Writing a Novel in a Month

I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month five times but this is the first time I made it across the finish line. I wrote 51,274 words in 30 days. I’ve been working for ten years on a mystery novel set in Victorian London featuring a medium. It’s hard to figure out how to write a novel from the point of view of someone who’s in trance when everything interesting happens. It’s also hard to write a mystery novel when the murder victim can talk directly to the protagonist.

I decided to experiment in November with writing it from different points of view. It’s been really interesting; I learned a lot about myself as a novelist. (Mostly that I can’t write a really coherent novel this fast.)

But I have a rough draft of a complete novel and I might be able to fix it through revision. Not that I’m going to start on that anytime soon. I’m waiting until April when I expect to teach a revision class.