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Q&A How to organize ideas to start writing a novel?

To quote Margaret Atwood - "You become a writer by writing, there is no other way." Starting a project is hard, no matter what, and accepting that it's going to be challenging - but ultimately wor...

posted 5y ago by ShinyPanda88‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:45:49Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47430
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar ShinyPanda88‭ · 2019-12-08T12:45:49Z (about 5 years ago)
To quote Margaret Atwood - "You become a writer by writing, there is no other way."

Starting a project is hard, no matter what, and accepting that it's going to be challenging - but ultimately worthwhile is how I always try to frame it for myself.

I would say to begin with some general brain dump writing. It doesn't have to be good; it's better if it's terrible - the point it to get what's in your head out. Get it written onto a page, or post-it notes, or typed into a document. Then you will have a sense of what you have and don't have.

It's tough to organize the information required for composing a novel-length book in your head. So having notes, outlines, and even summaries of characters and settings are useful.

That can all be a basic outline for your story, and from there you will be able to start working out details, and writing the exciting stuff, like what happens, how and why.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-08-20T04:35:14Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 12