This month, I’ve conducted an experiment of sorts by completing the Book in a Month system for writing a novel in thirty days by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. Dr. Schmidt has written a handful of writing self-help guides, and Book in a Month is designed to be used in tandem with the others. Schmidt’s system is aimed at an adult audience, people who are no longer in school and are balancing their careers with their families. Women are more likely to appreciate the book’s constant encouragement and holistic approach, and those with busy lives will certainly find the built-in “oops” days …

It goes without saying that over the course of a novel, you will be introducing characters. Some of them may be important, some minor, but where they are introduced is something that every author needs to consider. Too soon, and it might stunt a large part of the readers’ engagement in the development of the novel, but too late and he or she won’t have the time to be properly developed. Here are some tips to consider when placing your characters’ introductions. They are general guidelines, as different works will have different storyline and character needs.

Keep it balanced. If you …

Among writers, there are not two separate, warring factions called Outliners and Freedom Writers. Writers don’t usually fall into neat, tidy descriptions of Outliner and Non-Outliner. Outlining in writing is not two opposing forces so much as it is a smooth gradient between one color and the next. For some, outlining is a rigid, torturous method that stifles creativity and attempts to impart critical structure on something inherently artistic and free-form. Others believe that nothing can come of a blank page and that without direction, a writer is simply telling an aimless story that does not conclude so much as …

Unlike previous weeks, week three of Book in a Month is almost solely centered around continuing to write. However, there is the assumption that the user is self-monitoring. There has not yet been a section describing how to decide on what kinds of word or page goals to set. In the beginning, there’s a brief discussion of the necessity of setting those goals, but for the most part, there is little guidance when it comes to the mechanics. Furthermore, the worksheets in this section, focused mainly on the villain and the theme, are almost as distracting as the ones from …

As I enter the second week of the Book in a Month system, it’s time again for me to offer a brief recap of  my progress this week. Many of this week’s worksheets have centered around brainstorming, which means the pages are for the most part blank. What’s more, some of the topics, which have included subplots, are more distracting than anything else. At the very beginning of the system, the guide instructs you to ignore all subplots, and this particular exercise resulted in about a half hour not spent writing.
The text for this week, too, pertained almost solely to …