7 Steps to Write your first Best Selling Novel

Writing a book may seem like a daunting task.

Between the bestsellers in your local bookstore to community authors who seem gifted and have a way with words, it can feel impossible to even get a first draft done.

You wonder, why can’t I do that? Why can’t I just write one darn book?

Well, I’m here to tell you, you can.

Writing is a skill just like everything else. You can learn to write, and you can learn to write well.

It takes a bit of practice. Here are a few tips when writing a novel.

In my first year of writing, I wrote two books. The year after that I wrote six books. And the year after that, I wrote eight. It gets easier and easier as the years go by.

I’m here to share with you some lessons I learned along the way. There is so much I wish I knew at the beginning of my journey.

Since 2017, I have been self-publishing my fiction novels online. Since then, I’ve grown from staring at a blank word document and writing only two hundred words a day to writing three to four thousand words a day. Consistently.

I’ll tell ya first, it did not come easy.

1. Set some goals and stick to it

Look at some of the greatest accomplishments mankind has to offer. We have been breaking records and inventing new things since the dawn of time.

If you can see something in your mind’s eye, then it can come to fruition if you set your mind to it.

If mankind could land on the moon, and mankind could create the first commercialized computer — you can write a book!

Start with solidifying a goal for your book. Choose a word count and a timeframe goal.

If you’re not sure how many words you should aim for, pick something easy like 30,000 or 50,000. Alternatively, you can google how long some of your favorite books are and aim for that number of words.

It’s important to come up with a word count goal because it’s easily measured. What gets measured gets managed.

As well, it’s just as important to set milestones so you can stick to your goals and hold yourself accountable. Create realistic goals but at the same time, challenge yourself!

Let’s say you want to write a 50,000-word book by the middle of the year. If you start in January, that gives you six months to come up with 50,000 words. Now you can break that word count down by month, by week, by day.

2. Plotting your first book

There are two types of writers: Pansters and Plotters.

A “Panster” is someone who doesn’t do much plotting or planning before they write. They kind of just wing it.

A “Plotter” is someone who plans out scene by scene or chapter by chapter their novel before they begin.

Whichever you are, I find that most people are a combination of both.

I would suggest as a first-time novel writer that you try to incorporate a bit of both methodologies and discover which one you’re more comfortable with.

How should you plan for a novel?

Use a character development sheet that you can find here: Story Development and Beat Sheet.

You can also use a Chapter Overview Sheet.

A Story Development and Beat Sheet is a document that outlines your main story idea and keeps track of all your characters. It also gives you a general overview of how your story is structured.

The purpose of a Story Development and Beat Sheet is to keep your story straight. You’d be surprised how many times you’ll have to refer to your main story idea as you work through the process of writing a novel. Feel free to go back and continually change your Character Development and Beat Sheet as you go.

As for a Chapter Overview, this document allows you to know exactly what happens in each chapter. This gives you the ability to unstuck yourself when you’re writing. It happens a lot! So don’t underestimate the power of staying organized.

Knowing exactly what comes next and how your character progresses through the plot helps beat writer’s block. When you know exactly what you need to do, you know exactly how you’re going to attack the day and be productive.

If you’re still averse to the idea of planning, and you still want to completely just wing it, I’d advise still having a bit of a plan. You might not need to know what happens in each chapter, but you still might want to develop a story idea and a skeleton beat sheet.

Whether you’re a plotter or a panster, stay on track with your milestones.

Be accountable for the number of words you committed to yourself.

Stephen King writes 2,000 words or 6 pages a day. In interviews, he’s also mentioned that the 2,000 words he does write are ‘clean.’ This means he does minimal editing on those words in the editing phase. We’ll touch more on that later.

3. Character Development for your fiction novel

Ah, the age-old character-development-plot discussion. Does your character’s development drive the plot or does the plot drive the character development?

There is a lot of public debate about them online. If you’re interested, read my blog post on the subject.

Is Character Development an Effect of Plot?

The best stories are the ones that a character grows from his journey.

A greedy grouch turning into a caring, giving guy throughout the course of Christmas ghosts visiting him through dreams? Interesting. A poor boy who wants to impress a princess by making a wish on a magical genie only to discover the princess loves him for who he is? Awesome. Rival families that find it in themselves to let go of their violent conflicts because their kids fell in love? Hell yeah.

You get the drill. These types of stories play with our heartstrings because they speak to us on an emotional level. They tear down our walls and speak to the soft part of us that want to be better people and grow. It’s evolution speaking.

That’s why we love underdog stories or the nice guy getting the girl stories.

Character development is a whole arena of study.

You could take your whole lifetime just understanding it. The fastest way I’ve learned to understand character development is through T.V and movies. And of course, reading.

Make time to analyze stories and movies as you accomplish your word count goals.

Typically, characters start out lacking something crucial. It is within the whole story that the character goes from scene to scene, slowly shedding and relearning their morals and ethics that they become the person they are in the end.

Draw inspiration from other authors and creators in this respect. You’ll learn a lot from people who have been in your shoes before you.

When it comes to plot, you want to hit a few crucial points within your novel.

Find my plot post here: How To Plot Your Best-Selling Novel

4. Prose and Flow

There is so much to just plot and character development when writing a book. You also need to think about your audience. You need to be able to hold their attention.

Good prose and story flow can go a long way. It’s an easy concept to grasp but a difficult process to master.

Writing good prose just comes with experience. Controlling the pace of the story takes a certain skill that can only get cultivated through practice.

