Note: Information on this page is the sole property
of April Kihlstrom and may not be reproduced without express permission from
April Kihlstrom.
Book In A Week
I believe that Book In A Week is a gift we give ourselves. It’s a gift of one week to write as much as we can, as fast as we can without worrying about “rules” and “can” and “can’t”. It’s about letting ourselves experiment and take chances. For one week we shove that dreaded inner critic in a closet and padlock the door! For one week we tell ourselves and everyone around us that writing IS a priority in our lives—that we ARE writers. We give ourselves the chance to discover—or perhaps remember!—the joy that writing can bring. It’s wonderful if one ends up with an entire first draft—as I do—but equally wonderful to step back afterwards and realize how much we’ve learned about ourselves as writers.
Before you begin--Preparation:
Warn your family (or don’t warn them
if they are saboteurs!).
Plan easy meals and maybe make some ahead
of time or at least do the shopping. Mow
the lawn or do those fix-it chores ahead of time. Get the laundry done ahead of time (although
I have done some of my best brainstorming while loading the darned washer or
dryer!), schedule meetings before or after that week, arrange to let co-workers
know you will write during your lunch hour rather than going out with them.
Stock
up on healthy snacks and music to listen to as you write or whatever else helps
you feel like a writer.
Get a sense of what you want to
write, your characters, setting, some sense of plot--an outline if you can
otherwise at least some notes. Do
whatever works best for you! (See brainstorming exercises at end
of this handout.)
Mentally prepare yourself. Tell yourself you will keep writing--no matter what! Tell yourself it’s only one week of your life and if it doesn’t work, if you turn out trash, so what? It’s only one week of your life!
Actual Writing Week:
Write.
Keep writing. Do not go back and reread what
you’ve done!
Take breaks but then go back to
writing. (I’ve had to deal with doctor’s
appointments, school meetings and day-to-day crises during BIAW. You just go back to where you were and keep
writing!!!)
Write. Even if it seems like total nonsense,
write. Give your muse a real chance to
shine.
If you have an off morning or day,
don’t waste time beating yourself up, just get back to writing and keep going!
If you only have 5 minutes at a
time, sit down and write for 5 minutes!
Ignore any and all attempts to
self-censor or edit. Put in asterisks or
whatever symbol you like for things you will need to research later. Even for names if you don’t know what to call
your characters. Just write!!! Do not reread what you’ve done!
If you’re stuck, just jump to the
next scene and keep going. You can go
back and fill in later.
If you’re stuck, start throwing in
anything you can think of--up to and including the kitchen sink! You can always take it out later but you may
be surprised how well it works. Note:
If you are writing non-fiction, there
are things you MUST include. So write
them down. You can fill in later, add on
more information, reshuffle the order—but GET THEM DOWN!
Take a little time at the end of
each day to think about what you wrote.
How it ties together. Where you
might go with it tomorrow. Make notes
for yourself.
Melinda Rose suggests a portable
timer to enforce taking breaks and she suggests turning off the phone and/or
putting on the answering machine. Walk
around periodically, make sure your desk is set up ergonomically, drink lots of
water, eat healthy snacks, and get enough rest. Give yourself a little
reward every day for writing. Maybe listen to music or writing tapes. (For more of Melinda’s tips visit her website
at Crossing the
Threshold)
Afterwards--the Evaluation:
Are you a fast or slow writer?
Which came naturally--character or
plot?
Did you write lots of description or
action?
What do you see as your natural
strengths?
What do you see as your natural
weaknesses?
What did you love about what you
wrote?
What still needed work?
What was the best thing to do when
you got stuck?
Who
was helpful and who acted as a saboteur?
Where
in your day could you fit more time to write or to make notes for your writing?
What
time of day did you do your best writing?
What
themes or emotions resonated most strongly with you?
What
about your characters do you most love and/or hate?
What
makes you most want to smile about your work?
What
makes you most want to keep writing?
Brainstorming Exercises (examples of
scenes/chapters you know you will need):
Romance:
1) Picture
hero/heroine in a fight--what would it be over?
2) Loving--what would touch the heroine's
heart? The hero's heart?
3) What would make your characters cry?
4) What would make your characters work
together--no matter how angry they are at each other? What could make them rise above their fears
to do what must be done?
