Write a Book In A Month
Published in Advanced Christian Writer

I have written a book in a month. I have actually done this twice. Both were relatively short (65,000-75,000 words) but I have done this despite working full time as a magazine editor/writer, heading up the senior ministry at our church, singing in the church choir, and being the mother of two children.

Writing a book this fast is one of the easiest ways to get a rough draft onto the computer. I’m a driven person who enjoys meeting deadlines against what feels like impossible odds. Plus, when I’m done with the manuscript, I’m done. The vigorous, intense writing is done in 1/12th of my year. Then I can go back through my manuscript and edit to my heart’s content. At least then I have something to edit which beats staring at the computer screen and feeling like I will never get done with a project.

2,300 Daily Words
Through the years, I’ve read articles in Writer’s Digest, The Writer, and other places on the merits of this process. I’ve checked out the National Novel Writing Month website and contemplated the idea. About a year ago, I decided to take the plunge. I wrote out a story arc, then described my characters, their habits, idiosyncrasies, etc on a long sheet of paper that I posted on a bulletin board. I then figured out how long the book would be and how many words I would have to write per day to complete my goal. About 2,300. This didn’t seem that daunting. Of course, 2,300 useful, interesting words are more difficult than 2,300 random words but still, it seemed doable.

Then I set a date and a time to begin. On my designated first day, after finishing other editing tasks, I wrote…and wrote…and wrote. 100 words flowed into 200, 300, 400, 1,000. Would I ever make my goal? 1,500. More than half way. I put a pork roast and potatoes in the Crock Pot, then wrote until dinner. The answering machine picked up phone calls. The family did the dishes while I wrote until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. The next day, I woke up exhausted but thrilled. I could do this.

The next day, while I worked on my novel during lunch, I praised God for caller ID. I kept the same schedule day after day, squeezing in words between my kid’s basketball games, other articles, an unexpected house guest, and dinner preparation (toward the end of the third week, we ordered in Chinese Food and Pizza, the kids loved it!). On day 22, I got to the last paragraph of my novel. I couldn’t believe it. I rubbed my sleep deprived eyes and knew an exhilaration I hadn’t felt for a long time.

I’d finished a book in less time than it takes to deep clean my house or completely remodel my office.

Stepping Stones
As I worked to spruce up my manuscript, I saw that this book as a step in the direction of publication. If I hadn’t completed all 65,000 words of it, I wouldn’t have understood the intricacies of plot development, character formation, point of view and just plain finishing.. It was an important stepping stone to the whole process.

Recently, I lunched with some editors of a major publishing house. I spoke enthusiastically of my newest novel of which I’d completed a third. They loved my plot and characters and took the proposal. Later, they asked for the full manuscript.

I faced what many writers encounter when we pitch books we haven’t completed, pure panic. I had to finish my book and fast. Since our family was going on vacation to Florida, I would have to write a chapter a day. After two weeks, 14 chapters would be done and I would have 2/3rds of the book completed. Not so bad.

For the first few days, this wasn’t so hard. But as I wrote more, the old “write a novel in a month” feeling kicked in and my goal changed. Instead of a chapter a day, I wrote as long and hard as I could, trying to complete the novel before our plane touched down at Chicago O’hare. Who knew if I would have time to finish when I got home? For sure, I wouldn’t have time to polish it and refine it to what it needed to be if I didn’t have a working draft.

After spending several hours with my family each morning, I would get to work. My husband was a saint through all of this, entertaining the children and cleaning up the dishes. I soon was immersed in the plot with practically everything we did together bringing more thoughts to mind on writing the next scene.

One advantage of this system is you don’t have to work very hard to remember everything that’s going on. Every character’s former action and reaction was strongly in my mind through the process. In the evenings, Neal and the kids gathered around me for the latest installment. After awhile, they were begging me to finish because they wanted to find out what happened.

At the end of the two weeks, I’d completed another novel. I didn’t have a printer at our rented house, so I emailed the document to a local copier place and they printed it out for me. As we went to pick it up, the family sang a spontaneous Victory Song.

The next day, we went to the beach and I stretched out on the sand with the hard-won 300 pages, beginning the arduous editing process.

This story doesn’t have a completely happy ending. The original publishers ended politely saying, “Thanks but no thanks.” However, I will thank them forever for getting my fingers to the keyboard and my brain into the game. Today, I have a professional writer going through my book line by line helping me bring the manuscript to the next level.

Would I write a novel in a month again? In a heartbeat. Here are some tips that helped me chug away.

1. Define your goal. Decide what genre you’re going to write for. Know how long books are in that genre. Have a plot structure in mind before you begin. Break down the words into how many you need to write per day.
   
2. Once you begin, finish! Write, write, write! Don’t stop no matter what happens. If it takes longer than a month to write your book, don’t fret. Keep going to the end.
   
3. You will still have written your book in far less time than it would have taken had you written it in a more traditional way.
   
4. Find another writer to go through this process with you. Email each other daily with how many pages you’ve written. Encourage each other to keep going. One note, if the other writer drops out, don’t berate him or her. Realize it may just not be his or her time to finish that particular work. Of course, I must post a disclaimer with this point, I’ve never found another writer crazy enough to do this with me!
   
5. Before you begin, explain your goal to your family and ask them to help you. Keep food preparation to a minimum. Make some meals you can freeze for later. During meal times, share where you’re at in your novel and ask for their input and advice. If everyone is agreeable, schedule a nightly time when you read to them what you’ve written that day.
   
6. Go for it. Why not just decide to do it? Pick a month and start. Go to nanowrimo.org for more information and helpful tips.