#NovelMaker
Week 1: Let’s Start at the beginning but have some idea of the middle and end.

🔎 Last Week’s Recap

• Key Takeaway 1 → Brainstorm, take notes, talk to people, flush out your idea whenever and wherever you can.
• Key Takeaway 2 → Take some time to learn about story structure. Star Wars, The Hunger Games, Barbie, A Beautiful Mind all follow the classic monomyth structure. We can use structures that readers already love to frame our stories and still be original.
• Key Takeaway 3 → Be ruthless with your time. You deserve this.

📚 Next Week’s Focus: The Set Up
Next week we’re going to focus on the basics you need to review before typing, Chapter One. I’ll post these on the blog, but wanted you to have links here, too.

• Point of View & Tense: One of the things I love about writing is that everything is a choice, and the author gets to make them all. POV and Tense need to be considered before you begin. I can’t promise you won’t get halfway done and decide to rewrite and change everything but give it some thought now and try to come up with the best option. Link to YouTube Video
• Dialogue Formatting: If this novel will be your debut, you might benefit from a reminder about how to format dialogue. You learned it in fourth grade and may not have used it since. If you do it correctly from the start, you’ll save yourself and your editor tons of time in revisions. Link to YouTube Video
• How to Set Up Your Document: You don’t need a fancy laptop to write a novel. I wrote my first on an iPad without an external keypad. (not recommended) But if you can get access to Microsoft Word which is the industry standard or Google Docs, you should use these settings from the start. Link to YouTube Video

🗂 Resources & Tools
A few other things I find helpful…

• The app Milanote can be downloaded on a computer or mobile device. I have both. It organizes things in a vision board system which is typically not my style, but it comes with tons of templates including a novel planning one and a character profile. It’s free until you reach a certain amount of content, and the amount is plenty to judge whether it’s helpful to you or not. I’ve included a screenshot of a sample template with this email.

• Pinterest – This is old faithful for me. If I’m writing a scene for say, a wedding, I have a wedding Pinterest board to help visualize it in my head. Jewelry, locations, flowers, all the tiny details I might want to use in some way are explored on Pinterest. You can keep the board a “secret” until you publish and then you can share it with your readers if you choose.

🗂 Additional Reading on POV

• https://www.writersdigest.com/how-to-choose-the-best-pov
• https://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/6-tips-to-choosing-the-right-point-of-view
• https://www.scfarrow.com/choosing-your-storys-pov (I love this blog entry because it shows that even after writing multiple novels, authors have a lot to consider when it comes to POV.)

🚀 Writing Challenge
As I work through my own POV options, I try a scene starter in two different options. Write a scene you’ve been thinking about two different ways. Play with POV when it comes to who is telling the story and how you’re writing it, whether first or third person. 

Closing Note
I’ve been on the fence regarding how much is too much information to provide. I want to set you up in the best way possible without overwhelming you. Drop a comment on the blog with any suggestions on content or capacity. Writing is just about the only area I appreciate critical feedback. Enjoy writing this week.
Best,
Eliza
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