Do you want to start writing a novel? Have you started plotting an outline but found yourself stuck?
The other day, I listened to a podcast from a famous author on how to start and finish a novel. While he gave helpful tips, I found that as a seasoned, pro novelist, the abstract recommendations he gave were beyond the realms of a beginner.
While I am nowhere near as good as he is, I did recently complete my first novel and thought I would offer some down to earth, tried and true techniques I used to finish mine.
How to Start Writing a Novel for Beginners in Seven Steps
Step 1: It All Starts With the Right Mindset:
Often times, writing a novel is associated with phrases such as:
I got this great idea…
The other day I had this inspiration…
This book/movie/event gave me the motivation…
While these are great starters to the marathon of writing, you will need a whole different set of traits to continue to the finish line.
And these traits are will power, determination, and preservation.
Because your first standard, 100,000 word fiction novel will take at least one year to finish.
During this time, expect stress, expect hard work, and expect challenges. But if you persevere to the end you will have created an eternal legacy that is truly and uniquely yours.
The only analogy that I can think of is raising children.
And one is infinitely cheaper and less time consuming than the other.
The Language of the Flower was started back in 2016. It was finished in 2020. I had the right mindset before I started, but why did it still take so long?
Step 2: The Importance of Routine and Schedule
Back in 2016, I had endless inspirations, strong motivation and the right mindset to get me to my goal.
The goal was to finish the novel before a friend’s birthday in 2018.
Well, 2018 came and went but the novel didn’t budge much.
Why? Because I had begun writing.
And writing was sitting in front of the computer and stare at Microsoft Word until sweat rolled down my temples but unable to type a single letter.
Motivations and inspirations are easy to come by, but to write and have the willpower to write is, well, quick to fly by.
2019 also passed and then came along 2020.
In January 2020 I looked at my book and went:
Ok, enough is enough. I have incubated you for four years, why don’t you hatch already?
So I forced myself to sit down, stick to a schedule, and write.
My schedule was:
- Write during breaks and lunch at work ~ 1 hour/day.
- Write after dinner every day (6 – 9 PM) ~ 3 hours/day.
- Weekends are exclusively for writing (10 AM – 8 PM) ~ 10 hours/day
Subtracting mandatory social events and other life demands, I was averaging 30 – 40 hours a week writing on top of maintaining a full-time job.
And the result?
60-70% of The Language of the Flower was completed between January 2020 to July 2020.
I wrote more of my novel in 7 month than I had in four years!
What was the science behind this?
Imagine exercising. The first few days or first few weeks of exercising is hard and painful, but what happens after you continue for one month? Five months?
The exercises you couldn’t do earlier becomes easy.
The mind, like your muscle, needs exercising.
The reason why it is hard to put down word to paper is the lack of “exercise” between translating your thoughts to speech.
Simple as that.
And there is no way around it.
To write is to rewire your mind, and rewiring takes time.
Time that you must put in.
So how can this anecdote help you start writing your first fantasy novel?
Schedule your life so you can write as much as you can, as often as you can, for as long as you can.
Let’s go back to the example of exercising again.
If you want to become fit, what is the fastest way to achieve this goal? Exercising 20 minutes a day or two hours a day?
The answer is evident.
Similarly, like exercising, there is a relationship between the quantity of time you put in and the quality of your writing.
And unlike exercise, you can’t “overwork” your brain the same way. Instead, the more hours you put into writing faster it will rewire your brain.
Step 3: Understanding Writing Is Not Just “Writing”.
Maybe you’ve started writing a few sentences or a few pages by now and are going:
30 – 40 hours of pure writing a week?! That’s impossible!
This is because you are beginning to see that 90% of your time is spent jumping over writer’s block that is flow, characterization, plot, dialogue, etc. Only 10% is actually easy, smooth pen to paper writing, and they are few and far in between!
And that’s where I come in to tell you those 30 – 40 hours of writing is not just writing.
Story writing as a whole is composed of thinking, plotting and writing.
And initially, you will spend more time thinking and plotting than you will writing.
But what is important is you take this thinking and plotting seriously.
This is usually where writers will interchange inspiration with hard work.
Most people expect to be able to simply sit down in front of their computer at any time and magically translate their thoughts into words for a few hours straight.
When this doesn’t happen, they blame it on a lack of inspiration.
No, if you wait a few days for inspiration your novel will not magically continue itself.
Because when you first start writing, your path to finish will be fraught with so many problems that you wouldn’t even know where to start fixing! If you stop and wait for inspiration, your novel could still be trudging along four years later instead of already finished and published!
Instead, you must actively ruminate on where you are stuck and push ahead.
The trick I use is to always have the story on hand. Any time I don’t know how to continue, I stop and think critically.
I am always looking my story over during my breaks or lunch, on the bus, or anytime I get.
Often during these days I may only get a few dozen words down, but if you just push ahead you will eventually see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Repeat this and you will soon find the 90% of the time you spent facing the writer’s blocks will decrease to 80%, to 70%, to 60%… It will never disappear completely but it will get easier with each word you write.
