Okay, so you have thought about wanting to write a novel, but you aren’t sure how to
And you’re pretty sure it’s going to be a mess and require a lot of time, ain’t that right?
Even though I’m still working through my drafts, there’s a few things I know I can tell you:
It doesn’t have to be a mess, you don’t have burn out, or feel like you are an idiot because you’re spending hours on something that might be great.
Personally, writing has been one of the best things I ever did and if you’re still thinking about getting started despite the frustrations, then kudos.
You’re well on your way to write your first novel and calling yourself an author.
“But Jack, if you’re just a beginner, aren’t your advice worse than someone who actually have published something successfully?”
Probably.
But who do you think you will learn more from: The person who is way ahead or the guy just in front of you?
Okay, that’s a silly question.
Let me reframe it:
Will you find more motivation in following a guy that’s just a few steps ahead of you or the guy who’s miles ahead of you?
(I know where I get my motivation.)
But since you already are here, why don’t you lean back and hear me out.
I’m sure I can motivate you to bring your idea out to the world.
Sidenote before we start: If you are just starting as a writer and want to write a novel, I think you should go for it. But if the idea of a novel seems too much, there’s no shame in writing something like short stories first.
How to write a novel
It’s quite simple:
You need an idea, time to write, a lot of patience and resilience.
And then within a month or 3, you’ll have a novel draft.
That’s it.
Okay, I’m kidding. I know it’s not this easy, but that really is all there is to writing.
It’s quite amazing how something so simple can turn into something so complex when you think about it.
And I’m willing to bet that it’s missing knowledge of what to do at each stage that’s stopping you.
I struggled with the same when I first started.
Therefore, if you’d hang with me for a moment as we dive into “how to write a novel”, then I promise you’ll find the daunting task much easier.
Getting the idea
Behind every story is a great idea.
I don’t know if this is someone’s quote, but if not, it’ll take it.
But let’s expand it as well: It’s not just a single idea, it’s ideas.
Plural.
Because to write a good novel you need a good idea.
And to get a good idea you need to burn through multiple ideas, and you need to let every idea breathe inside your mind to figure out if they are something for you.
A way of making sure if an idea is great is by writing out a blind draft.
You can see blind draft/drafting as a light version of novel writing.
You write about an idea for 30-45 minutes where you focus only on writing and ignore the details. (If you’re interested in the details, I’ve got a post where I explain in deatails why blind drafting is an essential exercise for every writer)
The point of the exercise is to give you a feeling of the idea.
So while it’s true that behind every story there is a great idea, it’s even truer that behind every great idea there is an undeniable feeling you just can’t shake.
Personal experience
I tend to walk around with my ideas in my mind for some time before I write. Sometimes it’s for a day, sometimes a month and sometimes I just write immediately to see if it’s something.
And while I have written 3 full novel drafts now, I also have 3 stories that are somewhere between 15-38,000 words.
Each stem from a single idea I couldn’t shake and decided to turn into blind drafts.
(Don’t think about the names, I just call them something related to the idea)
But as you can see, they are still unfinished novel drafts.
Now, are they useless because I didn’t finish them?
Absolutely not.
No unfinished draft is ever useless.
Every piece, whether it’s blind draft, short story or full novel draft, it’ll help you improve as a writer and help you gain more experience on how to write novels.
But these are examples of ideas I thought where great, but midway through the writing I lost touch with the story.
And shit like this happens.
Now, could I turn them into short stories instead of just having them laying around?
Sure, but you never know when you get the itch for a story back and then you’re already 25% done.
Win-win.
Brainstorming is a no-go. Go experience instead
While I understand the purpose of brainstorming, I don’t think there’s an exercise more dreadful to writing than this.
If you sit down and try to force yourself to come up with ideas, you’ll suck out the creativity of the ideas you come up with.
Guaranteed.
Instead, get out there and experience the world.
Get senses from nature, talk to people, listen to music or get inspired by TV. (There’s nothing wrong with borrowing from others, if you believe a different angle could be great)
Personally, I enjoy starting with things I experience in my life, give it a different angle, apply some sci-fi (I’m a science fiction guy) and write out a novel about things that I think are amazing or could be amazing if they existed in the world.
And you could do the same.
Writing doesn’t have to be real.
I don’t want to hear any of “but this doesn’t make any sense,” nonsense.
It’s writing, you need to be a bit crazy.
Go through the experience, let your mind spin a few ideas and then try to do some blind drafting.
Then you repeat until you get the feeling of “this is the one.”
(It might seem like a lot of work just for an idea, but by doing this, you’re helping yourself get rid of the blank document)
And when you have it, then it’s time to put in the work.
It’s time to write, what do I do?
I really can’t recommend doing a blind drafting, or any kind of drafting for that matter, enough.
It’ll make your novel writing so much easier.
The number one reason why you struggle to write a novel is the dreaded blank page and I believe if you just have a few words, then you have enough to trick your brain to get started.
Another thing is your system writing.
When you start to write, it’s important to figure out what works for you and how you work the best. This is your writing system (If you’re wondeirng, here’s how you create a writing system that works for you in just 3 steps)
Okay with that out of the way, let’s get technical for a moment.
Writers can generally be divided into two categories:
Those who need an outline and those who doesn’t.
