I Wrote a Novel, Now What?
You wrote a novel! In a month! Now, you may be wondering, what should I do with it?
If you’re reading this on December 6, I say: nothing. Not for the present moment. Like a marathoner who just ran your legs off, your well-exercised brain needs an ice bath and a long nap. Maybe a big spaghetti dinner, too. You’ve earned it! No doubt there’s an Everest-sized mountain of laundry that needs tending to. That pet hamster will want some clean bedding and a gentle pat on the head. And you might say a “Hi, hello, how are you?” to your spouse or roommate or family.
If you’re coming to this page after both the brain massage and prolonged celebration have concluded, then you’re ready! The “I Wrote a Novel, Now What?” page is your one-stop shop for ideas and suggestions about this next “page” in the journey of your November novel.
To help you along your way, the December and Beyond forums have been posted, too. See what your fellow writers are up to now that NaNoWriMo 2011 has ended!
Scrivener and CreateSpace Winner Offer Codes
If you are looking for your Winner Prizes, there is a whole page devoted to the Scrivener and CreateSpace offers. You can access it here!
Revision Advice
In years past, we’ve provided post-NaNo revision advice from the best and brightest authors around. Here are some highlights from that revision advice archive:
“Thirteen Tips On Revision:
1. Put the book aside and listen, for the first time, to your insecurities. Do not pay attention to what they say but to where they are pointing. They are wrong that you need to burn down the house but they might be right about starting in the basement.
2. Approach the manuscript ruthlessly, like it is a beloved and difficult friend who has asked to hear what they’re doing wrong. The misdeeds do not cancel out the love, nor vice versa.
4. Cut short and cut long. Change a limp image and discover the entire needs to be cut. Polish a flabby scene and learn it needs to be deleted. If everyone stays on the lifeboat it will sink and no one will be saved. There are hardly any novels that are too short.
5. Stand and pace. Feel the liberation of having dragged hobbled furniture from your room to lay out on the sidewalk for someone else’s benefit.
6. This is the third draft of this set of tips. Hopefully they are now more useful to the reader.”–Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events
“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, founder of NaNoWriMo and author of No Plot? No Problem!
“The first step toward a productive revision is to read your manuscript as a reader not an editor. Just curl up and read it, and make two lists. One is the parts that don’t work–a character so dull you can barely remember his name, parts you were tempted to skip (or sleep through!) The second list is for things you did like, because that’s important, too. At the end, if that first list looks too daunting, read the second and remind yourself of all the parts that worked—all the great stuff that deserves an equally great novel.
Once you have the list, copy the file under a new name, so you’ve always got a copy of the original.
Now, it’s time to get ruthless.
If a scene/page/paragraph doesn’t move the plot along, cut it. If possible, don’t re-read it, because you’re going to find lines and bits of character in it that you love, and that’ll make you start thinking “maybe it’s not so bad after all…”
Trust that initial reader instinct. Cut it and save it in another file—that’ll help with the pain of the loss, knowing you still have that scene should you ever decide you need it back.
If a character doesn’t add to the book, cut him out. If you loved him, save his parts for another book. If you REALLY loved him, give him a more meaningful role so he can stay.
If some part of the plot doesn’t work, brainstorm a list of three alternate routes to achieve that goal (different paths, different character motivations, etc). Pick the one that will provide the most conflict or “emotional bang for your buck.”
Remember—be ruthless. Don’t ever think about how many hours you put into writing a part you’re cutting out. Think of how much better you’ll feel knowing you did your best—however hard it was—to make this novel shine.”
–Kelley Armstrong, author of the Otherworld series
“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, author of the NaNo-novels Vintage Soul and The Mote in Andrea’s Eye
Revision Pep Talks
You read it right! For the first time in NaNoWriMo history, we are offering revision pep talks to all 2011 NaNoWriMo donors. We’ve recruited an all-star cast of published NaNoWriMo participants to provide you with advice on the next steps for revision and publication. If you donated to NaNoWriMo in 2011, you will receive one pep talk a month until September 2012! And if you’re not a donor but would like to ride this amazing train of revision pep, you have until December 31, 2011 to donate.
Here’s a preview of the pep talks to come:
“After a decent rest (until 1 January is neat), you might decide to take a slow walk back around the outside of your forest, right round the perimeter, feeling the size of it, getting its measure, until you find where you started out. Then go back in, and follow your path again, but this time, do it slowly and consider: was it the best way? Are there better paths you could take? Can you make the path look better, less ragged? Could you stop and take a look around?”