So expect initially that all the hours you put in will not be for pure writing, and that is ok.
When I began the routine in January of 2020, 2000 words were the result of a 40 hours writing week. That is not a lot but I didn’t stop.
Then in mid February, I could write 3000 words a week, then it increased to 4000…
By the end of the novel I could write 6000 words a week, or 2000 words a day on weekends.
The efforts paid off.
Step 4: Read Before You Write.
If you want to write a fiction book in any genre, your best (and cheapest) teacher is an author of a style you admire.
As readers, we naturally gravitate towards a writing style we like, be it their descriptive style, witty dialogues, or just that something that kept you turning the pages.
So learn from them.
I recommend spending five minutes carefully reading and studying the syntax of a novel from your favorite author before each time you buckle down to work on your own. This will put you in the right mindset, and often, through analyzing their writing you will see inadequacies of your own.
This technique is great for overcoming the writer’s blocks that will pop up much and often during your first novel.
Don’t worry too much about “copying” their style, because no matter what you do you will find your own voice coming through!
If you don’t have a favourite author or style, any published fiction will do, even ones in a genre you are not interested in!
Because as long as you are dissecting the syntax and preparing your mind that’s all that matters.
Step 5: Do Not Skip The Hard Parts.
I cannot stress enough the importance of this step.
Sometimes as you write you find the section you are working on is dry, boring, or you are simply stuck. While the section immediately after…
Hehe, you know exactly how to write it and is itching to start.
No!
Resist the temptation!
This “hard part” you are experiencing is likely a mash of flow issues, characterization, plot etc.
Skipping the hard part will not only deprive you of learning where you are lacking but even worse is if you skip the scenes now, connecting them will become much more difficult later on!
When you eventually go back, you will find the flow is wrong and will end up having to bend more parts to fit the scene in than if you hadn’t skipped it in the first place.
I was very, very guilty of this.
The Language of the Flowers is 100,000 words, but the actual, entire length is 120,000 words.
This is because I wrote lots of scenes (imagine the time and effort!) thinking they will be exactly what I need. But as I started to edit, I found lots of them disrupted the flow of the story or served no real purpose.
So 20,000 words went down the drain. Avoid the mistake I made and save time.
Skipping is bad, but editing is not that much better!
Step 6: Avoid The Trap of Editing.
Stephen King once said the road to hell is paved with adverbs.
More like adverbs and editing.
I look back to the Language of the Flower and think it’s not good enough. Other writers look back to their first novel and think it’s not good enough.
You can spend years editing your book and it still wouldn’t be good enough!
Don’t be trapped in this endless vicious cycle.
For experienced authors, those countless edits can make a difference between a good and stellar novel.
However for us beginners, editing does little in teaching us in the way of writing.
I also fell hard over not listening to this advice. Initially, I edited some parts five or six times, thinking I was finally done, but when I went back to it months later I realized I either didn’t need the part or still saw mistakes!
Instead, don’t look back and just write.
But what if you want to change a scene, a character, or an event?
Go back, make a note, but do not edit.
If I could go back in time the outline I would use to write my novel would be:
- Write the first draft. (Make notes for edits as you work along.)
- Finish.
- Go back from the beginning and edit while working through the changes you noted down.
- If you still feel the story needs more brush up, go from the beginning again.
- After you received the revised version from your editor, go back and make the final revision.
Certain sections may require more work than others but at the maximum EDIT YOUR STORY THREE TIMES.
Some may even say three times is too much.
Unless you decide to write one autobiography and never write again, your first novel will never be “ready”; it is but a learning curve teaching you how to write.
So instead of tweaking that 95% ready novel to 99%, write more, keep writing, and improve with each novel rather than each edit.
Step 0: Gathering inspirations.
This step can really be placed before any step because you don’t find inspiration, inspiration finds you.
Although inspiration wouldn’t help you finish a novel, but your book will be lackluster without it.
However, instead of writing in spurts whenever inspiration strikes, be on the outlook for them, note it down, and see where they can be used.
Many authors have a little book of ideas we keep. We are constantly adding to it and checking back once in a while to see if an idea can be worked into the current story.
Other Tips to Getting Your Novel started
“Do something that pays, something to keep you creative, and something to keep you fit.”
I remember reading a quote like this somewhere, and working it into the right mindset back in Step 1, will set a realistic tone for any aspiring author.
Your first novel will take long, and earnings will be meager, if any, so don’t quit your job yet!
Writing is also a marathon, so fitting in some exercises – even if it’s going for a brisk walk every day – will keep your body strong and mind clear for inspiration.
Also know when to take a break. Allow yourself to step away from your schedule if it becomes too much, but not too long that your mind dulls.
Final words
There are many technical components to writing you will discover once you begin. Don’t let it overwhelm you, nor let it discourage you! Every single one of us has been there at one point and made it out just fine.
Instead, just start and don’t look back!
You got this.