My wife is amazing. I’m not saying that because I like her. If you know her, you already agree. Recently, her internal frump detector caught a whiff of discontent in me, and she asked the insightful questions to get to the root of what’s wrong. In a word, it’s the publishing business.

I’ve known I wanted to be a novelist, literally, since I was seven years old. I remember the precise moment, fifty-six years ago. I started deliberately developing the skills for this journey not long after that, writing (over the years) millions of words to get to the point where I’m confident enough to release my novels. And fortunately, we are in a moment of time when rejections from agents and publishers aren’t the gatekeepers to every book. None of my novels have been submitted to either.

Sales and Reviews. Those are the problems each author-as-publisher faces eventually. But along the road to that point, there is the ideation, writing, editing, rewriting, reader engagement, platform building, marketing, mailing list administration, advertising, finance, book content production, illustration…and all the project management that goes along with it. Of course, once you get Sales and Reviews, you hopefully get to deal with paying taxes too, (which would mean you’re making a profit ;-).

We all have ideas, so let’s skip talking about that and jump right into novel writing, which in my case, took decades to master. I was always really, really good at starting, but not so great at finishing. What helped me turn the page on that are my six writing rules, which I came up with in 2017.

1. Make tangible progress on fiction writing every day.
2. Set a specific, achievable goal every week.
3. Learn from each writing-related failure.
4. Don’t over- or under-encourage yourself; be realistic about your skill and your goals.
5. Learn to speak to other writers: learn the language of writing.
6. Seek the right help. Listen to some people some of the time…but not everyone. Be true to yourself and the story.

From there, I experimented with about a dozen frameworks designed to help writers develop novels. And I read A LOT about writing!

Ultimately, I learned an approach that works for me, and I discovered all that practice over the years helped me develop a superpower. Using my custom approach, I can write very, very fast! Every writer’s best process will be different, but here’s what works for me:

1. Let the idea gel as long as it needs to. Sometimes an hour. Sometimes a few weeks. Often a year or more. The story starts to form, and I set up a folder where I take notes as it seems to make sense (I usually use OneNote, but anything works). The key is, I’m not in a hurry. Ideas are plentiful–the universe is full of them. I have one idea I started over thirty years ago that I’ve started and stopped as a novel three times. It’s almost ready to begin again.
   One of the reasons I work on multiple stories and series simultaneously is to provide space for the stories to breathe through each phase. Under pressure, I can finish very quickly, but it’s sometimes more fun to turn to something else for a while and then come back.
2. Write the first few chapters and the ending.
   • The early chapters let me get to know my characters and get a feel for the tone of the story. I’m thinking about things like whether a single character can be my Point-of-View character, or if the reader needs to know things the main character does not. I’m also finding the overarching theme, which usually doesn’t emerge until Chapter 3 or so.
   • The last chapter (though written in rough/outline form usually), gives me a direction to aim for. The story is going somewhere, and I need to know where that is, early on.
3. Plot out the whole story.
   • This is the hard-fun part. I literally tell myself the story from beginning to end. I usually start by re-reading what I’ve already written and then I start to fill in the middle pieces as blocks. Here’s what my current work in progress looks like:

• As you can see, I divide the plot line by parts I’ve written and parts I have not. While nothing is sacred right now, I’m much more apt to shuffle the unwritten sections.
• I use block names that are meaningful to me, and I assign chapter numbers when I’m pretty sure I know where blocks go.

Of course, releasing a book leads to production and marketing work, and that’s a topic for another post.

4. Write the story.
   • This is where I used to start and stay, but I’d wind up hitting a wall. With this new approach, I have focus and direction. I’m able to flesh out character and scene details and focus on writing more compelling narratives and dialog.
   • I try not to force a scene. If something doesn’t flow or feel right, I’ll move on and come back to it. Sometimes, I need to see a nuance in what’s going to happen later, before I write an earlier scene.
5. Remain flexible.
   • Along the writing path, things change. I come up with new/better ideas. When I do, I go back and edit the plot lines to reflect updates to the flow, and I mentally test them to assure they lead where the story needs to go.
6. Get reader feedback & edits.
   • After I think I’m done (and at many points along the way), I reach out to a dedicated group of readers for input. These are honest readers who have decided they want to help me succeed in this space. They may come from many perspectives.
   • Importantly, I get input from readers of the genres I write in. I listen to them more than author friends, editors, or even my mom (when it comes to novels).
7. Rewrite. Review. And Release.
   • I naturally go back and forth with comments and ideas (my own and those of others) and keep trying to craft the story toward perfection. But at some point, you just have to let it go. Anymore, I opt for sooner, rather than later.
   • I remind myself that I only want to reach 1/10 of 1% of English readers (15,000 people) over the lifetime of the book. That’s about the percentage, I guess, that could enjoy any given story.

What Lisa did that was amazing is that she reminded me that I get to define success as a novelist. It doesn’t have to be driven by market statistics, or ranking against other works in a genre. Or even sales.

I have figured out how to write a novel. Every time I try to. In multiple subgenres. And I’m having fun doing it.

I’m still working to master Sales and Reviews and Revenue. But it will come. And I’ll keep working to learn those skills. In the meantime, I can be happy and feel successful just by remembering that I mastered the skill I’d set out to develop some fifty years ago. And I have a few good novels to prove it–to myself.