The 12 Week Year for Writers

Get more words on the page with this proven and popular system

The 12 Week Year for Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to Getting Your Writing Done is an easy-to-implement and practical framework for writers to get more work done in less time. You’ll answer big picture questions—What is my vision for the future? What are my writing goals?—while enacting a comprehensive system to plan and execute your writing.

You’ll create a 12 Week Plan and a Model Week, collaborate with a weekly writing group, keep score, and learn to stick to a weekly execution routine. The book will also show you how to:

• Manage multiple writing projects at the same time
• Develop a prolific writer’s mindset and increase your output with the 12 Week Year system
• Deal with actionable specifics, like when and where to write

Ideal for writers in all genres and fields, The 12 Week Year for Writers is the perfect hands-on guide for academic and business writers, authors, students, columnists, bloggers, and copy and content writers who seek to increase their productivity and get more quality words on the page.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

List of Action Steps xv

Section I Why You Need A New Writing System 1

Chapter 1 Why You Need a New Writing System 3

Chapter 2 The 12 Week Year: Your Strategic Operating System for Writing 15

Section II How To Use The 12 Week Year 31

Chapter 3 Crafting Your Writing Vision 33

Chapter 4 Creating Your 12 Week Plan 47

Chapter 5 Creating Your Model Week 71

Chapter 6 The Weekly Writing Group 89

Chapter 7 Scorekeeping 103

Chapter 8 The Weekly Execution Routine 119

Section III How The 12 Week Year Will Help You Write 129

Chapter 9 Making Your First 12 Week Year a Success 131

Chapter 10 How to Use the 12 Week Year to Write More 149

Chapter 11 How to Manage Multiple Writing Projects 165

Chapter 12 How to Write Together with the 12 Week Year 179

Chapter 13 The Writer’s Mindset 195

Chapter 14 Parting Thoughts 213

Section IV The 12 Week Year In Action 215

Chapter 15 How I Used the 12 Week Year to Write This Book 217

Chapter 16 Frequently Asked Questions 237

Notes 245

Free 12 Week Year for Writers Resource Library 248

A. TREVOR THRALL, PhD, is a writer and Associate Professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government where he teaches courses in international security. He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in the Defense and Foreign Policy Department.

BRIAN P. MORAN is Founder and CEO of The Execution Company, an organization that improves the performance and quality of life for leaders and entrepreneurs. He has management and executive experience with UPS, PepsiCo, and Northern Automotive.

MICHAEL LENNINGTON is coauthor of The 12 Week Year, and works with firms and top performers to help them create next-level breakthroughs by leveraging the 12 Week Year execution system.

In The 12 Week Year for Writers: A Comprehensive Guide to Getting Your Writing Done, an expert team of writers and strategists delivers a practical and actionable way for writers to implement the celebrated 12 Week Year system and dramatically improve their productivity. The authors walk you through this strategic operating system for writers, helping you answer the big picture questions that will determine your success: What is my vision for the future? What are my writing goals? What are the best strategies and tactics to achieve those goals? How can I stay focused and productive?

This important book offers a comprehensive system for writers of all kinds and in all genres to plan and execute their writing. You’ll learn to create your 12 Week Plan and your Model Week, collaborate with a weekly writing group, keep score, and establish a weekly execution routine. The book will also show you how to manage multiple writing projects at once, how to increase your output with the 12 Week Year system, and how to develop a writer’s mindset.

From the down and dirty specifics, such as where and when you’ll write, to the broader outlines of your strategy, like goal- and deadline-setting, The 12 Week Year for Writers helps writers translate abstract motivation into concrete action, prose, or poetry.

Perfect for academic writers, business writers, authors, students, columnists, bloggers, and copy and content writers, The 12 Week Year for Writers is the ideal resource for anyone who wants to produce high-quality work more efficiently, reliably, and effectively.

Praise for The 12 Week Year for Writers

“We writers are a peculiar bunch, so I am impressed how Trevor manages to bridge high-performance practices into our creative world and make it feel natural. This book will help practitioners of The 12 Week Year for Writers method feel in charge of their writing projects and make continuous progress. That is a remarkable feat.”
—CHRISTIAN TIETZE, writer, app developer, and Zettelkasten zealot

A Note From the Creators of The 12 Week Year

“We wrote the first version of our New York Times bestseller, The 12 Week Year, in just 12 weeks using our own system. Since then, we’ve helped people and companies all over the world to unlock their capabilities and accomplish more. With this new book The 12 Week Year has been adapted specifically for the challenges of writers.

If you are a student, a professional, a full time author, or you just love to write, this book is for you. Get it, study it, apply it, and you will cut months, (maybe even years), off the time it takes to produce your best work.”
—Brian Moran and Michael Lennington, authors of The 12 Week Year