I know I hit on this a lot.
But my blog is just starting and I can do this.
Photo by Peter Lewicki on Unsplash
A lot of people dream of writing your novel.
Guess what? Bookmark this, because we’re getting started today.
It requires spending $40. Not to me, but to Literature and Latte. You can put that off for 30 days. Go there right now in another browser window or tab, and get Scrivener.
Got it? Install it. Take you five minutes.
Okay, we’re ready to start.
You’re going to set up Scrivener, and here’s how to do it. You can download my Scrivener template, or use one of the other ones that you can find on the Internet. Scrivener’s going to stop working in 30 days, unless you pay for it.
Why did I have you do this first? Because now you’re invested in it. Almost everything I’ve been GIVEN, I’ve tended to put that aside. Get a free program? Hey, great. Okay.
But if I buy it… I’m invested now. I’m going to use it. It cost me something. I HAVE to use it, or I wasted that money!
Tick tick tick tick… you’ve got a 30 day deadline. And you’re going to write.
Click New (the new dialogue window will open by default the first time). Choose Fiction. If you installed my template, choose that. ALL THE SCENES AND CHAPTERS ARE READY FOR YOU!!!!
Under Project, go to Project Targets. Under Manuscript Target, type in 50,000. Under Project Target, type in 1,667.
If you type in the second target number of words every day, you will complete the first target number.
That’s a whole book.
Now, there’s four numbers I use for scenes – Action snippets are 400 words. (an action snippet are those short, one paragraph sections that usually follow one another and are a tool to show building tension, leading to something – Clancy did this a LOT).
Short scenes, 600 words.
Medium scenes, 900 words.
Long scenes, 1,200 words.
Down in the bottom of each scene, you’ll see a black and white bulls-eye target. Click on that, and for now just enter 900 and choose words.
[Tweet “The irrational urge to edit is just procrastination disguised. – Nicholas Reicher”]
You now will have an colored indicator appear next to the target, which has changed to red. As you type, you’ll see the color bar grow, and change color. Green means you’re entering your target.
You’ll have the urge to edit, but when you’re in a writing phase, DON’T! When writing, editing is a subtle form of procrastination.
Get right to it. Forget “It was a dark and stormy night…”. Just write. You can fill in the other stuff now.
It doesn’t even matter how good the first book is or not! We’re writing a book!
Each scene is a conflict at this time. George vs. Georgina. She wants something, he won’t do it or give it. Sam wants to get to something, Samantha is trying to stop him.
Why?
It’s your story, you tell me!
JUST WRITE IT.
Starting with your second book, you can start worrying about “Is this good?” And you know what, there’s a distinct possibility that your first book MAY BE good enough, it just needs a lot of revision and editing.
Write 1,667 words a day. 30 days.
Rough Draft complete. I tend to call that RAW DRAFT, because I haven’t even poked at it yet. Some of my raw draft novels have actually been good enough that they quite simple don’t need really much more than a brief polish.
If you write every day, that novel will be complete.
Recognize the irrational urge to edit is just procrastination disguised.
Edit AFTER you’re done with your book!
A month from today, your novel will be written. It’s not done… but there’s no more dreaming. Do it, don’t dream it.
