Tips for Novel Writing (Without Going Totally Insane)

As someone who's written multiple (read: double digits) novels, it is both easy and hard - it really depends on how you approach it!

Romanticon's Tips for Novel Writing (Without Going Totally Insane):


Part 1: Before you start

1. Come up with an idea! If you don't have an idea, you don't have a novel. Simple as that.
2. No idea? Pick a genre you like. Do you read a lot of mystery, romance, scifi? Set out to write what you know.
3. Background research. If you want to write a Victorian period piece, you should read up on Victorian era daily life. If you want to write a space adventure, read up on rockets and space.
4. Plot-in-a-sentence. Imagine that you're in an elevator with Christopher Nolan. How do you convince him to buy your book as a movie deal before he reaches his floor?
5. Accountability. Set a reward for completion, but a punishment if you don't hit a daily goal. I've found that a good punishment for me is running a mile on each day I don't hit my word goal.
6. Choose a time or place to write, and make it a habit. I personally have a favorite coffee shop where I can people watch as I write.

To outline, or not to outline?

I've talked to other writers, and they swear by always/sometimes/never outlining their stories. Personally, it really comes down to what you feel works best for you. I outline, because I like the organization, and it helps me push through the "middle slog" when I no longer love my plot any longer.

I also find that a good outline means my book is already about 20% written! I'll start with just listing out the plot-in-a-sentence, and then I'll break that down into a list of events that happen in the book. Break those down a little further, and I've got chapters! Add in a few sentences describing what happens in each event, and I've got chapter summaries!

From there, I find it easy to just take a chapter summary a day and flush it out into a full chapter.

Part 2: Time to write! Uhhhh....

1. Have a word goal in mind before you start writing. I will usually aim to write 2,000 words a session - that gives me a 50k word novel in 25 days! Even a 500 word a day goal still gets you a novel in under 4 months.
2. Remove distractions. Check out apps like Write or Die, or even turn off your internet connection for the writing time. You can also find apps that block access to certain sites for a length of time (like turning off Reddit...).
3. Use a timer! I personally am a fan of the Pomodoro method - 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off. Great for writing intensely without getting burned out.
4. Find a writing group! Writing is much easier with other people, even if it's only a digital connection.
5. Keep a cheat sheet of important details. Write down your characters' names, descriptions, important backstory details, etc. I've had a character's eye and hair color change halfway through the story because I forgot how I originally described him. This also helps you with backstory.
6. Don't go back and edit! Editing a story before it's finished is a death stroke to the novel. If you realize you need to go back and re-write a plot point, make a note of it, and then KEEP GOING to the end before backing up to make changes.
7. If you think of a cool plot point or detail to add in at a future chapter, make a note of it so you don't forget. At the bottom of my document, I keep a slowly growing list of "things to remember".

Part 3: Halfway through and hating it

1. Relax. Every writer hates their story at some point and wants to scrap the whole thing. Keep going.
2. If you have an outline, don't forget to refer back to it - or update it if your story takes a new direction.
3. If your characters get "stuck", think about their goals. What are they after to be happy? Why don't they have it, what's holding them back? How do they accomplish their goal? What does that mean for your other characters?
4. Remember, your story doesn't need to hit a certain word limit, just wrap up. Some of my novels stopped at 45k words, some went all the way to 65k words. The story ends when it ends.

I'm done! Now what?

First, congratulations!
Second, put the novel aside for a few days. You need to distance yourself.
Once you're starting to forget some of the details of what you've written, go back and re-read it, preferably with a highlighter. I review in the following order:

1. First, does the overall plot flow? If not, what do I need to change?
2. Second, do the characters stay consistent in talking style, goals, motivation, attitude, and so on? If not, fix that after the plot's solid.
3. How's the logical consistency? If a character doesn't have a car, how do they get around? Is a broke character flying around the world? Is an awkward geek flirting effortlessly with supermodels? Make sure things make sense.

When I read one of my stories, I often try and see it as a movie in my head. If scenes in the movie aren't clear or don't make sense, I know I need to rewrite that section.

Composition of a novel

When I write a novel, it ends up being about:

• 20% descriptions and scenery
• 40% dialogue
• 20% emotion (how's the character feeling, thinking?)
• 20% action

Your numbers may be different, but you do need a blend of all 4 of these. Leave out emotions, and your characters all feel robotic. Leave out dialogue, and the thing doesn't feel real. Leave out descriptions, and your readers will be utterly confused.

Okay, now I'm really done with the thing. Now what?

Now, put your baby out in the world! You can either:

• Submit to traditional publishers (although you'll want an agent for this, and it's a long slog)
• Publish it yourself for free! Check out programs like Scrivener for making an ebook, and printing platforms like Lulu to get a physical copy.
• Put it up for sale! I sell my novels through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform, as well as on other sites.

