Writing a Novel…one month at a time
November has come and gone, and so has November is National Novel-Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). NaNoWriMo is a project for aspiring novelists to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I tried doing this two years ago but stopped after a week because I couldn’t write so much in such a short period of time. I didn’t prepare myself for it. But, even though I didn’t finish, it got me into the practice of daily writing.
I was forced to write everyday, a lot, no matter what was going on and no matter how I was feeling. I dove in without a clear idea of who the characters were or even a rough plot structure and ended up writing over 30 pages of a story that I eventually scrapped because it wasn’t going anywhere. This past year, I didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo, but I did start yet another novel. Again, after maybe another 30 pages, I stopped. I didn’t like what the story was turning into. Now, I’ve got another idea for a slightly different novel that incorporates aspects of the previous two. I hope to start again, but with inspiration and ideas that sprung from the first two attempts.
Starting in January, I’m going to do my own verstion of NaNoWriMo and will try and post my progress regularly here. Instead of 50,000 words in 30 days, I’ll do half of that because it’s more do-able and will allow me time to have a life outside of writing. I basically just need a kick in the pants to get this novel off the ground, and what better way to start off 2012.
Wired magazine wrote about how to Write a Novel in a Month. The article says to plan ahead; have some scene ideas, and character sketches plotted out before even starting.
That’s what I plan to do the rest of December so that I have an idea of what I’ll be writing about come January. When I do start writing, I’ll take some time to plan the next day’s writing. I’ll also try target how many words to write in the morning before going to work and again in the evening, before going to bed, with weekends providing larger chunks of time to write. I’ll also blog about my progress every few days or so, tweet and post Facebook updates to help keep me motivated.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Poetry and Fiction, Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 3rd, 2012 at 12:14 pm
Stephanie Loleng is not where she thought she'd be, but this is good. | Oh, Leona! says:[...] I really love living here. I haven’t finished a book, although I’ve started two, and am embarking on a third attempt that will hopefully turn into a full-fledged novel. I work in the interent industry, which is something I couldn’t even imagine when I was 17, [...]