HOW NOT TO WRITE YOUR DAMN NOVEL

It's a lot like life honestly. 

Here's the number one hint.

Wait forever to start writing.

Don't wait to start. Don't expect lightening to strike or a muse to come down from the heavens.

Just write. Call it practice if 'writing a novel' seems too big a task. Trick your mind into being chill about it. If you want to do something, you have to do it. Don't wait for permission. Just do it.

As long as it's legal and doesn't hurt other people. Obviously that sentence up there about not waiting for permission doesn't apply to all things.

But it does freaking apply to art and writing and joy and fun.

Again, as long as your fun doesn't hurt other creatures.

Back to the point. We wait all our lives for inspiration, for a prince or warrior-queen to come sweep us off our feet, for the muse to bless us with the perfect novel or poem or family or painting or child. But we have to put in the work. We have to be brave and actively go after what it is we want.

We might write a ton of sucky sentences. We might forget how to use a comma. We might fail and get rejected a million times.

That's what makes the quest good though. That's what makes the goal worth it.

So if you want to write a novel? Write it. Just get started.

If you don't want to write a novel? Don't.

Study craft. Push yourself. Think about who your story is about and how they relate to the world. Just write down the words you hear in your brain, the visions you see. Start it.

You've got this.

Writing Tip of the Pod:

All of the above, man.

Dog Tip for Life

Dude. Hang out in the truck. 

SHOUT OUT

The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License. Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song?  It’s “Night Owl” by Broke For Free.

WRITING NEWS
IN THE WOODS – READ AN EXCERPT, ORDER NOW!

My new book, IN THE WOODS, is out!

Gasp! 

It’s with Steve Wedel. It’s scary and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Buzz Books for Summer 2019. There’s an excerpt of it there and everything! But even cooler (for me) they’ve deemed it buzz worthy! Buzz worthy seems like an awesome thing to be deemed! 

You can order this bad boy, which might make it have a sequel. The sequel would be amazing. Believe me, I know. It features caves and monsters and love. Because doesn’t every story?

---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/message
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/carriejonesbooks/support