Writing a Novel

In the course of writing three novels, I’ve adopted a lot of tools and techniques to help me along the way. Some I’ve developed myself, while others I’ve picked up from other authors and bloggers. Some techniques have even come from you, my readers. I thought it’d be nice to occasionally write a blog post to share a few of the methods that I use to help me go from concept to first draft and beyond.

First of all, I’d have to say that writing a novel isn’t hard per se, but like any long-term project, perseverance is a must. I’ve gotten emails over the past couple of years from friends who lament, ‘I’d love to write a novel, if only I had the time!’ Well, I’m here to tell you that writing a novel is less about having the time and more about having dedication. 

Using graphing software helps me visualize my progress as I write.

As with anything else, short term goals can be a big help. For me, that goal tends to be writing 2,000 words per day. Since my books thus far have run at around 100,000 words, this means that if all goes well, I can have a first draft done in a little under two months. Has this actually happened yet? Well, no. But the goal is still useful. It gives me something to shoot for each time I sit down in front of the computer to write.

‘But where can I find the time?’ you're thinking, right? Well, like anything else, writing a novel requires a certain amount of discipline and sacrifice. For me, it means limiting how much time I spend in front of the TV. It’s no big secret that TV viewing can be a huge time waster. (According to a Nielson study done in 2012, the average American over the age of 2 spends 34 hours watching TV each week, or just under five hours each day!)

Of course, I’d imagine this average is a lot lower among Witnesses, who, on top of their secular lives, must schedule in Family Worship, the ministry, meeting preparation and attendance, and personal study. Still, by shaving away just a few hours of TV viewing per week, I’ve found that I’ve had a lot more time to do more productive things, like writing. So how long does it take to hit my goal of 2,000 words? It varies from day to day, but on average I’ve found that I can hit that mark in about two hours. The result is pretty rough, and barely good enough to make it into a first draft, but as any writer will tell you, the first step of writing a novel is just getting the words and ideas on the paper (or the screen).

Making it all sound pretty comes later, in the editing stage, which I’ll save for another post…