Whew… a first chapter, first draft. Though I wrote it in about 90 minutes, a lot goes into being ready to start. I could write pages and pages on this process, but I’m going to just start with a few pointers, and add as we go along. (NOTE: I’ll put italics on lessons that are generally true for every book and writer.)

First, we have to know something about the characters we are going to work with. Often, I don’t know much when I begin to type. The typing is what tells me. I know something about the characters, which I’ve listed in the “Characters” link at the top of the page, but there is a lot more to know. Read the rest of this entry

There are only two ways to create page turning content in a novel.  And, interestingly, they are the same two things you have to do to create a great life.  You must, on every page, have a problem to solve or an adventure to follow.  Otherwise, your reader will go…ho hum…nothing is happening…no reason to find out what happens next…and put down your book.  Deadly!

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In the final chapters section, you’ll see the nearly done version of a chapter. It may not go up for a while…we have a long way to go. And they may be updated…sometimes one thing happens later in the book, that requires you to go back and make sure everything before it still fits. Then, at the very end of the process, you’ll see me go back and get language straight (who uses long sentences when they  speak, who uses short, who uses contractions, who doesn’t, does every page have a FEELING quality to it, etc…). In my other books, there have been as many as two dozen “final drafts” before the actual printing, and then there are the 20-30 early readers who make edits, suggest changes and give opinions that (if there are enough of the same ones) I take a look at. You’ll just see the “most final” here.