Write a Book: From Idea to Finished Draft - Feldar > How to write a book in nine steps, from first idea to revised draft, shown on A Christmas Carol, with a free one-page book plan and checklist to download. - URL: https://feldar.com/guides/how-to-write-a-book - Site: [Home](https://feldar.com/) · [About](https://feldar.com/about) · [Blog](https://feldar.com/blog) · [Careers](https://feldar.com/careers) · [Pricing](https://feldar.com/pricing) · [Download](https://feldar.com/download) · [Changelog](https://feldar.com/changelog) - Machine index: [llms.txt](https://feldar.com/llms.txt) · [full site content](https://feldar.com/llms-full.txt) --- On this page - The short answer - 1. An idea that can carry a book - 2. The premise in two sentences - 3. A length and a daily target - 4. People and places - 5. The shape - 6. The first draft - 7. Getting through the middle - 8. Revising in passes - 9. What happens next - Worked example - Free book plan - Common mistakes - Writing a book in Feldar - Sources - Questions Updated November 6, 2026 · By the Feldar team ### How to write a book, from idea to finished draft 11 min read Nine steps that take a novel from a first idea to a revised draft, shown on a book you probably know, with a one-page plan to copy or download. #### The short answer - Pick an idea with a person in it who wants something and can't easily get it. - Write the premise in two sentences: who wants what, what stands in the way, what it costs to fail. - Choose a target length for your genre and a number of words a day you can keep. - Get to know your main character, the opposition and the places where the big scenes happen. - Plan the shape: at least the opening, the turns and a direction for the ending. - Write the first draft straight through. Note problems on a fix-later list instead of fixing them. - When the middle stalls, raise the cost, add a reversal or go back to what your character wants. - Rest the draft, then revise in passes: structure first, then scenes, then sentences. - Only then decide how to publish: query agents, or publish it yourself. #### 1. Find an idea that can carry a book Most ideas arrive as a place, an image or a situation: a lighthouse, a stolen letter, a family that stops speaking. A book needs more than that. It needs a person who wants something badly, something in the way, and a reason the reader should care whether they get it. Test an idea with four questions. If you can answer them, it can probably carry 80,000 words. If you can't, keep the idea in a notebook and let it grow. WhoWhose story is it? One person the reader follows, even in a large cast. WantsWhat do they chase that we can see from outside: a person, a prize, an escape, the truth? AgainstWho or what stands in the way, and does it push back harder as the book goes on? CostWhat do they lose if they fail? The higher and more personal, the longer the idea lasts. #### 2. Write the premise in two sentences The premise is the book small enough to say out loud. It is the test you will hold every scene against, and later the core of your pitch. Write it before you write chapter one, and expect to rewrite it twice. A miser who has shut out every human tie is shown his past, present and future in a single night. He must change before Christmas morning or die unmourned. That is A Christmas Carol, which we take apart in the worked example below. Notice that it names a person, a flaw, a pressure, a deadline and a cost. #### 3. Choose a length and a daily target A target turns "write a book" into a number you can finish. Most adult novels that agents take on run 80,000 to 100,000 words; fantasy and science fiction often run longer, middle grade much shorter. Our guide on [how many words are in a novel](https://feldar.com/guides/how-many-words-in-a-novel) has the ranges by genre and the lengths of 43 classics we counted. Then pick a daily number small enough to keep on a bad day. Here is how long an 80,000 word first draft takes at a steady pace, writing six days a week: Words a day Words a week Weeks to 80,000 Roughly 2501,50054A year 5003,00027Six months 1,0006,00014A season 2,00012,0007Under two months Count as you go. Paste a chapter into our free [word counter](https://feldar.com/tools/word-counter) to see your total, the words you repeat most and how far you are from your target. #### 4. Get to know your people and places You don't need a forty-question profile for everyone. You need to know a few things well about the people who drive the plot, and to be able to picture the handful of places where the big scenes happen. Main character What they want, what they need, what they are afraid of, and how they talk. Opposition A person, a group or a force with its own reasons. It should be right about something. Places Three or four settings, each with one sound, smell or light you can return to. Names matter more than writers admit; a reader hears them hundreds of times. Our [character name generator](https://feldar.com/tools/character-name-generator) and [fantasy name generator](https://feldar.com/tools/fantasy-name-generator) give you a shortlist to start from. #### 5. Plan the shape Some novelists outline every scene; others discover the story by