My Novel Pt. 2 {Novel Writing Tips + Snippets}

Hello friends! Writing a novel is a ton of work. LIKE A TON! Today I’ll be listing 4 tips to help you with your writing and to also help you stay motivated! Plus the dreaded skipped through snippets!

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-Novel Writing Tips-

I am in no way a professional writer, or anything, but I do happen to be writing a novel, and (hopefully) have at least a little insight!

Your First Novel Is A Learning Experience, But It Isn’t Guaranteed To Not Get Published.

When I was in the planning stage of writing my novel, I was reading a lot of blog posts, and other such things to help me prepare. Almost everywhere I read people were saying, “Your first novel is just an experiment, it won’t actually get published.” or “It’s not going to get you published anyway.” or “Your first novel doesn’t get you published.” Do you wanna know how that feels when your just about to start on your first novel? Isn’t that super discouraging? I mean you’re about to put your heart and soul into this novel, and everybody’s telling you that it’s never going to get published?

That being said, I’m not calling anybody out or anything like that, I’m just stating that your first novel could get you published! I mean sure, it’s going to need a ton of editing, macro editing, maybe a few re-writes. But still my writer friends, there have been many people who have had their first novel published and you can be one of them!

I do agree that your first novel IS a learning experience it’s a well-known fact that you will learn a lot while writing your first novel. But, it doesn’t have to be something that just sits and collects dust. 

To sum it up: When preparing to write your novel, don’t go into it with a “just a learning experience” mindset, instead go into writing your novel as, “something that will change the word” Who knows? Maybe you or I will end up with a best-selling novel, that was our first book!

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Outline Your Novel

Honestly, this is probably my best tip! Outlining your novel is like super helpful. It helps keep you on track with your plot, helps with writing distractions, and so much more!

If you are like me a few months ago, you’re like, “What on earth is an outline?” Well, don’t fear my friends, I’ll explain:
Every writer as a little bit of a different view of an outline. For some it’s a bunch of messy notes written on paper, for others it’s a neat paragraph describing everything they want in that chapter. Most of us fall somewhere in-between. To better explain what an outline is, I’ll be showing you a little of my outline, and explaining the different parts. 🙂

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{Chapter 2} Frustration and Anger.

• Chapter opens with the next lesson at the barn.
• Melanie’s frustration returns, and she begins to push the horse out of frustration.
• When jumping the horse gets hurt and Melanie is sad and heartbroken.
• Melanie meets Jared and humiliates herself.
• Parents/trainer are angry.
• Mom gets call about her loss of job.

For my outline I just bullet pointed a few key points that I knew I wanted to use in the chapter.

Remember, your outline doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. It is your outline, and what works for you doesn’t work for everybody!

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Take Breaks

This is such an important tip! One of my favorite ways to write is to work really hard for 15 minutes or 30 minutes then take a break and come back later. It really helps with motivation! Another thing I wanted to point out is that breaks don’t always have to be snacks, for some reason, that just seems to be ingrained in our brains. Hey that rhymes.  Taking a break can be going outside, working on a craft project, going on a bike ride or walk.

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Keep on going….

Some days you’ll get a burst of inspiration and write 2000 words. Other days you’ll sit at the computer for hours and write 5. Writing is hard, like really really hard, and the truth is that some days, you won’t get anything written.

Here are some ideas I use as motivation:

• Do a wordsprint/try to beat the clock.
• Recruit an alpha reader, this way as soon as you get a chapter finished you can send it out to them.
• Go back and edit a chapter.
• Go take a break.
• Read a good book and learn some lessons from it.

Try one of the above ideas the next time you need a little motivation!

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-Snippets + More About My Book-

Oh hi, I’m Rebecca. It’s nice to meet you!” the girl smiled, holding out her hand in an old-fashioned way.

I haven’t actually decided on a name for my book yet. I’m not the greatest at making decisions. XD

Until, there Haley was, standing there with tight jean short-shorts and a light blue crop top. Melanie thought that there had to be a way to get Rebecca and her long denim skirt and baggy tee-shirt out of the house before Haley saw them. Unfortunately, Melanie was wrong.

As you might be able to tell from the snippets and the other post, my book is about a girl, named Melanie who is extremely proud, snooty, popular, and in other words just not living out her Christian faith. The story begins when Melanie returns from summer camp to find that her parents have hired a new trainer, who Melanie instantly dislikes. Melanie gets frustrated at the trainer’s training style and ends up injuring her horse. Then her mom loses her job. Only making matters worse, Melanie gets invited to move up to a more elite barn, but her parents can’t afford it, so all her friends ditch her. Things start to turn up a little bit when a special vet comes to help her horse recover. It turns out that the vet does more than just help the horse, she ends up helping Melanie as well. She helps Melanie realize that she has been wrong and proud this entire time, and she begins to discover what a true friend really is.

You can obviously tell that this is my POV and not the professional side of things. XD

“Stop it, you know exactly who my brother is.” “Cassie, I’m sorry, I think that you must have the wrong person. I have no idea who your brother is.”

Here is the more precise and professional synopsis:

14-year-old Melanie Willards has just returned from a summer of riding horses, aspiring to become a famous competitor. But she comes home to an unwelcome surprise, her parents have hired a new trainer, and they immediately begin to pressure her to train more. Melanie gets angry and pushes her horse to hard, resulting in injury for the horse and facing her parents’ and trainer’s frustration. When her mom loses her job and ruins Melanie’s plan of moving up to a new barn. Her friends dump her because she can’t move up. But when a special vet comes to the barn to help the horse recover, Melanie realizes how wrong and proud she’s been and begins to discover what a true friend really is.

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And I’m tired of being on the computer and of writing today, so that wraps it up. Have a great day guys!