–Julia Crouch, author of CUCKOO
“This year, more people than ever completed the NaNoWriMo challenge, got their stars, and are now floating on a euphoria of “having done it” that probably won’t wear off until New Year’s Resolution time. That’s just great. Congrats, congrats! … now let’s talk about the rest of us, the ones that didn’t hit the 50,000 word mark.”
–Ernessa T. Carter, author of 32 Candles
“My point, dear writer, is this: it happened to me, it can happen to you. There are lots of ifs and buts along the way, but publication isn’t just something that happens to other people. It happens to real people, like you and me. You want to know how?”
–Elizabeth Haynes, author of Into the Darkest Corner
There’s more where these came from. Donate today to get our first-ever series of post-event revision pep talks!
NaNoWriMo-style Events On the Horizon
The Plot Whisperer – Plot Writing Month (December). Goal: Refine the plot arc of your first draft.
NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month (Year-Round). Goal: Post every day for a month.
SciFiWriMo – Science Fiction Writing Month (Year-Round). Goal: choose a target word count and reach it in a month, writing sci-fi or fantasy.
750 Words – (Year-Round). Goal: write 750 words a day. Includes month-long challenges.
Wriye – (Year-Round). Goal: Set a word-count goal for the year and work towards it between January 1 and December 31.
Choose-Your-Own-Novel Month – (January) Write a piece of Interactive Fiction in one month, and the goal is not a specific word count, but to finish a piece of whatever length.
JaNoWriMo – Goal: Write either 50k or your own word-count goal in January.
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 – Another OLL event, and NaNoWriMo’s sister challenge (April). Goal: Write a 100-page screenplay or stage play in April.
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.
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.
Camp NaNoWriMo – OLL’s own non-November, camp-themed version of the novel-in-a-month challenge (June and August). Goal: Write a 50,000-word work of original fiction in the month of June or August.
SeptNoWriMo – September Novel Writing Month (September). Goal: Set a word-count goal and edit, write, or edit and write throughout the month of September!
GothNoWriMo – Gothic Novel Writing Month (October). Goal: Write a gothic novel in October.
NaPlWriMo – National Playwriting Month (November). Goal: Write a play in one month.
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.
Literacy charity Book Wish Foundation is offering six critiques for young adult or middle grade manuscripts to six essay contest winners. Pick one of the following stories from Book Wish Foundation’s new book, What You Wish For, and write an essay of no more than 500 words about how the wishes in the story relate to the Darfuri refugees in eastern Chad. The entry deadline is February 1, 2012.
Writer’s Digest runs Your Story, a monthly writing challenge 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. Winners will be published in a future issue of Writer’s Digest and on the Your Story winners page at WritersDigest.com.
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.
The AuthorStand FREE Writing Contest seeks short story submissions (1,500 to 10,000 words max). The entry deadline is January 26, 2012. The First Prize winner and Editor’s Choice winner both receive $250.
AuthorStand is also holding a Very Short Story Writing Contest (100 min to 1,499 words max). The entry deadline is December 31, 2011. The First Prize Winner and Editor’s Choice winner both receive $50.
The Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest seeks today’s best humor poems. The top prize is $1,500, with total cash prizes of $3,600 awarded. Entries are accepted between August 15, 2011 and April 1, 2012.
The Delacorte Press Contest for a First Young Adult Novel is an annual contest for previously unpublished YA novelists. The winner gets a book contract (see site for details). Manuscripts must be postmarked after October 1, 2011, but no later than December 31, 2011.
Fjords Review hosts an annual no-fee contest for a feature length book of poetry, short stories, visual artist or collaborative book. Guidelines are posted on the website at www.fjordsreview.com. Fjords will publish their first book in Spring 2012.
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 our collection of NaNoWriMo novels displayed in a place of honor here in the 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, the resources available on Writer Beware website, as well as the Absolute Write “Bewares and Background Check” forums.
More OLL Goodness
As you may have noticed in the list of NaNo-style events above, OLL has a bumper crop of writing events occuring in 2012!
Next up on the Office of Letters and Light’s roller coaster of creative adventures: Script Frenzy, where we write a 100-page screenplay, stage play, comic book, 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.
Classrooms around the world will also be participating as part of Script Frenzy’s Young Writers Program!
In June and August, you can log in to Camp NaNoWriMo as well, to take part in another month-long 50,000-word noveling adventure. Bring your virtual tent and imaginary bug spray!
Thank you!
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo this year, and a very special hug to our donors, Municipal Liaisons, and beta testers! We couldn’t have done it without you! We’ll see you next year for more seat-of-the-pants noveling fun.
