Novel Writing | How I Wrote My First Novel

Writing your first novel is challenging, but these 10 tips from ProsePlanner will get you started today.

1. Create a writer’s notebook for all those ideas that bubble to the surface. Document every idea in your writer’s notebook so that you can go back to it later.
2. Write daily in your writer’s notebook about anything that comes to mind. Is the sky a particularly beautiful blue today? Did you just have the world’s best chocolate chip cookie? Did you just rewatch a movie that you haven’t seen in 10 years? Write about it.
3. Every week, write a one-page short story with three characters. Then write a version of the short story from each character’s perspective.
4. As you start the habit of writing, you’ll notice that your stories will revolve around certain themes. What are those themes and why are you writing about them? Do you have a favorite book that is a good example for each of the themes in your writing?
5. Seek out visual inspiration for your stories. Create a vision board with pictures, household items, leaves from your backyard, or anything that inspires you to write. Create a visual representation of a theme in your writing.
6. Decide if you want to write your book in a notebook or digitally. There are plenty of options for novel writing software, but I recommend starting your first draft of your novel with a pen and notebook. Keeping it simple for the first draft will take the pressure off of making it perfect.
7. Write a one-page outline. This can be a sketch or a detailed list of chapters.
8. Believe that the story you are telling in your novel needs to be told.
9. Now that you’ve started the habit or writing, its time to move forward with your novel. Now you need to write a terrible first draft of your novel. Yes, terrible. Dive right in and start writing, but do not think about your writing. Your first draft doesn’t have to make sense and it does not have to be perfect. Ignore your internal critic and just write.
10. Congratulate yourself for finishing the first draft of your novel. The first draft is always the hardest to write, so its essential to reward yourself after completing this step.

I hope these tips from ProsePlanner helped inspire you to get started!