What I’ve learned

Over Labor Day weekend, you could write a novel. No, really, you could.

Your novel doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be long. It just needs to be written between 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, September fourth and 11:59 p.m. on Monday, September sixth.

Think you couldn’t do it? Answer me this question:
Could you type a hundred double-spaced pages (or hand write them) in three days? Let’s do some quick math.

I timed myself and wrote 35 words in a minute. Let’s knock off ten of those words, and set a standard of 25 words a minute.

A hundred double-spaced typed pages equals about 25,000 words. So, 25,000 divided by 25 (the number of words in one minute) comes to 1,000 minutes of writing.

Divide 1,000 minutes of writing by 60 to find how many hours that equals. The answer: 16 hours and 40 minutes.

Lets round that up to 17 hours and then divide by three to find how many hours a day you’d need to write: 5 hours and 40 minutes.

So, yes, you could type or write 25,000 words in three days. But what about all the plotting and research and other novelist stuff?

It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about it. Simply take one of two approaches to your novel.

One, you just start writing, having no idea who anyone is or what’s happening. Here’s an example.

“Mary heard the thunder and looked up at the darkening sky. The wind had picked up, and she wished she had turned back sooner.”

I just wrote those words with no idea who Mary is, where she is, or what’s going to happen next.

This is referred to as the seat of the pants method. You apply the seat of your pants to a chair and start writing, discovering the characters and setting and plot as you go. Authors who write this way are called pantsers, and three famous examples are Margaret Atwood, Pierce Brown, and Stephen King.

The second approach is to do some planning first. Here’s an example:

This is going to be a mystery novel about a woman named Janet Langer who solves a murder the police have given up on. They think the death was an accident, but Janet is of another opinion. She knew the victim (went to school with her?) and knows the woman would never . . . whatever, whatever, whatever.

Authors who plan their writing (some even make detailed outlines) are called plotters. John Grisham, J.K. Rowling, and E.L. Stein are examples.

Plan your story or simply put your bottom in a chair and find out who’s who and what’s what as you write.

Either way, the end product isn’t going to be pretty. It’s going to be a first draft. But it will be yours.

For extra incentive to finish your weekend writing goal, pay fifty bucks to enter the International 3-Day Novel Contest. Go to 3daynovel.com to find out more.

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