Welcome to Blog Your Book in 30 Days 2015! #BYBin30

Welcome to the second Blog Your Book in 30 Days!

Feel free to use the above badge and add it to your blog. (Please link it back to here.)

Last year, I wrote a post a day on the subject of writing for you to read and learn from, and I gave away a prize a week. (I also blogged a 30-story collection of mermaid-themed flash and short fiction as well as editing a non-fiction book that I wrote in the previous February.) This year, I intend to let you read over previous posts, and I will post once or twice a week on the subject of writing. Feel free to read over last year's posts. If there are any topics in previous posts which you feel I should expand on (or a writing or publishing related topic you would like to see covered), please let me know and I will do so on a new post on the blog.

During this challenge, I will also be working on another fiction collection of short stories to go with a world I created for one of my novels. I will share the occasional excerpt here.

I'm also accepting guest posts. I want to hear about your work in progress. What are you working on this month? What is your plan for this month's challenge; how do you intend to complete the challenge? Have you written novels before? Are you published? Do you have any knowledge that might be helpful to others in the challenge? If you would like to guest post, please let me know in the comments. And if not, I'd still love to hear in the comments what type of book you will be working on this month. (There's a poll in the side-bar you can vote in too.)

I will post a bit about marketing your books as well, and how blogging your book can help with marketing before your book is even published.

Feel free to "like" the BYBin30 Facebook page and to join the BYBin30 Facebook group where we can discuss our books together.

If you want to accept the challenge, but, for whatever reason, don't want to make any part of your book public by blogging it, there are alternative ways to join in the challenge.

There is a sign-up form for the challenge, which is required for being eligible for the prizes. Don't worry. I won't use your sign-up to spam you or e-mail you any of the posts. It will just make it easier for me to contact you if you win a prize, and it helps me keep tabs on the number of official members.

Below are the links to last year's post. The topics include a variety of writing subjects for fiction writing, non-fiction writing and blogging. I hope you find them helpful.

Day 1: Planning and Plotting

Day 2: Research

Day 3: Hook your Readers in the First Chapter

Day 4: Conflict

Day 5: Supporting Topics/Supporting Characters

Day 6: How to Create Convincing Villains

Day 7: Becoming an Expert on your Book Topic

Day 8: Writing Memorable Dialogue

Day 9: An Alternate Method of the Hero's Journey

Day 10: Making your Blog Attractive to Readers

Day 11: Writing a Series Book

Day 12: Taking a Break from Writing to Refuel your Muse

Day 13: Creating Character Emotions

Day 14: Creating Fantasy Worlds and Creatures

Day 15: How to Avoid Writer's Block and Get your Story Written

Day 16: Writing the Middle of your Book

Day 17: Repurposing Old Blog Posts for your Book

Day 18: Changing Focus in the Middle of the Book; What Happens When Your Book Has to Be Altered Drastically?

Day 19: How to Successfully Weave Backstory into your Plot

Day 20: Be Cruel to your Protagonist

Day 21: The Value of your Book

Day 22: Using your Minor Characters to Fuel your Story

Day 23: Tips for Growing your Blog Readership

Day 24: Believe in your Ability to Write your Book

Day 25: Self-Editing your Manuscript

Day 26: Self-Publishing your Manuscript

Day 27: Humor in Writing

Day 28: Point of View

Day 29: Happily Ever After: Writing a Satisfying Story Ending

Day 30: Writing an Epilogue

Introducing the Blog Your Book in 30 Days Challenge #BYBin30

Blog Your Book in 30 Days is a challenge to write the first draft of your book by posting one chapter a day for an entire month. During the month of the challenge, helpful blog posts will be shared on the website.

The challenge is here to help you write the book you have always wanted to write but have never written. Whether you want to write a memoir, a fiction novel, a comic book, a children's chapter book or middle grade novel or a non-fiction book, this challenge is going to help you get it done.

Every day, you are going to do any research that is needed for the day's writing and your are going to post a blog post of one chapter of your book. By the end of the month, you should have 30 chapters and a completed first draft.

This way of writing your books works best if you are planning to self-publish your book, but there are some instances where blogs have garnered the attention of agents and publishers and resulted in book deals. Those instances are the exception though, not the rule.
Rules:

Sign up. You will not be entered into the prize drawings unless you are signed up. Go here to sign up.

Every day, you are going to do any research that is needed for the day's writing and your are going to post a blog post of one chapter of your book. By the end of the month, you should have 30 chapters and a completed first draft.

You have from the first of the month until the 30th of the month to complete the first draft of your book. No starting early, unless it is only research and outline you are working on beforehand.

On the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 30th of the month, you will do a quick comment on that day's blog post posted on this blog about that week stating how the week has gone for you and anything you have learned or achieved from the challenge that week. Your comment might be quoted in the Blog Your Book in 30 Days book when it comes out or later in the blog itself and, by commenting, you are giving permission for your quote to be used.

Each day, you are to write one chapter and then copy and paste it into your day's blog post. By the end of the challenge, you should have a final word count. On the 30th, your comment will include your final word count and whether or not you have finished your first draft. Everyone who completes their first draft will be entered into a prize drawing. (The prize is yet to be determined.) Every time you leave a comment on (one comment per post) a blog post, you will earn one more entry into the drawing. Your comments on the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 30th will earn you two entries into the drawing, and my favorite comment from each of those five days will earn an extra entry.



This challenge is self-driven and monitored. It is a way to keep yourself accountable as you write.