My mentor told me love is all you need. I was confused because I had come to him for his consent of me venturing into writing. So when he had talked about I never thought about writing being the love he was talking about until I reflected on it after he had given me some tips.
I realised that, to write a novel you did need love. A love of words, a love for storytelling, and not quite connected to love, a determination to crack down and write.
Writing is easy, we do it everytime, for shopping lists, birthday messages, letters to friends and speeches. We were taught to write at a young age. And yet many people shiver at the thought of being asked to write a novel or an essay, why?
If writing is so natural and we do it almost all times, why is it that when we have to crack down and write we find it difficult? I tell you that it is not the writing that is difficult but it is the act of thinking of what to put out on the sheet that we have trouble with and prevents us from making a start.
It is said that, one ought to have a topic before one can start writing but this tip doesn't make it any easier since you will then be faced with the problem of choosing a topic. But once you have the topic then you are able to begin. So why is it still hard to start writing when you have chosen your topic already? You have the topic but don't know where to begin with the body now that's quite funny right?
One thing that I always say for you not to do is to wait for inspiration. Very rare is it for inspiration to show up when you want it to and so when you decide to wait then you may never finish waiting. You just need to start, ignore the fact that you don't know what to say. When you start, the words would flow.
For starters, write down your topic. Next follow with your topic and write down what the topic means to you. If you stop to look back, you will see a page filled with words and if you don't stop to look back, your mind would keep churning, your pen would keep moving and you would realize that you have the beginning of your novel. Now was that difficult?
To help you write, picking the perfect environment is vital. There are many places where one can write, it could be on your bed, in the bright day light sun, or even in your living room but the perfect environment is the place where one finds comfort with everything you might need within your reach so that you won't have to interrupt your writing constantly to grab the needed items. But make sure these things are not too close to be a distraction too.
When people find it hard to get started on a novel, they often quit because they find it too difficult. I have answered why they do. It is difficult and they can't handle it but with perseverance comes rewards. The end product, whatever it may be, once published and shined to perfection is perfection itself. You receive a sense of achievement once you hold your work in your hands, flip through the pages and see the many words you dripped sweat to produce. It is its own reward you don't need to receive reward from someone else for something you produce out of hard work.
See how easy it is? It's not the writing that is hard, that's easy, it's everything else that comes along with it.