Spoiler: I don’t use outlines. I have tried, but I just can’t make it work.
Working with an outline
An outline, or overview, of a story.
Writers use it to get an overview of their stories and to follow along as they introduce characters, relationships, and scenes.
An outline can take many forms, but a simple way is to make an overview, like a spreadsheet, of the different scenes/chapters and what you want to gain from them.
Then you write out the characters involved, their relationship, and what action you are expecting.
From there you can keep track of your story while you write your novel. The important thing is to keep it as clear as possible and not overflow it with details.
You want it to be a document you can open and immediately know what to do. And if you overflow it with details, you’ll end up tying your hand to your back and make it difficult for your brain to work its creative magic.
Another thing, I know plenty of authors who use a grid to keep tabs on their characters, personalities and the relationships they form throughout the story.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the outline because I feel it takes too much work before I actually get to write.
I like to work with the boundaries of the story and let my mind define the story and let it unfold as I created the story. When I tried using an outline, I’d struggle with my creativity because I felt I had to fit the story inside an outline or grid.
With that being said, working with an outline is a great way for writers to start. It allows you to decide on a lot of details about places, characters and the plot before you write a single word. And can, therefore, help you direct the story in a better way and save you hours of work in the editing phase.
Working without an outline
Working without an outline is the opposite of working with an outline.
You sit down to write without planning a single thing, except the idea you have in your mind.
You let the story flow and grow as you write, basically just following whatever your mind wants to put down for the day.
This is my preferred way of writing mainly because of the creative freedom and because it’s natural for me to experience the story in my head as I write.
(Afraid I might sound freaky, when I write, it’s like I’m seeing the scenes appear in my mind as the words flow on the page.)
The advantage of working without an outline is you’re allowed to write immediately and don’t have to fixate on some outline or grid you decided on before the story.
And while it’s a beautiful thing, it’s also the main disadvantage.
Because if you struggle with creating the story as you write and you don’t have an outline, you’ll stop. A lot.
And as a beginner this will cause more frustration and make you burn out, so be careful.
Another thing you need to be aware of is the lack of overview of your story.
When working without an outline, you need to accept that you’ll most likely lose track of your story.
Let’s be honest, nobody can remember what they wrote on the 3rd day when they’re on the 66th day. Writing without an outline means you must trust your mind through the whole story.
Oh and yeah, there’s a lot more editing here because of this. (I’ve found this gets less, the more experience you get)
Just because I’m not a fan of the outline writing (mostly because writing without is more natural to me) I still have tried it, but I just couldn’t do it.
But there’s no right or wrong here
It’s all up to you as a writer to determine what works for you. Some even use a mixture of both, where they fill out a short outline and list out the characters before letting their mind decide how everything works.
When I wrote my first published short story, I thought you needed an outline, so I created one. But it messed up my writing, so I ended up using a mix. Here’s how I did an outline:
If you are unsure, I’d advice going with the outline and grid method first as it can prove to be a great hand-holder as you write your first story, and having that extra time to think your story through can be such a lifesaver if get stuck.
Patience and resilience
When you get to this point, you’ll realize getting the idea and developing the writing system were the easy part.
Now you actually have to work.
And this is where writing gets difficult.
You have to sit down and write everyday.
There’ll be bad days.
There’ll be good days.
Which you have to figure a way through.
Here’s a few things you can do to make it easier for yourself.
Set a daily goal.
I write for 30 minutes every day, as a minimum. It might not seem like a lot, but if you write for 30 minutes every day, you’ll have a 90,000 words story within 3 months.
Doesn’t this sound nice?
So, set yourself a daily minimum you need to write.
Be it minutes or words, doesn’t matter.
Set a goal and stick to it.
Track your goal
When I started, I made an “X” in my calendar every day I worked. It felt amazing and after a few weeks, it became a rhythm until it became a habit.
And that’s what we are trying to accomplish.
When you are starting out as a writer, you don’t need to push out hours and hours of work daily, you just need to do enough to get the work started.
You need to do enough to not burn out and work until it become a habit. When this happens, you are able to push it a bit further
It’s estimated it takes about 66 days to form a habit, why not take a piece of paper, put in 66 boxes and get started?
Congratulations
Perfect, when you have done this for a few months you will reach a full novel draft.
I know it doesn’t sound very glamorous having to wait a few months to see your idea turn into a full draft.
But that’s the writing game for you: You must put in work, day after day to eventually reach your goal.
And that’s why I’m preaching you must make it as easy as possible, especially in the beginning.
Because once you get to the end and you place the last period. It’s such a wonderful feeling that can’t be described.
I still remember when I sat the last period in my first novel.
It made it do 3 times over.
Now, once you make it here, it’s time to do editing. But it’s beyond the scope of this post, but I’ll make one for that in the future.
Just know being a writer isn’t about being famous.
You truly have to love writing and see yourself put in months of work before you get your novel out there.
And this is why I’m saying you need to love your idea, because you are going to be spending a lot of time with it.
So, if you find your idea, build your writing system, stay patience and resilient, then I can promise you’ll experience a feeling you can’t experience any other place.
That’s a wrap for you today.
Go out, put a side an hour and try out the tips, and I’m sure you’ll be flying through your first novel draft in no time.
Until next time, have a productive and creative day.
Your writing buddy,
Jack