Write-a-Book-In-A-Day Guidelines

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We don't want to dictate how you write your book. That is up to you. As long as your finished book meets all the criteria laid out in the rules and includes the parameters allocated to you, how you get there is up to you. However, we do have some guidelines and hints that you may find helpful in getting a book finished within the 12-hour period.

Creating Your Team

Your group won't succeed if all the members aren't able to co-operate well. You will need a minimum of five and a maximum of ten people. All members of Secondary School teams must be under 18 on August 31st of the year of the competition.

Get sponsorship of $300 per team. This may mean each team member asking five friends or relatives to put in $10 or you may find sponsorship from your employer, school, Rotary Club, local businesses or through fundraising projects. Alternatively you can obtain much more sponsorship and enter for the Largest Sponsorship prize.

Please send your cheque to Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre Write-a-Book-in-a-Day, 11 Old York Road, Greenmount, WA 6056 with your application form. Ring 08 9294 1872 to agree a date to compete. You will be sent a booklet containing computer and other hints to help you succeed in writing your book in the required time.

Get together in your team to do some team-building beforehand. Read some books from your target age group.

Include in the team at least one member who is a reasonable typist, who is good at grammar and can punctuate correctly and can use Microsoft Word. A person who can use a scanner and its associated software would be useful. One person should be computer literate. A booklet of helpful computer and printing hints is provided to teams when they register.

You will have to illustrate a cover, and may wish to provide other illustrations in your book, so you should consider including an illustrator in your team.

You may wish to think about your book beforehand. However, you will not be allowed to take in notes of any kind. On the day you will be given two human characters, one non-human character, a setting, an issue and four random words which you must creatively incorporate into your story. The parameters you will be given will force you to modify any pre-created ideas, so we suggest you keep your creativity for the day.

It is meant to be a really fun day, so have fun, let the creative juices flow, and write the sort of story you like to read, or to be read to you. Be prepared to be flexible with your ideas, creativity and inventiveness. Writing in a group means you can't control what happens before and after your section.

Planning the Day

In order to do well in this event you are going to need some form of plan. Here is one you may choose to work from. Bring pens, illustration materials and plenty of food and drink, but remember, no alcohol or drugs are permitted on any premise associated with this competition.

• 8-9.30 a.m. preparation. Receive your story parameters and brainstorm ideas with your team. Make lists of suggested features, names, characteristics, but do not spend too long arguing which ideas to use. A set of dice (at least 4) can save a great deal of discussion and time. Let the dice decide. Define your characters well, outline your story, draw a mud-map of the terrain, come up with a plot for each chapter, and assign each chapter to a writer. Create a start and end point for each chapter and the rough detail of the content. The more you all know about the characters and how they look and think, the easier it will be.
• 9.30-1 p.m. heads down writing. Share ideas as much as possible. Start illustrations. Start typing. Don't get stuck. Achieve your word count.
• 1-2 p.m. Lunch. Review progress, read each other’s writing or read out loud, correct and guide the story.
• 2-5 p.m. more writing and editing. Keep in communication with your team; the more you talk about what you have written and incorporate the ideas of your team mates the less editing that will be required later. Design the cover, title, end page, dedication and thanks to sponsors, illustrations. Format a ‘style’ in MS Word. Type the entire content of the book. Scan illustrations, if required, and place approximately in context.
• 5-7 p.m. proof reading, printing and binding. Compose the book and make the final corrections. Bind the book.
• 7-8 p.m. Burn a CD or DVD, sign the form that no work was done after 8.00pm.
• After 8 p.m. Take a copy of your book on floppy disc or CD as a souvenir. Make certain all the details on your competition envelope are filled in correctly and the envelope contains your book. Then celebrate your success. Post your CD or DVD and the form and the book to Write-a-Book-in-a-Day by the next available post.

Bring heaps of enthusiasm!

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