I Wrote a Novel, Now What?

What a Month!

After thirty days of frenzied character creation, plot-building, and shameless word padding, it is hard to imagine what December will hold. We see a squeaky clean land of showers that can last more than three minutes, clothes that are neatly folded, and food that doesn’t come out of an ice-encrusted box. Sounds like heaven, right?

Well, sort of. We're going to miss the intensity of the past month, too. We got pretty wrapped up in the lives of our main characters and their travails, even if the plot holes were big enough to swallow a small country. Without our imaginary worlds, where will we pour all of that great creative energy?

The good news is that there is another equally intense and satisfying journey ahead: revision! It is drastically different from the drafting process, but is ultimately just as rewarding. The “I Wrote a Novel, Now What?” page is devoted to this next stage. The post-NaNo-novel, pre-editing stage that will happily consume us Wrimos throughout December and long after.

To get the writerly ball rolling again after your mojo recharges, we've also added the December and Beyond forums to the site, dedicated exclusively to life after NaNo.

Next up on the Office of Letters and Light's rollercoaster of creative adventures: Script Frenzy, where we write a 100-page screenplay, stage play, or set of TV scripts in April. You can even collaborate with a partner! Bonus: You can use your NaNo username and password to log in to the Script Frenzy site.

Ready to publish? Get a "Free Proof Copy" from CreateSpace

CreateSpace, a member of the Amazon group of companies, is generously offering all NaNoWriMo 2009 winners a "free proof copy" of their 2009 manuscripts. What this means: A free proof copy of your manuscript in paperback book form—just by following the instructions below. They'll even cover the costs of basic shipping to you.

To redeem the offer, you'll need a special NaNoWriMo winner's promo code. To get your code, you must be an official NaNoWriMo 2009 winner, and be signed into the NaNoWriMo site. Once you are, your unique promo code will be displayed at the bottom of this paragraph. Note that this code will not be used in the "referral code" box when setting up a CreateSpace account, but will instead be used after you've uploaded your manuscript and are actually ordering your proof copy.

If you are a winner with a code, here's how you go about using it:

1) Go to http://www.createspace.com/nanowrimo and create a free member account. If you already have an account, just sign into it.

2) Set up your title: you will be asked to fill in information such as title, author name, page count, etc. CreateSpace also has a free Cover Creator tool which enables you to build a cover for your book.

3) Submit your title: make sure that your title's information is accurate and complies with CreateSpace's Submission Requirements.

4) When everything's uploaded and perfect, just request a proof copy and use the above discount code at check out. Presto!

After you receive your proof copy, you can then choose if you want to make it available to the public at large---everything from showing up for sale on Amazon.com and other channels to complete invisibility.

Winners Get 50% off on Scrivener Writing Software for Mac OS X

This year, Literature & Latte is offering NaNoWriMo winners 50% off the purchase price of Scrivener, their writing software program for Mac OS X. Scrivener is designed specifically to aid you in hammering out your first draft, helping you to organise your research and find a structure for your novel along the way.

If you have already purchased Scrivener, feel free to pass your coupon code on to a friend.

To get your Scrivener promo code you must be an official NaNoWriMo 2009 winner, and be signed into the NaNoWriMo site. If you are a verified, signed-in winner, your code will be displayed below this paragraph.

If you are a winner with a code, here's how you go about using it:

If you see a Scrivener 50% off code, above, you can claim your discounted copy of Scrivener for Mac OS X by going to their product page at http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html. Click on “Download Now” to start downloading the trial and then while that's downloading click on "Buy Now", select the "regular" download licence and enter your 50% off code into the "Coupon Code" text field in the top-right corner of the web store, then enter your payment details to generate your licence.

Tips on Rewriting

Ah, rewriting. It hurts so bad, but it helps so much. If your book was born in November, it's going to take many, many months (if not years) of revision before it's ready for the bookstore shelves. That's the bad news. The good news is that novel rewriting is even more rewarding than novel writing. Whether you end up self-publishing or getting an agent and selling the book, there's nothing more satisfying than taking your manuscript as far as it will go. We compiled the best tips from past "Now What" guest contributors to help you on your way.

Here's what they said:

"My advice to you: After a few weeks (or months—give yourself a break) get out that NaNo of yours, that glorious, gorgeous, awkward, ugly, beautiful, perfectly imperfect book of yours. Reread it, stacks of small Post-its at the ready (I belong to the Church of Post-it). Every time you have a thought about something you’d like to add, or move, or change, jot it on the Post-it, and stick it with its brethren on a single page (or two, or three). At the same time, make your line edits, being ruthless with your purple pen. Write all over that manuscript of yours. Scribble in the margins, move bits of dialogue with flamboyant arrows, and write whole new scenes on the backs of old ones. Keep going.

