Suggested Steps for Writing a Novel
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
Formulate the steps involved in writing your type of novel and gage your progress by those steps, not by word count or chapters.
You can always compile notes, juggle the outline, write scenes as they pop up vivid in your mind. But focus on following your steps.
These are my steps for writing a novel in which the main challenge derives from a cosmic anomaly, a divergence from everyday expectations. (My flavor of magic realism).
1) Identify the anomaly. Express it simply in the form of a placeholder book title.
2) Choose a place and time.
3) Imagine main characters, including physical descriptions and backstories.
4) Write the first draft of the first chapter. 1
5) Imagine the challenges that should flow from that beginning and from the characters interacting with one another.
6) Listen to your characters as they come to life and the action unfolds. Try to capture the rhythm of their thoughts and words. (This may first come to you while walking/exercising/mediating or in your sleep).
7) Nudge the pieces of your story together, as you discover the true nature and motivations of your characters and the likely consequences of their actions.
8) If there are additional parts to your story, figure out how they link to the first. For instance, is one part a frame for another, or are several parts subsumed by the same frame.
9) Pray that it all works and turn to beta readers to find out if it does.
