Big Ambitions – How I Plan to Write a Novel in Three Months
I’m about to start writing my third novel, and I’m not sure which is more ambitious: the plot, or my completion goal.
What happens when you take the substance of an ancient Breton folk tale about a sunken city and drop it into 1890s Colorado? Yeah, I don’t know either, but I’m about to find out. I’m days away from starting my new novel (following tradition, let’s call this one MS3 for now), and I’ll be honest. I have no idea where this is going to go. There’s only one thing of which I’m certain …
I’m going to write it fast.
It’s all about the Pace
If I’ve learned anything from my first two novels, it’s that, for me, drafting is all about pace. It took six years for me to complete the first draft of TEORG, but if you’ve been with me since I launched this website in 2015, you’ll remember the second half of the book took only four months to complete. Why? I set a pace. I made it the priority, and taken in 2000-words-per-day increments I advanced steadily toward the finish line.
When I sat down to write THE CONFLUENCE, it was eight weeks from Once upon a time to The End. Again, it was all about pace. I took the time to crystalize the story in my mind, and map out the major plot points before I began. Then I dove in. I allowed it to be a little messy. And I continued driving forward.
From that quick and messy first draft arose a novel I am immensely proud of, and can’t wait to share with you. As I write this, THE CONFLUENCE is inching ever closer to production, and if everything stays on course, it’ll be available sometime around the beginning of 2020.
Pretty soon you’ll be hearing a lot more about it, but on my end, there’s no time to waste. The goal has always been to transform my writing into a sustainable career. That means I need another book ready to go into the pipeline, and the time to start it is now.
So … What’s the Goal?
I’m so glad you asked! I’m planning to start writing in earnest just after the first day of summer. I’d like to see if I can write this book in a single season, so I’m setting a goal of finishing the first draft no later than the first day of autumn.
Help keep me honest. I’m pledging right now to finish a draft of MS3 no later than Monday, September 23rd 2019. And I can do it! I’ve been prewriting. I’ve been plotting. I’ve been pacing around my living room wearing a path into the carpet around the coffee table. I’m eager, and I’m prepared.
Now I can hear you asking …
Okay, but … Will it be Your Best Work?
At that pace? I doubt it! That’s what subsequent drafts are for. Don’t misunderstand. I’m going to do the best I can the first time through, but the real magic of good writing always comes from the revision process. This time around, I’m not going to sweat the small stuff. The goal is to lay a great foundation—to craft an ambitious and engaging plot. Once there’s a manuscript to edit, I can break it down to levels of chapters and paragraphs and sentences and words. I can make sure everything is just right. But I can’t do any of that without a manuscript to edit.
Real Life Complications
Of course, things are different this time around. A lot has changed since I wrote that first draft of THE CONFLUENCE in the late winter and early spring of 2018. We have the dog now. I’ll be spending my Fridays at the farm. We have several trips planned, including eight days in Iceland at the end of August through the beginning of September. My work schedule will be different than it is during the academic year, so I’ll be going in early for most of this writing period.
But I’ve done the math. Taking Fridays, weekends, and vacations off the calendar, I’ll have 44 writing days between the first day of summer and the autumnal equinox. My goal for this book is between 80k and 90k words, so … at my usual pace of 2k per day, it’s still absolutely attainable. I write between 750 and 1000 words an hour, so …
This is going to take some real discipline. The dog will still need her 45 minute walks. I’m still going to have to do the grocery shopping, pay the bills, help clean the house, and make sure we have nutritious meals to eat.
I’m sure there will be things to attend to regarding THE CONFLUENCE. But I’m going to make this a priority. If this story comes out half as well as I hope it will, you’re going to be blown away. It’s taking everything I have not to spill all the details right now, but suffice it to say, this is going to be …
My Most Ambitious Project Yet
After dipping my toe in the waters of speculative fiction with THE CONFLUENCE, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to writing books like TEORG (though I’ll always love my first novel). I want to push my imagination to its limits. I want to tell stories that are big and bold and complex.
As I prepare to start MS3, I’m looking toward a couple incredible pieces of literature as inspiration. It can be done. It should be done. TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD by Eowyn Ivey, and THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON by Lauren Groff are going to serve as my sherpas on this voyage. Without giving much away, I’ll say these two books incorporate structural elements that I’ll need to emulate in order to pull off MS3. This will be a split narrative, ranging from the 1890s to the 1930s, as well as present day. It’ll be told through letters and journal entries alongside a traditional third-person narrative.
There’s a lot at stake here. I’ll save the details for another post, but basically I’ll be adapting a legend and trying to stay true to the original story while working in historically accurate details and creating a compelling contemporary narrative that has very real stakes echoing out of the past.
If you don’t hear from me for a while … well, that’s why.
Things are going to get intense. This won’t be a walk in the park. But in the end, when this new book someday comes to print, I hope you’ll agree the rigor I’m about to go through is worth it.
Share your thoughts! What’s the most ambitious goal you’ve recently set? Do have a secret method for staying productive? What is something you hope to accomplish this summer? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks as always for reading. More soon!
Gregory
