Read No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days for Free Online

that’s referred to as an “awesome blossom”).
    -8:30–9:00 Took a stab at actually cleaning up apartment, halfheartedly washed some dishes, called parents.
    -9:00–9:30 Hastily assembled package I was supposed to send for Mom’s birthday two weeks ago.
    -9:30–10:00 Paid bills.
    -10:00–11:00 Worked.
    -11:00–12:00 Skimmed the newspaper, read a little bit of a novel.
    -12:00–12:30 Remembered I was supposed to email an editor about an assignment. Wrote email and sent it off.
    -12:30 Activated Time Finder.
    After you’ve finished each daily log, reward yourself with a delicious, nonnutritious treat, and then go to sleep. (Sleep, by the way, should not be included on the Time Finder’s list of items, as hoarding as much sleep as possible every night is the birthright of amateur writers everywhere.) After you’ve carefully documented your activities for one week, bust out the highlighters or colored pencils, and go to town. First, go through and circle or underline every REQUIRED activity in red. These are the top-tier items that you have to do every day or risk unemployment, eviction, expulsion, or mental collapse. Things in this category would be basic acts of personal hygiene, commutes to work or school, actual working, running work-related errands, eating meals, shuttling friends or family around, grocery shopping, and paying bills.
    Next, go through the lists and mark the HIGHLY DESIRED activities in blue. In this category go the things that, if push came to shove, you could get by without doing for a month, but which would cause major stress or hardship. This second tier of activities could include exercising, returning social phone calls and emails, attending friends’ birthday parties, or going to professional or religious get-togethers. Finally, take that last color and mark all the FORGO-ABLE activities that you could give up for a month without courting disaster. This includes Internet surfing and chat-room trawling, online shopping, TV-watching, making art, nonessential home repairs, hobby-based tinkering, and recreational reading.
    Okay, now it’s time to shift the Time Finder into overdrive. Go through the forgo-able items, and add up how many hours you spend per day, on average, in their pursuit. As you can see from my list, I tend to spend about three hours every day doing things that I could sacrifice for thirty days without my life falling apart.
    If, like me, you’ve found that you’re spending between an hour and a half to two hours a day on forgo-able items, you’re golden. These will be your sacrificial lambs next month. Say good-bye to them now, and know they will still be there when you pick them up again in thirty days. When I’m writing a novel, I stop Internet surfing entirely, limit my leisure reading, and spend much less weeknight time with (non-noveling) friends. Other writers use the opportunity to pare back conversations with their in-laws and stop doing yard work. The choice is yours; all you need to do is find an hour and a half or so per day in the forgo-able category and you’ve got a green light to write. If you can’t trim the fat you need from the forgo-able items, you’ll need to slice into the meat of your highly desired activities. Because these are more important, the best approach is to cut down on frequency rather than eliminate them entirely. Plan on skipping a few meetings, ducking out of birthday parties early, or making your child hitchhike home from school a couple of days a week. If you find yourself dipping into the “required” category to come up with the hours, congratulations. You are in the top .5 percent of busy people everywhere. The good news about this is that you’ve only survived this long by multitasking at an Olympic level. You’ll be able to bring all those keen timemanagement skills to bear on your novel. If you haven’t had a heart attack yet, odds are good you probably won’t next month either.
    Let’s assume, though, that you,