New Year's Resolution - Write a Novel - Getting Started

Happy New Year!

Now we're in 2013 and you've got your new resolution set. You're going to write a novel.

Great! So, where to start?

Well, this blog is a great place. We've got a ton of articles for beginning writers on how to write a novel, including a step-by-step guide that takes you from idea to final editing (and beyond!) and standalone articles that cover things like beating writers' block, formatting a manuscript and much more.

This blog is run by the team behind the Novel Factory, and if you're serious about getting your first novel written this year, the getting The Novel Factory writing software is probably the most useful thing you can do. And, if you're not sure, you can always try it for free before buying.

So, for all you excited newbies raging to get going on your first (or perhaps second or third), here are the first things you should do to get into the mindset of a writer:

• Try to put aside time every day (yes that's EVERY DAY) to do some writing. You need to make writing into a habit, so much so that it feels odd if a day or so goes by and you don't do any writing.
• Start to think about what you want to write about. If you already know what you're going to write about, that's great, but if not, you need to figure out what sort of book you want to write, what genre and who your target audience is. If you don't know this stuff you'll be flailing about in the dark a bit.
• Learn the nuts and bolts. If you don't know the basics of spelling and grammar, you're going to need to learn fast. Word spellchecker is not going to be good enough and if you think an editor is going to 'fix that stuff' for you, you've got a nasty surprise on the way. If you can't spell and punctuate, you shouldn't be a writer. However, it's not that difficult or ever too late to learn.

All good novels can be summed up in a single sentence, which is often called a premise. This is what we like to start with when we write our novels, as it gives you a great anchor to keep your story tight. You can read about how to write a great, gripping premise in this article.