Can You Write a Book in a Week?
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- jerrib
- RoxianneM
- Sunbear
- starrycure
- stoneking31
- RoxianneM
- MrsDreamChaser
- RoxianneM
- eurocrat_au
- stoneking31
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» RoxianneM - Re: I've just embarked
In response to message posted by jerrib:If you're interested in doing a BIW Challenge, there's one coming up this Monday. To join in on the support group, just go to Yahoo groups and subscribe to the "biw" group.
Challenges for this group always begin on Monday of the first full week in every month. Upcoming challenges are planned for:
July 2
August 6
September 3
October 8
November 5
December 3
This is a great group (and you can just lurk the first time around without posting any goals!).
-- posted by RoxianneM
» starrycure - Interesante'! Wow...
I'm thinking about what a wonderful exercise that could be. I think that would be very therapeutic and motivating. Alas, I hope I remember this project when I have the time... Thanks for the article!-- posted by starrycure
» stoneking31 - Re: A Week? Well, yes...
In response to message posted by juliakb:I wrote a romantic novel once... and I did it in a week. It was a commission from a publisher that was working with the Australian Women's Weekly and they had one of their authors pull out of the project on account of ill-health. I had a reputation in those days for being quite a "fast" writer, so the editor of the series rang me, offered an exorbitant amount of money and then informed me that the finished ms had to be in her office in seven days. Well, I wasn't particularly busy at the time, and thought - what fun! a romantic novel!. My friends thought I had lost my mind and some accused me - a poet - of selling out, but I didn't listen. In order to write the book, I had to transform myself into my favorite writer - who at the time was Eudora Welty. Well, I lived, ate, slept, breathed and dreamed the story over the next seven days and had it in on deadline. Later, I found out it was the top selling book in the series. The title? THE SPEED OF DARKNESS. Sales: Over 10,000!!!! Not bad. But I don't think I'd want to do it again. Any one interested in what I'm doin now? Visit my site at suite101. you can find it my going here ---------> http://earink.cjb.net
-- posted by stoneking31
» RoxianneM - Re: Re: A Week? Well, yes...
In response to message posted by stoneking31:I've heard of other writers finishing a first draft of a category romance in a week, but most I know take months. I couldn't imagine having a clean copy ready to go in a week! My first drafts tend to be very VERY rough :-)
The next BIW challenge from Painted Rock begins Monday (Labor Day in US & Canada). You can start Tuesday if you have holiday things going. Since you're supposed to be working on new material, and I'm in the middle of a major rewrite, I'm not sure if I'll participate. Still making up my mind -- always a chancy thing.
-- posted by RoxianneM
» MrsDreamChaser - Writing A Book In A Week, lol
I find it wonderful that someone else could master such a project. When I was in high school I could sit down and write 150 pages in one night. When I got older I learned more about computers and I found I could type really fast. It was then I realized that a book is something that shouldn't be rushed through but should be aged like fine wine. Every detail should be carefully pondered. It has taken me three years to research the book I am now writing. One day to put together the rough draft. It may take me the next six months to hammer out a final draft to send to the publisher.Suite101.com
Contributing Editor
Holidays at Home
-- posted by MrsDreamChaser
» RoxianneM - Re: Writing A Book In A Week, lol
In response to message posted by MrsDreamChaser:Well, I do know some people on this BIW challenge write 150 or 200 pages in a week. I could never do it -- my body would protest much too strongly. But I can write a good two or three chapters, and I think I could do what I call a rough first draft, which has most scenes in synopsis form & a few good early scenes that show character development & set the stage.
I know people who also write an 80 or 100 page "synopsis," which is probably similar to my first drafts. So, yeah, it can be done, but you'll probably need to spend lots of time on the revisions -- and that's the part I hate.
-- posted by RoxianneM
» eurocrat_au - I've written lots of books in a week
Dear everyone,At least eight of my Guernsey Collegiate series were written in a week. That means I contributed a HUNDRED pages to the written world of school stories. I wrote the eighth book (Tennis at the Collegiate) in 3 days from January 24th to January 27th (1996). My first choice word processor would only take 22 pages before it was full. And it was all on the computer.
Adelaide La Blanche-Dupont
-- posted by eurocrat_au
» stoneking31 - Re: Re: Writing A Book In A Week, lol
In response to message posted by RoxianneM:I forgot to mention that the romantic novel I wrote was based on a 40-page treatment I had written for a feature film that never got produced, so I wasn't eaxctly working cold. I knew the characters and the story very well. Writing for the stage and screen gives you an intimacy with your characters that often takes longer when writing straight prose. There is an immediacy to their BEING that one must grasp solidly in order to give them that essential presence they require in order for us to watch them move and speak.
By the way, I no longer write very fast at all... not since the early 1990s when I took four years and approximately 200 drafts to write my first successful stageplay which has since gone into production in New York, London, Sydney, Dublin and elsewhere. Anyone interested in seeing what four years opf work "sounds: like can access the pklayscript through my site at http://ezrapound.cjb.net
-- posted by stoneking31
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