Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Copying Kate (or How 15 Minutes a Day Changed My August)

Tip of the Day: Write the next novel. Work on the next book. Don't stp writing.

Kate's Monday post is exactly right. Laurie Halse Anderson is brilliant. And realistic. And motivating. Her Write 15-Minutes a Day in August Challenge is just too simple to pass up -- but the proof is in the writing. I've written pages and pages and pages of my YA wip this way! Often I'll get so into my new words that I write for longer than 15 minutes and I'm at the climax of my book this week!

The best parts of the challenge:
--a bunch of us CPs are doing it together, so we have group motivation
--by writing just 15-mins a day, my wip stays in my head every day and it is easier to get started during my writing sessions
--I use any 15-min block of time I have, and that means most of my writing this month has been done by pen in a small notebook of lined paper, which has changed my tendency to spend most of my writing time going back and editing already written pages
--writing longhand also means that when I copy it over to Word later, it'll be edited once already
--I could easily add another month to this challenge and feel I could succeed

I'm convinced: a draft of a kidlit novel can totally be written in a couple of months this way.

So what are you waiting for? Try this challenge -- there's no excuse NOT to come up with 15 minutes a day!

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

1 comment:

Kate Fall said...

I definitely have to say that writing for 15 minutes a day is breaking me of the habit of editing existing pages instead of drafting!