Three Guidelines for a Three-Day Novel—Or Any Fast First Draft
By Greer Macallister | September 2, 2024 |
Once upon a time, there was a contest that asked people to write a novel in three days.
(The Three-Day Novel Contest still exists, actually – I looked it up, and it takes place annually over Labor Day weekend! A little late to get started for this year.)
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is one thing—generating a complete first draft in one month, as thousands of people attempt every November—but the three-day novel (https://www.3daynovel.com) is a whole different ball of wax.
To generate a 50K-word first draft in a month, your pace is 1667 words per day.
To do the same in three days instead of thirty? 16,667 words.
(Assuming you write 20 hours of each day for three days, which would be insane but also maximize your writing time, that’s 833 words per hour. Writing 17 hours a day leaves more time for sleep, but ups your hourly count to 980 words each hour. Good luck, y’all!)
The fast first draft isn’t for everyone, and the three-day novel definitely isn’t. But as a writer who loves to pour on the speed when circumstances allow, and someone who produces an insanely messy first draft even when I take my time and write slowly, I find that setting a blistering pace is absolutely the best way for me to get a big chunk of that first draft on the page.
If you want to give it a shot, here are my three favorite guidelines for putting the most words on the page as quickly as possible.
(Three-day novel not guaranteed.)
Set goals, but don’t obsess. Yes, you’re trying to get to a certain number on a certain schedule. Yes, it will probably help you focus if you chunk up the goal into smaller pieces (10K before dinner on Day 1, 35K before bed on Day 2, etc.) But getting obsessed with hitting those goals precisely will mess with your head and your productivity. And if you set out to write 50K words in three days and you only get to 30K? That’s still 30K words you didn’t have before! Congratulations.
Generate without judgment, but don’t cheat. There are ways to crank up your word count without generating text that has a chance of making it into the finished novel. When I officially entered the Three-Day Novel Contest back in the early 2000s, I definitely did things I knew didn’t make sense for a finished novel. I included song lyrics. Encyclopedia entries. I had my protagonist, a college professor, walk across his campus and think about every building he saw. These are not things that make for riveting reading. In a second draft, they would come out anyway. Try to minimize them in your first draft, even when you’re going for speed. (But if you type something and later think, I shouldn’t have included that, do NOT go back and delete. We are not deleting here. That’s not how this works.)
Start early, but don’t start from scratch. There is a very specific moment in a novel’s development when I can write a thousand words in an hour for multiple hours, and believe me, it is not late in the game. No time for fine-tuning. If I’m doing it right, I may not even re-read most of the sentences I type. This has to take place very early in the drafting process. I have to have a long, long list of scenes yet to be written—if I stall out on one, I need to be able to quickly jump to another. I need to be far enough along in the planning that I know the characters, the setting, the basic shape of the plot, and other key ingredients. If you’re still figuring out whether your two main characters are going to be involved in a love story, the fast draft probably isn’t right for you at the moment; and if you’re already 80K words into a draft and you just need to generate the last 10K, please don’t put the fast-drafting pressure on yourself. You’ve got enough to deal with.
Again, these are just the things that have worked for me in the past. And if they work for you? That would be awesome.
Q: Do you ever try to generate a really fast first draft?
Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her historical novels have been named Book of the Month, Indie Next, LibraryReads, Target Book Club, and Amazon Best Book of the Month picks and optioned for film and television. Her latest novel, The Thirteenth Husband, is inspired by Aimee Crocker, the Paris Hilton of the Gilded Age. Macallister also writes the ongoing Five Queendoms epic fantasy series as G.R. Macallister. A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Boston, MA. www.greermacallister.com
Years before the 30-day challenge thing, I had a poetry and writing class with David Madden, who challenged himself to write a novel in 30 days. Now, again, this was before the nano-thing. So, some time after that when I was writing Sweetie, I decided to challenge myself to the 30 day thing. I did it, but with discipline. It frankly was pretty ‘easy’ considering I didn’t have a day job and sat down with my laptop like a ‘job’ – work, break, work, stop, repeat next day.
But write a draft in that short of time? I probably would not! Could I spit out that many words? Yes but they would highly suck even for a first draft. However, I think it would be a great start to tap in to that subconscious kind of thing.
I have written two novels in a short period of time – each one was exactly 30 days. BUT I only gave myself a goal of 60,000 words for each book. The end result is a hot mess, but I feel good about being able to accomplish it!