writing it. Both finish books. What helps almost everyone is knowing the opening, a few major turns, and the direction of the ending before you start: - Opening statePage one - Inciting incidentFirst tenth - End of act oneA quarter - MidpointHalfway - CrisisThree quarters - ClimaxThe choice - ResolutionNew normal If you want the full method, scene cards and all, read [how to outline a novel, scene by scene](https://feldar.com/guides/how-to-outline-a-novel). If you would rather discover, write the turns on one page and let the scenes surprise you. #### 6. Write the first draft The first draft has one job: to exist. It will be uneven, and that is fine, because you can revise a bad page and you can't revise a blank one. What keeps most drafts moving: - Write at the same time and place, so starting takes no decision. - Stop mid-scene, when you know what happens next. Tomorrow starts easier. - Don't reread more than the last page before you begin. - Keep a fix-later list. "Make her brother older" goes on the list, and you keep going as if it were already true. - Leave a marker such as TK for a fact or a name you don't have yet, and search for it later. - Write the scenes out of order if one is pulling at you. Stitch them in during revision. #### 7. Get through the middle Many drafts stall somewhere in the middle, when the opening's energy has run out and the ending is still far away. The cause is often the same: the character has stopped wanting anything new. Try one of these: Raise the costTake something away: a friend, a hiding place, the money, the alibi. Reverse itLet your character get what they wanted, and make it the wrong thing. RevealBring forward a secret you were saving. Answering a question opens a better one. Change the wantAt the midpoint the goal often shifts from escaping the problem to facing it. #### 8. Rest the draft, then revise in passes Put the finished draft away for at least two weeks. Then read it through in as few sittings as you can, taking notes but changing nothing. Revise from the largest problems to the smallest, so you don't polish a scene you later cut. Structure Cut, merge, move and add scenes. Check the turns land near where they should. Scenes Every scene should leave someone in a different place from where they came in. Sentences Repetition, dialogue, rhythm, point of view slips. Read the page out loud. Then give it to two or three readers who read your genre, and ask them where they were bored, confused or didn't believe a character. Fix what more than one of them noticed. #### 9. Decide what happens next For fiction, finish and revise the whole book before you approach anyone. Then there are two main paths. To publish traditionally, you query literary agents with a letter, a synopsis and sample pages; an agent who takes you on sells the book to a publisher, and you pay nothing up front. To self-publish, you hire your own editor and cover designer and publish through a platform such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing or IngramSpark, keeping control and the larger share of each sale. Be careful with any company that asks you to pay to be published. #### Worked example: A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in December 1843. It is short, about 28,500 words by our count, so you can see the whole machine at once. Here is how each step above shows up in it. WhoEbenezer Scrooge, a rich, cold London man of business. WantTo be left alone with his money. "I wish to be left alone," he tells the charity collectors. NeedTo let people back in before it is too late. AgainstThree spirits, and his own past, which they make him watch. CostTo die unmourned, and for Tiny Tim to die too. ##### The structure, stave by stave Dickens called his five chapters staves, like the verses of a carol. We counted each one with the same rules as our word counter. The shape is the spine from step five. Stave What happens Its job Words I. Marley's GhostScrooge refuses his nephew, the collectors and his clerk. Marley's ghost warns him three spirits will come.Opening state and inciting incident6,438 (23%) II. The First of the Three SpiritsChristmas Past: the lonely schoolboy, Fezziwig's party, the fiancée he lost to money.Why he is like this6,171 (22%) III. The Second of the Three SpiritsChristmas Present: the Cratchits' dinner, Tiny Tim, his nephew's party laughing at him and still drinking his health.Midpoint: what his choices cost others8,232 (29%) IV. The Last of the SpiritsChristmas Yet to Come: a death nobody mourns, the Cratchits grieving for Tiny Tim, his own name on a neglected grave.Crisis and climax: he begs to change5,364 (19%) V. The End of ItChristmas morning. He sends a turkey, gives to the collectors, goes to his nephew's and raises Bob's salary.Resolution: the new normal2,305 (8%) The longest stave is the middle one, and the last is the shortest. Once the change has happened, Dickens shows it and gets out. ##### One scene, up close The counting-house scene in Stave I does almost all the setting up the book needs, in a few pages. As a scene card it looks like this: Stave I · Christmas Eve, afternoon ###### The counting-house POVThe narrator, close on Scrooge. GoalScrooge wants to finish the day's