I've always liked marathon style writing. In college and graduate school, I chalked up my all-night writing marathons to procrastination. But in the past 15 years, I've been blessed with publishers who have given me insane deadlines! I've completed nearly every one of my thirteen finished books (ten of them published) in less than three months, most in 6 weeks, and one in just nine days.
 
When I found out about National Novel Writing Month, I discovered that I am not the only crazy person who likes to write marathon style. Every November (and now during the summer Camp NaNoWriMo), a whole bunch of folks attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I signed up, figuring it would be one way to finish my mystery novel. I failed miserably--my poor victim is still languishing naked in a hunting cabin in the mountains of western Pennsylvania because I couldn't find the courage to have my murderer kill him.
 
So, I tried to figure out how to succeed at writing marathons. I began researching writing, how famous writers worked, and what psychology had to say about how writers could work faster more efficiently. In 2007, I taught a class to help other writers successfully complete National Novel Writing Month. I have taught that class in local bookstores every year since. In the meantime, I began collecting all of my research and ideas in a project notebook. I had been thinking about writing a book on writing since 2006, but I was not sure what kind of a book I wanted to write. Then it hit me: I'd write about writing books fast. But could I do it fast?

Yes — I could and I did! I wrote Write-A-Thon in 26 days during National Novel Writing month in 2009. I am delighted that it is now going to help other would-be writers get inspired to write their books fast!

Training for a marathon is an act of faith. Actually running the marathon is an act of courage. With faith and courage, ordinary humans can accomplish great things!
—Randy Essex

When I was in graduate school, we’d often finish classes with a need to attend an attitude adjustment hour at the local bar. Consider this section—and especially this chapter—your attitude adjustment tool.

The biggest difference between the wannabe writer and Molly McAuthor is attitude: the wannabe writers have a million excuses—‘if onlys’ and ‘maybe somedays’—taking up valuable space in their brains. Molly McAuthor has learned to challenge and overcome her excuses, taking on the attitude that she can and will write. And she does. Most authors have faced their doubts and excuses and written anyway. Here’s what they have to say about the most common ‘if onlys’ and ‘maybe somedays’ uttered by wannabe writers.

Inspiration
The wannabe writer says, “If only I was inspired” or “Maybe someday the big idea will hit me and I will write.” Here’s what Madeleine L’Engle says about waiting for inspiration: “…lots of people, ages varying from fifteenish to seventyish, talk to me about the books they could write, if only… The reason they don’t ever get around to writing the books is usually, in the young, that they have to wait for inspiration, and you know perfectly well that if an artist of any kind sits around waiting for inspiration he’ll have a very small body of work. Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.” Jack London says, “You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Don’t wait for inspiration. Waiters wait. Writers write.

Time
The wannabe writer says, “If only I had more time to write” or “Maybe someday I will have time to put together that memoir.” We have the time and energy to do what we choose to do. Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Carol Shields wrote her last novel while sick with stage-four breast cancer. She wrote an hour a day. In fact, when her children were young she wrote only two pages a day. She would drop off her 5 kids at school, come home and clean up the house, write for the hour before lunch, and then edit the two pages in the hour before they came home from school or just before bed. Shields wrote her first novel in longhand while sitting in bed each night. She’d write two pages fast and then shut off the light. At the end of the year, she had a novel. Anthony Trollope wrote only three hours a day and yet was quite prolific. He tried to write 250 words every fifteen minutes. He shared his writing life with a job at the Post Office. "Too busy" is just another excuse not to write. Procrastinators are too busy. Writers write.

Materials
The wannabe writer says, “If only I had the right materials” or “Maybe someday, when I get the ultimate writer’s computer, I’ll get that magnum opus together.” Joanna Trollope has written every one of her novels in pen on a legal pad. Toni Morrison writes her books in pencil on a legal pad. Gertrude Stein scribbled her poems on odd scraps of paper. Most of my last book was planned on the back of old envelopes. What more could you need? If you’re looking for the perfect pen, then get a job as a buyer at an office store. Consumers consume. Writers write—with any little stub of a pencil and scrap of paper they find!

