#MY WRITING CHECKLIST HOW TO#

When learning how to write a novel, you should ask yourself if your environment is the best place for writing. So whenever you are struggling to move forward, grab a book from your shelf, open to your favorite scene, and start typing it out. Or you have a fear of writing (what we refer to as writer’s block). This technique works when you’re stuck in writing, too. This gets you into the habit of writing (even if it isn’t your material) and is training for the writing to come in your own book. If you want to practice writing technique, try copyinv passages out of your favorite books. Thinking of writing sci-fi? Pick up the books by Arthur C. If horror is a genre you want to master, you’d better start with Clive Barker or Edgar Allan Poe. You need to read the authors writing in your genre to show you how it is done. Reading good writing helps you to become a better writer. This is true regardless if you are learning how to write nonfiction, fiction, or a memoir. By reading and paying attention to the structure of the books you like, when it comes time to writing novels of your own, this will come very naturally. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”įor one, it helps improve the story structure of your book. Stephen King said: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. Your passion for the book idea comes out of your passion for learning about telling this kind of story.

Romance? You’re reading love stories every waking moment. If you write sci-fi, you must have read sci-fi a lot.

You have knowledge of this kind of book and the subject matter in it.

You’re writing 60k+ words of this novel so if you lose interest, you’ll stop writing. Whatever your novel idea is, write it down and keep it at the forefront of your mind – even if all the details or concepts aren’t known yet. Or, it can be something a bit more specific, almost like a writing prompt: Two teens, from rival families, fall in love and in a shocking twist of events, choose to die together rather than live apart. It can be something broad, like: Tragic teen love affair that ends in suicide. So, what’s the big picture of your novel? Try to write your novel idea in one sentence. Maybe you have a thousand different story ideas in your head or written down somewhere, but to move forward with writing novels, you need to commit to one. Of course, every novel starts with a book idea. If you can see just beyond the outline, your imagination will fire up when you put fingers to keyboard (or pen to paper). Momentum is key when it comes to writing. The story could take a number of directions, and the only way I can find out is by writing the story. I start writing to get momentum moving forward. I have a brief outline and a tentative title. My style is to come up with the overall story, the main characters, several master scenes, and the beginning or opening scene. You might not be a detailed plotter or a seat-of-the-pants pantser, but maybe you fall somewhere in between. So, depending on the type of writer you are, this would influence how much time and energy you spend on drafting out an outline, storyboarding or scene creation, and character development. Well-known pantsers are Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and David Morrell ( First Blood). You have a loose outline and some scenes but other than that, you begin writing your story. You start with a seed of an idea and a few notes. In short, the term pantser means “writing by the seat of your pants.” So, what is a pantser? A pantser is…the opposite of a plotter.

Other known plotters are John Grisham ( The Firm, The Pelican Brief) and James Patterson. Rowling, worldwide bestselling author of the Harry Potter books, is a known plotter. A detailed plotter generally won’t start writing until all of these details are worked out. They know how to write a book outline for their novel complete with master scenes, pivot points, and character profiles.Ī plotter writes out every detail down to the smallest scene with a clear direction of how the book will begin…and how it must end. A plotter is someone who spends a great deal of time before writing the book.

My writing checklist