Do you want to write a book? Perhaps you feel you could, but think that you need some training first. Yes, that may help, but in this article I’ll share a method that you can use immediately, even if you’e a completely new writer.

Over the years, I’ve written many books. I’ve come to know that starting and completing a novel or nonfiction book just means putting one word after another, and not stopping until the end.

Here’s my super-simple and easy method to help you to write a novel.

1. Brainstorm a Title

An inspirational title can act as the compass which guides you from beginning to end.

Start by selecting a genre: mystery, romance, science fiction — your choice. Not only do readers in a genre respond to an evocative title, booksellers have expectations of titles in a genre too — they want to know in which section of the store they should shelve YOUR book.

Let’s imagine that you’re writing a mystery.

Look at your bookshelf for inspiration, or check out the bestseller lists to get into the mood to brainstorm titles.

Mysteries will often include words like: “death”, “bones”, and “murder.”

The only criterion your novel’s title needs is that it should be mysterious.

Set a timer, and brainstorm titles for five minutes.

2. Brainstorm a Fantastic Situation, the Crazier the Better

All done? Excellent. Choose a title — any title from the ones you’ve brainstormed. Remember that you can always change your title later. Your publisher my decide to change it too, so you don’t need to obsess. A title just gets you moving forward.

Now you have your title, it’s time to brainstorm a fantastically crazy situation.

Mysteries usually involve a crime of some sort, often murder. So, who’s your victim? Why was he/ she murdered?

How was he/ she murdered? Where was he/ she murdered?

At this stage, you don’t need a complete plot, you just need enough material to become enthusiastic and inspired.

So there you have it. Brainstorm a title and a situation, and you’re well on the way to writing your book.

Get the help you need to write YOUR novel

Need inspiration and motivation while you’re writing a book? Angela Booth’s writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” at will help. This class is based on exclusive lessons she developed for her private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and to make more money writing. Have Angela at your side while you write your book.

If you’re stuck writing, her ebook “Top 70 Writing Tips To Help You To Write More” shows you how to end procrastination for good and write more.

Writing a novel is a journey, and it’s never a trouble-free one. Indeed, it can seem as if you’re plunging from one disaster into the next. You will get stuck. Usually, you’ll hit page 100 or Chapter Three, and the book’s problems will seem insurmountable. When you get past Chapter Three, you’ll get stuck again, several more times.

If you expect to get stuck, you’ll succeed in completing your novel. In this article, we’ll look at what you can do to leap over the wall, and rebuild your inspiration. The tips I’m giving you have helped me to complete my own novels and sell them. They work.

Here they are.

Give Every Major Character a Secret

Giving every character a secret helps to drive your book forward. The secret can be major (the innocent-seeming heroine is wanted by Interpol) to minor (the heroine is addicted to shopping for expensive shoes).

So when you get stuck, give a character a secret. You’ll need to do some rewriting. However, do not rewrite immediately, make some notes, and leave rewriting until you’ve completed the book.

Introduce a New Character

Just create a new character. This may be enough to get you past your block, and moving forward again.

Kill a Character

By the time you’ve reached page 100, your characters should be alive to you. If they aren’t, killing off a character may help.

Rewrite, in a Different Narrative Mode

Rewriting in a different narrative mode will often get you unstuck. If you’re writing in first person, rewrite a couple of chapters in third person — or write the next chapter in third person.

If you’re a new writer, writing in first person is instinctive. The danger however is that you’ll identify too closely with the “I” character. You’ll make life too easy for your character, and that’s disastrous. Change viewpoint, and make your character suffer.

Changing to another viewpoint will also help you increase suspense.

If you expect to get stuck when you’re writing a novel, you can write your way through the challenges. The above tips will help.

The Write A Book Collection — the ultimate toolbox for writing and selling your books

These days it’s crazy to spend years writing a book, without having any idea as to whether or not you can make money from it. If you want to write, you can – you have a global market, which is hungry for information and entertainment. And YOU can provide it… even if you’re a brand new author.

As you may know, I write and sell many writing guides. I also sell information products in many other areas than writing.

I want to show you how you can do the same, if you wish. Your dreams of writing a book can be the spark which changes your life.

I’ve collected everything I know about writing and selling your books into my brand new Write A Book Collection: it’s the ultimate toolbox for anyone who wants to write and sell books in 2010 and beyond.

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Want to write a novel? Many writers are gearing up for NaNoWriMo on November 1, but you can start your novel at any time.

Just decide that that’s what you’ll do.

Yes, you can decide, without a single idea of HOW you’re going to do it, that you’ll start your novel today.

Here’s how.

Write a series of titles, suitable for your genre.

For example, if you’re writing historical romance, you could write:

Lady Annabelle and the Deadly Duke

The Enchanted Duchess

A Gentleman’s Temptation

And etc. — I could keep this up all day, and I’m sure you could too.

By the way, those three titles are off the top of my head — they’re not actual titles — at least I hope they aren’t.

Did you see what happened here?

Firstly, I chose a GENRE — a type of novel, historical romance, in this case.

