I have been writing throughout my life.  I have four picture books, half of a crappy novel, short stories, poetry, essays, and of course humor.  I have been published, but went to a dismal presentation about writing and its reality as a money maker at the local university.  She told us that if we are lucky enough to publish a novel we might expect it to net us $12,000.

I wander all over the genres of writing.  The thing about writing a novel is that there is a lot of planning involved.  The plot line, and sub-plots must be outlined…perhaps on the wall using rolled sheets of paper. The basic premise you want to convey has to be solid.  The title of your work does not matter at this point.  Just call it “Working Title”.

Then you must have a character or dozens and name them.  This can also be put on a long piece of paper on a wall or on post it notes.  My memory does not serve me well, so a character named Sheila in the first pages and chapters morphs into Sylvia.  You may find yourself writing about characters and developing them and they do not fit into your initial premise of a story line.  I blended two into one and renamed and used the one, not the two.  Some, I eliminated.

Set off as though you ARE writing a great novel.  If you do not, you will have to drag yourself to write every day.  Aim for greatness, or at least aim to write something that an agent or publisher will like.  Our town’s librarian writes romance novels and publishes many each year.  There is a market for these.  She is still behind the desk at the library, which gives me another point.

My English teacher pulled me aside after I came into her class tardy with a wild haired, lanky, and attractive boy.  She was an ex-nun.  She told me that I was a very good writer and that in order to write I had to limit distractions such as men, marriage, and procreation.  I shrugged her advice off.  I married, had four children, taught Kindergarten, and worried about lime scale on my shower doors.  I spent more time in grocery and toy stores and food preparation than I did writing.

Life is short, and my advice to you all as writers is to do what pleases you the most.  I told my adult children not to quit their day jobs to pursue their artistic dreams.  I did that simply to get them off on their way so that I had more time to write.  That’s not true!  They pursue their dreams…and have less time to write me. And they have day jobs, mates, and no grandchildren for me to spoil.

This is not James Joyce material.  Find out what you want to write about and what you do not.  Assume that you will have to steal moments of writing from the waking hours of the day, unless you are a bat.  Pick a period of two to five hours and write like the wind.  Some of it will be good, and some of it will not be worth anything…like my attempted novel.

You do not have to give up on living life with a mate and another job and kids.  But, there are things you can choose not to do in order to spend that time writing.  I found myself, at first, throwing tasks that were busy work in front of my writing time.  I also did the closet writer thing and I have files and files of writing in storage bins that I have put away, unsure of myself.  It takes guts to get your writing out in the open air to be reviewed, reviled, or rewarded.

Go on, now…get going.  You will feel productive and perhaps you will be published and get paid for it.