I’m going to show you how you can make the ultimate shift from struggling to write your novel and probably feeling really overwhelmed, frustrated, confused and full of self-doubt

1. You Want to Write a Novel

It’s always been a dream of yours to write a novel, but you don’t know where to start. You wish you had a roadmap to follow so you could write a story you feel proud of.

2. You’re Tired of Feeling Stuck

You’ve already spent so much time working on your draft, but you’re still not done! You wish that you knew how to move forward so that you could finally finish your book.

3. You Don’t Want to Waste Time

You’re excited about the idea of writing a novel, but you’re worried about making mistakes. You wish that you felt more confident about sitting down to write.

Mistake #1. Believing you have to write the most beautiful prose in order to write a story that holds the reader’s attention.

Reality. Perfect prose is the result at the end of the writing process, not the beginning.

Do This Instead. Focus on crafting a compelling story first, then get feedback from outside sources before polishing your prose.

Mistake #2. Believing that you can write a perfect first draft if you justtt do a little more research, planning and outlining before you write.

Reality. The purpose of a first draft is to tell yourself the story. It’s not to write something that’s perfect. This is why I like to call the first draft of any story the DISCOVERY DRAFT. It’s all about discovering you story, exploring hidden character motivations, budding themes, your story world, and maybe even some surprise subplots.

Do This Instead. Embrace the mess! Focus of discovering your story first so that you have something to revise and make cohesive later.

Mistake #3. Believing that you need a rock-solid, completely original story idea before you start writing.

Common Symptoms: Am I good enough to write a book? Am I smart enough? Am I capable?

Reality. In other words, it’s not really about your idea and whether it’s unique enough or whether you have everything figured out. It’s more likely rooted in self-doubt.

The first thing to do with any new writing project is to identify your story’s main genre

-      Your story’s genre will help you create the story framework

-      Your story’s genre will help you flesh out your idea and identify what’s missing

Aside: there’s a difference between commercial genres and content genres

1.   Commercial genres are sales and marketing categories that dictate what shelf the book is placed in a bookstore or online - or how it’s sold. Examples: cozy cat mystery, young adult fantasy, science fiction

You might already know the commercial genre of your story, but this alone won’t tell you how to construct the story from start to finish

2.   Content genre describe the content within a story. Each content genre can give you a sense  of things like:

o   What your protagonist wants/needs

o   What your protagonist stands to gain/lose

o   The key scenes and conventions you need to include

o   What emotions your reader expects to feel

o   What theme/topic your story explores

3.   The Ten Content Genres

o   Action: Harry Potter, Dune, The Wheel of Time

o   Crime: Sherlock Holmes, Knives Out, The Dresden Files

o   Horror: Alien, The Shining, Halloween

o   Love/Romance: Pride and Prejudice, Outlander, Bridgeton

o   Morality: Old Man and the Sea, Wallstreet, The Scarlet Letter

o   Performance: The Karate Kid, Rocky, The Natural

o   Society: My Sister’s Keeper, Thelma & Louise

o   Status: Milk, The Hate You Give, Little Miss Sunshine

o   Thriller: Silence of the Lambs, Gone Girl

o   Worldview: Catcher in the Rye

o   Caveat: Some experts add War and Western for twelve genres

4.   Love Story Example

o   What Your Protagonist Wants and Needs: The Protagonist wants to find or be worthy of love, and avoid rejection. They need to overcome an internal wound or misbelief that’s making them feel inadequate or unworthy of love

o   What you Protagonist Stands to Gain or Lose: To lose or gain

intimacy, connection or love

o   Key Scenes and Conventions:

- A Meet Cute

- Intimacy rituals

- a confession of love

- secrets

- a breakup scene

- rival love interests

- a happily ever after       

o   What Emotions Your Reader Expects to Feel

- anticipation over whether the two will get together

- sense of hope that true love will prevail

o   What Theme or Topic Your Story will Explore

-  the Power of Love

5. What About Science Fiction and Fantasy?

These are commercial genres, or consumer-facing sales categories. Look to your content genre for guidance

o   an Action Story in a Futuristic Setting

o   a Romance in a Fantasy World

o   a Thriller in an Historic Point/Place in Time

Do This Instead. Identify your story’s main content genre so it can help you develop your idea and give you a framework to work in.

Mistake #4. Believing that you have to follow every single writing method in existence in order to write a quality novel

Reality. Every writing method is someone’s interpretation of how to write a novel. Although each method may represent a solution or process for writing a novel, all the steps within each method aren’t going to line up because no two people interpret something in exactly the same way.

This behavior is rooted in perfectionism. We convince ourselves that, if we can just analyze our story through one more lens … or if we can read just one more craft book, ten maybe our story will be good enough to share with friends and family, or that’s it’s good enough to publish.

- But what about these methods? Should I not use them to guide me as I write/edit?

         Yes, you should. They are tried and true. They each work – to some extent, in certain places, with certain audiences. But: choose one or two that make sense for you and use them. You’ll be better off focusing your time and truly digging in to understand one or two methods than trying to figure them all out to “check all the boxes” on your draft.

         The truth is that all these methods will get you to – more or less – the same place. Layering them on top of each other and trying to ‘tick all the boxes’ will do you more harm than good. You will end up feeling confused – like maybe you’re doing something wrong – because all the puzzle pieces don’t line up.

Do This Instead. Pick 1-2 methods that you like or that make sense to you and stick with what you chose until you have a finished first draft. Only then should you evaluate your novel.

Mistake #5. Believing that writing a novel is too hard (or that it’s too complicated for someone without an MFA or college education).

Reality. Many of you are here because you have an idea for a story, but you don’t know how to write it. You might know what a story looks and feels like, but you don’t know how to take your little nugget of an idea and turn it into a full-length novel.

Once you determine your genre, and you flesh out your idea a little bit more, it’s time to start creating a scene-by-scene outline.

The Notes to Novel 5-step Outlining Process

1.   Determine exactly where your story starts and ends

2.   Plug in the key scenes your genre requires

3.   Fill in the gaps to create your scene-by-scene outline

4.   Repeat steps 1-3 to layer in your subplot(s)

5.   Pressure test your outline to fill in any holes or gaps in logic

I like this outlining method because it:

         - Keeps your global story in mind

         - Avoids writing a bunch of random stuff

         - Cuts down on the overwhelm

         - Focuses on one piece at a time

Do This Instead. Break the writing process down into smaller parts and tackle one thing at a time. This will help you build confidence as you start checking things off the list.