Welcome to NOVEL MARATHON, a 26-episode podcast aimed at helping you write the first draft of an 80,000 word novel in about a year. We’re reading THE ONE YEAR NOVELIST by L. M. Lilly, STORY GENIUS by Lisa Cron and THIS YEAR YOU WRITE YOUR NOVEL by Walter Mosley. To join, simply listen, do the readings and complete the exercises in the assigned chapters listed in the show notes. You can expect a new episode about every two weeks. I hope you’ll join us. Good luck with your novel-in-progress!
All content for Novel Marathon is the property of Undercover Novelist and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Welcome to NOVEL MARATHON, a 26-episode podcast aimed at helping you write the first draft of an 80,000 word novel in about a year. We’re reading THE ONE YEAR NOVELIST by L. M. Lilly, STORY GENIUS by Lisa Cron and THIS YEAR YOU WRITE YOUR NOVEL by Walter Mosley. To join, simply listen, do the readings and complete the exercises in the assigned chapters listed in the show notes. You can expect a new episode about every two weeks. I hope you’ll join us. Good luck with your novel-in-progress!
New Year, Season 2, Mile 1: How to be accountable & who is this main character of yours?
Novel Marathon
8 minutes 12 seconds
2 years ago
New Year, Season 2, Mile 1: How to be accountable & who is this main character of yours?
Dear Novelists & Novelistas,
🏃Welcome to Mile 1 of Novel Marathon – The 2023 Edition!
The basics: Novel Marathon is a self-directed class. Our goal is to complete a ~80k word novel in a year. There will be exercises and readings, details below. We’ll be reading three books:
👟 The One Year Novelist by L. M. Lily
👟 Story Genius by Lisa Cron
👟 This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley
For extra credit, I will also occasionally refer to:
👟 Refuse To Be Done by Matt Bell
Don’t worry if you don’t have all the books right away – I’ll go over the main concepts in this newsletter and on the podcast (link in bio)
I’m super excited to kick off this new cycle with you. Like you, my goal is to write a novel in a year. Let’s do it together 💪
So, without further ado, here are the readings and assignments to work on for the next two weeks:
📚Required reading
Ch. 1-2 in The One Year Novelist
Ch. 1-4 in Story Genius
Pgs. 3-13 in This Year You Write Your Novel
🌟Extra credit reading
Pgs. 1-6 in Refuse To Be Done
✏️ Your Assignment
👟 Accountability
Tell 3 people that you plan to finish a novel by this time next year.
👟 Protagonist
Picture your main character. Think about these three questions:
What’s the main thing your character wants?
What makes that thing, whatever it is, hard to achieve? Why does your main character desperately want to achieve this goal?
Why do you want to write about him or her? What’s motivating you to tell THIS particular story?
👟 Antagonist
Shift our focus to the antagonist/antagonistic force. For maximum conflict, you want the antagonist’s goal to be directly opposed to your main character’s goal. Whatever your main character wants — the antagonist should want the opposite.
👟 Beliefs
Brainstorm three over arching beliefs your main character has — does she believe that people are generally good or bad? What are your opponent’s core beliefs?
🎧 Podcast
Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen!
Newsletter 💌 and latest post
https://novelmarathon.substack.com
More info💡
https://www.novelmarathon.com
Good luck & happy writing! ✍️
Novel Marathon
Welcome to NOVEL MARATHON, a 26-episode podcast aimed at helping you write the first draft of an 80,000 word novel in about a year. We’re reading THE ONE YEAR NOVELIST by L. M. Lilly, STORY GENIUS by Lisa Cron and THIS YEAR YOU WRITE YOUR NOVEL by Walter Mosley. To join, simply listen, do the readings and complete the exercises in the assigned chapters listed in the show notes. You can expect a new episode about every two weeks. I hope you’ll join us. Good luck with your novel-in-progress!
