Advice On Writing A Novel In Ninety Days
posted on 04/02/2009
Writing a novel is a big project to take on. It takes persistence, endurance, and dedication just to get it finished. For some writers just putting the pen on the page or sitting down in front of the computer is a big deal, sometimes too much for them. Here are some ways to help overcome that obstacle and make time to write your novel-all in ninety days.
Plan Your Novel
The plan is to write your novel in ninety days or three months. Before you do any writing, make sure you have a story that you want to write. Take that story and plan it out. Make an outline, but don't be too strict on yourself. An outline is just a guide for your writing, not something that's permanent. Just jot down a few things that you would want to happen in the story.
As you write, you may find out that the outline will change, sometimes on a daily basis. It may make things easier to plan out your novel in chapters. Get out a calendar and equally divide up the novel's outline over the course of three months. It's fine if you need to split up chapters over the course of a few days, too.
Set a Daily Goal
After you've divided up your novel's chapters, set a goal for yourself. Decide how many pages you can commit to writing each day. It doesn't have to be a big number, just make it a number that you're comfortable with.
If you decide you want to write three pages per day, you'll have two hundred seventy pages. With a daily goal of four pages a day, you'll have three hundred sixty pages at the end of the three months. Low numbers like these are easy to maintain as goals and yield a novel-length page number after ninety days.
Stick to It
Maintain your goals by writing every day. Try not to miss a day, but if you do, don't beat yourself up. Don't try to make up for missing a day by doubling up on pages the next day, either. Goals are maintained by consistency, so just try your best to continue writing your daily pages.
If you feel like you want to write more than your daily amount of pages on a particular day, go for it. You should write as much as you can when you can, especially if you're feeling particularly inspired. If you don't feel the same way the next day, don't worry, keep writing. Just because you don't feel as inspired doesn't mean you shouldn't write anyway. Write whether you feel inspired or not. The words will come.
At the end of the ninety days, give yourself a pat on the back. You did it! You have a finished novel in your hands. Give that work a break. Now get started writing something else.
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justmesuzanne says:
(226d 6h 21min ago)
Good advice! I don't have plans to write a novel, but for online writing, I set myself a goal of one article and one recipe and/or movie review a day. Sometimes I still get sidetracked by other things, but by at least having that goal, I get something accomplished on a regular basis! :)