Today’s guest blogger says, “When you write a novel, you don’t do it all at once! You take it in stages. First, you might think about what you’re going to write about. Then, do a brainstorm and think of ideas. After that, you would do rough drafts and self revision. Then when you think it is as close to perfect as you can get it, you send it to an editor who fixes it up even more. Those stages go in specific order, or else it wouldn’t make sense!”
Guest blogger is eleven, and closely related to yours truly. I’m not sure whether he’s learning this from me or from his amazing teachers who clearly support the whole writing process.
And he’s editing me now. I wasn’t supposed to say any of this–“just go off that as if it’s yours.” I’ll have to explain about our unique voices and how I can’t plagiarism him, or you’d know.
He’s right about taking it in stages, and I’ll add that it’s okay to take tiny steps. Drop what you’re doing for a few minutes and jump in, take the next step, draft something, or submit something else. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Now lavish at least as many moments on feeding your own work.
Text © Gwyn Nichols and NPN 2011
Photo © Dre Schwartz, iStockPhoto #000005330500
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