Denise Jaden - Fast Fiction: A Guide to Outlining and Writing a First-Draft Novel in Thirty Days

Fast Fiction is filled with stellar advice, solid-gold tips, and doable, practical exercises for all writers who want to draft a complete novel.

Melissa Walker, author of Violet on the Runway

Being a pantser I have always resisted outlining, but I have to say that Fast Fiction changed my mind! Denise Jaden takes what I find to be a scary process (outlining) and makes it into an easy and, dare I say, enjoyable one. Fast Fiction is a hands-on book that asks the right questions to get your mind and your story flowing. I know Ill be using Fast Fiction over and over again. Highly recommended for fiction writers!

Janet Gurtler, author of RITA Award finalist Im Not Her

Fast Fiction is full of strategies and insights that will inspire and motivate writers of every experience level and best of all, it provides them with a solid plan to quickly complete the first draft of their next novel.

Mindi Scott, author of Freefall

Fast Fiction provides writers with the perfect mix of practical guidance and the kick in the pants they need to finish that draft. This book is a must-have for writers of all levels.

Eileen Cook, author of The Almost Truth

Practical and down-to-earth, Denise Jadens Fast Fiction makes a one-month draft seem doable, even for beginners, any month of the year.

Jennifer Echols, author of Endless Summer and Playing Dirty

One of the greatest challenges any writer faces is getting a great idea out of ones brain and onto the page. Fast Fiction breaks that process down into concrete, manageable steps, each accompanied by Denise Jadens sage advice and enthusiastic encouragement. And anything that helps streamline the drafting process is a-okay by me! Fast Fiction is a great addition to any writers toolbox Ive got it in mine!

Catherine Knutsson, author of Shadows Cast by Stars

Forget the fact that this resource is directed at those wanting to complete a fast draft if youre out to get your novel done, period, Jadens Fast Fiction will be the kick in the butt that gets you there, from story plan to The Endand beyond.

Judith Graves, author of the Skinned series for young adults

Also by Denise Jaden

Never Enough

Losing Faith

Writing with a Heavy Heart

Copyright 2014 by Denise Jaden

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

First printing, March 2014

ISBN 978-1-60868-254-6

Printed in the USA on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Shana Silver,
who introduced me to fast-drafting, to outlining,
and to NaNoWriMo

If someone had told me during my early writing days that I would be able to write a draft of an entire book in less than a month, I probably would have thought they were crazy. At the time, I took between one and two years to come up with a first draft, and even with that amount of time spent on those drafts, my early books were riddled with major plot problems.

In the fall of 2007, my critique partner, Shana Silver, introduced me to National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org). Its a yearly challenge in which hundreds of thousands of writers around the world spur each other on to write a 50,000-word novel within the month of November.

Ill admit, I was more than skeptical. But with the help of my critique partner, I worked on an outline ahead of time and then jumped in with both feet on November 1. By November 21, I had a completed manuscript, which would go on to surpass my earlier novels (which had taken years to write) and become my first published novel, with Simon & Schuster (Losing Faith in 2010).

Needless to say, I was thrilled. Ive been completing the NaNo challenge every year since, plus holding my own March Madness challenge yearly on my blog (denisejaden.blogspot.com). Ive been honing my fast-drafting skills learning what works and what doesnt and I have some insight to share with you on the subject.

Most recently, I wrote one complete manuscript in November 2012, and a completely different one during the following month of March, and those will hopefully be my next two published books. They have been by far the fastest path from first draft to polished draft for me.

Ive put together all my advice here in one book, along with writing prompts, free-writing exercises, and a day-by-day plan to take you through your month-long fast-drafting journey. This guide can be used as a companion to Novembers NaNoWriMo, or it can be used at any time during the year when you would like to write a draft of a novel quickly.

My challenge to you is to write a novel in thirty days. Not in the next thirty days because we have some prep work to do first. But once you have your storywriting tools in hand, Ill set you loose to write about 2,000 words every day for thirty days.

I know that sounds daunting, but anyone can do this. Im serious. There are only two key ingredients:

Diligence

Perseverance

Some would argue a third ingredient is skill, but I believe if you have enough diligence and perseverance, and if you follow a guide rather than writing aimlessly, skill will grow over time.

Some people are born storytellers. They can write a story organically, by the seat of their pants, and it works. But anyone can develop their writing skills and learn the ingredients of good storytelling. In this book, Ill help you come up with a workable story plan ahead of time, check whats not working, and fix it before you pour too much blood, sweat, and tears into the idea.

Then, as you write each day during the month, Ill give you lots of hints about good storytelling and supply simple tasks to work into your manuscript. Hopefully each one will show up exactly when you need it. However, consider these tasks more as a set of prompts to get you going than an actual formula. They are meant to provide jumping-off places as well as the inspiration to push through even on the days when you feel like your muse has left the building. Its not that These-Steps-in-This-Order-Will-Give-You-a-Great-Book, but ideally, they will help you develop a richer story, giving it layers and momentum.

Indeed, one word of caution: This is not a get-rich-quick formula. This process is about fast-drafting a first draft, not a