business and spend nothing. ConflictHis nephew Fred invites him to Christmas dinner. Two gentlemen ask for money for the poor. Bob Cratchit wants the day off. Turn"Are there no prisons?" He sends the collectors away and says the poor had better die "and decrease the surplus population." What changesNothing in Scrooge, which is the point. The reader now knows exactly what he must undo. PlantsFred's invitation, the collectors, Bob's tiny fire and the coal-box Scrooge keeps in his own room. Every plant pays off. In Stave III the Ghost of Christmas Present throws Scrooge's own words back at him: "decrease the surplus population," about Tiny Tim, and "Are there no prisons?" about two starving children. In Stave V he accepts Fred's invitation, pledges money to the collector with "a great many back-payments" in it, and tells Bob to buy another coal-scuttle. A scene that plants what the ending pays off is a scene doing its job. #### Free one-page book plan The premise, the shape, the people, a writing schedule and a checklist from first idea to final pass. Copy it into whatever you write in, or download it as a Markdown file that opens in Word, Google Docs or Feldar. THE BOOK Working title: Genre and target length: Premise (two sentences): Want: Need: CHECKLIST [ ] Premise written in two sentences [ ] Ending decided, or a direction chosen [ ] Last line written: the draft is finished Copy template [Download .md](https://feldar.com/assets/templates/book-plan-template.md) #### Common mistakes - Rewriting chapter one for months instead of writing chapter two. - Researching or worldbuilding as a way of not drafting. - A main character things happen to, who never makes a choice. - Scenes where people talk, nothing changes, and nobody wants anything. - Starting a new idea every time the current one gets hard. - Querying or publishing the first draft. #### Writing a book in Feldar [Feldar](https://feldar.com/novel-writing-software) keeps the plan beside the draft. Each page of your book has an [Outline of scenes](https://feldar.com/features/scenes) you can type yourself or ask Generate scenes to propose. Your cast, places and plot beats live as cards on the [Canvas](https://feldar.com/features/canvas). The words stay yours: anything Feldar suggests appears in blue and stays only if you accept it. Scenes STAVE I - 1 The counting-house Scrooge refuses Fred, the collectors and Bob. - 2 The knocker Marley's face, on his own front door. Draft Page Ebenezer Scrooge Partner, Scrooge and Marley. Keeps the coal-box in his own room. Wants to be left alone. #### Sources All checked November 6, 2026. A Christmas Carol[Project Gutenberg eBook #46](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46); quotations and stave counts from this text Word countsCounted by us with the rules of our [word counter](https://feldar.com/tools/word-counter); method and data in [how many words are in a novel](https://feldar.com/guides/how-many-words-in-a-novel#method) Novel lengths[The Manuscript Academy, 2026](https://manuscriptacademy.com/word-count-by-genre-literary-agents-2026), [Writer's Digest](https://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/word-count-for-novels-and-childrens-books-the-definitive-post) AI and awards[SFWA Nebula Awards rules](https://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules/) #### Questions How long does it take to write a book? It depends on your pace more than your talent. At 500 words a day, six days a week, an 80,000 word first draft takes about six months. Revision often takes as long again. How many words should my first novel be? For most adult genres, 80,000 to 100,000 words. Fantasy and science fiction run to about 120,000, young adult 60,000 to 80,000 and middle grade 40,000 to 60,000. See [how many words are in a novel](https://feldar.com/guides/how-many-words-in-a-novel) for every genre. Do I need to outline before I write? No, but most writers who finish know their opening, a few major turns and the direction of the ending. If a draft keeps stalling, a light outline usually helps. Can I write a book with no experience? Yes. Every novelist wrote a first book without having written one. Read widely in the genre you want to write, finish the draft, and treat revision as the place where you learn the craft. Should I write every day? Regularly matters more than daily. A fixed number of sessions a week that you actually keep beats a daily goal you abandon after a fortnight. Can I use AI to write my book? You can use it to plan, brainstorm and get feedback, but the writing that makes a book yours should be yours. Some publishers and prizes have rules: SFWA's Nebula Awards, for example, exclude work written in whole or in part with generative AI. Check the rules of anyone you plan to submit to. #### Keep reading [Guide How to outline a novel A worked example, scene by scene, and a free template.](https://feldar.com/guides/how-to-outline-a-novel) [Guide How many words are in a novel? 43 classics counted, and what agents ask for by genre.](https://feldar.com/guides/how-many-words-in-a-novel) [Product Novel writing software How Feldar keeps the plan, the world and the draft together.](https://feldar.com/novel-writing-software)