Pick an idea, any idea, and stick with it.

Some people complain they can’t write a novel because they have no ideas. My problem was that I had too many. And they were always getting in the way of one another. Every time I sat down to write one book I’d get sidetracked by all the other books swimming around in my head. Simply put, I lacked focus. I’d hammer out a few pages of a quirky chick lit novel – then I’d suddenly want to switch gears and write a techno-thriller. I’d think of a creepy hook for a mystery – halfway through the first chapter I’d abandon that in favor of an Alex Garland-esque travel novel. The problem was I never spent the time to truly develop an idea before I got frustrated and quit.

I’ve talked with enough authors to know I’m not alone in this area. It’s the grass is always greener syndrome. You begin toiling with one idea and then, as soon as you hit a rough spot (and believe me, there will be lots of rough spots), you toss that aside to work on something else.

For ten years I did this. I’ve written so many “first chapters” I’ve lost count. In all honesty, I probably have 50 uncompleted novels. And unless your name is John Grisham, an uncompleted novel probably isn’t worth a whole helluva lot. (Then again, The Next Big Thing sold on a partial…see FAQs for more info.)

While there are certainly benefits to taking a break when you’re stuck, it’s also very important that you see an idea through to completion. Otherwise, your writing will never improve. So my best advice to you is stick with it until you’ve finished at least one novel. Just one. It doesn’t have to be the greatest novel ever written. It just has to be finished. Even if it sucks, you can always go back and make it better. And besides, it’s important to remember…

Even great writers have “drawer” novels.

Nevada Barr wrote 5 completed manuscripts before she ever sold a book. Carly Phillips wrote 10. Now both of these women are New York Times bestselling authors, earning seven-figure pay days. Imagine where they’d be today if they’d given up after one try. Sometimes it’s necessary to get a few “practice” novels under your belt before you embark on the real thing.

Believe me, I know. For about 3 years I’d wanted to write a “big girl” novel. In April 2003 I decided to give it a go. I wasn’t sure what the plot should be or even who my characters were. I just had this vague idea of setting it at a radio station and, based on my time spent in London, I knew I wanted to incorporate a British guy into the mix. I wanted to name my character Kat Larson, and I wanted her to be from Memphis. That was all I knew…and I proceeded to write 60,000 words around that very poorly fleshed-out idea. I wrote rambling, unconnected scenes about plus-sized shopping and body-image issues. I wrote about bad first dates. None of this was fitting together in any real way, but I was writing, I was practicing, and I was definitely improving.

I had roughly 60,000 words written of The Next Big Thing (then called Big Girls Do Cry…oh God, what was I thinking?) when I had a Eureka moment. Why not write a novel about a big girl who goes on a weight-loss reality show? Why not give her a British internet boyfriend who she’s been, ahem, less than truthful with (okay, so he thinks she’s a size 4)? The plot suddenly popped into my head. Plot! That’s what my prior efforts had been missing! And, let me tell you, plot’s a pretty darn important thing. So I tossed aside those 60,000 words and began working round-the-clock (we’re talking 8+ hours a day on top of my regular job) on my new idea. The floodgates opened and there was no stopping me. I completed the novel in a few short weeks and the rest – forgive the cliché – is history.

Don’t worry about crafting that elusive ‘perfect paragraph.’ Just get something – anything! – down on paper. You can always edit and shape it later. If I hadn’t spent all those months writing my so-called practice novel I probably never would have had the idea for The Next Big Thing.

There’s no magic involved.

It sounds simple, stupid even, but for a long time I just didn’t get it. I had this enormous mental block about Writing A Novel. I had all these silly hang-ups and fears. Writers were celebrities! Writers were mysterious! Intimidating! They knew all the secret tricks, had all the right connections. There was no way an average gal like me could compete.

Then I began working as a radio producer for Book Talk, which afforded me the chance to meet and interact with famous authors on a regular basis. I’ll let you in on a little secret: writers are human. Even most of the bigshot millionaires, like Dennis Lehane and Eric Jerome Dickey, are totally down-to-earth. It was a revolutionary concept for me. Here were these ordinary, every-day folks sitting in their ordinary houses (well, mansions in some cases), typing away on their computers. That was it. No magic. Just hard work. And then I paused to think: If they could do it, why couldn’t I? So I did it.

The next best thing to winning is losing. At least you were in the race.

Seriously, it’s better to legitimately fail (by giving it your best shot) than to never try at all. You’ll respect yourself a lot more. I once read that if you ever want to succeed – to truly get your “big break” – you’ve got to have the nerve to attempt things that seem way out of your league.

I know how easy it is to get scared, to get frustrated. You slave away for hours but the words won’t come together on the page. You send off query after query only to get rejected with no explanation. Then you pick up a copy of Publishers Weekly and read about the latest teenage phenom who wrote her novel over Christmas break and sold it for six-figures at auction.

It’s important to remember that even powerful, successful people fail some of the time. The difference is we don’t have firsthand knowledge of how hard they’ve worked to get to the top. While success is often very public, failure, by nature, tends to be private. We don’t follow Author XYZ's career over a 10-year period, seeing him write 8 novels, get rejected by 160 agents and 25 publishing houses before finally landing a deal. In fact, we never even hear of Author XYZ until his book hits the lists, and then we scratch our heads and marvel at his 'overnight success.' Remember, success is often the result of years of trial and error and behind-the-scenes struggles.