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First Draft in 30 Days [Paperback]

Karen Wiesner (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews) |
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Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1582972966 | ISBN-13: 978-1582972961
Many aspiring and experienced novelists throw out hundreds of pages (and waste valuable time) before they have a workable first draft of a novel. With First Draft in 30 Days, those days are over. In this guide, readers will find: A systematic method for completing a detailed first draft in just 30 days; Sure-fire methods to reduce time-intensive rewrites and avoid writing detours; Comprehensive, detailed and interactive worksheets to make the process seem less like work and more like a game; Flexible and customizable, this revolutionary system can be modified to fit any writer's approach and style.

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First Draft in 30 Days + From First Draft To Finished Novel: A Writer's Guide To Cohesive Story Building + Book in a Month: The Fool-Proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Karen Wiesner is a novelist and member of Romance Writers of America. She is a frequent guest at writers conferences and the author of Electronic Publishing.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 216 pages
  • Publisher: Writers Digest Books (March 5, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1582972966
  • ISBN-13: 978-1582972961
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Karen Wiesner Page
Karen Wiesner
Creating realistic, unforgettable characters one story at a time...

Karen Wiesner is an accomplished author with 88 books published in the past 14 years, which have been nominated for and/or won 124 awards, and has 15 more titles under contract. Karen's books cover such genres as women's fiction, romance, mystery/police procedural/cozy, suspense, paranormal, futuristic, gothic, inspirational, thriller, horror, chick-lit, and action/adventure. She also writes children's books, poetry, and writing reference titles such as her bestsellers, First Draft in 30 Days and From First Draft to Finished Novel {A Writer's Guide to Cohesive Story Building}, available from Writer's Digest Books. Karen recently sold her third offering to Writer's Digest Books. WRITING THE SERIES will be released as a trade paperback TBA. Her previous writing reference titles focused on non-subsidy, royalty-paying electronic publishing, author promotion, and setting up a promotional group like her own, the award-winning Jewels of the Quill, which she founded in 2003. Jewels of the Quill produced two award-winning group anthologies per year published by Whiskey Creek Press from 2005-2011. All were edited by Karen and others. Additionally, Karen is a member of Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors and World Romance Writers. Along with her writing, Karen enjoys designing Web sites, graphics, and cover art.

For more information about Karen and her work, visit her Web sites at http://www.karenwiesner.com, http://www.firstdraftin30days.com, http://www.falconsbend.com and http://www.JewelsoftheQuill.com. If you would like to receive Karen's free e-mail newsletter, Karen's Quill, and become eligible to win her monthly book giveaways, send a blank e-mail to
KarensQuill-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

To see Karen's upcoming appearances, visit
http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/appear.html

To see Karen's WIP's, visit:
http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/WIP.html


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
263 of 281 people found the following review helpful
Very misleading title March 15, 2005
Format:Paperback
"First Draft In 30 Days: A Novel Writer's System for Building a Complete and Cohesive Manuscript" is what it's called but this is not the result the book actually provides. If you follow this method, after 30 consecutive days of work, you will NOT have a first draft or a manuscript at all. What you'll have is a complete OUTLINE of - to quote the book - 60 to 100 pages!

Days 1-6: Preliminary outlines and sketches

Days 7-13: Research

Days 14-15: Story evolution (ideas for beginning, middle, end)

Days 16-24: Formatted outline

Days 25-28: Evaluating the strength of theoutline

Days 29-30: Revising outline - and on Day 30, you're to put this outline "on a shelf for at least two weeks to several months."

The worksheets in the appendix are similar to those in "The Marshall Plan" (an author also of the crime/suspense/thriller genres) and, although this author says you can apply it to any genre, the book leans heavily towards suspense fiction. (Romance is an "optional" plot thread, for example, and her worksheets have headings like "character/suspect".)

For mystery, suspense, and thriller fiction where plots are intricate and have tons of crucial details, this method may be a useful way to track all that. For writers who use outlines as a guideline only and/or who stray from it if the work evolves in a new direction, this is a lot of "writing before the writing" that may not prove to be all that productive in the long run.
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85 of 87 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't let Karen Wiesner's romance background scare you away. This woman is a professional, and she's got some sensible suggestions.

According to her bio, she's written over twenty books, including such diverse genres as romance, mystery/police procedural, suspense, thriller, paranormal, and action/ adventure. Perhaps even more impressive is her planning acumen. Wiesner is always two, three novels ahead of the game, thanks to her formatted outline.

Many writers either can't or don't want to outline their novels in advance (See Tony Hillerman, for instance). Wiesner couldn't either at first until she developed the formatted outline. Wiesner refers to the formatted outline as the first draft of the book. When she revises, she revises the outline rather than suffer through countless drafts of the manuscript.

This woman is a real left-brainer. She plans virtually everything, including time to let the manuscript marinate. The appendices include character, setting, plot, and research outlines as well as a place to write potential interview questions for possible experts and your characters. Her story evolution worksheet is almost as helpful as the formatted outline.

And-oh,yes-I almost forgot Chapter eight. It's for us poor shleps who already have a completed manuscript with all kinds of holes. She shows us how to use her system to salvage the mess.

As one who has endured twenty-three drafts on his first effort, Wiesner's FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS is a godsend.
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141 of 154 people found the following review helpful
30-Day Outline April 4, 2005
Format:Paperback
Whoever the book titlers are at Writer's Digest, they should be ashamed of themselves. A 30-day outline is a far cry from a 30-day draft. The first draft--the "rough" draft of your book--must be the most painstakingly thought out and executed of all the drafts, be there two, three, five, or six more to follow. It's here, right in the beginning, that you develop your story flow, your pulse, your synthesis of surroundings with characthers and their actions / reactions within the disciplined framework of your plot. I'm sure most successful novelists would tell you that. In no way can a 30-day outline be labeled a 30-day draft. These are two separately, pronouncedly different and distinct writing phases. ##### I have always been a firm believer in outlines, and have always developed one for every one of my books (including my novel, Six Hours Past Thursday). In no way can you, as a writer, feel that you are somehow going to be led by some spontaneous, invisible hand through the jungle of story creation, be it fiction or non-ficion. To me, outlines form the basics of essentialism for a writer. ##### To flip the coin to the other side--objective analysis of Karen Wiesner's First Draft In 30 Days from the standpoint of content--it is first rate. There is nothing arbitrary or random about her call for a tightly-disciplined approach to book creation. Dispersing learned counsel in rapid-fire bursts, she lays out a good sequence for outlining your book. Preliminary thoughts, research, story evolution, formatted outline, evaluate strength, a revistation, and, importantly, putting it on a shelf for a quiet period of rest and final reflection before proceeding into the first draft. A good pecking order. ##### My lone objection is to the misleading title. Hence, the 3-star rating.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Assembly instructions missing
A lot of work went into that book.

Elemental pieces (character traits, settings, research notes, scene notes, plot threads, etc. Read more
Published 23 days ago by buab het
Easy to Implement
Want to write a first draft of a novel? Stop the guess work, because Wiesner provides a useful framework to achieve your goal. Action plan, to do lists, and more. Very practical. Read more
Published 2 months ago by R. Widdowson
not suitable for plotters or pantsers
from book blogger Margaret Yang writingslices.wordpress.com

FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS is a misnomer. Read more
Published 2 months ago by margaret_yang
Must have for aspiring writers
Most writers aspiring writers as well as many established writers are, shall we say disorganized at best. Read more
Published 6 months ago by KentCannon
Excellent guide to novel structure.
The book doesn't really get you to a first draft, but shows you how to create a detailed outline that will make writing a first draft much easier. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Aldene Fredenburg
The Tools Necessary to Produce a Workable First Draft in 30 Days
Karen Wiesner provides the reader/writer with the necessary tools for building a complete and cohesive manuscript in 30 days. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Richard R. Blake
Kailuadreams
This book is helping me so much to create characters and to stay on track as I write my first book. It is definitely keeping me focused. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Kailuadreams
So far so good
Haven't finished the book yet or put into practice the formula but already ideas are coming and I can't wait to get started. Very easy to understand and follow.
Published 13 months ago by S. Saunders
Great Resource
Karen Wiesner's First Draft in 30 Days is a great resource for novelists who are trying to find their niche when it comes to planning and organizing an idea into a solid story. Read more
Published 20 months ago by C. Fishback
Really helped me get started!
First and foremost, I am not a published novelist. However, after working through the first half of this book I have no doubt that I can and/or will be. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Kristin "DesignDiva"
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
There are so many skills crucial to a writer's success that it's often easy to overlook one of the most basic and necessary skills of all: brainstorming. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
closing scene notes, formatted outline, subplot threads, yearly goal sheet, scene capsule, romance thread, sketch worksheet, outline capsule, researching your idea, setting sketches, aid worksheets, story goal, interview question list, editor revisions, plot sketch, plot tension, editing worksheet, outline worksheet, day sheet, new capsule, sketch information, first full draft, preliminary outline, critique partner, outlining process
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Draft of Scene, Old Dan, Degrees of Separation, Sweet Dreams, Method Worksheets, Black Riders, Little Ann, The Lovely Bones, Chris Spindler, Outlining Your Career, Character Name, Fellowship Briefly, Stalled Project, The Fifteenth Letter, Method Schedules, Mystic River, New Orleans, Incognito Series, Mount Doom, One Ring, Angelfire Trilogy, Brainstorming Before You Outline, Name of Setting, The Productive Writer, Wayward Angels
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