Curl Up and Read
Autumn, as the nights draw closer and the temperatures fall, is the best time of year to actively choose not to Netflix but chill out and read. Or, better still, perhaps it’s time to get that story out of your head and put pen to paper.
With the help of Chris Betty’s Literary Marathon. How to Write a Book in 30 Days, there is little room for further excuses not to become the next Nobel prize laureate in literature. Here’s how you’re going to do it.
Work
A month is the optimal amount of time to write a novel. It is often said, “If you want a task completed, entrust it to your busiest employee.” Oddly enough, the same rule applies when writing a novel – devoting your free time to literary work allows you to get it done faster than if you were to set aside three focused months to write. A tough deadline is your surest guarantee.
Not sure where the story will go? Don’t worry – the plot is born while writing. The main thing is to start. Heroes and storylines appear as the plot develops. The key to creating a novel is understanding that you are in the most reliable hands in the world – your own.
The more you will write, the better writer you will become. Period. Like in anything, confidence comes with practice and faith in your style will increase the more you do it. This is an invaluable experience and cannot be obtained in any other way.
…and Work Some More
Before you begin, however, you need to ask yourself what kind of novels interest you. Is it first-person narration? True love? Adventure? Cliff-hangers? You also need to know what kind of literature bores you. For me it’s the melancholy of main characters, when the action takes place in the 15th-18th centuries, a book that focuses only on the internal narrative of the characters, in wartime, with an unsuccessful end.
In my opinion, a good novel should have everything from the first list and nothing from the second. If there are things you don’t like in the books you read, then you aren’t going to enjoy working on these same items on your own creation. However, be careful that the book you pen is not a self-help campaign. A good novel is a gala party at which you play your favorite music; it’s a 30-day trip to a candy shop where everything is free and you don’t get fat. When considering what else to include in your book, give preference to forbidden pleasures rather than boring bran. Write and you will be heard.
I have already started writing my novel. Have you?
The Formula for Success
30-31/50k – 30-31 days and 50 000 words
1667/1 – 1 667 words per day
17% – this is how many marathon participants get to the finish line – make a contract with yourself that you will make it to the end