Education
Wannabe writers say, “If only I had the right education” or “Maybe someday I’ll know enough to write this book.” Anne Lamott, a bestselling writer, dropped out of college to write. J.A. Jance writes every one of her bestselling mystery novels not knowing what will happen next. She writes to find out the answer! Education and knowledge helps, but you don’t need it to be successful. Students study. Writers write.

Talent
The wannabe writer says, “If only I had more talent” or “Maybe someday I’ll have the confidence to see if I can write.” Novelist Gail Godwin said, “I work continuously within the shadow of failure. For every novel that makes it to my publisher's desk, there are at least five or six that died on the way.” Erica Jong said it this way, “Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place it leads.” Don’t worry about having enough talent. Hard work trumps talent. Always.

Age
The wannabe writer says, “I used to dream of writing a book, but now I’m too old to do something like that” or “I’m not old enough to write something worthwhile. I need to wait until I have more life experience.” Bestselling author Billie Letts published her first novel at age 56, Where The Heart Is. Novelist Harriet Doerr won the National book Award at 73 for her novel Stones for Ibarra. On the other end of the age spectrum, author Christopher Paolina began writing his novel Eragon when he was 15. As Madeleine L’Engle once said, “I am every age I have ever been.” Don’t let your age (or other people’s negative comments about your age) keep you from writing. Write anyway.

Space
Virginia Woolf believed that every woman needed a room of her own. Many wannabe writers use this as their excuse for not writing, putting off their work until they have their own space or the perfect desk. Mystery novelist Sheldon Rusch wrote his first novel at his local Starbucks. A friend of mine recently claimed a small corner of her basement—cordoned off by bookshelves—as her studio, requiring that her family use a password to enter. One of my clients takes regular weekends away to write her books. All of us crave and need space to write. What separates the wannabe from the writer is the courage to claim it—no matter what.

We all have our private list of ‘if onlys’ and ‘maybe somedays.’ If only I were healthier, younger, older, more poetic, smarter, better connected, or ready. In the end, the ability to move from being a wannabe to a writer takes one thing: putting your butt in the chair and words on the paper no matter what excuse or reason or person tries to prevent you.

Cynthia Ozick calls writing an act of courage. E.B. White calls it an act of faith. It is both. Stop excusing yourself. Start writing.

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Excerpted from Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It) by Rochelle Melander, with permission of the author. Learn more at www.writenowcoach.com.

When we commit ourselves to writing for some part of each day we are happier, more enlightened, alive, lighthearted and generous to everyone else. Even our health improves.
–Brenda Ueland

Running in The Zone has to be one of the most satisfying experiences. When it all fits together it can seem effortless and intensely rewarding. But why are some times better than others? Is there anything we can do to help ourselves get into The Zone?
—Roy Palmer

Runners talk about getting into the zone, the place where all the variables—breathing, stride, and weather—work together to create the perfect run. Runner Roy Palmer has studied the zone for more than ten years to discover how to reach that elusive place. Palmer has reviewed the studies on running in the zone and reports these seven common characteristics. Runners:

• were totally absorbed in the activity
• experienced an inner clarity
• had a sense of ecstasy and being outside everyday reality
• were in the moment, focused on the present
• felt a deep passion for the activity
• had a sense of serenity, no anxiety about their performance
• had no sense of effort — it just happened

Writers know the zone, too. Every one of the above characteristics can be applied to the writing zone. When you write in the zone, you feel like you could write forever. Ideas come easily. You feel passion for what you say and you put sentences together effortlessly. You do not worry about what you will say next, whether you have met the word count, or if what you are writing is good enough. The usual intrusive thoughts—what should I make for dinner? Do my toenails need clipping? I should check email—disappear. You are in the zone—writing fast and furiously and loving every minute of it.

