_edited.png)
Description:
Pareto's Principle is the idea that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. We can use this principle to improve our writing lives, especially with the first draft. Listen in to find out how you can apply Pareto's Principle to your idea generation, your time spent on writing versus marketing, and finding the time to write your novel.
Listen
Pareto’s Principle (80/20 Rule for Writing)
Introduction
You are listening to The Novel Writing Podcast, episode 142. I'm your host, Colleen Mitchell. Grab a cup, cozy up, and let's get to writing!
Today's episode is about Pareto's Principle, otherwise known as the "80/20 Rule" and how we can use it in our writing lives.
So if you've never heard of Pareto's Principle before, it's the idea that 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. This rule shows up in a variety of ways across multiple disciplines, but its origin was in 1906 from the works of Italian sociologist and economist Vilfredo Pareto, who showed that 80% of the land in Italy at that time was owned by 20% of the population.
Over time it's been shown that this principle holds as a rough estimation for a LOT of things.
What is Pareto’s Principle?
When we apply this principle to our writing, we can do it in several ways, and I'll cover a few in this episode:
Let's dive in!
Applying Pareto’s Principle to Writing
1. Idea Generation
First up, using this with idea generation! If you've taken The 60 Day Novel Writing Challenge, you're familiar with the fifteen days of recording 10 ideas a day, ending up with at least 150 ideas.
Applying Pareto's Principle, at least 30 of those ideas will make up about 80% of your book.
That's not to say the other 80% of your ideas are worthless, just that they either won't be used in this draft, or they aren't as important as the 30% that create the backbone and structure of the plot. So go wild with idea generation, knowing that not all of your ideas will carry equal weight, and that's normal.
2. Balancing Writing and Marketing
Next is how you use your time between writing the book and telling people about the book. AKA, marketing, which many authors are afraid of. I learned this idea from my business coach: in an active writing phase, spend 80% of your time working on the book (rewrites, brainstorming, outlines, first draft, etc.) and 20% of your time marketing it. That could be posting on social media, emailing your list, collaborating with other authors, you name it. But it can't take more priority (or more time) than writing the book, because writing is the most important thing for an author.
However, when you're in the final stages of publication and you're not actively writing, then swap it. Spend 80% of your time marketing and prepping for launch, and 20% of your time either approving edits, doing minor rewrites, or starting to brainstorm the next project.
3. Maximizing Writing Time
And finally, you'll write 80% of your book in the 20% pockets of time that you snag to write. That's writing a little bit each day, not setting aside entire days or weekends to crank out 80% of your manuscript, though if you want to attempt that, more power to you. I myself have taken vacation days from working my full-time job in order to write. And my fastest rewrite ever was 6 weeks long, but the last 36 hours of that was me rewriting the last HALF of book 2.
The point here is that most of us don't write books in big chunks of time that result in high word count, and even fewer of us can maintain that over a long period of time. Most of us will write in little spurts, in 100-word or 1000-word days, over months or even years. It's about what fits into our lives, not about what we think we "should" do compared to other authors.
Bonus Example: Focusing on the Most Important Parts of Your Draft
I actually have a bonus example for you, but it requires additional definition that is kind of beyond the scope of this episode.
When you're in the early stages of the first draft, start by focusing 80% of your writing time on the 20% of the book that's the most important.
What qualifies as "most important" depends on which writing craft or story structure expert you ask, and what's important to you might not be as important to your future reader.
Some examples of important bits to consider:
Character motivations & arcs
Stakes & obstacles
Dialogue
Identifying & fleshing out the major beats
The beginning (hook the reader)
The middle (don't let it sag)
The ending (finish with a bang)
Ultimately, the important bits may fluctuate depending on the story you're telling, how seasoned you are at writing, and whether you're writing a standalone, the first in a series, or a later series installment.
But the basis of this bonus example is to set yourself up for success by getting the skeleton of the book in place before adding all the meaty parts.
Conclusion
Hopefully, these examples have sparked your curiosity and desire to experiment. I'd love to hear how you implement Pareto's Principle in your writing life!
That's it for today's episode! If this has been helpful for you, I'd appreciate it if you left a rating or review on your platform of choice. While it does nothing for me, it does help other writers find this podcast.
Thanks for joining me, and remember, the first draft is supposed to be garbage.
Show Notes
Dive into the first episode of the Novel Writing Podcast with your host Colleen and her sometimes-guest Halie Fewkes Damewood! Here, we give you the gist of who we are, what we do, and what you can expect from this podcast.
What to do next…
Halie & Colleen are both authors! Find their books below:
Secrets of the Tally, by Halie Fewkes Damewood
The Chronicles of Talahm, by Colleen Mitchell
Comments