Outline for Writing a Novel in One Year

I'll be honest: a better title for this article might have been An Outline for Writing a Novel in Two Years - or better still, three or four.

As I said in the article on How Long Does Writing a Book Take?, I really don't recommend trying to rush your writing.

Rushing is unlikely to make your book a better one. And besides, why would you want to rush something you enjoy?

Having said that, I know when some people get their mind set on something they like to push on with it and get it done, and so this outline for writing a novel demonstrates how you can realistically complete a long work of fiction inside twelve months.

Of course, the outline will still be useful to you if you set yourself a six-month or a two-year target - just halve or double all the quoted times. And on the subject of quoted times, I'm assuming that a month is four weeks, giving you 48 weeks in total plus some holiday time.

I'm also assuming you have a day job and don't have 40 hours a week to devote to writing novels.

The Outline for Writing a Novel In One Year consists of four stages...

1. Preliminaries (4 Weeks)

Do you remember how at school your teachers told you to spend the first 10 minutes of an examination reading the questions? Well, it's the same thing with writing a novel. Take your time working through the first few steps of the novel writing process...

• Take some time to consider some of the fundamental issues involved in Becoming a Writer.
• Don't rush into making a decision about what Type of Novel you will write.
• Don't settle on the first Writing Idea that drifts into your head.

That last one is important. Committing to the first idea you have without thinking it through could be costly if it later turns out to be the wrong idea.

On the other hand, you don't want to be so cautious that you never manage to commit to anything. Yes, it pays to take your time when searching for the right idea, but you will reach a point when any more brainstorming becomes counter-productive - when you have to simply embrace an idea and go for it.

2. Planning the Novel (8 Weeks)

The biggest task you will face during the planning stage is plotting the novel. Sketching out an initial rough outline shouldn't take long, but the working out the events in detail certainly will.

• If you are one of those writers who prefer not to plan in great detail before the writing begins, eight weeks should be plenty of time.
• If, however, you like to plan in huge detail before writing a word of the prose and dialogue (and I belong to that camp myself), this outline for writing a novel in one year is simply not feasible - not if you intend on writing a publishable novel.

Don't forget that you will need to allocate plenty of time to creating your characters and constructing the setting during this period (and these are not things you can rush).

Plus, you must find time for all those other planning tasks, like deciding on the right point of view and pondering your novel's theme and symbolism.

3. Writing a First Draft (18 Weeks)

The worst thing you can do when you are writing a first draft is to let the scale of the task overwhelm you. The trick is to take it in small steps and know that, over time, the words will stack up.

How many words do you need to write in a week?

Well, given that a typical first novel weighs in at about 80,000 words, you need to write 4,000 words a week. That's about 600 a day. Or just two sides of A4 (which suddenly doesn't sound so bad!)

However, beware of setting quotas.

Writing fiction is a creative act, and trying to stick to an artificial production schedule plays havoc with your inner artist. Simply work every day for your allotted time, and try to be as productive during that work session as you can.

Don't beat yourself up if you have a bad day. Just promise yourself that tomorrow will be better.

Remember how this outline for writing a novel takes 48 weeks, giving you four weeks off? Well, take a couple of them now.

You'll probably need them. And the more time you can spend away from your first draft, the fresher your eyes will be when you return to it.

4. Revision (18 Weeks)

If you are anything like most writers, your manuscript won't look terribly pretty at this stage.

• Yes, there are some geniuses (or liars) out there who can produce perfect prose the first time around.
• The rest of us have to make do with several rounds of revision.

The good news is that revising a pageful of words is a lot easier than filling a blank page with words in the first place.

The bad news is that it is still a time-consuming process.

Begin by revising the novel for content - or what you have said.

Then edit the novel for style - or how you have said it. This basically means polishing the words until they shine.

Trust your ear here...

• Some passages might only need a couple of revisions to make them as good as they can be.
• With others, you might have to revise a dozen times or more before the words are right.

And that is that: an outline for writing a novel in one year.

If you find it helpful in any way, that is great. If you decide to ignore it completely and let your novel take however long it takes, that is better still!

Next Step: Learn why you shouldn't be afraid to Break the Novel Writing Rules...