HowTo: write a decent novel in eight weeks!

Jeff Vandermeer gives some pointers:

Now that I don’t have a full-time job and am approaching the age of forty, two things have happened: (1) I can put more of the full force of my attention into a novel or short story more intensely over a short period of time and (2) I’m much more relaxed and as a result my rough drafts tend to be more complete than in the past; I still do a ton of rewriting, revision, and line editing, but I find that more of the initial vision in my head is in the draft right away.

These factors helped in writing a novel so quickly (for me). However, there were other little tricks and other factors that allowed me to work this fast without sacrificing quality. I am, of course, assuming that I’ve written a good novel, although ultimately that’s up to readers.

So, here’s what I’ve learned. With the caveat that…I don’t know how Star Wars and Star Trek writers do it, because they have huge bibles of information to absorb while all I had was three sheets of info on the Predator and two Predator movies. For this reason, what I learned really has less to do with writing a tie-in novel than just with having to quickly writing a novel and trying to make sure the quality control is still there. I hope some of this is useful. I’m sure that it will seem very basic to many novelists who work with tight deadlines all of the time.

Link via B-squared. I would also love to hear about how to publish a decent paper in two months, if anybody knows any pointers in that direction

Tags: novel writing