What’s the best way to start writing a book?

A four-step plan to get passed the blank page.

Shaunta Grimes
The Every Day Novelist
6 min readMar 3, 2019

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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

This is a great question for March. Because I’m willing to bet that “write a novel” was somewhere on your New Year’s resolution list two months ago.

And you’re probably still thinking about it.

Really hard.

I want to help you actually write that novel this year, and the first step is . . . well, the first step is to take the first step.

One of the questions I’m asked the most is a simple one: How do I get started.

I want you to know something.

Everyone who is in that space between really wanting to write a book and actually writing one has this question.

Writing a book is such a big thing. Maybe it’s the biggest project you’ve ever undertaken. It’ll take months, if you’re fast. Maybe years, if you’re not. And it’s kind of scary. What if you’re not a good enough writer to do your incredible idea justice? What if you can’t do it?

So the first step is to get over the hump between having an idea and actually writing it. The hump that is filled with all those insecurities.

Here’s how to do that in four steps.

Start with a plan.

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Shaunta Grimes
The Every Day Novelist

Learn. Write. Repeat. Visit me at ninjawriters.org. Reach me at shauntagrimes@gmail.com. (My posts may contain affiliate links!)