Write a Novel Draft by Labor Day

Where Fleur busts out her calendar and shares her planning process.

It’s still hot here in Colorado. Let’s just not talk about it…

This past week, I’ve been busy planting stuff (oh, ye Hopeful Fleur), staying cool, and pondering process. I find that part of creativity fascinating and find that I’m always refining the way I go from awesome idea to finished draft. It changes.

What helps me is setting goal posts (or deadlines) for what I would like to be completed, and then breaking the big goal down in weekly and daily chunks. And when I was pulling out my calendar, I realized there are nine weeks until Labor Day. (That’s roughly Sept. 1st, for my non-U.S. friends)

What can you accomplish in 9 weeks?

You can draft a novel. In my case, you can work on several novels/projects, but let’s keep it simple for the sake of this exercise. Let’s take a hypothetical scenario of a writer, the kind of writer I meet all the time when I teach workshops.

Meet Fiona. She has written a picture book and is hoping to branch out to middle-grade or YA but is intimidated by the new format. What if she can’t write this thing? What if she runs out of words? She has a dynamite MG idea and even wrote a few words, but she ran out of steam.

Fiona (image copyright by DreamWorks)

Let’s see how Fiona could write this MG of her heart by Labor Day.

First, she needs an outline. I got you, Fiona: there is a whole series of newsletter posts I wrote on that very subject. But even if she doesn’t have too detailed of an outline, Fiona can still write a draft.

9 weeks to Labor Day… That’s 63 days. Let’s say Fiona likes to have her Sunday for church, or for planting stuff, or writing her newsletter, like me. That’s still 54 days of writing. For a 40K word draft, that means (no need to pull out your calculator) 741 words a day. That’s less than an hour, if you’re focused.

Now it looks more manageable, right?

If you have a longer wordcount (say, a 60K word YA or 70K word book for adults), you can apply the same math: simply divide your expected novel word count by the days you have until your goalpost.

You can do this. I believe in you, and in Fiona.

Tell me: what are you working on this summer?

What I’m Writing

I had to take a few days to adjust my MG novel’s outline and work on a couple of short stories, but I still wrote every day. I’m hoping to keep this habit until Labor Day, and beyond. I like how it challenges me to be productive, even if it’s in small bites.

My goal is to have that MG draft completed, my non-fiction book revised, two short stories completed, and edits outlined/planned for the MG and my WWII YA.

Phew. I might be a bit of an overachiever, but thinking of how nice it will be to get this done is a good motivator. I see some cake in my future…

Where I’m Going

I’m volunteering at my local Humane Society and expect I’ll be hanging out with the cats a lot. Floof is cool with it—as long as they’re not coming home with me.

I’m also starting to see the first author school visits come in, so it’ll start to get busy after Labor Day. I love doing author visits, so this makes me happy.

If you are an educator and want me to come to your school, virtual or in person, shoot me an email.

You can find out more on the appearances page of my website.

What I’m Reading

I was lucky enough to get an early copy of Lorelei Savaryn’s The Night Train, a scary MG mystery. It’s so clever and has the best characters. The book is out in August, but you can preorder it or request a copy at your library, of course.

Good News!

I love literary awards, but my favorite acknowledgement comes directly from the kids. So I was super happy to hear that Midnight at the Barclay Hotel has won the D’Amico Book of the Year Award, and for the second year in a row! It’s an honor. And kudos to all those educators who go the extra mile to get kids excited about reading in special ways. Mr. D’Amico is awesome. He sends me the award so I can put it on my awardy shelf, for inspiration as I write.

Your Weekly Floof

Floof says wake me up when September ends…