The expression “Show don’t Tell” refers to showing the reader how a character acts to show attributes about them. (I also have a post about that: How To Show Not Tell)

For example, if you would like to show that a character is kind, you might note that it’s not that exciting or effective to say that your character is kind.

“Patricia was a very kind person. She was beloved by her peers.”

It lacks some kind of oomph.

It is much more effective to show that she is kind. How do we do this? Well, think of a time when you were out in public, and you saw someone show an act of kindness. What did they do?

“Patricia would dedicate her weekends every other week and go to the train station to give away her home-baked goods to people of need. For this, she was given a medal of honor by the city.”

This better paints a picture of things your character does.

Prose refers to the poetry of the writing.

Read up on how to use different English rhetoric for different effects. For example, how alliteration helps to provide sound to a reader’s ear.

One of my favorites is from Stephen King’s Misery, “sudsy scum.”

Or, one of the easiest forms of rhetoric to use (but hard to master) — metaphors. Comparing one thing to something else. “She was as tall as a giraffe.”

There are a hundred other forms of rhetoric you can use in your writing. Go through your favorite novels and observe how other writers include rhetoric in their writing.

5. Stick to your word count and it’ll become easier over time

You might not be able to write a whole bunch right away.

Not many people have the desire and will to write and complete a whole novel. So consider yourself courageous for wanting to write a book in the first place. And a bit of inspiration, fortune favors the brave.

The first draft is always going to suck. So don’t beat yourself up too much over it!

Just get the words down and stick to your daily word count. If you run into a roadblock, give yourself a break and come back to it.

A powerful but underestimated quality is consistency. Keep going. Keep pushing. The first few times you sit down in front of your computer, it might feel impossible to get your goal completed.

But you know what? You’re going to get better over time. But you’re not going to get better if you don’t try.

Expose yourself to boredom. Give yourself a grace period of sitting in front of your computer and feeling bored. That’s how you’re going to get started.

Put all distractions away and allot a certain amount of time to yourself to get your work done.

It’ll only get easier over time. That’s not to say some days will be better than others.

Let yourself fail but have confidence in yourself that things will get better.

Writing is a lifelong practice. There is so much to learn. And honestly, I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to learn all of it in your lifetime. Come from a place of being a forever student, and you’ll never get tired of it.

Every master was once a beginner. You’re on your way.

6. How to write a powerful ending to your fictional novel

Some writers know exactly how their book is going to end, others savior the last bit until they get there.

Whichever it is, give yourself the freedom to explore. You might have a specific ending in mind, but while writing your novel, you might have found out that it should end differently.

It’s your book. Give it the ending it deserves.

This is what I love about twist plots or endings that come out of nowhere. It gives the reader a sense of conclusion, but also a sense that the characters are still alive running through their minds.

Don’t skimp out on the ending of the book. Give yourself ample time to write it. I know it can feel as if you’ve taken forever to write your book and you just want to get it out there.

But skipping out on the ending of the book while you’ve toiled for months over the beginning and middle is like having a cake without icing!

Give your readers something to think about. A last scene, a happy ending, a sad ending, a conclusion. This will keep your audience coming back.

7. How to effectively edit your first fiction book

When you’ve got all the words down on the page, congratulate yourself! You’ve written your first draft. Woot.

Give yourself a day or two. Better yet, give yourself a whole week.

Because you’re about to attack the most tedious part of the book writing process. Editing.

Now, let me give you some advice before you start editing your book.

Number 1: Don’t judge yourself too hard.

Number 2: Pretend someone else wrote your book. This will give you an objective lens to look through instead of self-deprecating.

Number 3: Commit yourself to a deadline just like you did with writing.

The first edit you must do is called a “Development Edit.”

This edit is a skim through the whole novel. It might be better to download your book on a Kindle or a .pdf and read it on a different device than you did when you wrote it. This gives you the ability to look at your book objectively.

The first read gives you an idea of what you wrote. Grab a pen and paper and take notes down along the way. You can refer back to the notes when you get ready for your copy edit.

A copy edit is an edit you do when you’re ready to correct plot holes and better flow. Any idea of your book that needs to be rewritten can be edited during this phase. Switch up your descriptions with your expose here.

The next edit is called a line edit or proofreading. This is the final phase of the self-editing process.

Read your book over and go through last-minute spelling and grammar mistakes.

The final edit is giving it to another person to read. The best thing about involving a third person in the editing process is having another set of eyes on your book. They will be able to catch mistakes that you missed.

If you need editing services, you can check out my Services Page on editing packages.

The only person getting in your way is you. So simply push those feelings aside and look at it as if you’re editing someone else’s work. You wouldn’t criticize someone else’s work too hard, would you?

At the same time, learn from your mistakes. If you’re editing and you see something in your writing that you think you could do better next time, note that down, and come back to it later.

You’re one step closer to the finish line!

And finally…

Don’t stress so much over writing a book. You might be putting a huge expectation on yourself. But writing is a fun and enjoyable experience!

A deadline is just there to light a fire under your butt and help you get things done. The thrill of meeting a deadline can be an invigorating feeling.

Let the characters speak to you as you go along. You can always go back and re-edit different sections of your book. The best way to get to know someone is to hang out with them.

That’s the same as the characters in your book! Even if you only have a vague idea of who your characters are, just keep writing and you’ll see that the characters slowly start to show themselves to you through your writing.

Enhance your storytelling skills and watch yourself evolve into a better writer.

Believe in yourself! Don’t give up. Next thing you know, you’ll be finished your novel and forget you were even struggling in the first place.