A Beginner's Guide to Writing a Novel

No one is born a novel writer. But do you believeYou will notice that you are no longer directing
that we all have the capability to be writers?your story but your story is directing you. That
Impossible as it may seem but the answer is yes!makes writing now so easy. You don't need to
If we have the passion for it and if we strive toanalyze anything because the story now starts to
make it happen, novelwriting can be as easy asplay like a movie. All you have to do is put them
writing ABC. Writing is actually not a veryinto words as the story plays in your head.
complicated thing. It is just like drawing, painting,Next, make sure you are able to retain your
and even cooking. It is an art! Your imagination isdaydreaming and concentration as one event
all that it takes to get it started. What makes itgoes after another. This state is now called the
hard is not writing itself but how people make it"alpha state". According to Judith Tramayne-Barth,
harder than it really is.this is the place between consciousness and sleep.
The first key to writing a novel is the ability toTime stands still when you are in this state.
dream and imagine. Think back to when you wereWords keep coming to you until you start to feel
a little child and dreamed. Your imagination tookpain in your legs and in your waist and then you
you to places you've never been before. It madesuddenly flick consciousness and you become
you do things you never thought you could do.flabbergasted because you've not only written
Having superpowers... being in strange places... theone or two pages but five or more without even
conditions are limitless. Writing a novel is actuallyknowing it!
imagination translated into words. You close yourThe next key would be to practice flipping in and
eyes and let your thoughts drift while creating aout of the "alpha state". You can do this by
web of consequential ideas. After which, yourereading what you've written and internalizing it
write them down on paper.as if it was your first time. It might take you
The second key to writing is formulating thetime, as much as hours or even days before you
premise of your novel. Let's say you'd start withare able to go to your "alpha state" again but
a huge asteroid moving about in space. Thenonce you're adept at going into the zone, it would
suddenly it collided with another asteroid andonly be a matter of minutes before you start
instantly created an explosion. Some of thewriting a new dialogue.
explosion's debris fell down into the earth'sSo, you've finished your story! Now it's time to do
atmosphere. By accident a person comes inthe final touch-ups. There is still one last thing that
contact with it. These sequence of events couldyou need to do. Yea, you guessed it. You need to
be your initial start in which you let your mindcheck the entire story again for spelling,
take hold of and run with to produce thepunctuations, grammar, correct word usage and
succeeding events.coherence. You might even need to revise it a
The third key would be creating a stream offew times before you are able to arrive with the
spontaneous ideas. Once you have the initial idea,final output. But don't fret, it's not much work
sink down into it and allow yourself to bereally compared to writing the entire novel. What's
completely absorbed. Let's say after the personimportant is you now have your own novel,
comes in contact with the asteroid debris, hewritten by yourself, using your very own
gains supernatural powers! And then he noticesimagination. How much more proud could you get?
some new changes in his being, not just physically© 2005 Rachelle Arlin Credo. All rights
but also emotionally and psychologically. This isreserved.
where an avalanche of new ideas start coming in.