Review: "No Plot? No Problem!"
So I finished reading "No Plot? No Problem: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 days" by Chris Baty.
It's a little under 200 pages and is, essentially, the guide for National Novel Writing Month by one of the people that started it.
It was a pretty easy read, flowed well. He had some humor in there and kept it interesting and quick to read by breaking it up into a lot of bite-sized chunks within each chapter.
It pretty much follows the principle that doing your creative endeavour a LOT will automatically produce quality work. There's a parable about Ceramics classes, one class was told their grade would be determined by one fantastic pot that they produced by the end of the semester. The other class was told they would be graded on their quantity or something along those lines. By the end of the semester which class produced the best pottery? The one with the students that were told to make as many pots as possible. Why? Because they did the thing! The more you do something the better you get at it through repitition and through figuring out what works, honing your craft.
It works with pots, it works with drawing, it works with writing (it also works with riding). Put in the hours and you get results.
One of the big things he focuses on is silencing the inner editor. Write where the words flow, go forward, don't look back, don't re-read, just write. Follow all the sidetracks and rabbit holes, just get the words out and you can clean it all up later.
He also includes a bunch of little tidbits and tips from others who have participated in NaNoWriMo. He is a little melodramatic at times, but I think that's to get the point across and emphasize the craziness of writing a novel in 30 days. He also illustrates how do-able it can be with proper preparation and the attitude of just getting the words out no matter how messy and terrible they may be.
I don't think I'll ever write 50,000 words in a month, but I have done a day or two where I've managed 3 or 4,000 so, maybe some day. That said I am getting close to rounding out the plot of FFK and I'm feeling like I may just have myself a full, complete draft that I could send off maybe, just maybe, by the end of this year if I'm being extra optimistic, more likely next year. I'm at 185 pages, which feels like 2/3 of the way there, which includes the scenes I need to fill in and finishing out the end of it, which I'm finally working around the climax now after, you know, over 15 years of working on this thing. Granted the majority of this time the fire was the Big Event in the story, but it isn't the end and now I have something approaching the end that feels a lot better than it was. It's exciting. I like it. I love that my muse has come back the last two years and I've been writing and drawing again. The more you do it the easier it gets, the better it gets, the more it flows. I'm just glad that after over eight years of near-silence the spring of creativity has bubbled up again.
It's a little under 200 pages and is, essentially, the guide for National Novel Writing Month by one of the people that started it.
It was a pretty easy read, flowed well. He had some humor in there and kept it interesting and quick to read by breaking it up into a lot of bite-sized chunks within each chapter.
It pretty much follows the principle that doing your creative endeavour a LOT will automatically produce quality work. There's a parable about Ceramics classes, one class was told their grade would be determined by one fantastic pot that they produced by the end of the semester. The other class was told they would be graded on their quantity or something along those lines. By the end of the semester which class produced the best pottery? The one with the students that were told to make as many pots as possible. Why? Because they did the thing! The more you do something the better you get at it through repitition and through figuring out what works, honing your craft.
It works with pots, it works with drawing, it works with writing (it also works with riding). Put in the hours and you get results.
One of the big things he focuses on is silencing the inner editor. Write where the words flow, go forward, don't look back, don't re-read, just write. Follow all the sidetracks and rabbit holes, just get the words out and you can clean it all up later.
He also includes a bunch of little tidbits and tips from others who have participated in NaNoWriMo. He is a little melodramatic at times, but I think that's to get the point across and emphasize the craziness of writing a novel in 30 days. He also illustrates how do-able it can be with proper preparation and the attitude of just getting the words out no matter how messy and terrible they may be.
I don't think I'll ever write 50,000 words in a month, but I have done a day or two where I've managed 3 or 4,000 so, maybe some day. That said I am getting close to rounding out the plot of FFK and I'm feeling like I may just have myself a full, complete draft that I could send off maybe, just maybe, by the end of this year if I'm being extra optimistic, more likely next year. I'm at 185 pages, which feels like 2/3 of the way there, which includes the scenes I need to fill in and finishing out the end of it, which I'm finally working around the climax now after, you know, over 15 years of working on this thing. Granted the majority of this time the fire was the Big Event in the story, but it isn't the end and now I have something approaching the end that feels a lot better than it was. It's exciting. I like it. I love that my muse has come back the last two years and I've been writing and drawing again. The more you do it the easier it gets, the better it gets, the more it flows. I'm just glad that after over eight years of near-silence the spring of creativity has bubbled up again.