Writing a Novel in a Month

I've done it once, and it nearly exhausted me. Writing a novel in a month. And that was pushing myself to write at least 2,000 words a day.

People do it all the time. There's even a month long contest for it. But that doesn't mean it's easy.

One thing about writing a novel in a month is that it doesn't leave much time for planning. You just kind of start writing and hope the story fleshes itself out as you go. Of course, that's how I write so it works for me. But that doesn't mean that it's easy to do.

I wrote Barren in a month, and I haven't gone back to it since. It's one of the things that I'm planning on doing to get through the frustration I'm feeling about being bored with writing. I might need to spend more time editing and doing rewrites rather than trying to build new stories.

It's entirely possible to write a novel in a month, but you're going to get a rough draft rather than a polished story. Like I said, there's little time for planning and going through to build characterization when you've only got 30 days to write something. It might be a self-imposed deadline or you may be participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). But it's still an epic thing to write a novel in just four weeks.

I'd love to be able to do it again, though. Mostly because it made me stretch myself. And it was fun. Creatively exhausting, but fun.

Perhaps I'll take part in NaNoWriMo this year and see what I can come up with.