I don't see anything wrong with following structure to get the ball rolling. Everyone usually follows some kind of formula or repetitive task when they're first learning to do something and once they accomplish it (no matter how horrible the outcome), they can at least be proud to have done it and can learn to fix mistakes and change the formula into a personal style, eventually. Although I don't think a guide needs precise word count like the ones given, especially for a novel.. Remember plays and specifically poems (like Shakespeare sonnets with a set number of lines)? Structure isn't always bad. For a 50k novel, I think your guide lacks flexibility. It also could use more explanation as to why you think certain elements are more effective placed in that order.
Okay, JJ. Deep breaths, now. Put down the saber, call off the hounds. This isn't war, so let's not turn it into one. If you are, or have ever been, a musician, you will understand this, and if not, maybe you will anyway. In one of my favorite episodes of the old TV show "M*A*S*H", Major Winchester (Charles), performs a muscle graft from a young soldier's right hand to his leg, and so preserves his ability to walk. But when the soldier awakens and learns what has happened, he is horrified. "But," Charles said, "you'll be able to walk! And you'll only suffer some mild loss of dexterity in one hand." The soldier tells him he doesn't care about walking; he's a concert pianist. Charles is devastated, and the soldier sinks into a deep depression. Charles sends for sheet music - a concerto written exclusively written for the left hand by Ravel for a musician who had lost his right arm in the First World War. "I can't build a reputation on one freak concerto!" the musician complains. "I am a surgeon," Charles says. "I can make a scalpel sing. But when I sit at the piano, I'm nothing. Oh, I can play the notes, but I can't make the music. You have a gift, but that gift isn't in your hand; it's in your heart and in your head. You may not be able to concertize, but you can still share your gift, in the classroom and with the baton." "Then what are these for?" the soldier asks, gesturing at the sheet music. "These are for you." And the scene ends with the soldier playing from the concerto. Just as with music, as important as technique is in writing, it's secondary to what's in your heart and in your head. As I said earlier, as a way to introduce a young student to the structure of one particular work, this model might have a use. But to say, "this is how to write a novel" or even "this is one way to write a novel" to me is a gross error, not because I think the elements listed in your OP are so wrong - as some have noted, you can find at least some of these elements in a lot of writing - but because the way it's presented, including specific page and word counts for specific stages, is, in essence, a cookbook approach. It focuses on technique. It suggests that good writing can be constructed, like a souffle or a model airplane kit. It ignores the music. So, what's my answer? Read the greats. Read a lot. Read what turns you on, so much so that you understand why it turns you on. Then look inside and understand what stories you have to tell and then start telling them. And when you don't like them, don't think they're good enough, go back to the books you love and lay them side by side with yours and see where you fell short, then go back and try again. That's a hell of a long way from "60,000 words of brain-vomit".
Don't plan just one novel, but at least two, or one novel and several short stories. When I do my first Nano (two years ago), I planned so carefully that my novel ended at word 45000. I had to look for something else to write in the very last days. Remember, you write more words showing than telling. So don't show as much as you can: show everything.
2 days to go now... can you feel the excitement in the writing world? It feels like I've been waiting for months!
Let the madness begin! I hit up my story at midnight, and hashed out 1770 words, to get me started. I will probably write more after I wake up 'today', but it's always nice to get a jump start! I see a few others have some words on paper! Awesome job!
Off to a reasonably bad start at 1,400 words. I'm hoping to have a better time tomorrow. Shall keep everyone updated!
Stopping at 2,643. It's not where I wanted to be today, but it's been a really hard, really long day. There was a terrible car accident by my house, I've had a headache since I opened my eyes, and I am done for today. Done, I say. Done. Edit: You all have done really well today. Congrats to all of you
Great job everyone! Sorry about your day Trish, kudos for getting as much as you did! I'm gonna call it a night at 3100 words. There's always tomorrow, and this is only the first day. Also, I'm finding my story is moving along slower than I thought it would. I might have an issue with pacing.
Still trying to buffer as the new Call of Duty comes out tomorrow and my wife's b-day is Tuesday. Real life stuff is going to threaten to put me behind. Sitting at 5400.
