Final Tips on Being a Writer

Being a writer - that is, one who gets paid for writing - is a fine ambition to have, but you simply aren't going to get where you want to be in a few short weeks or months.

Like I said earlier in this section, writing fiction is a lot more like a marathon than a sprint...

• Some wannabe writers think that writing is a sprint, but they tend to drop out of the race pretty quickly and go do something else with their lives.
• The more realistic novelists know right from the start that reaching the finishing line - i.e. getting a novel published - takes stamina and a dogged determination.

More specifically, you need to carve out a niche in your already-busy life in which to write - for example, by getting up at six o'clock every morning instead of seven.

Not only that, there are two more things you must do if you want to succeed.

1. Stick to Your Writing Time Come What May

Being a writer is probably something you have been dreaming of for years. But dreams don't come true all by themselves. Sooner or later you need to get real, and that means putting in the hours whether you feel like it or not.

If you planned to work on your novel for an hour before breakfast or 30 minutes after dinner (or whatever), then that is what you must do.

Full-blown emergencies will require your immediate attention, but anything less urgent must wait. That's the discipline you need to become a novel writer - and you need it day after day after day.

But if it's any consolation, the buzz you get from having worked creatively for an hour always far exceeds the energy you had to put into it.

2. When You Sit Down to Write - Write!

Sorry, but checking your e-mails doesn't count. Neither does reorganizing your stationery drawer, dusting your keyboard, or making stick figures from paper clips.

We do these things while we are waiting for inspiration to strike, but trust me - it never does, not on its own.

Being a writer who makes a living from your craft means working whether you feel like it or not. This usually means forcing it at first. But you should soon find your inspiration starting to flow.

Not that you always have to be turning sheets of blank paper into pages of beautiful prose, of course. You might spend your writing time creating a character biography, or typing up yesterday's handwritten draft, or doing some research.

Just make sure that you always work on some aspect of your novel for the full time you have allocated.

Bottom Line? The mammoth task of writing a novel ultimately comes down to establishing a routine that works for you, and then sticking to it whether you feel like it or not.

With practice, both laziness and hard work can become habits. But only hard work can be fun.

Next Step...

And that is the end of this entire section on How to Become a Writer.

Here, you have dealt with some of the fundamental novel writing issues - like why you want to write a novel at all. And you have tackled some of the more practical matters, like deciding what tools you need to do the job.

Now it is time to decide what Type of Novel to Write...