Next, from my reading in the genre, I created some titles which are suitable for the genre.

If I were doing this for real, I’d brainstorm between 20 and 50 titles, before I chose one. (There are many reasons for doing this, I’ll go into them in a later post.)

The BEST title would jump out at me: I’d get an instant dose of inspiration, with an idea for the plot, the main characters, and some scenes.

Hey presto — within half an hour or less, I’d be well on the way to writing my novel.

Write within a genre, if you want to sell your novel

Here’s a tip about the novelist’s craft. Writing within a genre is important. When they want to buy a book, readers know what they want. They have favorite authors, and in some genres, like historical romance, readers will buy every book their favorite author releases.

Publishers release a certain number of genre novels each month. If they’re heavily represented in a genre, they may release five or more each month. They need authors, so genre publishers are always looking for new voices.

So — what are you waiting for? Start brainstorming your novel.

Apropos of NaNoWriMo, the wonderful Scrivener people have released a preview version of Scrivener 2, which will help you if you’re writing your novel this November.

Also apropos of NaNoWriMo, I wrote a series of NaNoWriMo Quick Start posts in my writing blog, starting in September 2006. Check the blog’s archives to find them — they’ll help you in your NaNoWriMo journey.

The Write A Book Collection — the ultimate toolbox for writing and selling your books

These days it’s crazy to spend years writing a book, without having any idea as to whether or not you can make money from it. If you want to write, you can – you have a global market, which is hungry for information and entertainment. And YOU can provide it… even if you’re a brand new author.

As you may know, I write and sell many writing guides. I also sell information products in many other areas than writing.

I want to show you how you can do the same, if you wish. Your dreams of writing a book can be the spark which changes your life.

I’ve collected everything I know about writing and selling your books into my brand new Write A Book Collection: it’s the ultimate toolbox for anyone who wants to write and sell books in 2010 and beyond.

This is a fascinating story; Montana Author Writes Entire Novel on Facebook:

“On June 10th, 2009, four months after he began, Peterson posted the eighty-fourth and final installment to the story concluding what could very well be the first-ever novel written entirely on Facebook.”

So, could you write a novel on Facebook?

Of course you could, and whether the novel is eventually published or not is immaterial. You’d learn a great deal about writing, and about yourself. The skills you build will lead directly to you finally writing a book which is published.

Give it a try.

If you do, share the link to your Facebook profile in the comments.

The Write A Book Collection — the ultimate toolbox for writing and selling your books

These days it’s crazy to spend years writing a book, without having any idea as to whether or not you can make money from it. If you want to write, you can – you have a global market, which is hungry for information and entertainment. And YOU can provide it… even if you’re a brand new author.

As you may know, I write and sell many writing guides. I also sell information products in many other areas than writing.

I want to show you how you can do the same, if you wish. Your dreams of writing a book can be the spark which changes your life.

I’ve collected everything I know about writing and selling your books into my brand new Write A Book Collection: it’s the ultimate toolbox for anyone who wants to write and sell books in 2010 and beyond.

A writing student contacted me today. She’s a Web writer, who’s writing a novel. Unfortunately, she’s stuck.

To paraphrase, she says she’s almost halfway through the novel, and can’t see her way forward. She’s been working on the project for almost two months. Should she just give up and delete the material and start something new?

Here’s my response.

No, don’t delete anything at all.

It’s common to get stuck. Professional writers plough on regardless. They know that sooner or later they’ll pick up steam and will get inspired again.

They write anyway, no matter how they feel about the material. They know that they can always go back and delete material, but if they stop writing, the project is over.

You can move forward in many ways.

Here are some ideas.

* Choose a scene you’ve written , and then write the scene in the first person, from the point of view of a secondary character.

This gives you another viewpoint, which may jolt something loose.

* Give a primary character a secret, which he/ she is desperate not to reveal.

You’ll tend to procrastinate on a novel if the characters bore you — sometimes your story people won’t come to life. Giving someone a deep dark secret helps.

* Have you plotted out scenes from the rest of the book? If you haven’t, plot one scene — make it exciting — and then write the scene.

If you do this, you’ll want to go back and revise some of the scenes you’ve written. Don’t do that. Just keep writing scenes until you complete the book.

* Use your dreams — they can help you to write.

Tonight, as you’re falling asleep, think about your story people. Imagine them interacting. This can be enough to inspire you with some fresh ideas.

If you remember a dream in the morning, write it down.

Imagine characters in your novel for every night for a week before you fall asleep. You’ll be amazed: your story will come to life, simply because you’ll start caring about your story people again.

Write more – become a pro writer

Yes, you can write more and become an expert writer – even if you’re a world-class procrastinator.

Did you know that when you write more, your writing improves? Many of my writing students experience this. They find that when they write more, writing is easier for them – they’re not dominated by their inner editor.

My new writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” is based on lessons I developed for my private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and make more money writing.

If you’re struggling with your writing, the class will help. The techniques you’ll learn in class with help you write fiction, nonfiction, and copy for business.

Discover how you can write more, improve your writing, and sell more of your writing to higher-paying markets.