3 Tips for Fast Drafting Your Novel In Record Time

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. Writing Mastery Academy, a 2021 NaNo sponsor, was founded by Jessica Brody, author of the bestselling plotting guide Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. In this post, Jessica shares her tips for getting words down on the page quickly, aka Fast Drafting:

As an author who writes on more than 350,000 words per year, I like to joke that every month is a NaNoWriMo for me. So with the real NaNoWriMo approaching, I thought I’d share my top 3 tips for writing quickly and efficiently, which you can use to easily smash through that 50k mark this November! 

1. You Don’t Need an Outline. You Only Need 5 Things.

As the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, I’m used to talking about plot. But as any happy “pantser” will tell you, you don’t have to start a novel with a full plot outline (although you certainly can!). 

No matter if you’re a die hard plotter, pantser or somewhere in between, I urge you to, at the very least, sit down and brainstorm 5 things about your main character, your plot, and your world before you begin writing.