Fast Fiction – A Guide to Novel Writing

Guide to Writing a First Draft in Thirty Days

Fast Fiction: A Guide to Writing a First-Draft Novel in Thirty Days by Denise Jaden

National Novel Writing Month is a huge event that happens every November. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It sound nearly impossible, but I have done it before.

Denise Jaden has written a book that is bound to have you be a successful fast-drafter and complete your novel in a month as well.

I really enjoyed reading this book and taking in all of the advice that she imparts along the way. Here is what she has to say . . .

On developing your characters . . . 

“Every character in your book should have multiple wants and desires. This will help them feel human . . . Your characters’ motivation and believably will spring from how strongly their wants and desires are and how well they are conveyed for the reader.”

On dialogue . . . 

“Dialogue should always be smarter, more interesting, wittier, or more powerful than its real-life counterpart. Great dialogue should work to reveal your characters and their motives without the help of adverbs.”

On setting . . .

“Always look for ways you can tighten the space within which your characters interact . . .

Is there one specific area that your main character could keep returning to throughout your novel? Perhaps your main character’s perception of that area could change as he or she changes, so that returning to the area will allow the reader to see that character’s growth firsthand.”

On seeing and hearing your story world . . .

Jaden suggests creating a visual collage or diagram of the various scenes or locations for your work in progress. She takes it a step further by asking us to think of sounds or songs to accompany the story.

This is one of the many “SImple Tasks” Jaden has us doing throughout the course of this very practical writing manual.

She says, “Don’t skip this step! These visual and audio tools are quick ways to help you battle brain sluggishness or writer’s block during your drafting.”

Free resources to help you along the way.

Denise even provides authors with some graphic organizers, charts, and documents that help in the drafting process.

Online help and encouragement. 

Denise Jaden runs a yearly writing challenge on her blog every March. 

She is also an active Twitter member and likes to check on the hashtag #wipmadness, which is a way to track writers who are deep into their work in progress (wip)

A Great Writing Manual.

I really enjoyed this book. I have written several novels so far and I have won the National Novel Writing Month. That was a great feeling!

I plan on using Jaden’s day-by-day approach for my next novel. Hopefully, I will be ready to start working on it in March. I will be checking with her blog at that time. I hope to see you there and on Twitter. We can encourage each other and accomplish a great deal.

My 2014 Reading Log – continually updated with every title I read this year


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