When you’re done with that read-through, you’ll have a marked up manuscript that will look very impressive and a couple of pages worth of Post-its. Start moving those Post-its around. A certain order will become clear to you, and you’ll be able to see a theme emerging. Trust me. You’ll see it. You’ll feel it. That’s the Why of your book. Move toward that, always. Then slash and burn to get rid of the stuff you don’t need, or start writing fresh stuff to fill in the blanks you now see in the gaps between Post-its.

Write toward a new The End. And then do it again. Every time, it feels better. More exciting. I promise. And congratulations, author."

--Rachael Herron is the author of the NaNo-novel How to Knit a Love Song: A Cypress Hollow Yarn

"There are two elements that make a book both good and strong - the magical, ephemeral you-ness of it that makes it a book only you could write... and structure. The glory of Nano is that it provides easy access to that magical you-ness - the space turtles, the secret-agent elves, the cadence and tempo of your words formed your way.

What can be tough is marrying all that glorious you-ness to the bones of the book - the structure. Dramatic structure has been around since Aristotle, and there's a reason for that - structure makes your story accessible to your reader. Imagine if you went into your favorite clothing store to find no racks, just wonderful clothes left in piles on the floor. That's what happens if you don't have structure; your reader can't find her way to all your pretty dresses.

By adding simple structure to your novel you make it accessible to the reader so he can gain access to all that glorious you-ness, and finish the ancient rite that has been around since early people sat around fires and told about hunts and rivalries, loves and losses. Stories are how we make sense of life. They are an ancient ritual, a spiritual experience, a sacred duty, and no matter what you've written about - monks or monkeys - you've just done something incredibly important. Once you revise, your reader can complete the cycle for you, and you can move on to the next story that resides within."

--Lani Diane Rich is the first previously unpublished NaNoWriMo author to have her novel, Time Off for Good Behavior, published by a major publisher. Lani's Storywonk Revision Class walks Wrimos through the revision process.

"The key idea to remember is that fixing a broken novel is like organizing an overstuffed closet: things get messier before they get better. You have to pull everything out before you can get it straightened up, which looks (and feels) like a disaster when you're in the middle of the operation. Deal with that, the psychological fact that you're eviscerating first, fixing later, and you'll go a long way toward meaningful editing, as opposed to rearranging deck chairs on the Hindenburg."

--Scott Westerfeld is the author of the Uglies Trilogy and So Yesterday

"Pay attention to your instincts and deep little voices, including the ones that say, "It's wrong!" It's the little things that keep popping up that seem they have no relevance; those are the most important things to pay attention to. Leave a wide and clear path for the voices and feelings to come through. When you come against a disaster, usually your gut has already told you it was coming, and you are always going to get to something better."

--Kate Moses is the author of Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath

"The best thing you can do when revising is to take your time. First, review your work for the big-picture stuff, such as pacing, plot, and character growth. After that, comes the more detailed editing for things like dialogue, conflict, and tension. Lastly, you'll want to do some final polishing, but before you do, let the book "cool." Put it away for a while---at least two weeks. That's right, just forget about it. Go to the movies, visit a museum, take walks, get reacquainted with friends and family (remember them?). Please don't skip this step! When you return for one final read, you will be refreshed and will catch things you never noticed before."

--Kimberly Llewellyn is the author of the NaNo-novel Tulle Little, Tulle Late

"The worst thing you can do when your novel is complete it to slap it into an envelope, or an e-mail, and send it off to a publisher. I don't care how good you are, a novel is never completely clean and ready to go on the first run through. It's a good idea to step away from it, work on something else, play with your dog, and introduce yourself to the family you haven't seen much of since you typed that first page. Do not believe that because you put 50, 60, or even 100,000 words down on paper (or the screen) that it means you are ready for the best-seller list. It means that you've reached the end of stage one. You do not want to see the response you will get if you send that thing off sight unseen."

--David Niall Wilson is the author of the NaNo-novels Vintage Soul and The Mote in Andrea's Eye

"Do not spend a single second making your prose readable until you're absolutely, positively sure that you have your story locked down. This is the single most important bit of advice I have, and I ignore it all the time and have wasted years of my revising life because of it. The impulse to snappy-up dialogue and make sentences eloquent is almost irresistible at every point in the revision process. The sadness comes when we spend six months transforming our first three chapters into Pulitzer-worthy gems, only to realize that none of those chapters will actually end up in our novels because they don't work with the ending. Think of your second draft as a house that you're building. You need to pour the foundation, frame the walls, and get a reasonably waterproof roof over your head before you start to think about putting art up on the walls and installing the basement bowling alley and aviary."

