12 Chapters in 12 Months, or How I Will Write a Novel This Year!

Last October I made a lot of progress on my novel when I went away to Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities in Southern Pines for 10 days to write in seclusion. After months and months of talking about writing, blogging about writing, thinking about writing, planning how to write ... I actually locked myself up and wrote and wrote and wrote. 80 PAGES in one long dizzying stretch!! And it felt wonderful. But here's the thing: I haven't written a single word on my novel since. Not one.

I'm good for a short period of time. A few days or a week is something I can manage. But the day-in day-out thing is overwhelming. A year? Two? Three?! How does anyone ever press through something that big?

I'm inspired by my friend Karen, who has been working diligently on her own novel for a good while now. I've watched her take on one chapter after another as if each one were an entire book. "The way to eat an elephant," she is always reminding me, "is one bite at a time."

Because my New Year's resolutions are already mushrooming (I want to learn to cook, to become a recycler, to run a 5k) I am going to make this as simple, simple, simple as I possibly can. My ONLY GOAL this whole year is to write ONE CHAPTER A MONTH. Period. Nothing else. 12 Chapters in 12 Months. And though it will be the ugliest, little premature novel born this year ... it will arrive on or before December 31, 2012.

So here's the plan, which I will elaborate on each month and blog about here so you can follow along if you would like to join me:

ACT I – 25%

Jan / Ch. 1           Conflict introduced          (Ordinary world)

Feb / Ch. 2          Goal identified                  (Call to adventure)

Mar / Ch. 3          Characters equipped      (Refusal of the call) 

ACT II – 50%

Apr / Ch. 4           Quest begins                    (Meeting the mentor)

May / Ch. 5         Rounding up help            (Crossing the threshold)

Jun /Ch. 6            Obstacles                          (Tests, Allies, & Enemies)

Jul / Ch. 7             Confronts enemy            (Approach to the inmost cave)

Aug /Ch. 8           Black moment                  (Ordeal)

Sep / Ch. 9          Apparent victory              (Reward)

Oct / Ch. 10         Betrayed                           (The road back)   

ACT III – 25%

Nov / Ch. 11       Showdown/climax            (Resurrection)

Dec / Ch. 12        Resolution                          (Return with elixir)

There you have it: the simplest plot ever in the simplest language. Remember that we are only planning and writing the central storyline. If a subplot emerges, we'll deal with that in another way later on. For now, I'm thinking we'll take good notes on index cards and let them simmer in our pretty pink timeline box (see "Timelines & Storyboards"). But we'll get right back to the main storyline as quickly as possible. No points will be given for anything except our 12 basic chapters. No extra credit will be given either, so don't even ask. This way, we shouldn't be tempted to stray too far from our monthly writing schedule.

Speaking of the schedule, there is none. Write as often as you want, or write in one long stretch like I will probably do. Sit for 5 hours a day, or go for 15 minutes here and there. Write 500 words every morning or 10 pages a week. I don't care. All that matters is that you hand over that chapter at the end of every s-i-n-g-l-e month.

Looking at it this way, like 12 little assignments rather than one gargantuan burden, might be just the solution those of us too terrified to really tackle a novel head-on need. If we break it down into bite-sized portions, we can eat an elephant this year. Bon appetit!