A One-Month Story Plan

that I did not make up

Greetings, writers—

Well, it’s National Novel Writing Month (have any of you ever tried this?), and I’m back to Good Ideas after a two-week hiatus, during which I “finished” a truly terrible draft of my book and began work on my next cowriting project.

While I think it’s madness to try to write a novel in a month, I respect anyone who attempts it. As I’ve said two or three thousand times before (this being one of them), writing quickly is an excellent way to avoid writer’s block; it emphasizes discovery and leaves room for surprise and magic; and it silences the inner critic, who understands that this draft is literally supposed to be shit.