One Way to Start Writing Your Novel - Writing Research

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What is the best way to start writing a novel? There are hundreds of different ways to begin and no one way is better than any other. The secret is you just need to start writing and keep writing. 

Some people are Plotters, who like to plot out their novel first.

Other people are Pantsers, who like to "fly by the seat of their pants" and just begin writing.

I'm a combination of them both. I like to do some planning in my novel document. I usually start by opening a new document and create headings for 15 or so chapters. I will then start filling in some of the plot where I think it will fall in the novel. Obviously, as you write you can add chapters, move things around, etc. as your story idea evolves.

I like to give each chapter a title, instead of a number. This way I don't have to re-do the numbers as things move. The titles also help me quickly identify each chapter as I search through the document. (You can take the chapter titles off latter or change them. But right now, they are helpful tools.)

I feel like starting with a bit of a form, with 15 chapters, and my ideas roughly in their proper place give me a bit of plan. But I don't have to have everything figured out right away. It's okay for some chapters to be blank when I begin.

As I write I go through each chapter of my novel and expand them little by little: from a sentence to a paragraph to a page, etc.

But as your novel starts to take form, you do want to start filling in those blank chapter. And I know that can be a hard thing to do. Just remember novel writing is 75% making things up. If you aren't sure what to do in a chapter, just write something, anything. You can throw it out later if you want. But writing is often the best way to come up with other ideas because you are already thinking about the novel and how things work.

And don't worry if what you write conflicts with something else you wrote in a different scene. That happens. Your novel will evolve and change over time. Everything can (& will be) re-written, edited, or revised.

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