Novel Authoring in Small Steps - The way to Finish Your Rough Draft

A lot of people start writing a novel, but few ever complete a first draft. So why is that?

It's because authoring a manuscript from start to finish is a massive venture, and it is not very difficult to become overwhelmed. When you think of the variety of components that must coalesce in order to come up with a successful novel, it is easy to become paralyzed by uncertainty.

Just how are you going to keep going?

By simply charting a course of action, and then continuing to move forward deliberately, one step at a time.

If you break up a huge undertaking into modest, manageable elements, it can look much less complicated. A very good tactic for achieving this is to come up with a checklist of every single stage included in the venture, and to mark these items off as you go along. When you finally have a checklist of stages put together, you know exactly how to begin, and what to do next. This ends the fear.

It's also important to set a timetable and to set a weekly goal. But you shouldn't be over ambitious. Many writers unknowingly sabotage their efforts by setting impractical goals. This is a frequent problem, and it erects a further mental hurdle to completing the novel.

My own personal approach is to establish a somewhat small goal for each week. When I achieve it, I grant myself permission to pursue various other pursuits.

My typical plan is to spend a single week researching and planning out the chapter, and then the following week writing it. This approach allows me to develop a solid flow, and stops the routine from becoming tedious.

For me personally this strategy works out really well. It made it possible for me to complete my very first novel in less than two years. I knew that if I completed only one 8-10 page chapter every two weeks, I would've produced close to 250 pages by the end of the year. The completed draft ended up being closer to 300 pages.

Psychologically, this relieved me of a huge burden. I knew that as long as I fulfilled my minimum weekly goals, I would inevitably have a full manuscript. Likewise, this enabled me to take part in different activities without an internal voice telling me that I ought to be writing.

Just be sure to keep your weekly goal manageable. Believing that you need to reach a high word count can easily take the joy out of writing, and cause it to it seem like work. If you keep on moving forward at a set but feasible pace, your manuscript will get completed. Then you can start the process of revising, which is where the novel really will take shape.