Getting Started With Your Novel

People come up to me after talks or at conferences, offering to give me an idea for my next book, telling me what a cool trick ending they’ve devised. I say thank you, no; I have more than enough ideas already to last more than a lifetime. Ideas aren’t the problem. I’m not even sure writing is the problem.

Getting started? That’s the problem. A lot of people who could probably turn out effective and even brilliant work, don’t — because they don’t know how to begin.

I’m here to tell you that the famous terror of the blank page or screen doesn’t need to overcome your creativity. Here are some tips for getting started that will awaken your muse … and put the pen in her hand!

Your first mistake is starting with the blank page/screen. Any project takes planning, and writing a novel is no exception. So accept that you have to do some reasonably heavy lifting before you even get to the pivotal scene that’s been playing in your head.

1. That said, start by choosing your tools. Don’t worry: pen and paper are completely acceptable. However, if you’d like to make your life a little easier, I can wholeheartedly recommend using Scrivener (no, I have nothing to do with Literature and Latte, I’m just a very satisfied Scrivener user). Go to the site and take a tour and if you’re not convinced that this will help you with every…