"How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks" now available in paperback

Now available in paperback: "How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks."

Let a sock puppet named Little Willie and me show you how you can do this. Yes, you. And tell your wanna-be-a-novelist friends. They can do it, too. (Certainly not as well as you, but still ... play nice.)

Buy my book, write your book. Boom. Done.

'Ooh, baby, I like your . . . writing . . . style!'



No one has ever looked at how I'm dressed and said, "Ooh, Bill, I like your style!" (I write this wearing blue jeans; a short-sleeved, button-down dress shirt (with a pocket for pen and scratch paper); and a zip-up sweatshirt purchased in 1989. (Time flies.) The sweatshirt may be back in fashion. Or it was back but it's gone once more.)

But . . .

Folks do say "I like your writing style." (God bless them. Such discriminating taste.) I wrote about tone and voice -- about style -- in How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks (Week Two, Day 5):

One big reason there’s an annual Hemingway write-alike contest is that Hemingway wrote like Hemingway. He didn’t start out that way. If he submitted some of his very early attempts as contest entries, the judges would say, “Not even close! Well, okay, a little close but not close enough.”

Hemingway became Hemingway by writing. Ditto with Chaucer, Emily Bronte, Dr. Seuss and every other writer who has a “voice.” Whose writing has a certain “tone.” Yours may already have that. And it may not. The only way I know to develop that voice and tone is to write, write, write. You can read a lot of writers, you can read a lot of books about writing, but . . . . there’s no substitute.

Over time, your own style will emerge. Choices of words. Sentence structure. Punctuation. Yes, all within the rules—more or less—but with your particular spin. (In other areas, it’s what makes “your” golf swing your golf swing or “your” home-baked chocolate chip cookies “your” home-baked chocolate chip cookies.)

The good news in today’s message is you don’t have to do anything to develop your voice (or strengthen your voice) except write and that’s what you’re already doing. Yes, writing is always hard but, I suspect, by the time you finish the novel that your writing now, it will be a little easier because it will be easier for you to use your voice to say what you want to say in the way that you want to say it.

Easier more often. Not always. Never always.

In the first twenty years of my full-time freelancing, I had about two dozen books published. Some fiction, some non-fiction. Some for kids, some for adults. Some serious, some humorous. Some prose, some poetry. And the occasional play. (Apparently, I have trouble focusing, eh?) By then my voice was my voice. In a serious book, there likely was some humor. In a humor book, there were a few serious points.

This may sound like bragging and that’s not my goal here. (I take great pride in my humility.) I like my writing voice but it wouldn’t have happened without those very early books. The ones I did long before I had anything published. (Not to discourage you, but I wrote ten books before I had one published. You probably won’t need that many. I know that if I had quit after number nine, I wouldn’t have published any. And to encourage you: One of those first ten was later published and sold well.)

Consciously (“Ooh, I like the way that sentence sounds.”) and subconsciously (“I wrote that? Huh. That’s good.”), you’re developing your voice and like that golf swing or those cookies, it’s a lovely thing to have.

Just keep writing.

Personal Highlights and Government Censors

As I recall I wasn't much of a text-book highlighter when I was in high school or college. ("Gee, Bill, maybe that's because you're so old the only felt-tip marker color was black and using that would make it look like most of the chapter had been redacted by some government censor.") I suppose I did some underlining. With a pencil.

One of the (many) strange aspects of the brave new world of e-books is a reader can highlight a passage from your book and you -- and the world -- can see what he or she chose. Here are the top three for Nine Week Novel:

--Week One: 300 words per day for six days. (Take the seventh day off. You’ll have completed 1,800 words. Good for you!) Week Two: 400 words per day for six days. (And another day off. Now you’ll be up to 4,200 words.) Weeks Three through Nine: 500 words six days a week and that seventh day off.

--abandoned the comfortable, theoretical world of “writing a novel” and entered the uncomfortable,
real world of “novel writing.”

--A word count works much better than a time requirement. (No doodling on the paper or dawdling
on the Internet and calling it “writing.”)

I like all three. If you stick with those you can end up with a novel. You can end up with a novel.

Just keep writing.

Homeschooled? Write a novel!

I received an e-mail earlier this month that said:

"I just wanted you to know that we are using your book, How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks, and podcast as part of our homeschool curriculum this year.  My daughter, age 17, has always wanted to be a writer.  She has written many books, but hasn't finished most of them.  Her genre of choice seems to lean to middle/upper school, no vampires or sexual content.  I think this is a much forgotten demographic. Thanks for making available this writers program."

 

If you're homeschooling, include novel writing.  If you know a homeschooling family, suggest they try it.

 

A young person can write a novel. You can. Really.

 

Just keep writing.

 

 

3,000+ Books in Five Days

The numbers are in on the five-day give-away for two of my Kindle books. More than 2,000 copies of My Great-grandfather Turns 12 Today and more than a thousand of How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks.

Thank you so much David Masters for the great review of Nine Week Novel and "Irish Bill" for what you said about Great-grandfather. Thanks, too, to Janis Brunson Hogg for your comments on my Facebook page.

It's always lovely to hear encouraging words.

