Novel writing is fun but scary. With several novels / novellas under my belt, I know and still bear the scars. If you are interested, check them out at my Free Online Novels and Novellas blog where I also discuss free online novels by other authors too.
Novel writing is completely exhausting but wonderfully absorbing. It draws you in and gives you somewhere else to live. The characters, with whom you are spending so much time, become really important in your life like new friends. As you go about your day-to-day life, you start wondering how they would respond to that bit of news or this particular event. You re-live a scene and feel the fear, love, hatred or joy your character felt. Your characters are you but, as your novel progresses, you may also find that you are becoming your characters.
I love novel writing. It is the ultimate form of escape. It is a full-time job. It is indulgent. It rocks like no other writing experience I know. Writing a flash fiction or short story has a special pleasure of its own but there is no greater joy than in finishing a novel. You lovingly flick through the pages with all their memories, revealed or kept secretly in the background. The novel has become a living entity and will thereafter be important in your life. Like a child, it has been born, it lives on and will never go away. It is a friend or burden for life.
But novel writing is a big gamble. It is a one shot gun. You need to be very certain that the novel is going to achieve your objectives. These objectives may be personal, as in writing your life’s story to work out some feelings, or aimed at making money through conventional publishing. Whatever your reasons, the decision to write a novel is so huge that it cannot be undertaken lightly.
However, if you decide to embark on this roller-coaster emotional ride of your lifetime and write a novel, I wish you all the luck, good fortune and stamina you will need. Like a friend who has accompanied you to the station, I feel envy that I will not be travelling with you to all those exciting places but my own personal path lies amid the short stories, articles and flash fictions of my small home town - at least for now.
Bye for now
Rob
Hi, maybe you can advice me on what to do. Couple of months ago I finished my first novel, it has not been published yet (I am from Croatia and the things are slower here). My first novel was writen in first person and I felt quite confortable that way ‘couse my first novel was actualy (mostly) about myself as I was sailor before, and my world traveling happenings. Now I would like to know how actuly to make chapters and how to prepair characters before I star with story. What is the most important think to do before I start etc.
Thank you
Hi Milenko
Congratulations on completing your first novel. It is a wonderful feeling to know that it is there, it exists and it is all your own work.
Perhaps your novel was written for your own purposes to think through issues in your life or perhaps it was written in the hope of publication, fame and fortune.
If your motivation was the latter, one of the best places to go for an assessment on whether it needs improvement and re-writing is an online discussion forum.
The friendliest online writing forum that I have come across over the years is http://www.mywriterscircle.com/
You can get writing tips and submit sections of your work for feedback. It’s quite addictive and I have spend a lot of time there.
Good luck