Remember, every author hates his finished product most of the time. You only get better through practice and self-assessment. You can do it!

Some other resources to check out:

www.nanowrimo.org - National Novel Writing Month is a competition every November, where people challenge themselves to write a novel in a month, 1,667 words per day! It's a great way to get motivation, with local writing groups all across the US and around the world.

www.savethecat.com - guide for anyone wanting to write a screenplay. In addition, google "Save the Cat beat sheet" for a great outline for writing a novel.

www.kboards.com/authors/ - forum for self-published authors through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing program, great for getting started in self-publishing.

www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php - Scrivener is a great tool for writers - it lets you organize by chapters, compile a book from separate documents, adjust formatting, and export in many different formats, including as an epub book.

www.duotrope.com - exhaustive, amazing list of all markets for submitting stories, long or short. Well worth the membership fee.

1099 Contract v Employee status

Here's some financial points where you will likely be losing out compared to being an employee. Try to put some monetary values on these so you have a good idea of how hard you are being screwed.

• no longer receiving medical benefits
• no longer getting matching 401k
• no longer receiving PTO
• no longer getting paid holidays
• no longer receiving 6.2 percent social security tax contribution
• no longer receiving 1.45 percent medicare tax contribution

Beyond those things that have a direct financial impact, also keep these things in mind:

• You are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits if you are terminated or the company goes under
• You aren't covered by workers compensation insurance
• You aren't protected by many labor laws
• The max amount of untaxed income that you can contribute to your retirement plan decreases from something like $13,000 to $5,500 per year. (may not be exact numbers, but your tax liability will increase)
• You may be financially responsible for investments in tools and resources required to do your job.
• You'll have to file estimated taxes on a quarterly basis.
• Taxes will be more complicated - you might have to hire someone to help you.
• You'll have to take the time to find private health insurance.

If you decide that you are not OK with your employer attempting to reclassify you, you may choose to remind or inform them of the following:

• Simply calling you an independent contractor does not make it so in the eyes of federal and state entities. Whether a worker is an employee is a legal question determined by the economic realities of the working relationship between the employer and the worker, not by job title or any agreement that the parties may make.
• If the IRS or other government agency determines that a hiring firm has unintentionally mis-classified an employee as an independent contractor, it can impose fines of $50 for each form that was not filed, 1.5% of the wages plus interest accruing daily, 40% of the FICA that the employee should have paid, and 100% of the FICA that the employer should have paid.
• A responsible person (including corporate officers and employees or members or employees of a partnership) with authority over the financial affairs of the business who willfully fails to collect and pay taxes may be held personally liable for the total amount of the uncollected tax up to 100% under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.), as well as subjected to criminal prosecution.
• If the IRS suspects fraud or intentional misconduct in employee classifications (deliberately misclassifying to avoid taxes), the IRS may levy criminal penalties of $1,000 and/or 1 year in prison for failure to properly classify and withhold wages. If the IRS obtains a felony conviction against a person or company for “attempting to evade or defeat tax,” the fines are up to $100,000 ($500,000 in the case of a corporation), or imprisonment not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution (I.R.C. §7201).
• A responsible person (including corporate officers and employees or members or employees of a partnership) with authority over the financial affairs of the business who willfully fails to collect and pay taxes may be held personally liable for the total amount of the uncollected tax up to 100% under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.), as well as subjected to criminal prosecution.

Useful links:
NOLO- what to do if you are misclassified
Department of labor fact sheet

SOURCE

How to Find Your Best Life

Know this right up front: it's okay to not have all the answers and it's okay to keep looking for answers.

It's easy to feel inferior in comparison to people based on what they share on social media or even on what they say in person. Keep in mind they're only showing you the highlight reel, not the outtakes and bloopers.
Happiness begins when comparison stops.

This guide might be inspiring: A Brief Guide to World Domination: How to Live a Remarkable Life in a Conventional World (PDF).

You hate your job. Should you quit today?

No. If you have bills, etc., that would be financially irresponsible.

But if you're not happy, you can start making plans. Start saving money, looking for other jobs, thinking places you'd rather live in, etc. Your goal is to build a "freedom fund" that will give you enough to quit your job and move somewhere else to find a better job. Your goal is to build a life more in line with what you want.

The first step: check in with yourself. Do this in a quiet place alone. Traveling by yourself can also do wonders for removing the external voices telling you what to do with your life (parents, family, friends, co-workers, etc.). Just go somewhere by yourself. Like a park or the library.

Ask yourself who you are, what you want, and other big questions like that. These can feel intimidating and difficult, especially if you haven't been alone for a while and have competing voices in your head from the people around you.

