No Plot, No Problem book review
Honestly, this book gave me a lot of freedom and a lot of permission because there are a lot of stories I want to tell. And every month, I have 12 different times of 30 days that I can write a book.
So, let’s talk about the best way to write a book, even if you’re a rebel like me.
I’ve been thinking about writing a book for at least the last three years, but I got really, really serious earlier this year. And I know myself. I know I like to procrastinate. I know I will use a whole bunch of excuses to get myself to not do something because I’ve tried to write a couple of books, and I kind of fall off.
So I decided I was gonna sit down and write.
Be rebellious. You got an idea in mind? Just write.
I had an idea of what the different chapters would be, so I would open up a document and write. Different document, write. I did that for about 20 or so days, and I had 27,000 words. I was so proud of myself.
Then my homeboy told me about a workshop called “How to Get Published.” It turned out to be about traditional publishing.
There were two published authors talking about how to pitch, how to find an agent, how to submit your book, how to write a logline, how to write a query letter, all the stuff. I was writing down so many details.
I decided to use some of their suggestions for books about writing, like Stephen King’s On Writing and Save the Cat!. I also found another book at the library: No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty.
The genre is nonfiction, and the theme is instruction and writing guidelines.
Chris Baty is the founder of National Novel Writing Month, and I’m gonna call him an expert. He sat down with a couple of friends who were talking about writing books and was like, nope, I’m gonna do it.
There were three really big things I got from this book.
You only get better at writing by writing
Not by reading about writing. Not by reading books. Not by talking about writing. Not by studying.
You get better by writing.
“You only get better at writing by writing.”
When I started my book, I set a timer for 45 minutes. I wanted to write 1,000 words on May 19, 2026. I wrote 1,000 words.
I think the reason I have different chapters is because I would suddenly say, “Oh, what about that story?” Then I would open a different document and start writing it. I didn’t want to be confined to just one thing. I was like, I wanna write. I wanna get it out.
And I did that.
If I think of another story or another detail in a story, I’ll go pull up that prior page and start writing again. I was reading some of my earlier writing and I was like, this is so flat. I didn’t mention the color of the walls. I didn’t mention the condensation running down the cup. In just two months, I noticed such a difference in my writing.
I’m an expressive writer. I like to talk about how this is not red, this is not burnt sienna, this is melon. I’ve only learned that I really enjoy writing that way, and that I am that descriptive, through writing. I really improved in just two months of literally sitting down and writing every single day.
Five clicks and you’re done
The second thing Chris said that was really good is that there is a five-click max when it comes to research. Because you’re writing a novel, which is typically fiction, you don’t need to spend month after month after month looking up some of this and some of that and some of whatever.
He says if you do have to research, you have five days total to research. But after that, five clicks and you’re done. I really, really enjoyed that because it is so easy to start procrastinating when you start looking things up.
“What was the name of the street I lived on 17 years ago?”
No.
This is why we’re calling it fiction.
Even if you gotta make up the street name, that’s okay because we’re calling it fiction.
Let the writing take you where it wants to go
The third thing I absolutely love is that Chris says you have to let the writing take you where it wants to go.
National Novel Writing Month is about having one idea and sitting down and writing 50,000 words in 30 days. There have been New York Times bestselling authors who started books this way. Water for Elephants was written during National Novel Writing Month. Nowadays, books can be around 90,000 words, and that’s okay too because audiences have different appetites for how much detail they want and how much they want to hear.
But you can write a book in 30 days.
Do not let that stop you.
Honestly, this gave me a lot of freedom and a lot of permission because there are a lot of stories I want to tell. Every year, I have 12 different 30-day opportunities to write a book.
I thought that was fascinating because walking out of the publishing workshop, a couple of people were really frustrated. They were like, “No, it’s gonna be so hard. Oh my God. Needle in a haystack to get published.” And I walked out thinking, well, if it’s all that work and there are different agents for sci-fi and dystopian and fiction and nonfiction, just write a whole bunch of books.
It’s how my brain works.
Are you interested in writing books? Are you already writing a book? Because I would love to support you.
A lot of the work happens after a book is written. Editors, agents, they all have to pitch it. They have to change it.
But you just have to get it written.
And you got 30 days, so go write that book.
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Until the next book review,
Kyla
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