Guides

How to Write a Novel, Step by Step, When You Start in November

Published October 22, 2026

Short answer: the guides quoted here count seven, eight, twelve or fourteen steps, and keep the same order under every count.

An idea. The people in it, and what stands in their way. A plan, long or short. A first draft, written through to the end before anything is fixed. Then revision, then the sentences, then the spelling.

A month of novel writing covers one of those steps: the draft. Six groups run one this year: "Most of them aim at a novel, which is the tradition, though several accept short stories, poems or a revision of an existing manuscript."

So the question has two halves. What to hold on the first of the month, and what to leave for the first of December. Each step below names the guide that describes it and what you have in your hands at the end of it.

How long a novel is

Wikipedia's article on word count reproduces the categories of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America: a novel is "40,000 words or over", a novella "17,500 to 39,999 words".

The same article quotes the novelist Jane Smiley, who "lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words".

The guides sit between the two. Scribophile, a writing community: "Most novels fall between 40,000 and 120,000 words". Grammarly: "Typically, novels are between 50,000 and 110,000 words, but this can vary by genre."

Eleanor Pilcher, a published novelist who also works as a publisher, on her Substack: "I recommend 80-100k words in length, if you're writing a novel, but plenty are shorter/longer!"

Fifty thousand words, the usual total of a November, is a novel by the shortest of these counts and a short one by the others. The arithmetic of that total over thirty days is on this site.

Seven steps or fourteen: the same order

Two of the pages refuse to count. Pilcher: "there's no one-size-fits-all strategy to writing and completing a novel except to start writing."

Linda Collison, a novelist, on her blog in 2015, passes on "a humorous quip attributed to Somerset Maugham": "There are three rules for writing a novel — unfortunately no one knows what they are."

Tom Bromley, who has spent "over 25 years in publishing", gives his list as "in my opinion, a "best" order in which to pursue them."

Where the lists agree is the place of the draft: after the idea and the people, before any revision.

Grammarly, of its steps four to seven: "The next four steps are important parts of the novel-writing process, but they don't necessarily need to be done in the order we've listed them."

Step 1: an idea, said in a sentence

Scribophile: "If you're having trouble coming up with the premise for your novel, try making a list of "What if?" questions."

Bromley: "Most novel ideas start small and expand out." His exercise: "Rather than searching for one "big idea," start with smaller ones and see how you can build them out."

Collison's three P's: "A person in a particular place with a particular problem."

Two of the guides ask for the idea in a sentence. Neil Chase: "You know you're on the right track if you can distill your idea into a single sentence." Ali Luke: "See if you can encapsulate the core idea in a sentence or two."

Luke adds: "I don't think you can force a novel idea."

Scribophile gives the idea a second step, whether it is "novel-worthy": "To decide if your premise can fill around 80,000 words, try creating a mind map of possible directions your story could take."

Its test: "Consider how many characters you see coming together to develop this premise. If there are only a few, the premise might better serve a short story."

In your hands: one sentence, and a page of directions it could take.

Step 2: the people, and what stands in their way

Scribophile's five questions for a main character: "What do they want?", "What do they need ?", "What is their greatest strength?", "What is their greatest weakness?", "What made them the way they are today?"

Bromley's three: "What drives them? What are their flaws ? And why should the reader care about what happens to them?"

Luke names the cast: "a protagonist (main character), some supporting characters , and an antagonist (not necessarily a "villain" as such, but someone who opposes the main character or gets in the way of them achieving their goal)."

Then the obstacle. Scribophile: "Character + Conflict = Plot." And: "Conflict happens when two characters want different things that can't coexist at the same time."

Bromley: "Conflict comes in two main forms: external and internal." His exercise: "Try to think of one external and one internal conflict for your protagonist — and relate them in some way."

In your hands: a few names, a want for each, and the one thing in the way.

Step 3: an outline, as long or as short as you like

Grammarly defines the document: "a novel outline is a bare-bones framework that simply lists your novel's key plot points and a few details under each heading."

