Novel Writing - Time Off
June 17, 2008
Just wanted to post a quick update. I’d mentioned very early on that while I would be testing these 30-day novel writing methods, I may not be able to do it in 30 consecutive days due to my client schedule. Unfortunately, that’s going to be true this time - I didn’t get a chance to work on the novel yesterday (day 16), and don’t expect to be able to today either due to a heavy client load. So I’ll be picking up where I left off hopefully tomorrow - my day 16 of the program will simply be the 18th of the month, and it will progress from there.
On a side note, I can say I’m not looking forward to this formatted outline as much as I was previously. From the way it’s laid out in the book, it seems like way too much going back over things again and again for my taste - I’d rather be more comprehensive the first time through, than feel like I’m “editing” things repeatedly until it’s done (and I thought one of the key points of these programs was to avoid editing while you’re working). Given, it’s not exactly editing - just similar enough that I think I’ll get sick of seeing the same parts of my work repeatedly. But I’m hoping I’m wrong. 
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June 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Hi Jennifer! I’ve been following your adventures with First Draft in 30 Days closely, as I am using the book for the first time myself.
I do agree, after working on my outline for quite some time now, it does feel like the formatted outline has a lot of repetition involved. On one hand, it does help to refresh my memory. But I am already making notes on how I can condense some of the steps for my next project - which I guess is the beauty of the system’s flexibility.
I do like the idea of having everything - character sketches, research, timelines, etc. - within one document, but I have fallen into the trap you mentioned above - editing again and again until the outline is done. Of course, I can somewhat chalk this up to adapting to a new system - but I’ve already gone over my “alloted” 30 days by almost 3 weeks now.
Either way, thanks for sharing your experience!
June 17th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I’m just glad to hear I’m not crazy. lol
Looking over it, I’m feeling like Day 16 alone could easily be an 8 - 10 hour day for me given the expected number of scenes I’d have to do. It really seems like the bulk of the work, so I’m not sure how realistic this is for someone with a life beyond their novel. Then again, maybe I’m misunderstanding something - I don’t know. I try to be thorough, so I’m sensing a lot of work on this segment - and frankly I have no interest in going back over things time and again. I look at it this way. As I’m writing up the formatted outline, I should have my character sketches and such available, and be incorporating those elements as I write. So knowing me, I’ll do it my way anyway, and follow the plan more loosely through this part. But you’re right. That’s a part of these things that’s nice - if you know something isn’t “you” you can probably tweak it a bit to fit your work style better. 
At this point, I see almost no chance that I’ll be back on the book tomorrow. I’m thinking I’ll either take off tomorrow and resume Thursday or I’ll simply leave it alone to simmer until the weekend when I can really devote a full day’s worth of work to get this segment started. I don’t know yet. I’ll update one way or another.
And congrats on moving forward with your own project! It’s really nice not feeling alone in the process.
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Jennifer, I wanted to jump in and stress that you should avoid redundancy in this writing system. The point is to have a clear picture of your characters (internal conflicts and goals and motivations), settings and plot conflicts. If you find yourself re-doing a lot of aspects from the worksheets, pre-writing ,or coming up with information you just don’t need, avoid it. Just do what you need to do. Everything you find in FIRST DRAFT is designed to stimulate you to work through each step in order to come put with a detailed, scene-by-scene outline. The entire goal of the system is to make sure you have everything you need to write instinctively. When you sit down to write the first draft, you should be able to start writing immediately because it’s all there in your outline, scene by scene.
The first time (or first couple times) you use this system, you may find that some of the pre-writing is redunant, but it might actually help you more than you realize before hand. Try it step by step the first time. Then element the steps that you didn’t need or didn’t work for you for your next project.
I have a lot of experience writing books after having 49 of them published, with 18 more on the way, so I write instinctively. I immediately jump into writing the formatted outline. I don’t do sketches anymore because I can get a clear picture of everything during the course of my outlining. Only if I have problems do I go back and do the pre-writing aspects of the system.
If you don’t feel like any of this is instinctive for you yet, go through the steps as I’ve set them down in FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS. But if you eventually get to the point where you don’t need anything but the formatted outline…well, that is the goal of this writing method…in addition to figuring out what *you* need to do to get the story out, scene by scene. Only do what you need to to get that clear picture. : )
Karen Wiesner
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Karen
June 30th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I think the problem I’ve been facing is that a lot of it’s too instinctive for me to follow things exactly step-by-step, which is what I was hoping to do for the sake of comparing things here for my blog’s readers. So for me to do a short-form outline, then an expanded one, then go back over it to mark plot threads, etc. was driving me nuts - it’s just not how I work, and it’s felt stifling.
I have absolutely no doubt that others would work incredibly well that way - finishing one step, and then expanding things a little at a time, with a periodic sense of accomplishment along the way.
But that’s what I’m hoping the ultimate beauty will be when all of this is finished, and I’ve tried out a total of three systems (including the Marshall Plan previously) - that perhaps elements of these new plans will help me perfect my own process in writing fiction.
Despite my attempts to stay true to the step-by-step process, I did cheat a bit. I took one of my favorite Marshall Plan elements and used it in conjunction with the formatted outline here - I’ll talk a little bit about that in my next post though with an update.