As so many people say, or in this case after I googled ‘write your novel in a year’, so many web pages say it. I’ve discussed Writers Write and Anthony Ehlers series called Write Your Novel in a Year. The blog very kindly consolidated all 52 posts here. I have Chuck Wendig’s infographicon my bulletin board (if you don’t like foul language, skip this one). And I’ve tried the NaNo method (although I knew I wouldn’t write an entire novel in a month). I don’t read these because I think any one of them will be the magic bullet, but I do regularly find motivation to keep writing. Here are some of the new ones I found:
NY Book Editors. A Guide to Writing Your Novel in One Year.
Takeaway – I love the 365 Day Book Writing Challenge. If you’re really struggling with getting into (or back into) the writing seat, this will get 66,795 words on the page in a year. Bonus – if you write this slowly, you can edit as you go. A link from this page is ‘How to Balance Your Day Job With Your Writing Passion’. I need to visit this one because my day job is overwhelming right now (which is why I sit here at 4 a.m. writing this post).
Word Counter. 365 Day First book Writing Challenge.
This is the link from the above book challenge. One of these rules is to not go to bed until you’ve crossed off your word count for the day. This word count is easier to cross off than the NaNo word count of 1,667.
Inklyo. How to Write a Novel in Just One Year.
This one is more prescriptive. It sets a schedule for the process. Month 1 – Outline. Month 1-3 – research. Etcetera. For someone who needs a set schedule to accomplish writing a novel, this looks pretty good.
The Novel Factory. Infographic.
This is a nice infographic for the bulletin board. Beware – it’s novel writing software so the free resources on this site are somewhat limited.
Check some of these out, or just write. As E.B. White said, “I admire anybody who has the guts o write anything at all.”
Eight Ladies Writing 
I do think it’s not the writing that’s the issue so much as the editing. Editing takes like 3x as much time as first-draft writing. Do these 1-year goals take into account full editing cycles? It seems like it’s more focused on word count for first draft.
I agree. I think these are focused on words on the page. Although one or two of them do include some editing. At this point in my writing, I need the words on the page motivation. Editing can only come once you’ve got the words the edit.
Happy writing (and editing).
Thanks for the links, Michille! I’ve had a little trouble refocusing after the holidays, so I think I’ll try some of these strategies. The old 500-words-a-day-or-die-trying technique hasn’t been working that well the last couple of weeks. 🙂
A writer on Twitter (Rachel Symes, magazine freelancer) said something along the lines of: when I’m blocked, I often find it’s a problem of not reading enough. I thought that sounded like a good idea; I’m going better about reading in 2019 than I did in 2018, but I am still not at my pre-McDaniel rate of reading, when I’d go through two or three books a week. I read a ton on the internet, but it’s not in-depth and also, I can’t keep track of it.
I do have to sit down and get a plan to do SOMETHING! The ideas are starting to fly around again, but they seem to be heading down non-writing avenues. It drives me crazy, but my Muses don’t like being bossed around that much, so I’m just trying to go with the flow. I’ll look into these links and see if anything grabs Their fancy.
I read too much. I still read two to three books a week and should put at least one of them down and do some writing. Maybe 2020 will be a better writing year than 2019.
Thanks for the links. I finally seem to be unblocked, but I’m still not as productive as I need to be for this year’s goal–publish 2 demon books and my first small-town contemporary. (Which sounds like a lot but the contemp is already drafted and back from the editor, and one of the demon books is a novella with is 3/4 of the way to a first draft).
Go Jeanne. I’m in the middle of book 2 (started it on the plane on the way home from China, then got too tired to comprehend). Can’t wait for book 3.