How To Write Like Danielle Steel (10 Ways)

You can write like Danielle Steel, but it won’t be easy.

Here’s how to write like Danielle Steel:

You can write like Danielle Steel by writing in long sessions, repeating successful formulas, using older technology, leveraging discipline, and obsessing over your current writing in progress. You can also write in a small room, collect your story ideas, and plot your narrative.

In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to write like Danielle Steel.

Danielle Steel Stats

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Woman Writing—How To Write Like Danielle Steel (10 Ways)
Image by the author via Canva—How To Write Like Danielle Steel

Whether you like romance or not, Danielle Steel is a household name—and for good reason.

The novel machine that is Steel pumps out half a dozen new books per year, making her total number of books a constantly booming phenomenon.

How many books has Danielle Steele written?

To date, she’s penned more than 179 books. Let that sink in. 179.

But it’s hard to keep up with them all because she never stops writing. The best way to stay up-to-date with her work is through her website, which, no surprise here, is daniellesteel.com.

Her other writer stats are just as note-worthy…

  • She published her first book at 25
  • She has sold 650 million copies worldwide
  • She is published in 69 countries (I bet neither of us can pronounce all of them)
  • She is published in 43 languages – wait, aren’t there only, like, 7 of them 🙂
  • To date, she has written more than 179 books

Oh, and did I mention she did all that while raising 9 (count em’, 9) little humans?! Apparently, she does everything in batches. 🙂

 

How to Write Like Danielle Steel Amazon Author Page Screenshot
Screenshot by the author—Credit: DanielleSteel.com

Here’s the real kicker: every one of those 179 books is a bestseller. Every. Single. One.

Do you know what that means? Steel knows story. If you want to write bestsellers, you’d be wise to study at the feet (page?) of one of the masters.

If you want to live the life of a full-time writer, model your habits after one. You become what you pay attention to.

Let’s dig into the most important ways you can learn how to write like Danielle Steel.

What Kind Of Books Does Danielle Steel Write?

If you want to know how to write like Danielle Steel, you must first know what kind of books she writes. 

The short answer is that she writes romances. But that simplifies it a bit because only her main genre or category is romance.

Romance is what she’s known for in most reading circles.

If Stephen is the King of Horror, Danielle is the Queen of Romance.

When you sift through the finer details of the books she’s written, you find a wide exploration of genre, cross-genre, and subgenres.

  • Take Child’s Play for example: it’s about a mother struggling with family secrets. Romance? Maybe.
  • Compare that to Undercover, which is basically a spy thriller.

Both are great books, just very different.

She’s also published poetry, children’s fiction, and even nonfiction. So, if you write in many genres or subgenres already, then you have a head start on how to write like Mrs. Steel.

Hidden Patterns in Her Stories

Anyone who wants to learn how to write like Danielle Steel is wise to study her work. And there’s plenty of work to reverse-engineer.

Once you start reading her stories, you’ll begin to notice patterns. 

Here are just some of the patterns that have emerged in my reading:

  • Her books typically involve wealth, families, secrets, and – you guessed it – romance.
  • She follows a formula (Critics like to attack her for it, but EVERY successful person follows a formula. Some are just more obvious).
  • See the How to Write Like Danielle Steel Formula below!!

10 Ways To Write like Danielle Steel (The Danielle Steel Formula)

If you want to know how to write stories like Danielle Steel, you’ll need to study her habits, routines, and writing methods.

That’s what you will find in this section. Enjoy!

1) Steel Prolific

If you have ever wandered into a library or bookstore by mistake, traveled outside your house, or been on the internet (hint: you are there right now), you know that Steel is a uber prolific writer.

And she was writing since childhood.

All that constant writing, writing, writing allows her to hone her craft, stay sharp, and develop deeper and deeper insights about storytelling.

If you want to write like Danielle Steel, write like a madman – well, madwoman. Write every day, as often as possible.

2) Steel Disciplined

Steel credits discipline and hard work for her success.

In fact, when asked what advice she would give aspiring authors, she came back with this line:

“The best advice I can give anyone on any subject, writing or other is: Work, work, work, work, work, work, work WORK!!! Work Hard!!” – Danielle Steel

The application here is simple, but not always easy: write every day no matter what. Set a schedule and stick to it – no excuses. Discipline is a monster best kept in a cage.

3) Steel Structured

Steel approaches her writing sessions with structured intensity.

There is nothing wrong with being a Panster, but she’s not one of them.

How to write like Danielle Steel? Be prepared. Gather your ideas and your materials. Make a plan and stick with the plan. Design your story structure and then work within its limits.

Don’t stray. Don’t doddle.

Steel is structured, but she scoffs at those who would try to pigeonhole her.

