Write a Novel in 30 DaysWhen I write a novel, it usually takes me several months (or more) to get the rough draft down. Sometimes it takes that long just to figure out where the plot leads. Not to mention who's in the novel, who's in charge and who's in the way. Well, with my current overloaded schedule, you can imagine it's taking me longer than normal to write a novel (or anything else, for that matter). And I figured it was silly to make things harder on myself by trying to cram more writing in less time. On the other hand, deadlines seem to force me to "just write". Web pages, non-fiction books, fiction, letters to friends, email responses; everything I have on my writing agenda seems to happen better with a deadline. So, I'm giving myself the mother of all deadlines: Write a Novel in 30 days. A year ago (2008), I wrote a page about what has become an international writing event that thousands of people take part in. National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, for short). It goes from November 1st through November 30th, during which you write a novel of 50,000 words. That's about 175 pages. Since most of my novels are over 400 pages, I probably wouldn't have a complete one in 30 days, but I can sure make a heckuva start. I did not take part in the writing frenzy last year, mostly because I was writing web pages for this site like mad, and packing boxes like mad to move across country. I felt like I was too busy. This year, I'm busier. We're rapidly trying to close up our new house in Durango, Colorado (get the windows and doors all in, and the weather-proof layers on). Once that's done, I'll be on site daily helping do the electrical wiring, the plumbing, the sheet-rocking, the floors, the painting... you name it, I'm part of doing it. So exactly when am I going to fit in time to write a novel? Heck if I know. But I want to give it a whirl. And I'd like to invite you to My daughter, Jessi, and I have joined a local writer's group, and much to our surprise (living in the middle of nowhere), we found out they're part of a local NaNoWriMo group! Well, the enthusiasm is contagious, and we're a little crazy anyway, so why not? Time to sharpen those pencils (okay, for me, it's loosen up the fingers) and mull over a few ideas to get us going. No cheating and using a novel you've already started (I considered it). And no starting the actual writing before November 1st. You can outline, and plan a little, but no actual writing allowed till then. Even though we have a local group to stay in touch with, I thought it would be fun to ask my readers to join us, too. After all, many of you say you You'll see just below here a form you can fill out to let me know you're giving NaNoWriMo a shot. Fill it out, send it to me, and I'll post your name alongside ours. Then once a week, I'll post our word counts - and yours, as long as you let me know how you're doing. Don't forget to
sign up on the NaNoWriMo website
, too. They'll send an email with instructions to get you started. Then we'll all write our fingers Are you game? Let me know you're joining us: Great. I look forward to some writing insanity with you. I'll be back November 1st with a bit of information on what Jessi and I are writing about. Keep in touch with me about your novel, too! And may the best writers win! Update September 29, 2009: Just so no one thinks they're in this alone, I'm going to keep a list of people who sign up for this year's NaNoWriMo. Here's who's signed up to be crazy with us so far. Don't be shy, if you want to jump into the deep end of writing with us. Come on in. We can all sink or swim together!
Update October 22, 2009 Nothing much has changed since the last update. No one else has joined in our write a novel in 30 days madness. The only changes I've got are that my daughter and I think we know the genres we're going to write in. Don't laugh... I'm doing a children's fantasy, and she's doing an adult crime-fantasy-chick-lit sort of novel. Pretty funny, huh? Get ready, get set, it's coming soon! Update October 23, 2009 Today, we have a new name to add to our write a novel in 30 days list. Welcome Bryna! Don't be shy, the rest of you. It's the effort that counts, not the final word count.
