Every November thousands of writers put their pens to paper (or their fingers to keys) to write a novel – at least 50,000 words – in 30 days. Have you decided to take on the National Novel Writing Month challenge this year? If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, or you aren’t sure how to begin, try checking out one of these books to help you meet your word count goal:
Just Write: Here’s How by Walter Dean Myers – An award-winning author guides readers through the writing process, and includes examples from his own works, outlines for writing fiction and nonfiction, and excerpted pages from the author’s writing notebooks.
Write Your Novel in a Month by Jeff Gerke – Written in the spirit of National Novel Writing Month, this book not only explains how to achieve the feat of writing a first draft in just over four weeks but also helps readers hone and sell the manuscript after the initial burst of energy is over.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King – The author shares his insights into the craft of writing and offers a humorous perspective on his own experience as a writer.
The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel by Jodie Archer & Matthew L. Jockers – An editor and an English professor describe the algorithm they came up with to predict a best-selling novel after analyzing 20,000 contemporary novels for themes, plot, character, setting and style.
20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them) by Ronald B. Tobias – Identifies and analyzes twenty common plots, including revenge, rivalry, adventure, maturation, and love, discusses physical and character plots, and offers advice for developing a story.
Writing Fantastic Fiction (Write This Way) by Jennifer Joline Anderson – This book takes you through the steps of writing a story from beginning to end. Learn how to gather inspiration and develop a story’s characters, then visualize and organize your story’s plot with a writing map. After you’ve written a really rough draft, check out tips for revising your work.
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark – Introduces a collection of fifty universal tools and strategies that writers of all kinds can use every day, accompanied by hundreds of examples from journalism and literature.
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass – Describes the elements that all “breakout novels” share and details writing techniques to make a book stand out and succeed.