Woohoo!  I managed to get a blog post out before the end of the week.  It was getting iffy there for a while.  I’m also going to have to submit something to my writers group soon—who knows how I will make that happen.  Buuut, we’ll deal with that later.

So I follow the “Writer’s Digest” on Twitter, and they actually post some interesting and useful articles about breaking into the industry, tips for those focused on certain genres, etc.  True, they almost lost me when I saw the tweet “Breaking Into Corporate Writing: Contracts & Rates,” but I let it slide.  I am aware that was/is my life both before law school (financial journalist) and after (corporate lawyer), but this blog and my following Writer’s Digest is all about pretending to be a creative, artsy person.  You know, my secret life as creative writer?  So I wasn’t cool with that tweet at all.  But back to the point.  Writer’s Digest recently posted a link to the article  “How to Write Your First Novel: 6 Pieces of Advice” by a novelist/former cookbook writer named Steven Raichlen.   Might as well check it out…

1. The world has two sorts of writers: people who talk about writing a novel and people who actually do it.  Word. Talking about writing a novel is lame.
2. Write a mission statement…and contract.  For reals? A contract? Sigh.  Fine, let’s consider this blog a contract.  The consequence for not meeting my goal will be to write a novel about failing to write a novel.
3. The secret to writing a novel—or any book—is writing.  For all you aspiring writers out there, this is the one thing I’ve heard consistently.  If you want to finish a book, you need to write every day, period.  I’m thinking about starting that…next week? The week after?
4. There’s no one right way to write a novel. I guess this counts as advice, although I don’t know how helpful it is.
5. Write with your eraser (or delete button).  Unlike many writers, I actually love cutting out words.  I’m not married to my prose.  I can do this, no problem!
6. Take the time to celebrate the milestones in your writing process.  I finished this blog post, yay!

The author elaborates on the advice here.  What do you guys think? Are you ready to write your first novel after reading this?