I have attempted to write a novel numerous times but each time I always lose confidence in myself and give up. Writing a novel is something I’ve always wanted to do and I have so many great ideas. The problem is I always get paranoid that my stories are getting boring or that the reader won’t like them. Eventually I just lose faith and another idea is wasted. Do you have any advice to help me? –Abi
Abi,
First of all, no ideas are ever wasted. The ideas are still good and useable. You just need to pull the stories back out and start working on them again.
Being a writer is hard work. You have to learn to discipline yourself. As you are writing that first draft, it’s okay if the story gets a bit boring here and there. You can fix that later. Just keep on writing. You can’t fix something you don’t have. You need to finish a whole book before you can go back and make it better. I never worry about whether my book is good or not when I am writing my first draft. I just write it as fast as I can. Which is why I’m a big fan of National Novel Writing Month.
Now if you get stuck, you might need to add conflict to your story. Conflict is anything that thwarts your main character’s goal. And the main character has to have a goal, so that the story is about something that the reader can root for. Once you know the goal, the whole story is simply you throwing conflict at your main character, making sure he cannot achieve his goal until the end of the story. This keeps the reader turning the pages. If you can’t think of anything to have happen, check out my post on writer’s block.
Hope this helps! Keep on writing. The more you write, the better you will become at it.
Jill
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