How I Wrote a 50k Word Novel in 1 Month (& How You Can Too)

Never take more than 2 days off in a row

I started writing a book when I was 13. At the time, my friends and I were convinced a ghost was haunting our middle school. We named him Jamie.

Jamie was a friendly ghost and he inspired me to tell his tale. I got about three chapters in before I stopped cold. Why?

Because I had no idea what I was writing about. All I knew is that I wanted to write a ghost story, but had zero details.

I always wanted to write a book, but I would get tripped up on the detail part. When I got older, I learned of a magical event known as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

NaNoWriMo started in 1999 and occurs every November. Thousands of people around the world gather online and begin their quest to write a 50,000-word novel. It’s a noble feat. The question is, will you join?

The Decision

The first thing you have to decide is whether you will do it.

The second thing you have to decide is whether you’re going to pants or plan your novel. Let me explain.

The pantser likes to fly by the seat of their pants. They come up with everything on the go and don’t do much, or any, prep work. The planner likes to outline, brainstorm, and get all their ducks in a row.

You may think that planning takes out some of the fun of writing. You think it’ll suck away your creativity.

Planning your book out gives you a structure of what to write. In the same way, I used an outline to write this article, you would use your outline for your book. It gives you a path and makes the writing process easier.

But maybe pantsing is your thing. I first participated in NaNoWriMo a few years back. It was my first time writing a book and I had no idea what to write about. So, I came up with ideas as I went. I pantsed the hell out of it.

The choice is yours to make.

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. — Vladimir Nabokov

Time Yourself

Writing a 50k-word novel is no joke. It requires real discipline and dedication you’ll do it. Writing 50k words amounts to about 1700 words a day. Depending on how fast you type and how well you sort your ideas, this could take you anywhere from one to two hours.

When I was writing my book, it took me about 30 minutes to write a thousand words. I could get my daily writing done in under an hour.

You have to figure out how long it’ll take you to type (or handwrite). Use a timer and gauge how many words you can write in 30 minutes. That’ll let you know how long you need to write to hit your goal and how long you need to set aside each day.

Commit to showing up every day. Block out the time in your calendar when and where you’ll write. It’ll make it easier to sit down and execute once you’re there.

My Struggles

There’s a whole host of challenges that come with writing a novel. Here are a few I came across.

Sticking to one idea

50k words is a long way to go. You get bored. You lose inspiration. You want to do something else. I had to fight the urge to change the plot halfway through. I wanted to keep on theme, but when you’re bored it’s hard to fight the urge to throw in some ninjas or pirates.

Editing

In the last year of writing, I’ve learned the important lesson of not editing while you write. The important part is getting the words out onto paper so that you have something. But it’s hard to resist editing when you’re writing a book.

You want to go back and check for flow and consistency. You want to add a backstory. You have to fix the order of events.

Don’t do it. Editing will only make you lose the flow of what you’re writing and turn on your judgment. When you’re writing, you want to explore your creativity in full. Let all your ideas out onto the paper.

NaNoWriMo is all about writing. You go back and edit later after you’ve written the thing. Ideally, after you’ve had some time off and fresh eyes.

Running out of material

I struggled to pace myself. In the excitement of writing, I would rush things or not develop ideas well enough. It led me to feel like I was running out of material.

It didn’t help that I was pantsing it. Without preplanned ideas, I found myself struggling to stay afloat. I would pull random ideas out of the air and add them. I resisted adding ninjas, but I did add magical realism.

Week 2 blues

Something very specific to the NaNoWriMo process is the week two blues. You’ve moved past the excitement of writing your novel and now you have to trudge along. The fun part has passed, and now you have to work.

You still haven’t made significant progress in your book to be close to the end. Week 2 is the hardest part. The hump is real. But if you can get past the hump, you’re golden.

Lessons Learned

Completing a novel also teaches you. It opens your mind and you walk away with more knowledge.

Comes easier once started

Every day I sat down to write I would wonder how I would get through the session. I looked at the word count taunting me. Once I started writing, I got into the flow of it.

Without fail, each session would start the same way. As I got into the flow, the words poured out of me. I no longer worried about what I would put on the page because I was too busy writing it down.

It’s the same with my articles. It’s hard to get started, but once you do it gets much easier.

You need the 1st draft

As I kept myself from editing, I reminded myself of the real goal. Write my words. If I got crazy about adding and deleting, I would never reach the end line. I’d be too busy fixing things that didn’t need it.

I wouldn’t complete my draft if I kept editing. And I needed to have a first draft completed before I could do anything with it.

Never take more than 2 days off

Ngl, it’s tough to write an hour a day 30 days in a row. It’s not always possible, especially with the holidays. It’s at this point I remind you: you have to block the time off if it’s important to you.

But, I recognize the reality. I took days off from writing, and whenever I did I noticed a hitch in my storytelling process. It got in the way of my writing, so I vowed to not miss more than 2 days. Especially because that meant I would have to double hours to make up for the missed words.

Excellent creative exercise

Writing a book pushed my creative limits. It challenged me to keep coming up with material. I had to create people and events. And it was fun. It was hard, but I had a good time doing it.

It helps fix your creative blocks because anything goes. You can write whatever you want, so long as you write it. If you want to randomly add ninjas, you can. Nobody is stopping you.

The whole point of the journey is that you write a book, but you should have fun while you’re doing it.

Don’t pants it

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The first experience I came up with all my ideas on a whim. At the time, my creative juices were fried and writing was difficult. I made it more difficult on myself by not planning at all.

If I had an idea of what I wanted to write, it would’ve been easier.

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”

— Frank Hebert

What’s Next?

As you can guess, NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. With November coming up, people are gearing up to write their first or second novel. It’s a magical time with a wonderful community.

I’m writing again this year for the second time. And remember that ghost story I mentioned? I’m picking it back up and modernizing it. I’m planning it this time and I’m coming up with some juicy plots. I’m excited about it.

What will you do? Will you join me?

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