By the way, on the NaNo site, I am "magic-mountain" and you can buddy up with me or any others you recognize by going to my (their) profile and adding me as a buddy. You'll see me on the forums for the Durango, Colorado area group, too. I haven't posted anywhere else, yet. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm having a hard time, now I know what my novel's going to be, not writing scenes as they come to me! See you November 1st! Hi everyone, Just wanted to check in and see if anyone wanted to sign up for NaNoWriMo with us at the last minute. There's still time to write a novel in a month! We're gearing up and rarin' to go. Last night was our local kick-off party (which we missed due to near-blizzard conditions!), and our area group is excited to get started. Why don't you join us, too? When it's all over, I'll ask those who participated to let me know how it went for them, and post their responses on the site (with their permission, of course). Let's all give a big cheer for all of us crazy folk: Come on in, the writing's fine! Only one more day before we leap in blindly, making ourselves crazy with more writing than most people do in a lifetime. We've had one more person sign up with us: Welcome, Donna H, who signed up on October 28 and has yet to decide what genre she'll write in. Can't blame her. It's a tough decision. On your mark, get set... We have another writer joining us, this one from Botswana. Welcome aboard, Dimakatso, who joined today and doesn't know what genre to write in yet. Because there are still technically a few hours left for people to sign up, I won't post a final list until tomorrow. Sharpen those pencils, get out the paper, fire up the laptops and let's write a novel in 30 days! Morning, everyone. Have you started your novels? I have. I got 3209 words done before time to go work on building our house. I'm off now, to do that, and hope to write more this evening. Here's the final list of people who are being crazy with us and trying to write a novel in 30 days (though I think my niece is joining us this morning...)
And just for kicks, I'll tell you seven out of the nine of us are from the US, one is from the UK and one from Botswana. Cool! It's International Novel Writing Month! Go us! My niece decided to join us, too! So here's the final list:
Time to just write a novel! Cheers! I gotta go work more on my novel... From the Crazy-Writer Trenches: Alright you guys, I haven't heard from most of you with word counts. I know you intend to write a novel in 30 days. I want to cheer you on! Here are the three of us who've checked in. You'll notice word counts all over the place, so don't be shy. Let me know! It'll only take a minute away from your novel-writing time.
Let's hear it for dedicated writers! Midway Update, November 15, 2009 I'm back again, and I've only got "write a novel" stats for four of us. I'd love to hear from the rest of you to see how you're doing! If you look at the spread below, maybe you'll be brave enough to chime in, even if we're all supposed to be halfway today. My local ML (Municipal Liaison) has asked that I request that any of you who signed up on NaNoWriMo to write a novel in 30 days make sure you've associated with your local region on their site. You do that in the author information area by clicking on "My Region", then finding the closest region to where you live. Most of you probably have a regional group local to you. I do, and I live in the middle of nowhere Colorado. The nice thing about that is then you get notified of events happening nearby that you can go to, so you can procrastinate on your writing, or commiserate on how your book isn't doing what you wanted it to, or you hit a plot-wall... It can be fun. Hopefully, you already registered in your local region and there are fun events keeping you going. Believe me, it helps to get together with other insane people and talk about how the novel is going, or not. We went to our Midway Party last night and had a ball. Shared excerpts from our stories with each other. And left revved to keep writing. It's amazing how many genres we find to write a novel in. As of check-ins this morning, here's where four of us are at. Feel free, the rest of you, to email me your username on the NaNo site, and I can keep up with your word count there. If you remember to update it regularly.
Until next week... Well, we were supposed to be at 35,000 words yesterday. When I look on the NaNo site, I can see many people have kept up with that word count, many are past 50,000, and many are still struggling to catch up. What I love most is that all of us are at least trying to write a novel in thirty days. So here's this week's stats:
December 7, 2009 - It's Finally Over! Sorry... I meant to post this last week, but it's been nuts here, as we scramble to close our house and begin finishing the inside. Final stats came from the same four of us who kept in touch all along. I don't know how the rest fared, since they have neither checked in, nor given me their NaNo names on the site to check their stats. I do hope they all succeeded, and if they didn't, that they feel a sense of accomplishment, just for trying to write a novel in 30 days. So, who did manage to write a novel in 30 days (or at least 50,000 Drumroll please...
So, there you have it. Three of us managed to write a novel in 30 days. Jessi tells me she's going to finish her rough draft this month (go Jessi!), then begin editing it. I want to do the "rough edits" on mine, the notes I made while writing furiously. Then I'll probably start the full editing process after the first of the year. Stay tuned for excerpts from at least Jessi's and my novels here on this site! And thanks for watching the wild ride with us! I hope you feel like "if they can do it, so can I". Now, go write a novel. Return to Become a Writer page from Write a Novel page Return to How to Write a Novel homepage
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