A Novel-Writing Method

Novel writing can be a royal pain. There. I said it. It's hard. And if you've never done it before, it can be downright frightening. But that's because many people who haven't written a whole lot of large pieces are under the impression that it has to plop out of your brain onto the screen as a masterpiece.

I'm here to tell you it doesn't even have to be readable. But it does have to be on the screen in some form or other -- or the pad or the stack of grocery bags or whatever. Here is a way to get it down without worrying so much.

Step 1: Outline. You may be one of those authors who does just fine without an outline and if that's the case, then skip this step and just start writing. If you're thinking of skipping it just to save time, then don't. It won't save time in the long run.

Step 2: Write one chapter a day. The trick is to write only 500-1000 words. Be as vague as you like. Or write only the dialog. You don't even have to punctuate, just get it down. If it's a 15-chapter book, you'll be through the plot in two weeks. This is a great way to spot weaknesses in that plot before you spend hours perfecting your prose. In fact, what you have should only resemble prose in the most liberal sense.

Step 3: Return to the beginning and give each chapter another 500-1000 words. After another two weeks, you will have been through that plot a second time. See the benefit?

Step 4: Guess. The chapters should be shaping up to look more like chapters now. Just pass through these chapters as many times as you have to. It will keep it fresh, as you won't have to labor over one chapter that's driving you crazy before moving on to the next thing. If you don't have a pretty decent rough draft in three months, I'll eat a hat. As long as it's chocolate.

Step 5: Put the book away for a month. I'm serious. I can see you if you cheat.

Step 6: Return to the scene of the crime and start making it sound good.

Trust me. Having a plan is a great way to alleviate anxiety, especially creation anxiety. Or is that creativity anxiety? And having low standards in the beginning is a great way to splatter that page with words. Bad words, you can work with, but a wordless page is useless.