How to Rock Out That First Novel (or another Someday Dream)

Posted on July 07, 2014 by Meghan Hulsey, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

You’ve been telling yourself that as soon as you get your finances in order, you’ll have more energy to focus on your novel. Or maybe that when you get your “real” job, you’ll have more time to focus on it because school won’t be in your way, or you won’t have to be a rock star at work to advance your career. Or maybe, the idea is just collecting dust on your “Someday” shelf.

Step One: Dust off the idea on your Someday Shelf

Pick one of the things you really want from your list of dreams and “one day I will…” Make sure it’s something that wakes you up better than coffee. If you don’t feel yourself come alive talking to your friends about it, keep searching. You have to REALLY want this. Want it bad.

I want to publish a novel.
I want to start my own business.
I want to record my first album.
I want to learn how to play the guitar.
I want to run the 5k.

Found it? Awesome.

Step Two: Focus on Why It’s Important

Why do you want this so much? Really picture it. What do you see? The heaps of cash? Sure, but keep looking. Is it something your parents or friends want for you? Is it something that you feel like you should do even if it doesn’t shoot adrenaline through your veins and make you feel like you could run a mile right now? Then head back to step one. If this something that you really want for yourself? Is this something that already makes you happy? Every step along the path doesn’t have to make you take flight, but the end journey as well as the end result, should lift your spirits.

Write it down. Getting there is going to be a long, but very rewarding journey. So be sure to remind yourself along the way why you’re doing this.

Step Three: Create Action Steps

When you dump a 10,000-piece puzzle on the ground and stare it, it’s a little intimidating, isn’t it? If you’re like me, that’s also why it took me so long to work on my first novel. Break it down into small, manageable pieces and throw a reward in there for certain milestones. The more pieces you have and the more milestones and rewards there are, the better. But let’s come up with at least five.

Focus on step one initially. Pretend it’s the only step. There aren’t any others. All you have to do today is name your characters. Or make a list of local guitar teachers. Or come up with 15 titles for songs you want to write. Start small. Make every step count. Don’t look any further down the road than this step. There aren’t any others.

When you’re done with the first step, reward yourself. This is important. Keep up the excitement and motivation. You worked hard! Celebrate!

Next? Go on to step two and work on that, forgetting about everything else. Repeat. You’ll get there, I promise. And the more you do, the easier the next part will be. I promise.

Step Four: Go and Do

A big part of how your idea got so dusty in the first place is that you left it on the shelf for so long. It may seem a little daunting at first, but I promise that these kinds of things work of their own energy after a while (when you pick the right project).

So take a little advice from Nike and “Just Do It.” “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” You already have so much to offer the world as you are. Sure, there’s probably plenty you can learn if you do a, b, and c. Maybe it’s get a degree in English or Creative Writing. But if you let all of those steps get in your way of actually getting the computer out and starting your novel, you’re making a mistake. You’re standing in your own way.

Don’t think about it. Start moving today. It’s the only way that “Someday” will ever become “Today.”

My Story

In October of 2013, as I sat at my desk, sulking about the ridiculous number of hours I was committed to continue sitting at that desk for an indefinite period of time and feeling my soul die with each passing second, I realized that I needed an outlet. I needed a project to help get me through the cold months ahead of me and remind that I’m not a mindless drone sitting in the office of Hertz. I’m a writer. I’m a singer. I’m creative. (So are YOU! Seriously.)

Out of the blue, my friend texted me about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I’d heard of it before, heck, even attempted it once or twice. (Didn’t go too well either time.) And I thought THERE! There is my project!

Working 50 hours a week at a job that literally drains your soul dry is not the most creative atmosphere, and doesn’t really give you a lot of time to pursue hobbies. So I didn’t think that I could quite manage the 50,000 words during the month of November. But I could do 25,000, and if my writing partner did another 25,000, why we’d have a 200-page book in 30 days. Pretty awesome, right?

It was a difficult decision for me. I hate committing to things. I always feel tied down. Strangled. But I decided that if I couldn’t have what I really wanted: time to work on my singing career, I could check off one of my life-long dreams of writing a novel. Sign me up. We bought books on how to do it and guides and other writing books and read and prepared as much as we could before November 1. My favorite, and honestly what made the whole thing seem even remotely possible to me was: Book in a Month.

I made a schedule for myself. How many words did I need to do each day? 800. That’s what I committed to. It’s a little shy of 25,000, but it sounded less daunting to me. I can do this. I made a thorough list of milestones along the way, daily, weekly and for the month, each with a little reward attached to it. I could watch TV if I wrote today. And if I got the whole book done, heck, I was going out and buying a bunch of massages with my $250 Groupon credit (turned out that I could buy seven with a strategic search).

The first day I think I wrote a pitiful 100-300 words that, in my humble opinion were AWFUL. Really bad. Just hideous. But nevermind. Because I had made progress! Check today off my list! I did it!

As time went on, I built confidence in what I was writing. It was getting good. I could also sit for longer and keep writing. My best day was around 5,000 words! A more reasonable, easily attainable umber was 3,000 words. The more days, I checked off on my chart, the better I felt and the more motivated I was for the next day. The more weeks I checked off, the more I began to believe in myself. Now I’m awfully ambitious by nature and keep trying to inch the goal along and you know what? By the time it was all said and done, I’d written 38,000 words. In. One. Month.

Magic.

It still needed a LOT of work, but I could finally check off the first major milestone (and lots of little ones along the way) in publishing my first novel: writing it. I can’t tell you how that felt. It’s something you really need to feel for yourself to understand. It’s amazing. Awesome. Just plain fantastic.

I want that for you too. Tomorrow never comes. Let’s start working on your dream

TODAY.

**Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt