An insider tip on writing your novel.

Writing by the numbers

I recently finished my seventh novel and am currently revising that book while writing chapter 4 in my eighth. I'm thrilled about the new book. It's an adult adventure series I've been "walking around with" for a couple of years and am now excited to be actually working on it. I think the title and possibly the series title is "GreyGhost Island." 

But back on topic. People often ask, "how can you write a novel? It's a reasonable question and one I used to ask. The answer is: "One page at a time." 

Well Duh! But wait ... there's more. 

Can you write a page?

Can you? Can you sit down in the chair and squeeze out a page of typing? If you can, you're on your way to that first novel. If you can accomplish one page a day for 365 days, in a year you'll have a first draft of your whole novel. If you write two pages a day you can be finished in 6 months!

What if it's not very good.

Tell your story. Most first drafts aren't wonderful. At least not as wonderful as they will be after you polish on them. "What if you don't feel inspired?" No worries. Writing a novel is like any job with good days and bad days. After you've written awhile, the difference between a good day and bad day doesn't appear on the page. It's just how you feel. 

What if I'm old? Should I still write.

Maybe you should write faster? I don't know. I think you should write anyway. I'm old. I write as fast as I can but mostly because I'm excited to get the story out on the page and find out what happens next. However you write, if you've always wanted to try a novel, you should. As my annoying brother Joel often says: Do it! Do it now!

Remember, it's just one page at at time. You can do that. 

You can read thirty pages of any of my four published novels for free, at Amazon Kindle Books. Click this link: Jonathan Stratman's Books!

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