It belongs to no one else: "a novel outline is purely for your own aid. You don't need to stick to any particular format or include any specific amount of detail; nobody is going to check or grade your outline."

Scribophile's minimum is four lines: "The inciting incident", "The first major turning point", "The midpoint", "The climax". "For some writers, this is all you need to begin writing. Others feel more comfortable sketching out everything that happens in between these plot points."

Luke's version has seven points: "The Hook", "The Inciting Event", "The First Plot Point", "The Midpoint (Second Plot Point)", "The Third Plot Point", "The Climax", "The Resolution". Her exercise: "Spend an hour outlining your novel's plot."

Bromley worked on paper: "I wrote out chapter summaries for Crazy Little Thing Called Love on index cards and spread them out on the floor." He teaches "the "Three Cs": change, causality, and complications."

The guides disagree on how much, and say so. Luke: "In practice, I think this is a slightly false dichotomy … most writers fall somewhere between the two!"

Bolt: "Neither approach is superior. The right method is the one that produces pages." His test: "Write a chapter with an outline. Write a chapter without one. The method that produced better pages is your method."

Collison: "Whether you plot everything out in advance and follow the golden story arc– or write by the seat of your pants, or use a combination of the two, it really doesn't matter."

Luke, asked whether an outline is required: "You don't have to outline a novel." Then: "if you want to get to "The End" faster, spending even just an hour on outlining could make a big difference."

Four ways of building that list, with a chapter-by-chapter template, and what separates an outline from a structure, are on this site.

In your hands: a list of what happens, in order, from four lines to a page.

Step 4: who tells it, in which tense

Scribophile: "There's no right or wrong perspective to use in your writing—there's just the right one for this story at this time."

The tense is decided at the same time: "also decide if your novel is going to be told in past tense ("I stood in the doorway") or present tense ("I stand in the doorway")."

Luke: "Third person, past tense is probably the most "standard" option out there across genres, and it's unlikely to attract any hatred!"

Two of the guides settle it the same way. Luke: "Write a sample scene from your story in whatever perspective and tense seems to make most sense." Bromley: "Write a short section from both viewpoints to see which fits your novel best."

Point of view in fiction is on this site.

In your hands: one scene, written twice.

Step 5: the first draft, through to the end

This is the step a November covers. Grammarly: "Using your outline as a roadmap, start writing your first draft. Warning: It's going to be messy!"

And: "Don't worry about having perfect grammar or consistent pacing or a narrative with zero plot holes: Just write. You'll revise your work later; right now, your goal is to get the story out of your head and onto the page."

Bolt, of his drafting phase: "The drafting phase has one objective: produce a complete first draft. Not a good draft, a complete one."

Five of the guides say the same thing about fixing the text as you go.

Bromley: "resist the urge to edit as you go! Right now, your mission is to get the novel down, warts and all. As the saying goes, you can't edit a blank piece of paper."

Pilcher: "stop reading back what you've written . Just keep moving forward and finish drafting your work; editing can come later."

Collison: "Try writing the whole story before you begin to revise and edit. This is not a rule, but a suggestion."

Bolt lists it among the reasons books stay unfinished: "Editing while drafting. Perfectionism in the first draft produces paralysis. Separate drafting from editing completely. They are different modes of thinking."

What a draft does not have to be: long, or in order. Collison: "My first drafts aren't very long — sometimes less than half the length of the finished novel."

Collison again: "Don't feel compelled to write chronologically. Even if you are using an outline or other structure, write the part that speaks to you, first."

Luke: "Consider beginning partway through your story, if writing the first scene feels too daunting." Chase: "And don't worry about word count at this stage, as it will adjust in the rewrite process."

What a missing fact becomes. Luke: "If there's a particular fact you need for a scene, it's fine to put a [note to self] to come back to it."

Where a session ends. Pilcher: "When you reach the end of a writing session, don't stop at the end of a chapter or stanza. Always begin the next one. Write a few lines or jot down a quick summary of what's coming next."

The daily number is yours. Scribophile: "set goals that keep you on track—either a daily or weekly word count, or a set amount of time per day or per week that you spend writing."

