Writing a book in 30 days
Impossible? Maybe… It just depends on what “a book” means to you.
If it means completing a book with editing rounds and revisions and proofreading… then 30 days probably won’t be enough. But if it means writing a story start to finish, then it can be done.
Even more, lots of people do it every year.
You may have heard of NaNoWriMo. If you haven’t, it’s this worldwide writing challenge where you challenge yourself to write a certain amount of words in the month of November. The general goal is to write 50k words but you can set up your own challenges too.
If you do the 50k challenge, that means you have to write 1667 words every day for 30 days.
Don’t panic! That’s completely doable!
I know… since I’ve completed the challenge… twice.
In my experience
it all comes down to a good preparation but I know some people go in with just a rough idea. In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter. I just happen to work better when I know what I’m supposed to write, instead of figuring it out as I go along. But that’s just me.
So, let’s say you want to prepare too. Where do you start?
Well, the story you’re about to write has two main components:
1) your characters
2) your plot
It makes sense that these are the two things you should have a good grip on before the month long challenge starts.
Who are you writing about?
Who are your characters? What drives them, where do they start and where do they end up? Because one thing’s clear, your characters cannot stay the same. The story is the change they experience.
There are plenty of character creation sheets out there.
I made you an overview with some important questions, but you can add to it however you want!
This worksheet will help you set the direction of your story.
It will highlight what your characters need and what they want.
And it will give you some handholds for the plotting portion of your preparations.
Full plot ahead!
Once you know who your characters are, it’s time to make them suffer.
(Unless you’re writing a super happy story about unicorns and rainbows, but even then you’ll still need to figure out where you want this story to lead…)
I used to plot my stories using the 3-act structure. There’s a great video by Katytastic on Youtube where she explains the structure really well. You can then go on to use this worksheet to build your own story using the 3 acts.
This structure gives you 27 chapters, so pretty much a chapter a day.
Last year, I learned about the Save The Cat beats for novel writing and have made the switch because it gives me more freedom (at least that’s how it feels to me). You can find some information about the different story beats here.
Now all that’s left to do is write.
Again, you don’t NEED all this prepwork if you just want to go in and write as you go. You can write a zero draft and then use that to write your actual story. Or maybe you’re a fenomenal pantser and you can write a first draft without the prep. Then you’re all set!
I, however, know myself and if you throw me into the deep end without something to hold on to, I will drown. After about a week of writing, I will become stuck and I will quit. I know this because it happened to me several times before I started planning for my NaNoWriMo months.
Now, with a story structure or plot overview to hold onto, I know exactly where I’m going, how far I’ve come and how far I still need to go. It helps to motivate me and keeps me on track.
Maybe you have this story idea that has been tormenting you for a while now. You have most of it figured out because you’ve tought about it so much already. Here’s what you’re going to do. Take an hour to sit down and write out everything you already know into the worksheets in this blogpost. Everything you know about your characters and everything you know about the story.
Chances are there won’t be a lot of empty spaces left.
That means you are ready. Fill in the holes (or fill them in along the way) and write that story!!
Get it out of your head and make room for new ideas!
If I can do it (twice), I’m sure you can do it too!
You can register your project on the NaNoWriMo website and keep track of your progress along many other writers who are all doing the same thing. Because, you see, you’re not alone! We’re all writing together.
Join us!
Sarah and I will be writing too! We want to finish the second half of our first draft in November, so it made sense to challenge ourselves. We still have some planning to do but there’s plenty of time left. Join us! Write that book!
And tell us all about it!
Ellen
RESOURCES:
– Character worksheet
– 3 act story structure