5) What is the
hero's deepest secret and how will the heroine find out? What is hers and how will he find out?
Murder/Mystery:
1)
Who
dies and how? Or, if not a murder, WHAT
is the focus of the mystery?
2)
How
is the body found? Or, what is
found? How? Why?
By whom? Under what
circumstances?
3)
What
clues will you need to plant and who will find/notice them? Your detective? The reader?
4)
Scenes
of interrogation. Who asks the
questions? Who answers--and why or why
not?
5)
Scenes
of confrontation. Who fights? Why?
What motive will this give the person(s)--and who, if anyone, overhears
the confrontation?
Horror:
2)
Who
discovers the horror? When? How?
4)
How
does the hero/heroine overcome this fear?
(i.e. What incident allows the character to rise above the fear?)
5)
If
more than one character will resolve the dilemma of the horror, what happens so
that the characters realize they must work together?
6)
What
conflicts might tear the group apart—and how are they revealed?
Nonfiction:
(Note: Study the sort of book you want to write--it may have an entirely
different structure.)
1)
Introduction:
Why are you writing this book?
2)
Conclusion
or summary of ideas?
3)
What
are your key points? (Never mind how you
are going to lay them out—just decide what they are.)
4)
For
each key point, what are the most important comments to make?
5)
Are you going to use anecdotes? Write them down!
Note: Information on this page is the sole property
of April Kihlstrom and may not be reproduced without express permission from
April Kihlstrom.
Tips:
Adapting BIAW to real life
Assuming you
don’t have the full week to do a Book In A Week, how can you adapt the
techniques/philosophy to what you are doing and the time you have? BIAW is about letting go of the fears,
self-doubts, etc. that keep us from writing.
This can be done in any time frame, any situation. For a classic BIAW, preparation is the key
and there are some basic questions to ask yourself before you begin, some
obvious preparation exercises to do beforehand.
But many of these questions/suggestions can be adapted to any point in
the writing process.
Step 1: Decide why you would like to do/use BIAW.
a)
Stuck
and need to free up imagination or resolve writing question/issue?
b)
Need
respite or change of pace?
c)
Want
to experiment?
d)
Need
to meet a deadline?
Step 2: Decide
how much time you have/need.
a)
You
have a whole week and want to do BIAW.
b)
You
have an afternoon or weekend.
c)
You
have short, really short blocks of time.
Examples:
a)
You
have several projects you might want to work on and can’t decide between
them.
Solution: Take 15-minute blocks of time and write on
each project. Just write. Keep writing as quickly as you can for 15
minutes, then go on to next project (after short break).
Why? The project to work on is the one where you
forget to stop after 15 minutes and keep going OR the one which, when you
reread it, really grabs you.
b)
You
have a deadline and you’re stuck on what to do with a plot point or character
issue.
Solution: Take short block of time—15 to 30 min—and
write about this character. Just write.
Have a dialogue between character and someone else—even if that person
does not actually appear in the book.
See what comes out. Or have the
person do something totally out of character and see what happens. (It’s only 15 to 30 minutes so who cares if
it doesn’t work? Who cares if you have
to throw it out? It just might tell you
something important about your character and what he/she might or might
not feel or do.)
c)
Pre-writing
stage: no big blocks of time to sit down
and plot but you want to get ready to write.
Solution: Take short blocks of time—5, 10, 20
minutes—and ask yourself (and answer!) key questions. You can use a block of time for one question
or one character or a couple of questions or plotting one key scene at a time. Point is, you can break the preparation time
down into short blocks. Ask yourself
what you would want to see in a book like this.
Ask yourself why the reader will care about the hero/heroine. What are your hero/heroine’s
secrets--dreams? Hopes? Fears?
Under what circumstances would/could they rise above those fears to
become heroic? Look at suggested scenes
from BIAW handout. Plot out one of those
during a short block of time.
d)
You
have a deadline, but you don’t have an entire week to devote to BIAW.
Solution: Take any block of time and do BIAW. All you really need is to hold onto the
philosophy that you’ll forget all rules, all self-doubts, lock the inner critic
in a closet and padlock the door! Just
write. Write in every short block of
time you’ve got. And give yourself
permission to take risks. But
write. It is the essential commitment to
use every bit of time AND forget the rules that characterizes BIAW.
e)
You
think maybe you want to write something entirely different, but you’re not sure
if you can.
Solution: Ideally, you’d take a week and do BIAW. But suppose you’ve only got an afternoon or
weekend. Use that time to do a
mini-BIAW. Just give yourself permission
to write. Doesn’t matter if it won’t be
workable. Just write! This is a chance to find out if you like
trying that other genre or length. This
is a way to find out where your strengths and weaknesses will lie—so that you
can plan a way to work around/with those weaknesses when you sit down and
seriously plan a project in this new area.
f)
You’re
stuck. Absolutely stuck.
Solution: Give yourself 15 or 20 minutes to play. Give yourself permission to just write
anything you want for that length of time, no matter how silly. Write a scene from the story or book that you
are NOT going to use! Toss in a
character who doesn’t exist or an event that couldn’t possibly happen. There’s no point to it—just play. Just make a mess, if you want and see what
happens. Or
write something totally different—unrelated to the project. Why? The idea is to get past the
seriousness/fear. The first suggested
exercise gives your muse a chance to get past whatever it is you’re stuck on,
but without any pressure—and by playing you may come up with something you
need. Because often when we are stuck it
is because our subconscious is trying to tell us we’re missing something,
something is going wrong. The
alternative idea works because sometimes what we need is just a break. The writing equivalent of getting up and taking
a walk or working in the garden—which incidentally can be a good idea, too.
g)
When
you are working on a project, always carry a notebook with you to write in or a
tape recorder to make notes. (Why? This is fundamental to standard BIAW—a
reminder to use every spare moment, but also a reminder to your subconscious to
keep working on the project. At any
time, the notebook and/or tape recorder can serve as both this kind of reminder
and a way to keep consistency in your work.)
h)
Make
notes at the end of every writing session!
Standard BIAW—this is so you won’t reread the next day. But in any situation, it aids consistency the
next time you sit down to write and it reduces likelihood you will spend time
rereading and rewriting rather than moving forward.
i)
If
you get stuck, instead of agonizing, make notes to yourself or highlight a section
in colored fonts and move on—note highlighter function on toolbar of both Word
and Word Perfect. That way, when you go
back to this point in the manuscript you will be able to quickly and easily
find the places where you put reminders to yourself, asked yourself questions,
and/or weren’t sure about a given section.
(Works because this lets you move forward knowing you can easily go back
to this spot later when you’ve figured out what you need or what you want to
do.)
j)
If
you have a difficult passage to write but you’ve been putting it off because it
feels too scary/daunting/overwhelming, set a block of time—whatever length you
feel you can handle. Structure your
situation so that at the end of that block of time you will have a cup of
soothing tea or coffee or SOMETHING ready.
Structure it so that you can take a walk in the garden or sit on the
porch. Structure the situation so that
you can celebrate the good things in your life so that you FEEL safe enough to
write that difficult passage. In other
words, you are not going to let yourself become wrung out. You are going to nourish your spirit
IMMEDIATELY once that block of time is over.
k)
Revisions: Go over the manuscript in a short period of
time—two days or less. Keep a notebook
handy and jot down all changes you plan to make (but don’t make them just
yet!). At the end of those two days, you
will have an overview of the manuscript and can look through the changes you
need to make. Pick and choose; marking
off the changes s you make them. This
method gives you flexibility, greater consistency, and a chance to make the
changes in the order that works best for YOU.
l)
Revisions: After you have your list, choose either
little changes (for short periods of time and/or because they are easy) OR
start with something major—one that will cause ripple effects backwards and
forwards through the manuscript. That
will minimize how many rewrites you have to do.
In other words, you do NOT have to do revisions starting at page 1!
m)
Revisions:
Cross off changes on the list as you make them and note new changes
needed as a result of the ones you are making.
n)
Revisions: Go back to brainstorming tips if you get
stuck on what’s wrong.
o)
Revisions: If your manuscript is part of a series and
you get stuck, go ahead and write the first draft of the next book in the
series. What you write may impact this
one and you may discover things you want to put into this draft. You may also find that writing that next book
triggers a greater understanding of what’s going wrong with this one.
Rejections: If you meet all your goals, you’ve set them
too low—that’s my personal philosophy.
So...how do you deal with rejections?
p)
Rejections: As soon as you send out the manuscript, make
a list of all the reasons the manuscript could be rejected that have nothing to
do with quality. (Line folded, editor
has different tastes, too many projects already in hand, etc.)
q)
Rejections: As soon as you finish the first list, make
another list—this time of reasons the manuscript might not sell because of the
manuscript and what you could do.
(Research the market some more, revise, check with a critique partner,
etc.) The idea is to remind yourself
that even if THIS project does not sell, it does not mean you will never sell a
manuscript.
r)
Rejection
letter is paralyzing you. You can’t get
past it.
Solution: Do this on the computer and delete it when
you’re done OR (even better) write it on paper and plan to BURN IT
afterwards! Take 15 minutes and write
out every horrible feeling you have about the rejection letter. Give your
imagination full rein! But—at the end of
the 15 minutes—DELETE THE FILE or better yet BURN THAT PAPER!!! This is NOT an exercise in self-sabotage, it
is a way to let go of the painful feelings so that you can step back and get on
with your work, incorporating any USEFUL information you may have gotten from
the rejection letter.
Finally and
fundamentally, give yourself permission to write crap in your first draft. Not because you necessarily will, but because
fear is paralyzing and because often until that entire first draft is done,
it’s hard to tell what works and what doesn’t.
Give yourself permission to take chances. BIAW is about learning to trust yourself and
your muse. It is about rediscovering the
joy in writing. And we can do that at
any time, with any block of time, and with any writing situation!
Note: Information on this page is the sole property
of April Kihlstrom and may not be reproduced without express permission from
April Kihlstrom.
The
basic idea is very simple: Much of what
we do as writers can be broken down into pieces that can be worked on in
short—10, 20, 30 minute—blocks of time.
And a lot of it does not have to be done in order—even if that’s how
we’ve always done it up until now.
Preparation:
5-10
minutes:
1)
Collect notebooks, pens, a folder, etc.
2)
Set up work area—even changing one thing
can brighten up work areas and make you feel more like writing.
3)
Pick a character and jot down everything
you know about the character—profession, family, hobbies, etc.
4)
Pick a character and list the character’s
fears, hopes, dreams
5)
For each—fears, hopes, dreams--ask a key
question. Ex.: Given the hero’s (or
heroine’s) fears, what would allow or force the hero to rise above those
fears?
6)
Brainstorm possible themes for your
story.
7)
List as many plot points/events as you
can think of for your story.
8)
Picture yourself succeeding. We are all very good at imagining all the
things that can go wrong, but taking a few minutes to imagining everything
going right can have a powerful impact as well.
15-20
minutes:
1)
Write out a conversation between a
character and someone else—maybe even another person who does NOT appear in the
story.
2)
Look at suggested scenes from BIAW
handout. Plot out one of those.
3)
Jot down a (possible) plot arc for one
character. (Each character will have a
plot/growth arc that overlaps with but is different from other characters in
the book.)
30-45
minutes:
1)
If you are trying to decide between
several projects, allow 10 to 15 minutes for each one. For each block, write as much as you can, as
fast as you can on a project. (The project
to work on is the one where you forget to stop after 15 minutes and keep going
OR the one which, when you reread it, really grabs you.) Note:
This can also be done in separate 10-15 minute blocks of time—rather
than all at once, one right after the other.
2)
Work on the synopsis/outline. Quickly jotting down everything you
know. That would be one block of
time. Another 30-45 minute block of time
might be used to go over and refine that synopsis. (Keeping the time short may also make the
synopsis seem less intimidating.)
3)
Fill the creative well—read from a book
or story that really inspires you.
4)
Do research—but it’s often good to limit
the amount of time because it could eat up all your time!
Actual
Writing:
5-10
minutes:
1)
Just write—you’d be surprised how those
short blocks of time can add up.
2)
Jot down notes for what you want to write
next. Or ideas you have for later in the
story. (Note: This is especially useful at the end of the
writing day—particularly during Book In A Week.
Or if you tend to have interruptions so that often it’s a few days
before you can get back to the writing.
You don’t have to reread what you wrote in order to get started
again—you just work from these notes.)
3)
It’s not a bad idea, each day, if you
have a cluttered desk like mine, to take 5 minutes and just get rid of one
bunch of paper or change one thing to brighten your writing area.
4)
Picture yourself succeeding—especially if
you’re feeling discouraged!
15-20
minutes:
1)
Just write—this is a sufficient block of
time to write a couple of pages or a significant portion of a scene.
2)
If you get stuck or are having a tough
time getting going, maybe write in 15-minute blocks of time. Set a timer if you want. Odds are that at some point the words will
start to flow.
3)
If you really get stuck—play. Write something utterly fanciful OR write a
scene from your project that you are NOT going to use! Toss in a character who doesn’t exist or an
event that couldn’t possibly happen.
There’s no point to it—just play.
Just make a mess, if you want and see what happens. (Note: The
idea is to get past the seriousness/fear.
By playing you may come up with something you need. Because often when we are stuck it is because
our subconscious is trying to tell us we’re missing something or that something
is going wrong. The alternative idea
works because sometimes what we need is just a break. It’s the writing equivalent of getting up and
taking a walk or working in the garden—which incidentally can be a good idea,
too. )
30
minutes:
1)
Just write. (Do you notice a theme?)
2)
There is a situation when it is really
useful to choose to just write for a short block of time. That is when you need to write something
difficult—however YOU define difficult.
Choose a block of time you feel you can handle. Set things up so that at the end of that
block of time you will have a cup of soothing tea or coffee or SOMETHING
ready. Structure it so that you can take
a walk in the garden or sit on the porch.
Structure the situation so that you can celebrate the good things in
your life so that you FEEL safe enough to write that difficult passage. In other words, you are not going to let
yourself become wrung out. You are going
to nourish your spirit IMMEDIATELY once that block of time is over.
3)
The philosophy of Book In A Week (see
notes at my website) can be adapted to any block of time—no matter how
short. Whether it’s a week, a weekend, a
couple of hours or 30 minutes, give yourself that permission to just
write—write anything that wants to come out because you can always edit/rewrite
later.
Afterwards: Note: I feel very strongly that an ideal way to do
revisions is to read through the manuscript very quickly—two days or less is
ideal. Make notes as to what changes you
think you will need to make, but don’t make them now, keep going through the
manuscript. Then....
5-10
minutes:
1)
Often there are easy revisions that can
be done in 5 to 10 minutes. Maybe it’s
adding eye or hair color for a character, rewriting a clumsy sentence, etc.
2)
Jot down notes for things you want to
change—or how you want to change them—when you have more time.
3)
Right after you send out the manuscript
but before you get a reply:
a)
List all the reasons the manuscript might
be rejected that have nothing to do with quality. (Ex. Editor has too many
similar manuscripts, not buying that type manuscript right now, editor doesn’t
like your style—but someone else might, etc.)
b)
List all the things you can do to improve
the manuscript if it gets rejected this time.
(Ex. Study the market more, send it to a different publisher, get an
agent, have someone else critique the manuscript, enter a contest, etc.)
15-20
minutes:
1)
If you get a rejection letter: Take 15 or 20 minutes and write out every
horrible feeling you have about that rejection letter. (Note: Preferably do this on paper.) Give your imagination full rein! But—at the end of the 15/20 minutes—burn the
paper and as it goes up in smoke, let go of the feelings. (If you did it on the computer, delete the
file. This is NOT an exercise in
self-sabotage, it is a way to let go of the painful feelings so that you can
step back and get on with your work, incorporating any USEFUL information you
may have gotten from the rejection letter.)
2)
Revisions—do the somewhat more
complicated revisions. It’s okay to jump
around the manuscript. (Note: I do advise making the biggest change as
early in the revision process as possible because there will always be ripple
effects—forward and back through the manuscript—with changes and making the
most significant change first tends to minimize how many times you will need to
rewrite other passages.)
3)
If you get stuck on revisions, look at
the brainstorming exercises from the Book In A Week handout (available at my
website). Do you have all the suggested
scenes/emotions? If not, take a 15-20
minute block of time to work on one and see if that solves the problem.
30
minutes or more:
1)
Revisions. Most significant revision first, if possible.
2)
After you finish the
manuscript—celebrate.
3)
After you mail out the manuscript—celebrate.
4)
Any good writing news—celebrate! (Do you begin to see a theme, here?)
5)
Evaluate your writing experience—what
worked, what didn’t, and what you might change in the future.