What’s in a…?
October 16th, 2005Today we’ve got two parts, both inspired by No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty.
What’s in a Day:
Unless you’re sitting on a LOT more spare time than I am, you’re going to need to find some time to do all this extra writing next week. So what you should be doing this week, is figuring out how you’re spending your time.
First off, pick a couple of days this week and log everything you do throughout the day (you can do it in half-hour increments to keep it easy). Next, before you go to bed, sit down with your list. Take that list and a couple of highlighters and mark off the things that are essential (Work, eating, etc). Everything else gets yanked!
OK, FINE… take it another step and highlight in a different color the things that are highly desired. Now anything that isn’t highlighted gets dropped. If you’re trying to write a novel in a week though, you probably should consider dropping quite a few of these (FYI: ANY TV shows get the axe, sorry, use Tivo).
You want to eliminate anything you possibly can that won’t cause your life to collapse if you give it up for a week/month. Plan ahead for your binge writing period and schedule all that extra time for writing. If you can, re-arrange some of the essentials to give yourself larger blocks of writing time. If you’re only going to have an extra 15 minutes after work because you’re giving up that last trip to the snack machine, have your notebook with you and get in a few words by crikey!
The key is using your time to write and for little else that won’t get you evicted, fired, or divorced. This goes double if you’re commiting to writing a novel in just a week.
What’s in a 50,000 Word Novel:
So you’re wondering what your 50,000 (or 49,000) word novel will look like? How about this list of classics that all weigh in at about 50K words:
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Catcher in the Rye - J. D . Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
You’ll add a few words in revision, take a few away… but you’ve got enough words to have a classic (though if you write the next classic in a week or a month… you probably don’t need us or NaNoWriMo to kick you in the butt).
Discuss this at Wordtrip.com
Keep Writing and Happy Wordtripping!
CharlesP