THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY - Rebecca Buckley's Blog

Friday, April 12, 2013

1500 WORDS A DAY?


          Writing 1500 words a day would mean in 30 days you've written a 45,000 word novel.  I think in Chris Baty's guide to writing a novel in 30 days netted 50,000 words in their endeavor (approx 1700 words a day).  He and 20 of his friends started the National Novel Writing Month - http://www.nanowrimo.org/ - concept that grew to thousands each year joining in - November being the writing month as the web site says.  Sounds like fun to me
But I am already doing it, not waiting till November.  You have to begin from scratch, with no outline, no plot, no characters, nothing in mind.  It is incredible how it just spills forth, it really works.  Baty's book "No Plot? No Problem!" is truly inspiring and it's lit a fire under me.  As if I need another novel on my plate.  But I believe the exercise is worth it.  I've written the first chapter and it feels like I planned it.  Just proves that you can sit down and start writing and it will take off without much effort. I think some of you have heard of and possibly participated in the 10-word game, where you pick 10 words, any words, list them and use them in a first paragraph starting a story. You won't believe how easy that is.  A very good exercise in creative writing. I've written quite a few short stories beginning like that. 
Anyway, back to the 30-day novel . . . the first line I wrote was: There he was again.  I don't know where that came from at all, but it certainly ignited my creativity and away I went. Followed by: She could see the edge of the green plaid shirt collar sticking above the blue windbreaker he must have put on somewhere along the line. He wasn't wearing the jacket while he was standing near the back door of the bus staring at her. His stark white hair and the green shirt caught her eye immediately in the after-work crowd. She got off at the head of the bus and hurried down the sidewalk, glancing back to see if he was still following her.  Now this is off the top of my head writing, no editing or rewriting, so it's raw . . . and exciting. I had no idea where I was going with it and that's the best part. 
I'm thinking this November I may write another during the writing month NaNoWriMo.  









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