Each day, I wouldn’t go to sleep until I’d written my word count for that day. To write a 50,000 word novel in a month, you have to write 1,667 words a day. Congratulations to the successful novelists, and all of the 200,530 people who took part in this challenge! This 30 day challenge was definitely one of the hardest I’ve tried. But the next time I write a novel, maybe I’ll think a bit more about the plot before I start.Īccording to the official site, 37,479 people “won” National Novel Writing Month by writing at least 50,000 words. So I kept going beyond my original ending and it turned out fine. I wrote until I got to my ending, and * crap* I was only 1/4th of the way to 50,000 words. I started with a vague idea of my plot, and I knew the ending I wanted. I also learned the value of a plot outline, mainly because I didn’t have one. I was really pleased with Google Docs for writing my novel: A+++++ would do business again. We also used the “comment” feature to leave jokes or encouragement in each other’s doc. I could see his cursor moving around and watch him writing text in real-time. My best friend used Google Docs too, and a couple times we both had a document open at once. I felt much safer knowing that the novel was backed up in the cloud instead of sitting on a local hard drive that could easily fail. When I wanted to throw in text that appeared on a computer screen, I could change to a monospaced terminal font. When I wanted to insert a picture, it was easy. I added hyperlinks in quite a few spots so a reader could dive more deeply into a topic. I wrote my entire novel in a single document in Google Docs, and it worked great. It was enormously fun to compare notes and follow the progress of my friend while we endured the challenge together. Motivating, because I knew he’d be waiting to read what I wrote too. Humbling, because he let me read what he wrote, and he’s a better writer than I am. It was both humbling and motivating to write with my friend. So I was lucky to discover one huge secret of writing: find a writing buddy. My best friend from high school also participated and finished. But it also led me through a discussion of file formats for government documents. It took me to a hacker’s den in Washington, D.C. I intended the novel to be a technothriller, but the the joy in writing a book is seeing where it takes you. ![]() I can’t believe all of this started with a USB thumb drive. On the wall in front of me is a mirror, and I keep trying to catch a glimpse of movement behind it. They took my cell phone, so I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been sitting here. They took me to a squat police station and parked my ass in an interrogation room. ![]() ![]() I’m a journalism student, and I didn’t expect to be in jail. Last month during National Novel Writing Month I decided to write a 50,000 word novel.
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