Welcome to A Novel Approach. I hope that what I write within this newsletter inspires you while it helps you write better. In keeping with my penchant for double-meanings, I chose the title of the newsletter because you can interpret it several ways.

Literally, a novel approach is a new approach. I hope this will be a new approach (for you) to learning how to write a novel. I am always on the lookout for new ways to learn to make my own writing better, and I look forward to sharing those methods (and ones I've used in the past) with you.

If you look at it differently, a novel approach can also mean learning to write a novel by approaching it in parts. For instance, I will take the building blocks of novels - plot, character, dialogue, setting, description and such - and try to make them understandable to you. A piece at a time.

After all, a novel is quite an undertaking. It makes it less intimidating and overwhelming to break it into parts. One word at a time, if you will.

The last reason I chose the name is that I thought I might (only might) try to show you parts of one of my novels in progress with "before and after" bits to show you exactly how I improve my novels.

No matter how you look at it, though, I hope these novel writing tips will speed you on your way in writing your own book. Good luck on your journey!

What Should You Write Every Day?

I found an article recently that had a legitimate point about why you shouldn't just write every day. Because you may be procrastinating about writing your novel (or short story, etc). Just like you're procrastinating about your novel by washing those dishes that are calling your name (they will wait till morning, if evening's your best writing time).

The guy made a very good point. Which I'm sure I've been occasionally guilty of.

However, I have to say, that at least for myself, everything I've ever written, be it research paper, essay, poem, or journal, has helped my novel writing skills.

How?

Because I write every day, I'm fast at it now. I've never taken a typing course, but I can type over 60 words a minute. That translates to a novel page in three minutes, if everything's flowing.

If the ideas keep coming, I can write ten pages in an hour. (It slows down when I have to pause to think what happens next.)

Okay, but what if things aren't flowing?

Well, that's the other advantage to writing all the time. It's so rare for me to be blocked or not have a direction to write, that I can dash off six essays for my other newsletter in one evening.

Six short, quality essays written, edited and ready to publish. In one evening (about three hours, including one essay I accidentally typed over and had to rewrite a second time).

Now, if I hadn't taken the "write every day" mantra to heart, I doubt I'd be able to slam out that much work that fast. And yes, writing essays takes away time from writing my novels, but it's part of what I do to market myself.

And guess what? That's part of being in the business of writing novels. Marketing. How else are you going to sell those books?

So, how do you choose what to write every day and curb your penchant for novel writing procrastination?

Schedule novel writing time. Make it sacred. Even if it's only half hour. If you can't get anything to come out that's to do with your novel, write an essay about how frustrating it is to want to write and not be able to. (You might find a place to publish that!)

Or write a letter to a friend you haven't seen for awhile, describing your dilemma. People love getting snail mail from someone besides the junk mail vendors! It's so rare.

Whatever you do, write something. It will make a difference in the long run. Just try to balance writing for writing's sake with writing your novel. You do want to finish it, don't you?

By the way, I've just written this essay, reread, edited and polished it in twenty minutes. I bet you can learn to do that, too!

Just write every day.

Here's another one from Mark Twain, who seems to have written a lot more than just his novels...

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow. - Mark Twain