Most writers have experienced the zone at least once in their writing careers. Even if you’re a first time marathon writer, you have probably had at least one writing session in the zone. The zone experience presents a few challenges for all writers but especially for beginning writer. First, once we’ve had a zone-like writing experience, we think that writing should always be like that. One of my clients woke up on a Saturday with a full-fledged scene in his mind. He wrote it that morning. The challenge came when he tried to write the next scene, and it didn’t come so easily. He lamented, wondering why his muse had left him. Second, once we’ve had a zone-like experience, we believe that all real writers compose their masterpieces in the zone every single day. So instead of writing, we beat ourselves up for NOT being in the zone or we try desperately to get into the zone. We believe that once we are real writers—once we sell a book for a bazillion bucks—we will be in the zone. Finally, many writers mistakenly credit the zone experience to a flash of inspiration. We look back at the zone experience and, whether it is true or not, believe that it happened because inspiration struck. So we put our writing on hold while we wait for the magic muse to return and inspire us. When it doesn’t, we feel like failures.

After working as a professional writer for nearly twenty years, I’ve gotten pretty cynical about the zone. Professional writers cobble together words into prose on a multitude of topics every single day. Some of the topics we are passionate about and could write while doing the complicated Ganda Berundasana position in yoga. Other topics remind me of how I used to feel about the Christmas fruitcake (do I have to eat it?). But the zone happens whether I am writing about what I love or what I loathe. Here are some truths about the zone:

1. Your writing session does not have to be an amazing, pleasurable experience in order for you to produce great work. Some writers believe the writing process is downright painful. George Orwell said, “Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” I disagree with Orwell. Sure, there are painful moments. There will be times when, like a runner entering the middle of the marathon, you feel like you have hit a wall. But you will also have times that are merely okay. Not good, not bad, but like an ordinary day at work. And here’s the real truth: you can write good stuff whether you are in the zone or not.

2. The zone experience has nothing to do with whether you are a real or professional writer. In fact, I am beginning to think that writers who claim that they were in the zone the whole time they were writing their masterpiece are lying. Writers are people who write, just like runners are people who run. If you feel good while you write, good for you. If you feel sucky while you are working, I am so sorry to hear that. But how you feel while you write does not have a thing to do with your professional status as a writer.

3. Writers get into the zone while they are and writing not before. Inspiration does not ring like a school bell, telling you when to get in your seat and work. Inspiration is more like the announcements that come over the loud speaker after you get into your seat. The announcements are going to come no matter what, but you have to be quiet and sit in your seats in order to hear them. In other words, inspiration strikes while you are already writing!

 I’ll be the first to admit that inspiration does strike at random moments. That’s why I carry a pen and a stack of note cards with me wherever I go. But real writers never wait to be inspired. They know—just as you are learning—that inspiration strikes most frequently during the writing process. Even if you start your writing session with a brain that feels dull and fuzzy, chances are that if you write persistently for any amount of time, you will get inspired.

Zone writing happens more than you think. It is not some amazing mystery reserved only for professionals and a few gifted individuals. It happens to anyone who writes regularly.
So how do you get in the zone?

You write every day or, at the very least, five days a week. What would you say to a runner who took one run a year and complained about never reaching the zone? You’d laugh at them, right? I would. How can anyone think that one run a year is going to get them in a zone? Yet plenty of writers abandon their great book because they tried to write for a few days and never felt it. If you only write once a week, it’s going to be harder to get into the zone. As I said earlier in the book, the more you write, the more you write. And, the more you write, the more likely you are to find and stay in the zone.

Next, you look back at your zone times—the moments when your writing felt like it was effortless and fun—and write down everything about those writing session that you can remember. What made success possible for you? Look at every internal and external factor that you can think of including: environment, attitude, topic, and so forth.

