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Novel Writing: Five Tips For Making it Easy
- By Julie Coan
- Published November 20, 2009
- Improving Your Writing Skills & Marketing
Julie Coan
Julie Coan has been a writer and educator for more than twenty years. Her book, “Write Your Way to a Million Dollars” is a unique step by step system for planning your novel. If you’ve always wanted to write, publish, and sell your novel, you must have this book. The Ultimate Novel Planning Book .
View all articles by Julie Coan
Novel writing is easy if you follow these few simple tips. I hear writers groan all the time about how difficult writing a novel is. I admit to being one of them until I figured out a couple of secrets. Just by changing a few of your writing habits, novel writing can change from difficult to easy.
1. Planning makes novel writing easy. The number one thing that you can do to make novel writing easy is to plan your novel before you start to write. Planning makes writing ten times easier. Writing a novel isn’t easy when you’re stuck. Most writers find writing difficult because they write part of their book and then they don’t know what to write next. Making a plan helps you organize your story and helps you write faster. The faster you write, the easier it will feel.
2. Developing good writing skills makes novel writing easy. You’ve hear the saying, “Practice makes perfect”. I also believe that “Practice makes the job easy”. It doesn’t matter if you’re a plumber or a writer, the job will get easier each time you do it. It’s so important to practice your writing every day. Try to improve each piece of writing by making each time you write, write better than the last time.
3. Choosing a dedicated writing place makes novel writing easy. Choose a place in your home to be your writing place. Keep your writing tools close: pens, pencils, word processor or computer, dictionary, thesaurus, and your writing plan for your current project. It will save the frustration of having to stop in the middle of your writing session to look for supplies. It also has a psychological effect, too. If you always write in the same place, when you sit there, your brain knows that it’s time to write and it slips into that mode more quickly.
4. Success makes novel writing easy. The first time that you sell some of your writing, you’ll feel like you’re on top of the world. People like your writing! Someone paid money for it! There’s nothing like that feeling to get you going on your next project.
5. Surrounding yourself with positive people and ideas makes novel writing easy. Nothing’s easy if the people you spend time with are continuously scoffing at your efforts. Feeling negative slows you down until you simply can’t envision success. With every negative thought, with every negative comment from someone around you, writing a novel gets more difficult.
If you can recognize that people are negative, you have a couple of options. The first choice is that you can remove yourself from them. Simply don’t spend time with them. The second choice is to ask them to stop making negative comments about your writing. They may not be aware they’re doing it. The third thing is to take steps to lessen the impact of the person’s negativity. You can do this by avoiding the subject of your writing when you’re around them. You can also repeat a positive affirmation every time they say something negative.
Surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you when you’re discouraged and share your joy when you make little successes. Join a writer’s group or join a writers’ forum online and talk with other writers.
Fill your workspace with positive affirmations. Write the positive sayings on little cards and place them where you can see them. When you find yourself thinking negative thoughts, read the affirmations.
If you follow these tips, writing a novel will be easier than you think and soon your novel will be finished and ready to be sent to the publisher.
1. Planning makes novel writing easy. The number one thing that you can do to make novel writing easy is to plan your novel before you start to write. Planning makes writing ten times easier. Writing a novel isn’t easy when you’re stuck. Most writers find writing difficult because they write part of their book and then they don’t know what to write next. Making a plan helps you organize your story and helps you write faster. The faster you write, the easier it will feel.
2. Developing good writing skills makes novel writing easy. You’ve hear the saying, “Practice makes perfect”. I also believe that “Practice makes the job easy”. It doesn’t matter if you’re a plumber or a writer, the job will get easier each time you do it. It’s so important to practice your writing every day. Try to improve each piece of writing by making each time you write, write better than the last time.
3. Choosing a dedicated writing place makes novel writing easy. Choose a place in your home to be your writing place. Keep your writing tools close: pens, pencils, word processor or computer, dictionary, thesaurus, and your writing plan for your current project. It will save the frustration of having to stop in the middle of your writing session to look for supplies. It also has a psychological effect, too. If you always write in the same place, when you sit there, your brain knows that it’s time to write and it slips into that mode more quickly.
4. Success makes novel writing easy. The first time that you sell some of your writing, you’ll feel like you’re on top of the world. People like your writing! Someone paid money for it! There’s nothing like that feeling to get you going on your next project.
5. Surrounding yourself with positive people and ideas makes novel writing easy. Nothing’s easy if the people you spend time with are continuously scoffing at your efforts. Feeling negative slows you down until you simply can’t envision success. With every negative thought, with every negative comment from someone around you, writing a novel gets more difficult.
If you can recognize that people are negative, you have a couple of options. The first choice is that you can remove yourself from them. Simply don’t spend time with them. The second choice is to ask them to stop making negative comments about your writing. They may not be aware they’re doing it. The third thing is to take steps to lessen the impact of the person’s negativity. You can do this by avoiding the subject of your writing when you’re around them. You can also repeat a positive affirmation every time they say something negative.
Surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you when you’re discouraged and share your joy when you make little successes. Join a writer’s group or join a writers’ forum online and talk with other writers.
Fill your workspace with positive affirmations. Write the positive sayings on little cards and place them where you can see them. When you find yourself thinking negative thoughts, read the affirmations.
If you follow these tips, writing a novel will be easier than you think and soon your novel will be finished and ready to be sent to the publisher.