You have an idea for a novel and excitement is fueling your motivation. Now, where do you begin?

Many new writers simply sit down and start writing. That’s not a bad plan, but it quickly becomes overwhelming. One day you’ll find that your excitement has waned and now the task is simply daunting. That’s because writers without a plan become re-writers. Your first draft may turn into a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and even 5th draft because you didn’t plan ahead and now you’re constantly rewriting to fix the many issues.

NOTE: These are the basics from a very high level overview just to keep this post from being too long. I want to cover the bases, but I will go more in depth in future posts.  Subscribe so you won’t miss a post!

Before you start writing…

Learn Your Craft

This should go without saying, but it doesn’t. Just because you aren’t a good writer doesn’t mean you aren’t already a great storyteller. The same is true for the reverse: Great writers aren’t always great storytellers.

Here are 3 things to study before you begin writing:

1. Read books. Lots of books. Keep a note pad or your phone handy so you can jot down things you like or don’t like about a story. Read more than the genre you’d like to write, but focus especially in your own genre. A scifi author could learn a lot from reading a character driven book by Mary Higgins Clark.
2. Learn how to plot and outline a novel. There are so many ways to tackle this. I suggest you research story beats for your genre, and find one that makes sense to you.
3. Learn to self-edit. Some people sit down and bang out 2000 words in about 30 minutes. The problem is, those 2000 words should probably be cut down to around 800 strong words. You can become a quicker, better writer just by learning to self edit. I suggest you start with Jerry Jenkins’ website, and the book The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman.

 

Flush Out Your Story

Now that you’ve done research on your craft, something that you should continue doing as long as you plan to write, you need to flush out your story.

Whether you are a pantser, plotter, discovery writer, gardener, or architect you still need to know what your story is about before you start writing.

Here are 3 ways you can flush out your story:

1. Choose your genre – Decide what genre you’re writing in so you can discover what key elements you’ll need in your book. Fantasy authors spend a lot of time building their world and in many cases, new languages.
2. Write a blurb – Write a 200 word blurb about your book. Look at the back cover copy of books in your genre to get an idea of how this is done. Don’t stress about it. As your book grows, you’ll probably change it anyway. The point is to give your novel some direction.
3. Outline – Now that you know your genre, and you have your book blurb, write a short outline of your book. Plot out some scenes, give your characters names, world-build as needed. You can do this as a 1 page synopsis or just quickbullet points.

 

Gather Your Tools

Next you’ll want to figure out what tools you need and gather them up. Stay tuned for an entire series on a deep dive into different tools, but for now let’s look at the 3 most common for writers:

1. Google Docs – As most people already know, you can start with Google Docs for free. Google has a pretty powerful set of tools that can be useful to any author, but the one you’ll start with is just a plain ol’ document.
2. Microsoft Word – Word is the standard for all publishers and editors. When you submit your work, this is the format they will prefer. Why not start here? Well there is usually a cost associated with it, and for some people the tools are overwhelming. I highly suggest you consider using Word in some form or another, simply to make your publishing life easier.
3. Scrivener – You may not have heard about Scrivener, and if you have you might be running for the hills. Scrivener is one of the most powerful tools an author can have in their arsenal. It is also a little overwhelming. I’ll be sharing a free template as well as a video on how to set it all up, but for now it is a tool you should consider.

Create a Routine

Finally, before you start writing your book create a routine. Find a time when you can sit down and focus on writing.

Let me share a secret with you: Most best selling, well known authors only write for a few hours a day.

That’s right. Rarely do they sit at a keyboard and hammer out their work for 6 or 8 hours a day. If they did that, they would be creatively drained, and probably unable to continue for the next day.

But let me suggest these things:

1. Carve out sacred time. If your day is already full, consider waking up a few hours earlier than normal, or staying up a few hours later. My day consists of waking at 5:00am and writing until 8:00am. I try to squeeze in more time throughout the day if possible.
2. Treat your writing time as a job. If you’ve decided that you’ll be writing very day from 5am-8am (like the rest of the earlybird club), then don’t let anything else sneak into that time. Don’t sleep in because you stayed up too late the night before, get up and get going unless you want to lose your job.
3. Create a workspace. If you have an office, great. If not, figure out where you plan to get your work done and make sure it is set up ahead of time. If you have to wander around looking for items, you’ll likely get distracted and not write. If your house just isn’t working, consider going to the library, a coffee shop, a bookstore, or any other place that might work for you!

Now Write!

Now that you have some basics, it’s time to start. I pray that you are filled with motivation and creativity!