To all my fellow amateur writers!

Let's all face it!

We suck...ok...maybe not, but we are right now frantically banging our heads against our keyboards trying to form something called a novel. I know, I'm doing it right now (edited all the gibberish). We've done novelettes, novellas, and countless of short stories, but for some reason we flinch at the word "novel".


Fret not, I didn't just spend countless hours of reading motivational quotes from people who have made greenbacks doing it, but also looking at other people suffer the same way we have. I found some simple steps to get our heads in the game whenever we wander off. I'm not saying these are the best or only ways, but these helped me continue on my novel.

1. Look at it as a job

The thing about writers who get paid to do write and writers who don't are usually that word: PAID. So when people ask. How in the hell do they get so many books out? Besides the possibility of a ghostwriter, they just write. They just write. Think about that for a minute. No inspiration, no waiting, or muses, they just write anything they can think of. So instead of waiting for the next greatest inspiration, how about we just freaking write?

2. Don't count your words

I personally think it's a trap. Yes, I said it, A TRAP! You type and type and type only to be greeted by 124 words. A lot of writers decide to stop the book at only 40,000 words, but then after editing it they find out they just removed 2,350 words, so now you're back in novella territory. Not only that you notice your story looks like a bunch of wishy-wash sentences. This is where the rule quantity vs quality come into play. You can make each word count or you can count your words.

3. Make time to practice

Just because you have a novel in the works don't mean you should leave behind all other mediums. I usually write short stories, film scripts, and comic scripts whenever I hit a road block because who knows you might find a sentence or plot point you were missing.

Just three steps, but it's helped me out a good tons and I hope it does the same for you.