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You´ve had an idea for a novel for years now. But somehow, it never quite gets finished. The first few sentences are written, then discarded, and then revisited again when you have free time. Then it´s discarded again. This cycle can continue for years, even decades. However, there´s no better time than now to complete your novel and get it out to curious readers via the world of self-publishing and internet publishing. So, here´s how you can dust off your prose and become a novelist instead of a would-be novelist.

Creating the Backbone of Your Story

Whether you are writing about a fictional event or about something that´s actually happened to you, you need to figure out where you´re going before you can actually get there. Outlining is something that is shunned by many writers who feel it disrupts the creative process. But in reality, outlining allows you the chance to organize your thoughts so as to avoid times of creative pauses – a.k.a. writer´s block. The outline doesn´t have to be anything complicated in order to be effective. You can simply make out a list of the main events of the story, put them in order, and then compile a list of the characters whom the reader will meet. In doing you will begin to see what you need to write to fill in the gaps between events, while also seeing what each day´s writing can bring.

Committing to Completion

Once you have a basic outline for your novel, you´re well on your way. But then comes the hardest part – actually writing the book. There are several different schools of thought on this process. One suggestion is to write your novel in smaller pieces. This often takes less concentration and less time out of each day. But then again, when you write in smaller pieces, you can create time gaps in between each piece, causing your novel to still take years to finish. A more popular way of novel writing today is the constant progress method. In this practice, you write so many words a day or for so many hours – each and every day. In this way, you get your ideas onto paper, completing a rough version of your novel in as short a time as possible. Of course, the novel you have at the end of your troubles will not be a finished piece.

The Real Work Begins at the End

Getting your ideas onto paper is just the beginning. The rough novel you complete at the end of this process is going to need a bit of editing before it will be ready for the publishing world. Chances are good that by the end of your writing time, you will begin to see how to make your writing even better. You will have begun to see what other ideas you need to add, and what ideas can be taken out of your manuscript. Editing should only be done at the end as you can slow yourself down tremendously if you edit as you go. True, many successful authors have edited as they´ve gone along, but if you just want to finish your first novel – that´s not the way to go. Writing a novel is a tremendous achievement – one that few people can say they have completed. And while it sounds simple on paper, it´s often a challenging proposition in practice. But the rewards make it well worth the effort.