What Do You *Need* to Write a Novel?

You’ve always wanted to write a novel… so what’s stopping you?

While there are a myriad of writing coaches, instructors, programs, and even software to help you, you don’t need any of it. All you need to write a novel is an idea, determination, time, and some sort of implement to record your words.

That’s it, so let’s break it down, one by one.

Your Novel’s Idea

The idea for your story can come from anywhere. If you’ve had the itch to write a novel, you likely have an idea (or several ideas!) that has been nudging you for attention. Because there’s no wrong way to approach a story, it doesn’t matter if your idea is about a character, place, question, or event.

If you haven’t settled on a particular idea, here’s how I’ve found ideas in the past.

But what if there are already XXXX novels about my idea?

So? If there are two, why can’t there be three? And even if there are 2,002, what’s the harm in one more?

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
― John Steinbeck

Determination

Real talk: writing a novel is not easy. To sit down and pull 50,000 to 100,000 words from your brain takes effort.

Despite how the media portrays writers, it’s rare for anyone to sit down and write in a continuous flow from start to finish… and end up with a quality product.

For most writers, there’s a lot of thinking, writing, rewriting, editing, thinking, writing, deleting, rewriting… etc. And that’s before we get external feedback.

And it’s not just the work and the long hours that are difficult. Writing can also take an emotional toll. It’s introspective and sometimes, it’s darned uncomfortable to open the door on your painful thoughts, memories, and emotions. But digging into this discomfort is exactly what enriches your story.

“The greatest writers are the ones not afraid to share their heartbreak and pain for the world to read. They are fearless and freely in sharing their heart to heal other wounds with their story.”
― Tamyara Brown

Time To Write a Novel

We all have the same 24 hours in a day, so don’t use time as an excuse to not start your novel. For every person who says they want to write but don’t have the time because of kids, or multiple jobs, or sick family members… let me stop you there. Writers are people too, meaning they also have jobs, and kids, and sick family members.

“You don’t find time to write. You make time.”
— Nora Roberts

If you want to write, you’re going to have to prioritize your writing time over other things. That means choosing to write and forgoing another favorite activity. Or getting up early. Or saying no to social events. If you want to write a novel, make the time to achieve your goal.

Writing Implement

Whether you choose to write long-hand, type, or dictate, your writing implement can be as high or low tech as you want. I know writers who have written most of their novel on their smart phone. Some writers switch from typing to writing in long-hand for tricky scenes or to get past blocks.

“I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.”
— Natalie Goldberg

If you read this blog, you know I’m a big fan of writing tools and use several while drafting my novels. But while they are useful, and many save me time later in the publishing process, none are essential.

However you choose to record your words, make sure you have a process for safeguarding your work. There’s nothing as discouraging as losing hours (or days!) of your work, so take care to create digital or analog backups of your words.

The World Is Waiting for Your Novel

There’s no one else like you. No one thinks exactly what you think. No one else has had the strange alchemy of your past, your ideas, your history, and your experiences.

And, most importantly, no one else can write the story you will write. So dig into your ideas, your worlds, your characters, your message and start your novel. Someone out there is waiting for exactly your story.

Have you written a novel?

Header Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash