Episode Details

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After writing 6 nonfiction books, I'm working on my first novel, which everyone who listens to this show is painfully aware of by now. So when Kim Purcell reached out about her new book, Write a Novel in 100 Days, the timing felt less like coincidence and more like the universe smacking me on the head. 

Kim is the author of Trafficked and This Is Not a Love Letter; she has an MFA; she's been teaching novel writing to kids, teens, and adults for about as long as I've been in this business; and her new guide comes out September 22 from Penguin Random House with a foreword by Donald Maass. It also took her longer to write than three of her novels, which made me feel enormously better about my own life.

We covered a lot:

• Why the 100 days aren't consecutive, and what to do when life detonates in the middle of your draft
• The 15-minutes-a-day approach, and what counts as writing when you can't actually write
• "Method writing," and why becoming your character is where the scenes that make readers cry actually come from
• Why rewriting a scene from scratch is roughly ten times faster than fussing with the one you have
• The handful of plot points even devoted pantsers need to know before they start, and why the muddy middle is almost always a missing midpoint
• Kim's theory on asking for critical feedback before your first draft is finished 

Near the end, Kim gives some advice I'm putting into my own toolbox: Let go of it being good and entertain yourself instead. 

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Write the Damn Book Already is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with authors as well as updates and insights on writing craft and the publishing industry. 

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