How to Write a Novel in 30 Days? Here are the 7 steps to follow

Have you been procrastinating writing novel ideas?

Source:Pinterest It’s now or never. It is possible to complete your novel in 30 days. Few times in small groups or pairs, people decide to see what they can achieve by setting a mutual goal of writing under a deadline. By coming together or participating in challenges you subject yourself to external goals and some pressure to complete the task. Many writers get worked up with just the idea of writing a novel in a month. It will be like the holy grail for writing novels for beginners. Book-in-a-month challenges attract all types of writers. It’s a commitment sometimes to prove to yourself, someone else, or get a fresh start. Below are the best tips, insights, resources, and advice to all about getting that write-a-thon right. It is possible to write your novel in 30 days if you approach the process with the right perspective and layout the plan well. This article will walk you through the process of how to write a novel in 30 days. We have also covered writing novel basics. And also providing some very interesting writing novel hacks. Before we jump at the writing process, let’s get the basic right, to finish the novel say you need to write 50,000 words in 30 days which means you need to write 1,667 words per day.

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You have to maintain your novel, daily word count. It’s very much possible if you set aside an hour or two. Doesn’t sound difficult? To begin with, you need to have a writing novel outline. You can start with a novel concept first. A basic understanding of what you hope to achieve. Your novel genre also is very relevant here. Well, it’s better said than done. The difficult part is what to write? Who are my novel characters and what’s their story and how do I put it down on paper? How do I create my novel dialogue? So here is how to go about doing that. 1) Idea 2) Plot & Layout 3) Characters 4) Scene Development 5) Structure and Scene List 6) Draft 7) Editing and Polishing 1) Idea It will be nearly impossible and not just hard to write if you don’t know what you were writing about. It’s very difficult to write 50,000 words. First things first, you need to decide what you wish to write about. There is no need to plan and think ahead here. It has to be very simple. Maybe you wish to write about a love story or a coming of age tale or about growing up in a village. It can even be about a prince and princess. The theme can be a mix of few common themes presented in a new way. It can be anything. The only criteria initially are that it should excite you and capture your imagination. Your novel approach and novel genre should match with your passion to write. Or you will have a hard time staying focused. 2) Plot and Layout The plot is a sort of summary of the story you wish to say. It is mainly about answering what is your novel about? It relates to your novel concept. Now you start giving shape to the earlier idea. When you write the plot down you will know the protagonist, their role, and the problem they will encounter. One way is to write the plot summary in a very crisp way. (Novel name: Short Stories on Gryffindor) is about (protagonist: eg: A young boy named Harry Potter) who must (role: Become the supreme Wizard ) for it to achieve (risks and problems: Fight with families and friends to reach pinnacle). Having a plot is about developing the idea into a complete story with characters, character arcs, plot points, aims, problems, and risks. Bringing in problems and risks also brings conflict into the story. It is very important as without conflict the story will be boring. Also, you can use your plot to write a description and blurb later. You can even consider writing your novel on google docs. 3) Characters After developing a plot, you know the protagonist and antagonist. So, now the time is to give them a voice and personality. Here you get them to live in your mind which eventually translates to the story on paper. This can be done by asking questions about the main characters. Here we try to find answers to the aims and goals of the character. To understand their motivations. Source: DeviantArt Also, we lay emphasis on the character development i.e the growth and transformation of the character during the course of their pursuit in the plot. It’s necessary to understand that stories are about conflicts. Before we think about the character or novel dialogue, we have to get the novel basics and novel concept right. Without that, we have nothing more than some narration on life. For a conflict to occur the goals of the protagonist and antagonist have to be opposite of each other. You can collect all the advice which you find relevant including the novel writing tips from authors and keep it under novel advice for it to be handy. 4) Scene Development The next order of business is creating scenes and filling them with details about the characters. Without thinking just start writing down the scenes. A good idea is to use index cards. This is a great writing novel hack. One scene per card. The idea is to mainly write the scene so that you don’t forget it. Every scene you think of goes on the card. At that time, you might not know where it will fit in the story. But it’s necessary to jot it down step by step. You let your imagination come up with as many scenes as you can and collect it all in a dump of a sort. You can use physical cards, Google docs, or use software like Scrivener. We have prepared a list of tools that would help you with creative writing, content strategizing, and preparing your workflow. 5) Structure and scene list Now you have to lay out all the cards and start building a story around them. Now there are some critical parts to this process. The first part is the introduction of the characters where you sort of prepare the readers towards the setting and try to create a connection. You give a slice of the protagonist and make them more relatable. The second part is the event or the scene that makes the protagonist break into the essential character and start reacting. And the third stage is when the protagonist reacts to the plot and moves. The last is when the main character takes control. Here the protagonist understands what they need to do to achieve the ultimate goal. And the last is the end wherein all the loose ends are tied. The progression of the elements is what will keep the story together. And with this, you can decide which sense makes the cut and which do not. You arrange the scenes in chronological order. You might add new cards to maintain the flow. This novel hack is a great tool and presents a wonderful novel writing approach. In the end, you will have the cards in the logical flow of the story. You can cross-reference to check if you have all the cards in a manner that contains the right elements and more important is you know what to write. You have a completely mapped out plan.

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6) Draft Now that all the planning is done you are ready to write the first draft. Now you have a good grasp of the story and the characters. You know the issues the protagonist will have and how they will be resolved. So, everything you need to write is ready. Now is time to work on the novel dialogues too. If you get stuck sometimes you can try the sprinting technique. In this technique, you set a timer and without any distraction just write. The aim is to get words on paper. Evaluation and editing come later. You have to aim for around 25 minutes a sprint and do around 500 to 1500 words per sprint. You can take breaks between sprints and try to do 2 to 4 sprints in a day. It’s not entirely necessary to match this pace. But it is necessary to set your own. You should try to do better each day. The minimum you need to do is to maintain the novel daily word count. 7) Editing and Polishing After the draft is done you can start the editing part. You can take prints and work on that too. Whatever suits you is ok. The first draft will have a lot of mistakes. You will not need to do major rewrites as you have already planned it well. Major rewrites happen due to a bad structure. If you are having trouble finding the right words to complete, take the help of online dictionaries. Dictionaries have taken a new avatar in the modern age offering a plethora of features and information. We have provided you a detailed outlook of the best online dictionaries for writers, their unique attributes, their pros and cons. You correct all the errors and work towards a readable manuscript. You can consider working with a novel editor. You can even involve someone from the novel’s first draft stage. Some editors specialize in few novel genres. They too can provide tailor-made novel writing tips. Conclusion The seven steps laid above would help you move towards the dream of completing your novel in 30 days. Every step is laid out on the path and it’s the confirmed right step. The process is to avoid rewrites or go ashtray in the plot while writing. Each step involves building a story around a specific story structure. You have to get your novel basic right and then work towards your novel outline. If all the steps are followed you will have a novel first draft. Later you can even work with an external novel editor to frame the draft. Looking to publish a book? Find out ways to maximise your chances of turning your manuscript into a published book