The Myth of the Muses

Let’s get a little theological today. In the past, if you’ve been waiting for the Muses—in Greek mythology the goddesses that inspire creativity—you’ve been doomed to failure.

Yes, there well may be a spark within you that says “Write!” but . . . the Lord helps those who help themselves.

I got serious about all this in 1972 when I transferred to the University of Washington and began my junior year with classes in novel writing and short story writing. Many books, articles, columns, poems and plays later, I can tell you the Muses have yet to show up when I’m working. And, I can tell you, that writing spark is still there.

If you've been giving How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks a try, what you’ve been doing is becoming a better writer by writing. Over time, it will be easier for you to say what you want to say in the way you want to say it. I could tell you writing will become easier but it would probably be more honest to say writing won’t be as hard.

It’s seldom if ever easy. It can, if you work at it, get less hard.

Part of the myth of the Muses is the misguided belief, the sad hope, that at some moment, in a frenzy, you’ll easily dash off of a complete novel. Yes, O Father was written in a three-day frenzy but it wasn’t easily dashed off. It was a lot of work concentrated into a lot of hours over only a few days.

There’s a flip side to this. If you wrote your novel in a Muse-induced state, if a goddess merely channeled herself through you, it wouldn’t really be your novel, would it? But, nine weeks from today, it could be your novel. Your completed novel.

Just keep writing.

Free Books through April 24

My Great-grandfather Turns 12 Today and How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks are free through Tuesday, April 24.

You Don't Need to Be a Genius to Be Creative

I'd like to think being creative means being very smart if not actually a genius, but it just t'ain't so. A writer's creativity, like a ballplayer's physical abilities, gets stronger the more he or she uses it.

Turns out, according to a recent book, there are different kinds of creativity and they . . . what? pop up? . . . in different ways.

I wrote about some of my "ways" in Week Two, Day 1 of How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks. The podcast for that day (and all the others) is here.

Wait! It's much better to buy the book, How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks. Really. Would I lie to you?

This little video is based on an article in last weekend's Wall Street Journal. (And both are based on the book, Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer.) You can find the article here.

Best of Times, Worst of Times

I've finished my word count for today (about 550) and so I'm feeling pretty chipper. I've been at this long enough to know I do my best work first thing in the morning. It's easiest for me and the writing is better, too.

It may take you a while to discover your best time (and worst time) or you may already know that but just wish it t'weren't so.

Here's what Little Willie had to say about that in How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks:

It doesn’t matter if you are a night owl or an early bird. There’s probably a best time of the day for you when it comes to writing. Some writers discover, much to their horror, that they may be night owls but they do their best writing first thing in the (early!) morning. That means while they’re working on a book they have to get to bed earlier than they like in order to get up earlier than they ever wanted to.
Or it might be because of other demands—family, job, life—some writers can’t get to their manuscripts until late in the evening. That’s when the household is finally quiet and they can have that forty-five minutes or an hour to themselves. As you’re discovering, if you didn’t already know, having a block of quiet and uninterrupted time makes a huge difference in your ability to concentrate and write.
True story: When my own family was pestering me in so many ways and I had very little time to myself to work, I’d crack off a sonnet. There! At least I got something done! (“When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes/I all alone beweep my outcast state” . . . in the loo. Really. “Papa! Papa! I have to . . . ” “Give me a minute, Hamnet!” Yes, the little dear’s name was Hamnet.)
Find your time. Find your place. And keep it sacred.

Just keep writing.

Practicing What I Preach

"The World's Funniest Atheist" is available on Kindle.

I think you should go buy a copy right now. Seriously. Then come back and continue reading this. I can wait. Go head. I'll be here...

...I wrote it using the "Nine Week" method but my daily word count was a little higher and I wrote for a bit more than 54 days so I ended up with a slightly bigger novel. (It's just under 50,000 words.) The first draft took about 80 days of writing at one chapter per day. Most weeks I took my one day off and there were some stretches where I couldn't get back to the manuscript for several days.

The daily word count was low enough that I knew it wouldn't seem overwhelming but, of course, I also knew I needed to quit when I finished that chapter and not keep going on some kind of "writer's high." (Endorphins!) However, as Willie and I advised, I jotted down some notes for the next chapter or wrote a couple of lines into it. That was one reason I didn't dread coming back to the manuscript each day.

I say all this so you'll buy my books... No, wait. I say all this so you'll know I practice what I preach. When it comes to novel writing anyway.

The World's Funniest Atheist

As I mention in "How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks," I tend to start thinking about the next book when I'm about two-thirds of the way through the one I'm currently working on. (On which I am currently working.)

That was the case for Nine Week Novel. I began to jot down some notes about a fellow who makes his living as "the world's funniest atheist" and then, much to his dismay, suddenly believes God exists.

Over the past couple days I've been getting that ready to publish on Kindle.

And, because "O Father" is selling well, I want to get the second book in that series finished, too. With that one, it's a matter of editing. I wrote it a while back. (Prehistoric Pre-Kindle days.)I think that's next on the list. I always liked those characters.

I apologize if this post seems like bragging. I've been at this book writing a long time and now technology is allowing more books to be published. I'm a kid in a candy store.