Anyone Can Write A Novel

Anyone can (and should) write a novel. I believe everyone has at least one really great story to tell, if not more. Today, the tools and technology for self-publishing have enabled anyone with an Internet connection to become a published author. Here’s how to do it.

For many years, I believed that I could not write a novel. Not because I couldn’t write — I wrote short stories almost daily and I always had new and interesting ideas for more. It was because of another, more pernicious reason: I believed that I was not qualified to write a novel.

What did I think would make me qualified? The typical answers were along these lines:

• Having a degree in literature.

• Having an agent who could connect me with the publishing houses.

• Having some form of fame or celebrity.

• Having some expert knowledge, like a career as a brain surgeon or in law enforcement.

All of these things were out of my grasp. And, being so, I would always sigh and relegate my dreams of authorship to the recesses of the fantasy-land where they originated from.

But when Amazon created their self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (“KDP”), everything changed. This heralded the rise of the Independent Author. The barrier to entry was virtually eliminated. Now, everyone could have access to a worldwide audience.

It is a double-edged sword, of course. With KDP, anyone can publish anything (as long as meets their Terms and Conditions). When it comes to writing fiction specifically, quality is subjective. There is a lot more quantity, a lot more noise, and that means more effort for your readers to find you. But that does not change the fact that you now have a clear path, and it certainly doesn’t diminish the rewards for writing.

So you don’t need the literature degree, or the agent, or the celebrity, or the expert knowledge. Everything you need, you already have. You just need to have the correct strategy, a plan, and a bias for action.

How To Start — The Right Strategy

Let’s say you have an idea for that novel you always wanted to write. You’ve had this idea in your head for a while and have some general idea of the plot. Maybe you have a very clear picture of the main character and the villain. You might have pictured how the story ends, or have a range of ideas for various possible endings.

When you have this much, should you begin writing?

Not quite yet.

You can significantly increase your odds of success if you first do the following.

Start by creating a plan.

There are many aspects to releasing a book. Writing is a central part of it, but there is also the logistics (when to publish, where to publish, cover art, blurb, pricing, whether to release ebook only or ebook and print, etc.)

Then there are all the activities associated with marking and promotion, things like getting beta readers, reviews, updating your website and social media accounts, creating awareness and generating buzz for your new release.

It’s a lot. Especially if this is your first book.

To keep it all under control, create a project plan with tentative dates for all the items you have to take care of. Getting it all out of your head and into a spreadsheet (or other tool) will give you clarity and reduce the anxiety and overwhelm.

Set Your Milestones

Now that you’ve written everything down, the next step is to decide on your milestones. What are you aiming for? What’s realistic for you given your current situation and life obligations? Taking everything into account, you can set realistic, achievable milestones.

Let’s say you have decided to write a thriller, and your target is about 60,000 words. And you want to complete writing in 90 days. Some simple math give you a target for daily word count to shoot for:

60,000 / 90 = 666 words per day

To keep things easy to track, we can round up to 700 (it also builds a small buffer in case we don’t reach our daily word count on some days).

You can adjust this to suit your individual style. You may not want to write on weekends, for example. In that case, figure out how many weekends fall in the next 90 days (let’s say you are starting on Jan 1, then you have approximately 12 weekends, which will be 24 days). Now recalculate based on the actual writing days available (90–24 = 66)

60,000 / 66 = 909 words per day

You can round up to an even 1000 words a day. Now you have your daily word count target, writing from Monday through Friday and taking Saturday and Sunday off.

You should also set due dates for all the other things on your list. You will have to make decisions which will impact your schedule. For example, will you purchase your cover art or make it yourself? There is a financial cost with one choice, a time cost with the other. You will have to decide what is most appropriate for you given your current situation.

Furthermore, if you are going to purchase your cover, will it be a pre-made cover, or a custom cover? Where can you get appropriate covers? What is a reputable source? You will have to dedicate the appropriate time for research and learning.

Having a due date will give you targets to aim for. In the example above, if you’re starting your writing on Jan 1, then you might want to have your cover proofs ready by Feb 15.

Do this for all the important tasks that need to get done.

Now that you have your milestones and your work carved out for you, you can get to the task of actual writing.

Plan Your Writing

There are many different ways to achieve your daily word count goal. What works for one person may not work for another, so you have to experiment and try various approaches to find the best fit for you. Having said that, here are a few ideas that have benefitted a lot of writers:

• Set aside a specific place to do your writing (home office, coffee shop, library, etc.)

• Do your writing at the same time every day (for example, 5am daily before breakfast)

• Use “writing sprints” to help you achieve your word count. The Pomodoro technique is one useful way to do this.

• Make sure your tools are ready before you sit down to write. That means the laptop has been updated to the latest software. The battery is at 100% charge. Maybe you have Scrivener or Google Docs (or the editor of your choice) already open and ready to go. Basically, everything is enabled for you to be able to sit down and start writing right away.

• Having an accountability partner — essentially someone whom you have to “report to” about your daily progress. It’s a lot easier to rationalize (lie) to ourselves than to someone else. If you are going to have an accountability partner, choose someone whose opinion you value, someone you respect. If you let them down, you would feel bad about it. At the start of your project, tell them your daily word count goal, and your purpose for writing this book. Then, check in with them every day to report in on your progress. Just having to make that call or send that text message is a great motivator in itself.

Set Yourself Up For Success

There is a lot to do when you are an Indie author writing, publishing, marketing and selling your own book. It’s ok if you don’t get every single thing right the very first time. Success is the result of many iterations of trial-and-error. So go easy on yourself.

Determine your metrics of success. Don’t choose an outlandish and extremely improbable thing (e.g. “I will sell a million copies of my first novel.”)

Choose something that you know is attainable, something that is do-able but also requires effort and will make you stretch and grow. And make sure you have defined it clearly so it is measurable. You can look at the metric and determine very clearly whether you have met it or not.

And when you do meet it, make sure that you celebrate the win. It is extremely important to celebrate this small wins. This way, you train your brain that hard work brings success and success is achievable and celebration is a good, positive thing. And it will give you fuel to keep carrying on to even bigger successes in the future.

Always remember to celebrate, no matter how small the win.

Know When (And How) To Course Correct

It is a well known fact that once things get rolling, they don’t go according to plan. After all, a plan is an anticipation of future events, and no one can predict the future exactly or perfectly. One your plan meets reality, you may find things to be very different.

Maybe the coffee shop has no Internet connectivity. Or one of the kids suddenly comes down with the flu. Or you lose power. Or the laptop crashes. Or relatives drop in unexpectedly. Etc. You get the idea. Life happens.

So why bother planning at all?

We need to have a plan because we need to know where we want to go. An airplane that takes off from Seattle en route to Hawaii will be off-course more than 90% of the time. But because the pilot is tracking (metrics) their position and constantly course-correcting, they land in Hawaii at the appointed time without any problems.

The same is true of your plans. Make your plan, execute it, and course correct along the way. There will be mishaps and unexpected detours. But if you know where you want to go (Hawaii), then you can course correct along the way to make sure you get there. I planned to write 1000 words today but was only able to get 800 down. I see that I was short by 200 words. I will change my target word count for tomorrow to 1,200 words and I will be back on track.

Measure (track) your progress, notice when you are off-track, and course correct immediately.

You Can Do It

Even if this is the first time writing and publishing a novel, you can do it. The tools and resources are available to you. Technology has enabled you to reach billions of readers all over the world. It has never been easier to find your audience.

If you follow a strategy that works, plan your tasks thoughtfully, select appropriate and meaningful metrics, track your progress and course correct immediately when needed, you can absolutely achieve your goal and successfully write and publish your novel.