LakeLopezonline

This blog is not out to slam anybody. I try to follow the old adage, “If you can’t say something nice you should shut the hell up.” However, a few people are on the internet selling courses with titles like, “Write Your Book in a Month” or “Write a Novel in 28 Days.” (I assume the “28 days” guy came up with his product after the “month” guy.) This is crazy talk! It’s bull! And I’d like to comment about it and clarify the difference between NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy and these courses.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers Month) is when a group of people write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Script Frenzy is the screenplay equivalent. At no time during these two events do any participants believe they have a finished product at the end. The idea of thess world wide events is to meet other writers, make a few friends and get into the habit of writing. I love both NaNoWriMo and Frenzy with a heated passion.

The courses, on the other hand, lead writers to believe that they can come up with a character, do a little online research, cop somebody else’s plot and whip a best seller together in 30 day or less. If one is completely obsessed with a project, a lot of pages can come together in 30 days. It’s possible that a book length manuscript can come together in 30 days. But I assure you (and you don’t have to pay me) that the manuscript will be nowhere near ready to go to press or anywhere near a reader.

Writing is the fun part. I’m a big believer in writing fast. The faster you write the faster your real story emerges and the more your characters take on a life of their own. It’s just more fun that way. It’s only half the battle, however. The real work starts when a writer taps out The End and returns to page one with an editor’s pen in hand. The process from idea to finished work will take longer than 30 days regardless of any system, CDs or software tutorial sold. This I know to be true.