--Chris Baty is the founder of NaNoWriMo and the author of No Plot? No Problem!

"At the end of November, you've got some momentum. Keep going, and keep your head in the book so you don't lose it. If I'm away from my book for three days I forget what my characters are all about, and it takes me several days to recover from it. So even if I don't have time to do anything major for awhile, I'll commit to reading and editing at least three scenes a day, just enough to dip my toe in, until I've got a draft. It works the same way for revisions. I might take some time off between revisions, but never during."

--Sara Gruen is the author of the NaNo-novels Flying Changes and Water for Elephants

NaNoWriMo-style Events On the Horizon

There are also heaps of events run by other people to provide some structure and community for your post-NaNo endeavors. We're not affiliated with any of these (except Script Frenzy), but all of these events are free and open to everyone. If you know of any other sites or events we should be posting here, drop us a line!

NaNoFiMo.org - National Novel Finishing Month (December). Goal: 30,000 words.

PlotWriMo - Plot Writing Month (December). Goal: Refine the plot arc of your first draft.

FAWM - February Album Writing Month (February). Goal: Write 14 original songs in a month.

NaNoEdMo - National Novel Editing Month (March). Goal: Commit to 50 hours of novel editing.

Script Frenzy - NaNoWriMo's sister challenge (April). Goal: Write a 100-page screenplay or stage play in April.

RePoWriMo - Refrigerator Poetry Writing Month (April). Goal: Write poetry using only refrigerator poetry magnets.

NEPMo - National Epic Poetry Month (May). Goal: Write 5,000 lines epic poem in May.

SoCNoC - Southern Cross Novel Challenge (June). Goal: Write 50,000 words of fiction.

WriDaNoJu - Write a Damn Novel in June (June). Goal: Write 50K in the 30 days of June. It's perfectly situated six months from November so you have optimum time to prepare for WriDaNoJu and NaNoWriMo.

SoFoBoMo - Solo Photo Book Month (Between May first and June 31). Goal: Create a solo photo book within 31 days.

JulNoWriMo - July Novel Writing Month (July). Goal: 50,000 words for a new or unfinished manuscript.

24 Hour Comics Day - (Changes annually, lasts 24 hours). Goal: Draw a 24-page comic in one 24-hour period.

48 Hour Film Project - (Varies; operates via tours around the USA, lasts 48 hours). Goal: Create a short film in 48 hours.

Book in a Week - (Begins on the Monday of the first full week of each month, lasts one week). Goal: Write a novel.

April Fool's - (April). Goal: Set a word-count goal for yourself and fulfill it by the end of the month.

AugNoWriMo - August Novel Writing Month (August). Goal: Write a novel in one month.

3-Day Novel Contest - (September). Goal: Write a novel in three days. They've been doing this since 1977. So cool!

SeptNoWriMo - September Novel Writing Month (September). Goal: Set a word-count goal and edit, write, or edit and write throughout the month of September!

NaPlWriMo - National Playwriting Month (November). Goal: Write a play in one month.

NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month (Year-Round). Goal: Post every day for a month.

WriYe - (Year-Round). Goal: Set a word-count goal for the year and work towards it between January 1 and December 31.

JanNoWriMo - Goal: Write either 50k or your own word-count goal in January.

Novel Writing Contests Without Entry Fees

Almost all fiction-writing contests charge entry fees, but there are a handful of free ones out there run by reputable companies that have great prizes. If you know of any free contests we should post, please drop us a line!

Enter your unpublished manuscript or self-published novel in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for a chance to win one of two $15,000 publishing contracts with Penguin Group (USA) and the distribution of your novel on Amazon.com.

Writer's Digest runs Your Story, a writing challenge that takes place every other month in which Writer's Digest provides a short, open-ended prompt. In turn, writers submit a short story of 750 words or fewer based on that prompt.

The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers holds an annual competition for high school students (Grades 7-12 in the U.S. and Canada). Students can submit short stories, novels or even artwork.

Some Thoughts on Publishing

A growing number of NaNoWriMo authors have sold their November novels to publishers, or had them printed by print-on-demand companies. We love this, and have a collection of NaNoWriMo books in a place of honor in the NaNo office.

Publication is a great goal, no doubt about it. But we'd be remiss if we didn't also point out that there are some companies who make their living taking advantage of inexperienced novelists. If you're setting out to find an agent or publisher for your NaNo-novel, please familiarize yourself with some of the traps and pitfalls that you might encounter along the way. Some good places to start with this are the Preditors and Editors list of potential scams, and the Absolute Write Bewares and Background Check forums.

Thank you!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo in 2009, and a very special hug to our donors and Municipal Liaisons! We couldn't have done it without you! We'll see you next year for more seat-of-the-pants noveling fun.