When I did this exercise, I realized that for me the zone happened most often when:

• I wrote first thing in the morning, before I had communicated with anyone either in person or virtually.
• I was writing daily or nearly daily.
• I gave myself time to prewrite the day before—to jot down notes about the project before I began the actual writing session.

The list that you compile will be longer and probably different than mine. If you can, try to recreate the environment that has produced the zone for you in the past. It will increase your chances of reaching the zone in your writing sessions. But please do not think that if you write in less-than-ideal conditions, you have to give up the zone. You don’t. I’ve hit the zone with my kids screaming in the other room, while suffering through a nasty cold, and at the end of a long day of work. The zone happens. It happens most to people who write daily. Trust that the zone will happen for you, too.

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Excerpted from Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It) by Rochelle Melander, with permission of the author. Learn more at www.writenowcoach.com. 
 

The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B.
—James Yorke

For new writers and sensitive souls, a small interruption can upset the delicate balance—and ruin the writing day. Often writers tell me they can only write in the morning or when the house is perfectly still or when the moon is full. Some tell me they need to set aside a whole day to get anything done. Others need just the right paper or light or chocolate.

When I first started writing, I needed perfect conditions: a quiet house, an empty morning, and no worries about interruptions. A telephone call or the doorbell ringing could upset the delicate balance—and ruin the writing day. That fragility led to many arguments with my writer husband. It seemed that I always needed to talk when he needed to write and vice versa. Then the babies came. Neither of them seemed to have any respect for our writing hours. They needed attention, food, and diaper changes during our precious writing time.

When I interviewed novelist Liam Callanan, author of The Cloud Atlas and All Saints, for my podcast, Always Write, his baby daughter started crying! Not ideal—but real. I asked Liam how he managed to write novels with little children in the house and a job directing the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He said, “Realize that there will never be ideal conditions.”

As a writer, I usually juggle family duties, work, and writing. Liam’s words—there will never be ideal conditions—have become an encouraging mantra. One week, up against several deadlines, I tried to write despite the after-lunch energy dive. My kids screamed in the background. The band next door practiced (loudly). I repeated Liam’s words—there will never be ideal conditions—and managed to write an article and a promotional letter. At some point, I had to accept that ideal is for the television and romance novels. Here are some thoughts on how to loosen your grip on ideal and get real (or get a plan B).

Plan ahead. Interruptions happen. Part of getting real is getting ready. Look back on the kinds of interruptions and roadblocks you have experienced in your writing over the past year. What sort of Plan B would have helped you to solve them? Examples include: writing less, working on a shorter portion of the project, writing in a different location, researching instead of writing, or turning off the phone.

Get specific. Most writers I work with have a global idea of what they want to do during the week. For example, the first time I did National Novel Writing Month (and failed), I went into the month with this on my to-do list: “write novel.” That’s too big, even without interruptions. Take your big goal and break it down into really small steps. This year, my Plan B steps will be really tiny turtle steps: choose character’s name; write description of character’s house, start scene list, and so forth. Each of these steps I could do in 15-minute slots. Many of them I could work on while cuddling a sick child.

Get creative. Do you remember the old saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention?” Crazy, challenging situations stimulate our creativity. Use your interruptions as an opportunity to get creative and design a fun plan B. Barbara Kingsolver wrote her first novel in a closet, in the middle of the night, while pregnant with her first child. In 2007, five of the ten bestselling books in Japan were written on cell phones via text message. And some of those writers were teens, composing their novels between classes. Talk about a plan B! If these writers can do write without all the time in the world, you can, too!

You will not have ideal conditions throughout this writing marathon. Someone you live with will get sick and cough all over you or your computer. The neighbors will put on a new roof. The basement will flood. Tough. Get a Plan B (and C and D)! Write through, around, and within the distractions. Write every day. Write every time you have a free moment. Start right now.

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Excerpted from Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It) by Rochelle Melander, with permission of the author. Learn more at www.writenowcoach.com.