We have been planning, I feel, for long enough now it’s time
to start getting our hands dirty. Are you ready for this? If not I suppose you
can stay with the Kindergartners in the Planning stages of the writing process.
I can hold you back for another week or so… No? Okay good let’s get started
then. But before we do I’d like you to go back to the assignment where we wrote
a one page history for the world you created, and I want you to count the words
that you have on just one page.
Have you counted the words? Okay, now I can explain, the
reason why I want you to count the number of words on a page is so that you can
set realistic goals for yourself. This will help you be specific with the number
of pages you need to write each day in order to achieve your goals of writing a
novel in 30 days. The definition of a novel is actually around 50,000 words. So
if I divide 50,000 words by 30 days you get a number like 1,667 words per day.
So that is the number of words that you must write for each of your 30 days.
Because everyone’s handwriting is different the number of pages that you must
write will be different (Anywhere from 4-6 pages). And yes you must write
everything out on paper. You thought you would be cleaver and just type up your
story from the beginning didn’t you! Well, I suppose you can write it on the
computer as well, but just keep in mind that you need to have your notes, that
you took during planning, in front of your face the whole time… I don’t want
you to suddenly get off topic because you forgot what was going to happen in
your plot, or forget how you main character will finally defeat the evil villain.
Anyway, I write something like 300 words per page, and my
writing is pretty consistent per page. That means that I must write 5 and a
half page, each day for 30 days in order to reach my goal. Five pages aren’t
too bad when you look at it that way now is it? Five written pages is
practically nothing! Except for when you don’t know what to write, yet another
reason why it is important to write out your timeline before you begin. If you
do not have your time line with you or any other parts of your planning done by
this point, I’m afraid that I must hold you back a grade before you can
graduate to the writing stage!
Alright so that pretty much sums up the numbers. How many
pages do you have to write per day in order to achieve your goals?
Now it’s time to start writing. Get your pens out, NOT your
pencils, and begin writing for day one. Try to establish on day one your main
setting, and your main characters, and make sure that everything you write is
leading up to your climax!
For those of you writing your work on the computer, make
sure once again to keep your notebook literally in front of your face the whole
time you are writing. After you get done typing for the day, at night take your
note book and check off what you managed to achieve in your Time Line so far.
And also review for the next day, write phrases down that you might want to use
for the next day, and keep developing your characters by writing about their
personalities and short stories about what makes your characters who they are.
Keep developing the setting.
The advantage of writing in a notebook is, that as you write
your mind has time to think about and develop your setting and characters as
you go, while as a person writing on a computer writes so quickly that his or
her brain doesn’t have time to process all of the information. So, yes, I
suppose there is such a thing as writing too quickly.
Keep Reading for more advice on Day Two.
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