How to Write Your First Novel. Part One: Just Start

I've read thousands of first pages by now — most of them in need of some love--— and I can tell you the single biggest thing standing between most people and a finished novel isn't talent. It's about making a start and allowing yourself to write a terrible first draft.

Don't Wait

I meet so many aspiring writers who are waiting for some invisible threshold: more time, more confidence, a better idea, a writing degree, some accolades from the publishing industry. Or perhaps just one more writer's workshop. Here's the truth from someone who reads manuscripts for a living —ready is a very impractical word. Every writer I've ever edited for, started their first novel not knowing if they could actually finish it. The only difference between them and someone who never starts is that they sat down and began anyway. They accepted that the first draft would be terrible and hoped that it would improve.

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Just Form a Skeleton

This might be the most freeing thing I can tell you: your first draft is not the book. It's the raw material for the book. I've never once opened a debut manuscript and thought, "well, this is already perfect!" First drafts are supposed to be messy. They're supposed to have plot holes, flat dialogue, characters who don't quite make sense yet. That's just what a first draft is. Lower the writing bar. Don't expect perfection. And even more than that don't require it. Just put pen to paper, get more practice in and be patience with yourself and the process. Your only job in a first draft is to get the skeleton of your story on paper.

Write a Story for You.

Before you worry about outlines or word counts, ask yourself one honest question: what story would you want to read? Don't tell me what's trendy, or what you think will sell. What world do you actually want to spend the next several months living inside?

I think about that thirteen-year-old version of me, completely swept away by gold jewelry and Imperial Russian intrigue. She wasn't thinking about craft. She just wanted to be somewhere else for a while. When you're choosing your first novel idea, chase that same feeling. If a world or character genuinely pulls at you, that pull will carry you through the hard days of drafting far better than any amount of market research will.

Don't Over-Do It

The novels that get finished aren't usually written in dramatic bursts of inspiration. They're written in small, unglamorous increments, over and over, until one day there's a manuscript. You don't need to write non stop for five hours a day. You don't need to stay up until 2:00AM every night. You don't to book a cabin in the woods and hide away from the world. You just need to build a habit of writing, and stay at it until the work is done. Because the minute you start to be frustrated with your manuscript, that spells game over. It is no longer a passion project-but a headache. So keep your head down and finish it to the end. Even if that's just 200 words, or twenty minutes, a few times a week.

What's Next

In Part 2 of this series, we'll talk about the actual bones of a first novel — the handful of structural and character basics that will keep you from getting lost halfway through your draft. But for now, your only assignment is this: Accept the level you are currently at, and write even when you know it's terrible. Open a blank document. Write one bad sentence. Then write another one.

That's how every novel — mine, yours, everyone's —began.

Coming up in Part 2: the basic story bones every first-time novelist should know before diving into their draft.