Write a Novel in Under 28 Days?

Posted by Sarah Turner Jun 29, 2008

One of the most seemingly far-fetched ads I've seen is Nick Daws' “How to Write Any Book in Just 28 Days...or Less!”

I have to admit, the concept intrigues me. What writer doesn't want shortcut through the slog of writing? Who doesn't wish for easy formulas that would guarantee a successful end product?

Daws website promises a number of things, including where to buy bestselling plots for only 50 cents. What a great idea! Unfortunately, publishers say that it is much harder to predict what books will be bestsellers than it is to predict which movies will be blockbusters.

To its credit, the “How to Write Any Book in Just 28 Days” website has a long list of testimonials from writers who have supposedly used Daws' methods and published books. I've never heard of any of the authors or their books, but that doesn't mean they aren't successful.

What intrigues me most about this web offer is the “100% guarantee” offered. Working for 28 days, one hour a day, he guarantees that I can write a novel. It sounds too good to be true.

If you do the calculations, anyone typing 50 words per minute continuously for one hour for 28 days can get 84,000 words on a page. Since the average book manuscript is about 50,000 words I guess this technically counts as a novel. But is it any good?

I can't bring myself to shell out the $49.95 to test Daw's 100% guarantee. But if anyone out there has tried it, let me know what you found out.