“Pigeonholes are never accurate, except for pigeons” – Danielle Steel

4) Steel Ordered 

In interviews, Danielle Steel has confessed that she writes her ideas in the order they come to her.

This means she gets lots of ideas, records them somehow, and commits to them one by one. She accepts ideas on a first-come, first-served basis.

Muses be warned.

Here’s your “How to Write Like Danielle Steel” application:

  • Look for ideas everywhere
  • Record your ideas (on paper, Evernote, audio record, etc)
  • Write your ideas in the order they come to you

Blocked on ideas? Read my post How to Overcome Writer’s Block (Ultimate No-Fail System)

5) Steel Multi-Task

Surprisingly, she claims to work on several books at once (but always in order of idea, always).

This multi-tasking queen puts out so many books per year James Patterson might be ghostwriting for her.

Stuck with one novel?

Write another. Maybe two. Nothing frees up the muse like the literary slip-n-slide of words flowing on the page.

6) Steel a Workhorse

Most readers imagine authors leisurely scribbling a few pages in a cabin by the sea for 20, no let’s say 30, minutes a day before hitting the sun and surf for the other twenty-three and a half.

Not so with Danielle Steel (if anyone).

Even when she’s not writing (which is rare), she puts in 18 to 20 hours. When she’s writing, it’s more like 20 to 24-hour writing stints broken only by forced unconsciousness (i.e. sleep).

How does she know when to stop? She stops when the ideas stop.

7) Steel Batched

Not only does she barrel through a grueling 21-hour writing marathon—still, at 70+—her formula for churning out bestsellers includes what productivity experts now call “batching”.

They say the time and energy it takes to shift from one type of task (say writing) to another (changing a diaper or running out for red staplers) kills effectiveness.

Basically, she is laser-focused on the one task of writing and is the poster child for “batching.”

How to write like Danielle Steel?

Copy her formula by batching your workloads—do all your planning in one long chunk of time, your writing in another, and your marketing or promotion in another.

8) Steel a Classic

Proving that you can’t improve on a perfect piece of machinery, Danielle shirks computers for her 1946 Olympia Typewriter (Side note: Dean Koontz also uses old technology…hmmm…).

So, if you want to copy the How to Write Like Danielle  Steel Formula, chuck your fancy pansy MacBook and get yourself a classic typewriter, baby.

9) Steel a Favorite

Her favorite novel that she has written?

The one she’s working on. Or the two or three. But who’s counting?

Fall in love with your WIP. Obsess over it like a celebrity on a pre-movie release tour. What you love reveals its secrets to you. So love your current story. Play favorites…for now.

10) Steel Room

When people ask me how to write like Danielle Steel, another factor I point out is where she chooses to write.

“The conclusion to be drawn is that I am happiest writing in small rooms. They make me feel comfortable and secure. And it took me years to figure out that I need to write in a corner. Like a small animal burrowing into its hole, I shift furniture around, and back myself into a cozy corner, with my back to the wall … and then I can write.”
—Danielle Steel

As they say in Hollywood, “Location, location, location!”

Where you write can have a HUGE, outsized impact on how many words or pages you get in.

A consistent, focused writer space can do wonders for your creativity, productivity, and focus. That’s the triple threat of writing in the “zone”.

Therefore, if you want to apply this method for how to write like Danielle Steel, then choose your writing space carefully.

Perhaps experiment with the place, size, and sensory stimulation (some famous writers liked to stand and write, some like blaring rock music, while some like tiny rooms and silence).

Find out what works for YOU! And then do a lot of it.

That’s the real How to Write Like Danielle Steel Formula. 

The Steel Summary

There you have it: Eight ways for you to know exactly how to write like Danielle Steel. For a quick list of how to copy her strategies, try these strategies:

  • Write a lot
  • Write everyday
  • Write in structured bursts – “sprints”
  • Write in the order the ideas come
  • Write several books at one time
  • Write in long marathons – “Batching”
  • Write until the ideas stop
  • Write drunk and edit sober
  • Write in a small room (better to corner your muse)

Bonus Fun Fact: What Is the First Novel Danielle Steel Ever Wrote?

The first novel she ever wrote is GOING HOME, which she penned in 1972. GOING HOME 

As far as anyone can tell, she hasn’t stopped writing since.

Who better to tell us about Danielle Steel than the famous author herself.

This video is older but still relevant if you want to know exactly how to write like Danielle Steel:

YouTube Video by TIME

What To Read Next?

Thank you for reading my post on How to Write Like Danielle Steel!

If you want even more great content on writing, check out the suggested next reads listed for you below:

Steel Resources

If you are a fan of all things Danielle Steel, here is a short list of links you might want to check out: