Exercise #1: Direct writing
Most 3-Day Novel veterans will tell you to write an outline. And of course there are many ways to go about this. Follow these steps to refine your outline and develop your story in preparation for September 1st-3rd:
- Divide your time in half, the first half for free writing, the second for revision.
- Bring to mind your audience and purpose in writing.
- Forget about your audience and purpose and write down everything that comes to mind when you think about your novel: incidents that come to mind, images, ideas, facts about this story. Write fast and don’t think too much. Forget about structure or wording.
- When half your time is up, take the same amount of time to revise. Keep your audience and purpose well in mind while revising, mark the good passages and figure out the main points of your story.
Keep your writing to draw upon on September 1st at midnight.
This exercise is derived from Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering Writing by Peter Elbow.