My son, Keith, and I are each going to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in thirty-one days, starting May 1. It’s all the result of a book called No Plot No Problem by Chris Baty, founder of National Novel Writing Month.
Writing a novel is a lot different from writing a mini essay every day; even if I added the words of all the essays I’ve written in a given month, it would hardly make a dent in 50,000 words. But the object, according to Baty, is not carefully edited quality but rather randomly written quantity. Hence, the title No Plot No Problem.
Plot has always been elusive to me, and one premise of Baty’s particular writing approach is that a well-outlined plot is not an essential criteria for success.
About ten years ago, I wrote a novel called The Personals Chronicles. Even entered it in a contest and won first prize of $1000 and a meeting with a real-live New York publisher. I was more excited at the prospect of meeting a publisher face-to-face than I was about the money, since I’ve wanted to be an author all my life. Authors are writers who have made it.
I knew The Personals Chronicles needed work, but I looked forward to hearing the publisher say, “I like this novel well enough that I’m going to offer you a contract, provided you make the following changes.” There would follow a laundry list of suggestions that I would dutifully integrate into my masterpiece. But the publisher had different plans. “This novel really has no plot,” he said in his thirty-something voice. You have a nice writing style, but it doesn’t go anywhere.” Which was the same comment another publisher said about another work maybe fifteen years earlier. In both cases, I put the manuscripts away.
It’s not that I’m averse to learning more about plot development, but for the time being I’m going to go with Chris Baty, because he seems to espouse a method I’ve already mastered. I just have to come up with 50,000 words. Given my penchant for ten minute bursts, that could be a problem.
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