Greer, I’m in my mid-eighties and would never even think of putting my brain & body through writing a three-day book draft. I’ve progressed on the NaNoWriMo, but never made it. I maybe should think a faster mode, because of age. But, I’m a slow writer & edit as I go along. Just trusting I get there in time. My editor is happy to do the heavy work in the end. The challenge for me is in keeping the story flow going with Snyder’s Beat Sheet. Structure, not sped important. The book sequel is ready for the editor. A milestone in itself. 📚🎶 Christine
Incredible post! Formula One writing. Olympic transcription. I’d probably overheat my engine or sprain a nib. My keyboard would seize up!
I’ve never gotten as far in my prewriting as you do at the starting line. Seriously, I think that’s amazing.
Although I do it with words, I don’t set a number of words as a writing goal, my goal for each session is one or more scenes–what needs to happen next or at least at some point. Of course, words count; I need to meet the guidelines for my genre, but I’m nowhere near as productive as you. I don’t think my brain operates at speeds like that. I’m out of breath just reading about it. Are you sure it’s safe; is there any health risk associated with it?
🤣 This comment made me laugh as much as the post itself did. I’m with you! (But sometimes I try to be with her!)
Wow, even by my insane standards—that’s insane. Regardless, I loved this. When I switched to fast drafting a decade ago it changed everything. Me, someone whose stories never failed to languish, became the writer who never failed to finish. The level of immersion pulls me completely into the story, a deep connection that I never lose thereafter.
Okay, numbers. The most I’ve ever written in a day was just over 10K. I’ve done it a few times, but can’t imagine doing even that amount three days straight. The fastest I’ve ever reached 50K for NaNo was the 12th of November, though there’s a voice insisting that maybe it was the 11th. Too, over the last decade, I’ve never failed to complete a novel in 30 days. I write fantasy and every one of those novels was 115-135K (except the year I became seriously ill and finished with 85K). Each year, I’d then finish out the month writing short stories or a novella. I’ve done this other months, too.
Oh my gosh, yes, it requires discipline. I write standing for some of it and I don’t look back. If there’s an issue, I make note of it and keep going. As crazy as it all is, it’s one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had—many times over. I also plan well in October, not just the story, but my life. I blog each October about how critical it is to organize your life as much as possible, and to be flexible when the inevitable unexpected comes your way. This year, though, there’ll be no NaNo for me. I’ll be publishing my first novel.
Meanwhile back on Earth, I once did Nanowrimo and did get a novel out of it, but not exactly. It had a couple of huge holes in the plot (perhaps “gaps” is the word) and, at almost exactly 50,000 words, needed another 40,000 just to be a shortish novel. But I did hammer it out, over another year or so (I’m not looking it up), and eventually wrote a sequel. Three days? It takes me three days to sign in to my prescriptions page at the pharmacy.
🤣🤣🤣 Why are the comments on this post so good?
Inspired by Nano, I do write fast drafts once I have the outline in place. It’s not an outline I totally adhere to: it’s more of a guideline. I’ve done 90, 000 words in a month–about 3-4k a day, but I call it the discovery draft. I figure out character motivations and even plot twists this way, and the next draft is more or less a complete rewrite where I cannibalize chunks of this quick and dirty draft. The process works well for me when producing genre novels, I’ve found. I’ve never written beyond 5k words in a day.
My first novel was written in 12 weeks. 500,000+ words which meant that I was writing 6000 words a day for that 12 weeks. It is a coherent story that needs a lot of editing and will need to be put into at least 5 books, but I did do it.
I could do that novel in 3 days, but why should I? I take the 6-10K words a day when drafting. And yes I’ve done as high as 20K or more words in a day. But that is when I can’t quit since I’m into the story and need to get that part down.
Luckily I have a very understanding spouse to encourages me to indulge in my writing. And surprisingly, he really enjoys my books–the ones aimed at women– and gives me good feedback.
I’ve never set a goal to do this. But this past January, I did write the complete 112,000-word draft of a novel in eighteen days. It was a good, solid draft that needed only light revision. I handed it to proofreaders just a month after I wrote the first sentence.
And yes, I knew the characters, their relationship, the scenery, and the basic plot before I started. I doubt I’ll beat that record again even if I know all that for another book, but who knows?