Bolt gives three kinds: "Word count goals: 500–2,000 words per session.", "Time-based goals: 30–90 minutes of focused writing per session.", "Chapter goals: One chapter per week." And: "Set writing goals that feel achievable, not heroic."

Luke's plan for a year: "assuming your novel's going to be about 80,000 words , you could aim to write 10,000 words a month". Pilcher's example: "I'll write 5,000 words a month".

For a November, the arithmetic is written out on how to write a novel in a month: "50,000 divided by 30 is 1,667, rounded up."

In your hands: a draft, "a written version of a text that is not yet in its final form, however rough it is", this one running from the first page to the last.

Step 6: readers, revision, then the sentences

Bromley: "Once you've reached the end of your first draft, feel free to give your inner editor some time to shine."

On readers, Bromley: "pool the comments and take the most common feedback on board. If more than one person is saying the same thing, they're probably right!"

Grammarly's revision: "This could mean cutting entire scenes, characters, plot points, or even concepts."

The order within it: "As you revise, focus on the big-picture components of your novel that need to change. Fix grammar mistakes as you catch them, but don't dwell on these just yet."

Its line between the two: "Editing isn't quite the same thing as revising; while a revision involves changing the novel's content, editing is more of a low-level process of polishing the wording, fixing any grammatical mistakes, and the like."

Bolt gives the same order in three layers: "Start with big-picture structure, then move to prose quality, then grammar and polish in that order (never the reverse)."

Scribophile: "Many writers find they write multiple drafts before they emerge with a manuscript they're happy with."

Revision, line editing and proofreading, the three jobs and the order they go in, are on this site.

In your hands: a second draft, then a third.

Where the month falls

Steps 1 to 4 end with a sentence, a cast, a list and a scene. The guides put them before the first page, which for a November means October.

A 30-day plan for October on this site asks for five things by the first: "A one-sentence premise", "A first scene, actually drafted", "Somewhere between five and twelve events", "Three named characters", "And an ending".

Step 5 is the month. Step 6 begins on the first of December.

Four of the guides say how long the whole thing takes.

Grammarly: "It takes about six months to write a first draft, then just as long to revise it and write a second draft." Luke: "Writing a whole novel draft takes time: for most first-time novelists, it takes years."

Scribophile: "you'll be spending at least a year, if not longer, corralling it into shape." Bolt: "Most first-time authors writing at 1,000 words per day can complete a 60,000-word first draft in 60–90 days."

Collison did it on the November calendar. "In 2007 I answered the call, writing the first draft of Looking for Redfeather during the month of November. It took 72 more months to revise, edit, and publish the book!"

A month with a draft at the end of it is step 5 done. The months after it are the step the guides put last.

How Scrin does it

Scrin is a home where pages grow into books: you keep writing, from an untitled line to a chapter, and Scrin keeps the rest.

It serves long writing of every kind: a novel, an essay, a screenplay, a run of articles. The steps above fit a month in it the way the guides lay them out.

The sentence of step 1 and the names of step 2 are lines on a page before they have a title or a place.

Except on a phone, the list of step 3 can go on a board, where "scene cards sit anywhere, and moving one never changes the manuscript's order."

The draft of step 5 is written in the browser, with "no network needed after the first visit, nothing to log into." A plain-text copy is "saved every day".

Step 6 is where the history earns its place: "Freeze a scene before you rework it, and travel back through its history when the new version turns out worse."

Before the draft, the list of step 3 is yours to write. After it, for step 6, you can ask Scrin for a map of the manuscript: "an outline scene by scene, a synopsis, the characters and places with their scenes, the threads that run through it." The text leaves the device for that "only once you have said yes, every time."

The text leaves whenever you want it to: Markdown, .docx, EPUB, HTML, or PDF when you print. What it does and does not do is one page.

Questions

What is the first step to writing a novel? An idea, in every guide quoted here; two of them ask for it in a sentence. Neil Chase: "You know you're on the right track if you can distill your idea into a single sentence." Linda Collison's three P's: "A person in a particular place with a particular problem."

