On Becoming a Novelist

Writing a novel doesn’t happen overnight. Novels just don’t flow out of a writer’s psyche. The writer’s life is a constant battle, a continual struggle. Writer’s should make every effort to never lose sight of their end goal.

To be successful, novelists must read a lot. And while we read, we need to avoid temptation. We must resist the temptation to change our own writing. When we read other writer’s work, we might consider changing our style, or our characters, or our voice. But novelists need to be true to themselves. No one wants to be a copycat writer.

To be successful, novelists must be persistent. Novels take time. Some writers get first drafts finished in a couple of months. Others might take years. But, the first draft is never the final draft. After the first draft, there is the second draft, and a third. Sometimes the real trick is knowing when a novel is done.

Story ideas are cheap. Starting projects is easy. The trick to becoming a novelist is learning how to finish a project. No writer wants to end up with a dozen half-finished novels. What writers want are completed works they can hold up and say, “I did this.”

The best advice I can give anyone who thinks they might want to write a novel is this: Set up a realistic writing schedule and stick to it. If you think you can realistically write two hours a day, then figure out which two hours you will write and, every day, write during those two hours. If you are working on a novel, then work on that novel for two hours. It’ll never get done any other way.

Lots of people talk about writing a novel. There are fewer people who actually sit down and do it.

Which one are you?

Prehistoric Writing

How to Write a Novel

The best way to write a novel is ONE WORD AT A TIME.

Easy enough. Right?

Writers have debated over time whether an outline is needed. In truth, this is a matter of personal preference. I use a block outline (sometimes referred to as a beat sheet), others write “by the seat of their pants.” Neither way is right or wrong. Use the way that works for you.

But, truth be told, there is only one way to write a novel. And that is ONE WORD AT A TIME. Let me demonstrate with a novel that begins…

1) He entered the room.  [Good start. But, WHO entered the room and WHAT KIND of room?]

2) Pat entered the living room. [Is Pat a male or female?]

3) Pat entered the living room and smiled at his wife who sat in a chair by the window. [So?]

4) Pat entered the living room and smiled at his wife who sat in a chair by the window.  She had asked him to be home by five, and he could tell she wasn’t happy. He glanced at his watch, only forty-five minutes late… [Okay, he's late.  Big deal...]

5) Pat entered the living room and smiled at his wife who sat in a chair by the window.  She had asked him to be home by five, and he could tell she wasn’t happy. He glanced at his watch, only forty-five minutes late… She should by happy. He’d almost made it home on time.  [Better. We've got some conflict but...]

6) Pat entered the living room and smiled at his wife who sat in the chair by the window. She had asked him to be home by five, and he could tell she wasn’t happy. He glanced at his watch, only forty-five minutes late… She should by happy. He’d almost made it home on time.  He wondered why Father Benedict was sitting in the rocking chair. And why were his parents huddled in the corner? And his twin brother Paul was sitting on the sofa with their sister Angela. Why were they there? [Much better. So, what kind of a story is this?]

Well that depends. Are they going to burst out singing Happy Birthday or is this an intervention?

So, this is how a novel is written.

One word at a time.

The above paragraph is 92 words long. Novels are a minimum of 50,000 words, so we only have to come up with 49,902 more words…

When you’re done, you can take a nap!

Two Novels at One Time… An Interesting Challenge!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to write two novels in 2012. I could not decide which to write first so I’ve decided to write them both, more or less, at the same time.

What I’m doing is this…

One day I work on one novel and the next day I work on the other. It seems to be working so far.

But it is an interesting challenge. One of the novels is written in third person narrative. The other is written in first person. One novel is a paranormal romance and the other is a bit of a social commentary. One of the novels is titled FINDING VERITY. The other I’m referring to as CURRENT NOVEL because I haven’t come up with a title yet. Unless something happens to change my mind I plan on self-publishing both, just like I self-published WINDFALL.

I’m up to the challenge and consider it to be a kind of experiment. I’m wondering if I’ll be able to keep the two stories straight or if this will end up being too confusing.

I’d love to hear from other writers who have written two novels at the same time.

I’ll take all the helpful suggestions you can throw my way!