on August 25th i set out to write the first draft of a novel. it's something i've wanted to do for a long time but it never really seemed plausible. something struck me around that time and i got to work.
i picked up a book coury had called No Plot No Problem and it had guidelines for writing a novel in a month. i followed the guidelines for daily word counts and soon found myself days ahead of schedule. three weeks into the project i had a 50,000 word novel (roughly the length of Catcher in the Rye).
the book encourages making a giant mess of the first draft, not worrying about correcting spelling mistakes and obvious holes in your plot. the point of the month long marathon is to get the story out of your head and onto paper. if you like your story, you can spend the next few decades whittling it down into a wonderful work of literary genius.
coury is now editing the 174 page manuscript into what will hopefully be something publishable one day. i feel pretty strongly about certain parts of the book but others will definitely be changed for the better.
here are the answers to some commonly asked questions so far:
what's the book about?
the book is based loosely on things that happened during my college experience. More specifically it's about a guy trying to start a writing career while encountering love and weirdos along the way. No, Coury is not the inspiration for the love interest. The love interest is entirely imagined.
what's the title going to be?
i have no title yet but i did end up naming the file A Cool Blanket of Clouds. i'm not sure if that will stick.
can i read it?
yes, you can read. After I've made some revisions. If you want to read a seven page excerpt, let me know. if you boo and hiss loud enough i may just put it in a drawer forever, never to be edited again.
i have an idea for a second book and actually started writing it three days after i finished the first novel but my head felt like it was going to explode so i put it down for a while. the setting in this book will more closely resemble my homeland.
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3 comments:
I'd say that this is more impressive than running a marathon or any crazy physical exertion. Making the time to sit down and think for a full month is well worth saying huzzaa.
thanks man. i appreciate it.
i wanna read the 7 pages, and would love to read more when you've got the revisions done! way to go - what an awesome goal! can'tt wait to get a look at it...
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