Now with ___% more Writing! Kinda!
So I wrote this evening. Just some exercises but it was fun. As someone who's been writing off and on for awhile I've acquired a few books on how to write. Most books I've read about writing are very structured. They have forms, questionnaires, any kind of outlines you can think of, and I didn't even know that venn diagrams could be so elaborate.
What those books don't have are what these two following books, behind the cut, do have.
Here we have "The 90-day Novel" by Alan Watt and "This Year You Write Your Novel" by Walter Mosley.
When I bought "This Year You Write Your Novel" I was immediately struck by how utterly short it was. The quality, I felt anyways, more than made up for it's brevity. Mosley goes right into what you, as the soon to be writer of a novel, needs to know. He touches on the basic elements of fiction in case you're a little rusty and then immediately you get started. He says it should take you about 3 months to get a first draft down. The chapter that deals with rewriting, a chapter I'm super excited to get to, and points you towards polishing it up. Mosley also briefly lets you know about some miscellaneous stuff like literary agents, workshops, etc. The thing I really appreciated about this book was how laid back the author was while still being encouraging. He constantly reminds you that the reason you're reading his book in the first place is because you're finally gonna write your own. It has no real concrete process or forms you need to use, which I personally liked since I'm better coming up with things on the fly.
I got Alan Watt's "The 90-day Novel" when it occurred to me that since I've never written a long piece before, I might need some kind of timeline or process to feel a little more reassured. I should say that Alan's 90 day process does not include editing, selling, or anything else beyond getting that first draft down. However, every single day is laid out for you in full. Each week has you moving on to the next important bit you should be working on, with the first 29 days devoted to a lot of exercises, world exploring, and stream of consciousness writing. He also has a lot encouraging things to help you get through any first time-novel anxieties you may have. Watt, despite his 90-Day process, wants the writer to keep their ideas and designs on the story as loose as possible.
I just started today, Day 1 of Week 1.
This Year I Write My Novel :D
What those books don't have are what these two following books, behind the cut, do have.
Here we have "The 90-day Novel" by Alan Watt and "This Year You Write Your Novel" by Walter Mosley.
When I bought "This Year You Write Your Novel" I was immediately struck by how utterly short it was. The quality, I felt anyways, more than made up for it's brevity. Mosley goes right into what you, as the soon to be writer of a novel, needs to know. He touches on the basic elements of fiction in case you're a little rusty and then immediately you get started. He says it should take you about 3 months to get a first draft down. The chapter that deals with rewriting, a chapter I'm super excited to get to, and points you towards polishing it up. Mosley also briefly lets you know about some miscellaneous stuff like literary agents, workshops, etc. The thing I really appreciated about this book was how laid back the author was while still being encouraging. He constantly reminds you that the reason you're reading his book in the first place is because you're finally gonna write your own. It has no real concrete process or forms you need to use, which I personally liked since I'm better coming up with things on the fly.
I got Alan Watt's "The 90-day Novel" when it occurred to me that since I've never written a long piece before, I might need some kind of timeline or process to feel a little more reassured. I should say that Alan's 90 day process does not include editing, selling, or anything else beyond getting that first draft down. However, every single day is laid out for you in full. Each week has you moving on to the next important bit you should be working on, with the first 29 days devoted to a lot of exercises, world exploring, and stream of consciousness writing. He also has a lot encouraging things to help you get through any first time-novel anxieties you may have. Watt, despite his 90-Day process, wants the writer to keep their ideas and designs on the story as loose as possible.
I just started today, Day 1 of Week 1.
This Year I Write My Novel :D