Do I need an outline to write a novel? No. Ali Luke: "You don't have to outline a novel." Chandler Bolt: "Neither approach is superior. The right method is the one that produces pages." Scribophile's minimum is four lines: the inciting incident, the first turning point, the midpoint and the climax.

How many words is a novel? "40,000 words or over" for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Wikipedia, "Word count"). Scribophile gives "between 40,000 and 120,000 words", Grammarly "between 50,000 and 110,000 words", Jane Smiley "between 100,000 and 175,000 words". Fifty thousand is a novel by the first count.

How long does it take to write a novel? Grammarly: "about six months to write a first draft, then just as long to revise it and write a second draft." Ali Luke: "for most first-time novelists, it takes years." Linda Collison drafted hers in a November, then spent "72 more months" on it.

Should I edit while I write the first draft? Five of the guides quoted here say no. Grammarly: "Just write." Tom Bromley: "resist the urge to edit as you go!" Eleanor Pilcher: "stop reading back what you've written". Chandler Bolt: "Separate drafting from editing completely." Linda Collison calls it "not a rule, but a suggestion."

Can a beginner write a novel in a month? A month covers one step of the guides' order, the first draft. Its usual total, fifty thousand words, is a novel by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's count. The steps before the draft are October's; revision, which the guides put after it, starts in December.

Sources

• Fija Callaghan, "How to Write a Novel: A Complete Guide to the Novel Writing Process", Scribophile, https://www.scribophile.com/academy/how-to-write-a-novel-a-complete-guide-to-the-novel-writing-process (read 18 October 2026).
• Tom Bromley, "How to Write a Novel in 8 Steps: A Bestselling Author's Guide", Reedsy, 13 September 2025, https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-write-a-novel/ (read 18 October 2026).
• Ali Luke, "How to Write a Novel: Your Seven Step Plan", Aliventures, 27 February 2026, https://www.aliventures.com/how-to-write-a-novel/ (read 18 October 2026).
• Lindsay Kramer, "How to Write a Novel in 7 Steps", Grammarly, updated 15 August 2023, https://www.grammarly.com/blog/writing-techniques/how-to-write-a-novel/ (read 18 October 2026).
• Chandler Bolt, "How to Write a Book: The Step-by-Step Guide I Use With Every Author", selfpublishing.com, 23 April 2026, https://selfpublishing.com/how-to-write-a-novel/ (read 18 October 2026).
• Neil Chase, "How to Write a Novel in 14 Easy Steps (Even If You're a Beginner)", updated 26 April 2025, https://neilchasefilm.com/how-to-write-a-novel/ (read 18 October 2026).
• Eleanor Pilcher, "So you want to write a novel. Here's how.", 25 May 2025, https://eleanorpilcher.substack.com/p/how-to-write-a-novel (read 18 October 2026).
• Linda Collison, "How to Write A Novel", 11 November 2015, https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/9397831-how-to-write-a-novel (read 18 October 2026).
• Wikipedia, "Word count", last edited 9 October 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_count (read 18 October 2026).
• Scrin, "Novel Writing Month in 2026, Who's Running It, and When", https://scrin.app/guides/novel-writing-month/; "How to Write a Novel in a Month, Realistically", https://scrin.app/guides/write-a-novel-in-a-month/; "Preptober, A 30-Day Plan for October That Fits Around a Job", https://scrin.app/guides/preptober-30-day-plan/; "What Is a Draft in Writing", https://scrin.app/guides/what-is-a-draft/; "How to Outline a Novel", https://scrin.app/guides/how-to-outline-a-novel/; "Outline vs Structure", https://scrin.app/guides/outline-vs-structure/; "What Is Point of View in a Novel", https://scrin.app/guides/point-of-view-in-fiction/; "Revision vs Line Editing vs Proofreading", https://scrin.app/guides/revision-vs-line-editing-vs-proofreading/; "Open Scrin", https://scrin.app/download/ (read 18 October 2026).