And even though I didn’t get around to the full 50k, I got a lot done. Writing a novel takes a lot more effort than just writing words on a page. Here are a few examples of what else accomplished this month: I researched backstories, sketched several new characters, did some plotting, was crippled by writer’s block, got over writer’s block, filled in more of my outline, realized what the story is *really* about, recognized some key areas that will need further development, an

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo this year! The point of National Novel Writing Month is basically to take one month to write one new full novel of at least 50,000 words. While I will be taking a novel I’ve already started (I already had 8,000 written of Landwalker, so my goal is 50,000 additional words), I’m hoping to use this time to actually finish a whole first draft. Since I’m pretty sure the quality of my writing when trying to make deadlines like this probably won’t be s

image by churl So you have an idea for a story, but you can’t seem to get more than a few pages into it. How do you turn a few pages of an idea into a full-length novel? Strategy #1 — No planning ahead (this is how I wrote my first book) Write. Just write. Don’t worry yet if it is written well. Start by introducing your character and then imagine what happens to them and keep going. This is probably a good approach for a NaNoWriMo book. Eventually, an idea for a beginning, m