4 Tips for Writing a Quick First Draft
National Novel Writing Month starts in three weeks! For those who don’t know what this is, you can go to the NaNoWriMo site here and learn all about it. The point is to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30. I think it’s great for discipline and for getting that first draft out. A terrific way to stop procrastinating and just do it!
Of course, in many cases, 50,000 words isn’t going to be an entire novel. If you’re planning a longer book, it’s okay. You can write the skeleton of a novel, then fill it out later, or write roughly half of your novel by the end of November, whatever 50k words turns out to be. You have to get to 50k, though — that’s the point.
So let’s talk about writing a first draft. Today I want to address a couple of things I think are pretty important when you’re sitting down to a blank screen. Keep in mind we’re all different and we have unique strategies that work for us; these are general tips meant to be helpful. If they don’t work for you, throw them out.
Click to the Books & Such blog to read the entire post.
You can write the skeleton of a novel, then fill it out later, or write roughly half of your novel by the end of November, whatever 50k words turns out to be.
Wow!It’s utterly inconceivable to me to write that much in that time. In an unrelated question, is directly publishing a work to ebook (ie Kindle) shooting yourself in the foot for later efforts to market it to traditional publishing?
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