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The Author Dawn - Rise and Blink

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What should be brewing in the mind of the aborning author right from the start?

Let's Talk About Passion

A few basic questions first. Why are you writing a novel? For reasons of ambition, ego? Well, why not? Most of us, in one way or another, tend the ego. We want recognition, validation, a chance to prove our ability to others and thereby rise above (careful... verging on narcissism). We may need to prove something to ourselves, or more simply, gain a degree of independence from an unsatisfactory mode of existence, the existential nausea of daily grind. We might require purpose, a desire to fill our lives with a mission, and what better way to achieve than by writing a novel? Then, of course, there is the pure need to create, the godlike urge shared by true artists... or perhaps your particular desire to write the novel results from some or all the above working in synergy. 

Regardless, please consider your answers, even before the first steps towards actually developing and writing the novel are taken. Be honest with yourself, and pause to consider writing a novel because you also have something of value you wish to say--a potent concept, alien to many. You might desire to expose a social injustice, restore an unusual footnote of history, or reveal a new world of experience. Whatever your genre, the realization it must be said, and only you can say it, gifts you with passion (and perhaps even a theme). 

Core Vision and Realization

The following are non-negotiable:
    Ego must be sufficiently tamed, enough to allow full realization that the aborning author is a beginner in every sense of the word, and on every level.

    Aborning authors must consider themselves apprentices to the craft of novel writing.

    The Epiphany Light must be entered. This viewpoint must be front and center.

    The "Art of Fiction" must be satisfied. Passionate writers fail to become published either because either they do not sufficiently understand the art, or are unwilling to make those compromises necessary to satisfy it. See Reasons Why Passionate Writers Fail.

    The most powerful novels focus, at their core, on human beings in conflict with one another. Regardless of window dressing, characters are defined by their actions in the context of a dramatic story.

    In order to become published, authors must also demonstrate a degree of mastery suitable to their chosen genre; and in order to do that, they must become intimately familiar with their chosen genre (no exceptions).
Now that you've absorbed the above, we'll bridge from that last bullet over to Best Ten Steps for Starting the Novel.

From the heart, but smart. There are no great writers, only great rewriters. 

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