Author Archives: Stacy Verdick Case

How do you write a novel?  I get asked  this a lot as if the person asking is looking for a magic formula. Unfortunately, there is no magic.  Writing a novel is hard work, plain and simple.  But I do have a few tips that can help smooth the edges of the process a little.  Here are my top 5 tips to get your novel writing on track.

1)  Find your writing spot – every writer needs a space to write.  For some it’s an office in this home (lucky them), for others it’s a commandeered corner of their home.  Stephen King famously wrote Carrie at a makeshift desk in the laundry room.  Read more about that here.

2) Pick your writing time– You will need to know what time of the day you write best. If you’re more creative in the morinigns get up and hour early.  If you’re more creative in the evenings go to bed an hour late. If you can write anytime great! Grab time as often as you can.  You have to make time to write, it doesn’t just appear and when you do guard that time like gold.

3)  Gather Your Writing Tools – This is so important to the writing process. Computer, pen, pencil, music . . . whatever you need to write.  Have it ready and with you so once you start writing you don’t have to stop. You can waist a lot of valuable writing time running for this that and the other.

4) Sit Down and Write – It sounds simple but I know too many want to be authors who do anything but write. Shut the door.  Turn off the internet.  Marshal all your concentration.  Focus on just your story and don’t stop writing until you reach your writing goal for the day.  Do not stop to edit before the whole story is written.  You might never get the whole story told.

5) Have Faith – This is so important especially when you’re starting out.  Have faith in yourself because you will hear negative outside voices (and some times inside) when you chase a dream.  Tune them out and keep going one page at a time.

 For More on writing your novel check out these articles:

1001 Chapters: Lessons Learned From Scheharazade

Five Tips to Keep Pace In Your Fiction

I Quit! A Writers Journey

Launch Your NaNoWriMo Novel Value Pack at Writer’s Digest Shop

Stacy Verdick Case is the Author of the Catherine O’Brien mysteries and the host of the MyTalk 107.1 Podcast The Not Boring Book Show.