Write a Novel in a Year? You betcha!
So says author Louise Doughty, and I’m starting to think she’s on to something.
This is the second book that offers book-writing advice which I will review, recap, and share as we navigate our writing adventures together.
The first recap was Save the Cat! Writes a Novel found here in The Wordy Wombats.
Now, let’s look at A Novel in a Year by Louise Doughty.
The English columnist writing on writing, BBC World Service presenter, and novelist, Doughty provides a much-needed week-by-week playbook with exercises to help organize your ideas and your time.
Here’s what I learned.
Week 1: Write one sentence.
Huh? Isn’t that a given???
Launch it and leave it.
Let it settle.
It may remain the one sentence that will launch your story. Or not.
Week 2: Read.
But I’m already reading, you might tell the book.
Doughty suggests that you continue reading the authors you admire, to see if you can figure out how they pulled off what they pulled off.
Similarly, read crap. Note how you know why it’s crap.
By week 16 you will identify your Allies and your Enemies.
List what tools help you write, and which impediments stop you from writing. Figure out which of the Enemies you can bump off.
For example, can you send your kids to the in-laws for a full weekend? Can your partner take the dog too?
For Week 17 she asks you to tell yourself what your novel is about. Here for exercise 10 she asks what your main character wants out of life. What would their CV look like?
Week 17 is a busy week.
Doughty also has you plucking a favourite descriptive passage from your draft to trim out all adverbs and adjectives.
Painful.
By week 36 you’re writing about sex.
At page 190 metaphors and similes meet the guillotine.
Exercise 20 has two of your characters facing off with only 3 lines each, talking about something BORING, where you must communicate that they really, really dislike each other.
You pick the subject.
Into week 44, and Doughty asks you to revisit your narrator. At this stage in the game, who is telling your story?
Is it the right narrator for this story?
Is it?
Write a novel in a year? You betcha!
