Writing a book is really, really hard, and I won’t try to sugarcoat that.
You can have as many story ideas as you want, as many creative impulses, as many writing sprints and late nights staring at a blank word document with that little typing bar blinking at you incessantly; those endless hours will not a book make.
My first book took me nearly two years to write. I always laugh because when I first came up with the idea for it I thought to myself, “I can finish this by December! I just won’t start it til the end of May. I need plenty of time to develop characters and create plot and setting.”
When summer passed and I still hadn’t finished character development, I began to feel the pressure. I just decided to dive in and start writing, because in my brain I needed to have it done by Christmas. Then distractions began to present themselves, and procrastination set in, and pretty soon it was the New Year and I only had one mediocre chapter done!
It’s funny how things like that happen. Time passes so quickly when you have a million and one things to do before you can “get stuff done”. Unfortunately you can’t go back and insert productivity into all your wasted hours. They add up quickly!
Giving yourself deadlines can be extremely helpful. For me, I’ve found that I work best under pressure. In years past, NaNoWriMo has seemed impossible. This year, I’m going to try it!
You may be asking- what is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo is an abbreviation of “National Novel Writing Month”. In its 17th year, the nonprofit organization provides community, structure, and goal setting tools for writers that make writing a full first draft of 50,000 (!!!) from Nov. 1 - Nov. 30 a real possibility!
50,000 words might seem extremely daunting, so let me break it down for you- if you begin today (Nov. 7), that means around 2,000 words a day. An average page on Google Docs (depending on font size) is 500 words. That means you only have to write four pages a day. If you keep distractions and procrastination to a minimum, writing a novel could be done in 2 hours per day in just one month!
Remember: November is not for editing, it’s just for first drafts. Try not to get caught up in the process of going back and proofreading/making changes. There will be time for that. I can attest from experience- the editing process is much easier and much more fun than the drafting process. You can’t fix what doesn’t exist yet! Your future self will thank you: just keep pushing and get it done!
If there is a story inside of you- if you have the character and the plot but just haven’t made the time for their existence yet- what better time than now? What do you have to lose?
Again, let me provide just one more spoiler alert: writing a novel is hard. It’s something that can’t necessarily be taught. It takes dedication, perseverance, a lot of blood sweat and tears (sometimes literally) and maybe some social isolation. If you are willing to pay that price, the end result is an incomparable feeling of accomplishment.
What are you waiting for? Get started today! We can do this… together!
