Max Barry's 15 Ways to Write a Novel

[Mickey Finn]

Every year I get asked what I think about NaNoWriMo, and I don’t know how to answer, because I don’t want to say, “I think it makes you write a bad novel.”

This is kind of the point. You’re supposed to churn out 50,000 words in one month, and by the end you have a goddamn novel, one you wouldn’t have otherwise. If it’s not Shakespeare, it’s still a goddamn novel. The NaNoWriMo FAQ says: “Aiming low is the best way to succeed,” where “succeed” means “write a goddamn novel.”

I find it hard to write a goddamn novel. I can do it, but it’s not very fun. The end product is not much fun to read, either. I have different techniques. I thought I should wait until the end of November, when a few alternatives might be of interest to those people who, like me, found it really hard to write a goddamn novel, and those people who found it worked for them could happily ignore me.

Some of these methods I use a lot, some only when I’m stuck. Some I never use, but maybe they’ll work for you. If there were a single method of writing great books, we’d all be doing it.

The Word Target

What: You don’t let yourself leave the keyboard each day until you’ve hit 2,000 words.

Why: It gets you started. You stop fretting over whether your words are perfect, which you shouldn’t be doing in a first draft. It captures your initial burst of creative energy. It gets you to the end of a first draft in only two or three months. If you can consistently hit your daily target, you feel awesome and motivated.

Why Not: It can leave you too exhausted to spend any non-writing time thinking about your story. It encourages you to pounce on adequate ideas rather than give them time to turn into great ones. It encourages you to use many words instead of few. If you take a wrong turn, you can go a long way before you realize it. It can make you feel like a failure as a writer when the problem is that you’re trying to animate a corpse. It can make you dread writing.

(and goes on for 14 more)


http://www.maxbarry.com/2010/11/29/news.html

[Enjorous]

Oh very nice find Micky.

[LizW65]

Interesting.  It really confirms that there is no one right or wrong way to write a novel.

[2ndsly]

I cannot say "Thank You" in enough ways or with enough meaning to tell you how grateful I am for posting that.  I spend at least 2 hours a day day dreaming plot and seans, but I can never seem to sit down long enough to put anything down. Closest I ever came was 3 years ago I had half a notebook filled in under a month. The notebook was then stolen and I could never put the ideas back together. These don't really <solve> my problems, but its a better start then I've had in years.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Well, yay writing advice that really groks there being nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays.

Four-hour blocks are kind of a wimpy value of immersion, though. 

[Mickey Finn]

Chris Moore and Max Barry are like brothers on different hemispheres. It pays to follow both of them