The First Novel, The Right Instrument

The First Novel, The Instrument

The hardest part of writing any novel is the blank page puzzle. 

To get past this you first need to pick the tool that you will be composing your novel on. This sounds easy, but no two writers are the same and what works for one writer is poison for others. 

Some of you will want to do your first draft by hand. Almost all of us wrote our first stories this way. The greatest writing in the history of the English language was done this way. Shakespeare and Dickens wrote this way. I understand that the most successful writer in history J. K. Rowling wrote her first Harry Potter book on legal pads.

 

  There is the old school typewriter. I have a pair of them in my basement. I wrote my first unpublished book on one of these almost twenty years ago. I have to admit that there is something reassuring about the sound of the type hitting the paper. If you got one of them laying around and can still find the ink for it then go for it.

 Next up is the wordprocessor or computer. Most of us will end up in front of one of these whether it is the first draft or the one that we will send off to be published. I find the key to this is finding the program that works best for you. You could go simple notepad. You could use word perfect or office. You could use a universal program like Open office. My go to program is word perfect. 

I am comfortable with it and I love the editing features. I am writing this post using word perfect. You could use one of the expensive software programs designed for authors or you could you a speech program to dictate your novel. 

The only tool that you must show up with is your imagination. Writing a novel is about the willingness to work hard and to allow your imagination to be the star. As you write you will find your characters become more and more real to you. They will become over time as real as friends and family.

 I wish you luck and I hope that you will respond to this post by like it on stumbleupon and take the time to read a chapter from my novel Calling Vicki. 

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First Novel and Writing Software

First Novel and Writing Software

You are about to start work on what will be your first novel. You may have started this process before, but this time you are determined to finish what you start. If this is the case then you will want to find the perfect software for the job. 

 Why does software matter? 

 Can’t I just open notepad and get going? 

Sure you can and if that works best for you then do so and do not worry about what other writers are using. I believe that the majority of writers get caught up in the quest for the next big thing. Finding a writing software that will practically do it all for you. This software does not exist. You are the writer and you are going to have to work hard on your novel no matter what anyone advertises. 

To be fair to all involved I am not going to try to sell you on any one program. I use the one that came with my computer and my backup program that millions of people use. The three programs that I am going to look at today are three of the most popular, but there are dozens more out there and all you have to do is a quick google search to find them. 

 First up is a program named Open Office. It is free. 

 

 The second program is Microsoft Office, although I find that Word perfect is nearly as good. 

 The last one I want to look at is the very popular Scrivener. 

 Good luck writing your first novel no matter what program you select. Just remember to have fun. Now if you have a free moment please share this post with a friend and like us on Stumbleupon. Thank you and remember if you want to write well you need to read a lot. Read every day. 

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Fiction, Novel or Short Story, Calling Vicki

                    There is not that much difference between writing a short story and writing a novel. For those that have a problem imagining that they will ever be able to pull together a story that is fifty to a hundred thousand words long I can offer some advice.

    First the major difference between the novel and the short story is point of view. A short story rarely has more than one point of view on display. The focus is on one character and a single plot point. The novel can be looked at as a series of stories that are sometimes strung together or interconnected. Most novels feature a central character, but the novel usually features secondary characters, both protagonist and antagonist that get to shine in chapters of their own. In my suspense novel Calling Vicki I decided that it would be best to give almost a third of the novel to the antagonist or villain so that the readers, by the climatic chapters of the novel, would be in a state of dread. They would be wonder how Vicki and her loved ones are going to survive yet alone win against such overwhelming odds.

  

I suppose the key to the novel is that everything is raised to a higher level beginning with character development. The novel allows you as the writer to fill in unlimited back story. In my novel Calling Vicki I get to revisit the most memorable moments in Vicki’s life. The back story that made Vicki into the person she is at the beginning of my novel. The murders of her parents and the attempt to follow somewhat in their footsteps.  Being separated from her first love by circumstances beyond her control. All of these things I can cover in a novel with no problem, while in a short story it would have to be summed up in no more than a paragraph.

    Secondly the novel is about change, very little is as it was when the novel began while a short is more about a single event. Your characters will grow and change over the length of the novel or you have not done a good job. What happens to them and those around them will alter them in some way. In my novel Calling Vicki the lead character and her closest family member goes through a great deal of change as they maneuver through the dangerous world they have been throw into. If your novel is stuck I suggest that you go back and investigate if your lead character is growing and changing or the same as he or she was at the very beginning of the novel.

    Thank you for visiting my blog, please take a moment to share this post with a friend and to bookmark this site.

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Calling Vicki, At Two Months

                Calling Vicki, At Two Months

I did not think that it would be easy to market this book or get it to reach the top of the best sellers list, but some days I have to admit I have my doubts that it will ever reach the level of sales that I expect. Many writers have gone through this before. The ones that made it kept going. The ones that did not gave up and stopped trying.

    I know that Calling Vicki is good.

    I know that over time I will be proven right or wrong by the only people that matter, the readers.

    If you have not read Calling Vicki yet I am about to do a week of the book being available for free at most major ebook retailers. I cannot do this for the paperback version and I cannot do this at Amazon, but most other retail outlets will have the book for free. I hope that you will take this time to read the book and to share your feeling about it whether they be positive or negative with others.

    I know that overall I have written a quality novel. I may have many more novels in me. I have three other complete novels, but this one feels special. Maybe when I sit down to write the ten months into this journey post I will look back on this moment to read how I was feeling about the progress of my sales.

    Thank you and have a nice day.