Who do you admire? It could be someone you know. It could be a successful person you've read about. Who do you look at that makes you think, "Man, I'd love to do what that person is doing"? Make a list. Keep finding more people who inspire you. If you read interviews of successful people, you'll often find they had an inspiring role model. Sometimes they had a relationship with that "mentor" sometimes not. The important thing was that it gave them a starting point.

Don't make the mistake of being seduced by someone's passion though, and think, "If I do the same job/career/business, I'll be as happy too!" Do you actually like the work itself, without getting interviewed on TV or being on magazine covers? Most people toil in obscurity.

A fun exercise is to imagine a future scenario of your perfect day. Let's say it's five years from now. There's a great quote by Bill Gates that goes like, "We overestimate what we can accomplish in one day, but underestimate how much we can accomplish in one year." So in five years you could go far.

The key thing is to let your imagination go wild, and silence the doubting voice that says, "That will never happen." Think of it like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book.

What's your perfect day?

• You wake up. What kind of place do you live in? Log cabin in the forest? Modern loft in the middle of a bustling city? Villa by the beach? Where is your home? What city?
• You go to work. Where's your office? Maybe it's downtown, or maybe it's down the hall from your bedroom?
• There are photos on your office wall. Who are in the pictures with you? Friends? Family? Celebrities? Leaders in your industry? Attractive girlfriends? (or boyfriends, I'm not judging).
• There are photos of places you've been. Where are they? Cities? Jungles? Art galleries? Bungee jumping? Wine tasting? What experiences have you had you that you wanted to remember? (as your future self, not now).
• You check your e-mail. What kind of e-mails are in your inbox that make you smile? Happy customers who love your product? Fan letters saying how much they love your book/music/other creations?
• You get phone calls. Who's on the other end of the line? A businessperson with a multimillion-dollar deal to offer you? A reporter to interview you about your new project? A hot sexy person asking you out on a date? The answers are for your eyes only, and you get to decide how it's rated :)
• What do you do at work? Writing a book? Writing a business plan? Doing a Skype call with a big shot? Leading a meeting?

The next thing would be to start working backward. What steps did you take to get to that perfect day? For example, I did this exercise with a friend who's a writer. His novel is about a character running in a marathon.

• Perfect day: seeing the title of his novel on The New York Times bestseller list in the newspaper.

Starting to work backward, what things would have led to that moment?

• He was interviewed on national TV about his book. Gave him instant wide publicity and boosted sales.
• He had earlier been mentioned in a national newspaper article about running. A TV producer read the article, thought it was an interesting angle for a story, and called him up to fly to Burbank for an interview.
• My friend had set up Google Alerts to notify of him of any news stories about running. He built a list of reporters who'd written articles on the topic. He also signed up for Help A Reporter Out (HARO), where journalists seek sources for their articles.

Whenever he saw a chance to relate his novel to an upcoming story, he'd get in touch and offer himself as a source or someone who could provide some quotes. Most were not interested, but he kept trying. Eventually, he answered a posting on HARO by a reporter who was looking for people to interview for a story about running. He sent an e-mail as soon as he saw the posting, and then they e-mailed questions and answers back and forth, and used some of his quotes in the article. That started the ball rolling.

Another option is to make a set of lists of the things you want.

Use these categories to set your goals:

Have
Material things: Mansion, sports car, etc. Maybe the things you want are way cheaper. What matters is that you want it, not what you're told to want. Hint: go for tools that will help you with your hobbies, which will lead to . . .

Do
Occupation and hobbies: Write a novel, paint art, fly in a wingsuit (that shit is so badass!)

Be
A good friend, a donor to worthy causes, a supporter for things you believe in, a volunteer to improve other people's lives somehow, etc.

We'd all like to believe we're high-minded, evolved beings and jump straight to the "Be" goals, but you really need all three to be happy. Don't feel guilty about having desires. This is for you, so it's okay to be a bit selfish.

A similar way to think about these are

• pleasure (have)
• passion (do) 
• purpose (be) 

Once you have your list, get on Google and do the most fun research you'll ever do. What resources are out there that can help you get those things?

If you'd like to do a similar exercise, but with a video of someone guiding you along the way, you can watch this:

The 3 Most Important Questions to Ask Yourself

More resources:

'follow your passion' is wrong: Cal Newport speaks at World Domination Summit 2012 (Video)

Also good: Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation. What things make people happy while working? Pink breaks it down.

If you want to dive deep: The Overjustification Effect. Does getting paid to do what you love make you happy? Not necessarily, as this article explains.

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor is a great book. He makes a convincing case that it's not "you become successful, then get happy." Instead, it's the reverse: you get happy, then become successful. He backs it with a lot of research and studies.

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