It can be difficult to prioritize writing, particularly if you are working on your first manuscript. These steps will help you set your goals to complete your draft.

I have identified three steps to help establish my goals to finish my first draft. Have a read through these and hopefully they will help you to finish your draft.

Decide on the Writing Structure

Different books will have different ways of organizing your thoughts. Sometimes I find that the structure will change, and do not be afraid to change your organization after the first pages or even chapters are written. These are my thoughts to consider when deciding my structure:

• Is this book just chapters, or are their sections as well?
• How long is chapter going to be?
• Is there research involved?

These bullet points allow me to determine how I want to organize my thoughts and design. In the case of the current draft I am working on, which is a life story testimony of my faith, I have broken my life into sections that will become different sections. In this case, I went from birth to middle school as section one, middle school to college as section two, college up to my conversion, and then a section for after my conversion. I am doing research, talking to some people and consulting old journals. I have decided on shorter chapters to highlight what is important for the scope of being a testimony.

Decide on the Time to Write

Some books you will want to take some more time, and others you may want to get to the market quicker. Quality does not suffer if you spend more time per writing session. Obviously, a longer book and some shorter time to get to print, the more work will be needed per day. Determine the timeframe to completion and set solid goals with a logbook to track your progress.

In my testimony book, I want to finish the draft and get it to market within a few months, so that means planning more time to research and work on essays and outlines during the week.

Plan Time to Write

Once the structure is set and the goals are determined, be sure to build the time to write, research, and purify into your day. If the time to publish is longer, take a bit less time as needed, but in my case where I want to get the book to the market on a deadline, I need to be more diligent with time and check my progress regularly. This means every day I know when I am going to write, and where I am going to write.

I prefer to set locations to write that are not in my office where the rest of my work gets done. That could be a different place in the house, which I use the kitchen table. Or if the weather is nice, I like to write in parks outdoors. Whatever the time and place, make it a priority and not an after thought.

Hopefully these little tips will help you to finish your project so you can move onto the production phase and get your book to the market.