November is National Novel Writing Month. All across the country, writers set out to write the first draft of a novel during the thirty days of November. If you’re thinking about trying it, here are a few tips from Write Your Novel in a Month by Jeff Gerke. (Which is a great book on writing in general, regardless of how long you plan to spend working on that first draft).
Tip 1: Set up Your Space
Choose where you’re going to write. Then set up two things where you can easily see them: a) a picture of your ideal reader. 2) a sentence or two about why you are excited about this idea, or why this story matters to you. These are great sources of encouragement.
Leave your phone, and anything else that could distract you in another room.
Tip 2: Plan Your Time
Set aside time to work. Then make goals, either in words per day, or pages. If you want to write a 50,000 word draft in a month, that’s 1666.66 pages per day, or roughly 4-6 pages. That’s very doable.
Consider making a calendar for your daily goals, adjusting for days you know you might not write much (like Thanksgiving).
Tip 3: Write a Synopsis First
Before you start writing your draft, try writing the synopsis. This let’s you figure out what’s going to happen. (You may change your mind later, but at least you have a start). One writer suggests changing the color of the sentences of the synopsis after you write each scene. This not only helps you see progress, but makes it easy to see what you’re going to write next.
Tip 4: Have Helpful Documents On Hand
Think about what might be helpful for this particular story. Would a calendar of events help? How about a list of minor events that could happen? Or a visual inspiration board?
Tip 5: Turn Off Your Inner Critic Now
If you want to write a draft of a novel in a month, you can’t let yourself get hung up on bad writing. The goal of the first draft is to learn and discover. The cleaning up comes later. So start shifting your mindset now to: Write with out fear. Edit without mercy.
Happy writing.