Welcome to A Novel Approach. If this is your first issue, I encourage you to check out my back issues for more tips on how to write a novel. It's my fondest hope that I can help other writers do the best they can do.

If you have any specific aspects about novel writing you'd like me to address in future issues, please feel free to contact me and let me know what those are. Thank you for your interest, and here's to better writing!

Becoming a Writer:
All You Do Is Just Write

I've been a writer since my eighth-grade teacher had us keep journals, and she told me I wrote very well. My writing kept me company, cheered me up, cheered me on. I haven't been becoming a writer, all these years. I became one when I was fourteen.

You can do the same, just by writing. But you have to give yourself some slack, early on. What you write might not please you immediately. I know I liked what I wrote when I wrote it, but when I'd go back to it - yuck!

So I wrote some more. I'm hoping you're doing the same. Don't try "becoming a writer", just write. You are a writer. You're becoming a better writer by writing.

Becoming a NaNoWriMo Novelist

As many of you know, I've been participating in the wild, crazy, maddening National Novel Writing Month (though it should now be called International Novel Writing Month, since people from all over the world join in). Each week, I've been jotting my thoughts on what it's like to cram writing in this way while we're scrambling to finish building our house.

Here is what I've found:

End of Week 1, November 7, 2009:

The words just flow from me. I don't know if that's because I told my brain to take care of the plot without much input from me (I had a basic plot laid out a couple days before I started), or just that I write so much now, whatever I set my mind to working on comes out.

I write best and fastest right away in the morning, before anything else is going on: no email checking, no conversations with my husband about what I need to do next for our house, just plunge right in to writing my novel. Since I wake awfully early, it's easy to dodge a conversation with my hubby, at least.

In some respects, it seems easier than my adult fantasy series. Which is weird, since I know those characters a lot better. But maybe, this rough draft is easy because I'm not being critical (yet) of how it comes out. It's also not as dark as my adult series, and maybe that's why it feels easier.

And unlike many others, my inner editor and I have a standing agreement: I won't bash her over the head if she won't rant about my writing. No editing till the rough draft is done.

Works pretty well, for me. I have 23,230 words done as of midnight November 7. Pretty impressive since I can't write more than three hours a day (on a "good" day).

Almost halfway "done".

End of Week 2, November 14, 2009:

I'm jealous of those getting more words out faster than I am. How silly of me. I'm blazing, here, and liable to have 100,000 words in the month, not 50,000 (which I reached today - yay!). And I'm jealous.

My inner rationalizer (I haven't figured out how to shut her up) says it's because THEY have more time (which could very well be true - or not). I'm squeezing writing in mostly one hour in the mornings and one or two in the evenings. So I'm still writing at a blistering pace compared to many.

Yet I feel second best. Maybe my inner editor got chummy with my inner rationalizer? Hmmm.

Pretty silly to worry when I'm beyond the needed word count, now. I think I'll have a talk with my inner rationalizer. Maybe lock her up with the editor. They can keep each other sour company.

End of Week 3, November 21, 2009:

In the middle of the plot I'd sketched out, I suddenly realized the second half of it had to be tossed. Entire.

Ouch! Not only was it painful to do, it created a moment of panic: How do I finish this novel, then!

Not to worry. I looked at what I'd done, what I'd learned about the characters I was writing, and forged ahead in a new direction. From what I read on the NaNoWriMo site, this is not unusual. Nor is the sense of panic.

Fortunately, it worked to rearrange things, and now I'm nearly to writing the last of the climax. If I finish ahead of November 30th, I'm going to go back and put in all the parts I made notes about adding as I wrote.

Such as... The things that have come up late in the book which now need seeds planted for them earlier. The way a character started talking and now I need to revise more of her conversation to reflect that attitude all the time. How the bad guy can be the bad guy without looking like it till right at the end (and still be sure it's plausible with little teeny hints along the way).

Those are technically edits, which you aren't supposed to do during NaNoWriMo, but if I finish the rough draft, I see no reason not to do my rough edits immediately. Then I'll put the book away for a couple of weeks minimum, and start from the beginning to do a full edit.

I can't wait.

I hope these meandering thoughts help you realize you aren't "becoming a writer", you just write. If you do that, you ARE a writer.

This quote comes from a "pep talk" email I got at the beginning of week two of National Novel Writing Month. It's something I actually learned somewhere along the way, quite a few years ago. Don't know how I managed it, but my inner editor mostly stays out of my way while I'm doing the bulk of my writing. And somehow, that makes my writing better to begin with.

Do not beat up on yourself. Do not criticize your writing as lousy, inadequate, stupid, or any of the evil epithets that you are used to heaping on yourself. Such self-bashing is never useful. If you indulge in it, your writing doesn’t stand a chance. So when your mind turns on you, turn it back, stamp it down, shut it up, and keep writing. ~ Gail Carson Levine

If you haven't checked it out yet, my e-book Boost Your Novel Writing Skills: 365 Days of Fiction Writing Prompts to Tease Your Muse and Practice Your Craft is now available. It's a full year's worth of inspiration and writing practice to improve your novel writing skills every day. Check out this new twist on fiction writing prompts today.

You can also check our NaNoWriMo progress on my Write a Novel in 30 days page. Not everyone has kept me informed of their progress, but you'll see four of us still forging ahead in this madness.

Maybe you'll be inspired to join us next year!