Assignment 1: Basic Conceptualizing of a Novel. (150 Days to a 100,000 Word Novel Challenge) #150Daysto100k

To those of you who don’t like receiving numerous blog posts a day, I’m sorry! I’m starting a project, and I want to invite everyone who has ever wanted to take a stab at writing a book to join me.

The 150 Days to a 100,000 Word Novel Challenge is just that; it’s 150 days of plotting, writing, and editing challenges to help you write a full-length novel! Note: some of you may finish sooner, some of you may need longer. I honestly don’t know if I’ll need more or less than 150 days to do this project. I honestly expect more. (But what I will be doing is updating if I need extra days to complete my specific tasks for the challenge.)

Honestly, it’s going to be more like “150 Assignments to write a 100k novel” than actual days. I’ll be coming back 2-3 times a week with a new assignment, as many people simply can’t carve out the time needed in one chunk to complete their task. So, while the word “day” is used, it’s best to think about it in terms of assignments, etc.

For drafting, you will be expected to write anywhere between 500 to 2,000 words in a singular day/assignment. Some tasks will take longer, some will take shorter. One ‘day’, you might discover that you need to write 5,000 words to accomplish your assignment. That’s fine.

Take as long or as little as you need. Each time I post, I will report in with how long it took me to accomplish the specific task.

I know a lot of people were upset at the general demise of National Novel Writing Month. This will not replace NaNoWriMo, but what it will do is give those who like my books a chance to have a similar-ish experience, virtually.

Before I dive in on what Assignment 1 of this challenge is all about, I’m going to take a moment to introduce all of the tools I will be using while working on this project.

Note: All images of hardware come from the site’s advertising materials.

Hardware

Pomera: a no distractions portable computer that does words and only words.

Mac Studio (This is my workhorse computer.) I have the M1 Ultra line.

Macbook Air (This is my travel laptop.) I have the 15″ model.

lofree lite 100 key mechancial keyboard. (I have three of these and they are amazing.) One has clacky keys, one has silent keys, and the other is a travel size with silent keys. I alternate based on if I want clacky or silent.

Not pictures: paper and pens, as I will do a lot of paper work before transferring all my notes into my various bits of software.

Software

BYOK.io: This is my plotting software, and I use it for tracking characters, tracking scenes, and other notes.

Scrivener: this is my primary writing software. (I import what I write on my Pomera into Scrivener, where a lot of the magic happens.)

Microsoft Word: I use this for proofing edits.

Use what makes your heart happy. Want to handwrite your novel? Do that. This is just a behind-the-scenes look at what I use to write a book.

Now, onto the background of this challenge (and why I will probably need 200-300 days to finish my specific version of the challenge.)

I will be writing Storm Without End. Well, more accurately, completely rewriting the series. I have decided that I’m just going to approach it completely from scratch and generally pretend the original series does not exist. I will be stealing the important pieces, which involve the characters and much of the basic plotlines. However, there will be a great many expansions that were not done in the original books.

I am debating if there will be new POV characters or if I will stick with just Kalen and Breton. (A completely revamped Tala and the lady captain of the black hand company (You’ll remember her as Maiten’s lady if you’ve read the originals) are the current candidates for POVs.)

However, I might decide to hurt ALL of your feelings and use Verishi as a POV as well. But should I, your feelings will be HEAVILY hurt.)

Note: this is a dark epic fantasy with a happily ever after. I am NOT shy about hurting feelings in this series.

So, Day 1 of the 150 Day challenge is going to be one of the lightest days of work in the project. You can do as little or as much as you’d like.

Decide what you want to write!

At a minimum, you need to know the following:

Genre: are you writing a mystery? An epic fantasy? A Space Opera? What kind of book do you want to write?

Tone: Are you writing a dark, light, somewhere in between book? Light books tend to have gentler plotlines, while darker ones tend to be more complex and don’t pull punches. Knowing what type of book you’re writing, in terms of tone, can help you make critical decisions later!

As mentioned before, I will be working on the rewrite for Storm Without End. While I won’t spoil new events in the books, I will be using examples from the original book (in all of its warty glory) throughout the challenge.

If you haven’t read the original series, you can purchase it through this collection on Patreon. The End Chapter has the ePub with Storm Without End, Storm Surge, and the Eye of God in it, complete with MANY warts, typos, etc, etc, etc. (There is a reason the whole shebang is being rewritten.)

I highly recommend that, as part of your Day 1 activities, you decide who your focal character for the story is. For me, it is Kalen Delrose, the Rift King and the titular character of the series. (Reminder: while the series is entitled REQUIEM FOR THE RIFT KING, it will have a happily ever after.) I only make one promise:

POV characters will make it to the end of the series, although one of them will be a mix of happy and sad. I will not be telling you which character is as happy as it is sad, because that would ruin the fun.

I will 100% be an asshole along the way.

So, today, decide what you’re writing! Tomorrow, I’ll be back with your next task, and I’ll give you a few days to actually complete the second assignment task, as you may not be able to sacrifice the 1-3 hours likely needed to accomplish everything.