As for how to write a novel, I suspect that it varies from person to person. For my current project, I'm taking a mixed approach.

I started with the basic premise and a small handful of characters. That meant that I more or less knew the ending right away. (It is, among other things, a sort of medical puzzle, with the answer to be revealed at the end.) From there, I wrote the first chapter, then did a rough outline of the rest of it.

Now, I'm going chapter by chapter. As each is done, I pass it on to my two primary critics. I won't do any extensive revisions unless they point out a major problem. (They haven't yet.) Sometimes I fix minor things. At other times, I just file the marked-up draft in my binder to wait until I'm done with the first draft.

When the whole thing has been drafted, I'll revise it in detail, based on their commentary and my own re-reading. At that point, I'll probably find at least one or two more readers to look at it with fresh eyes.

Whether this will result in anything meaningful or not is, of course, still an open question! However, it has been the smoothest writing experience I've ever had on a long project, and I haven't experienced the lag in enthusiasm that I've often felt before. (I attribute that largely to knowing in very concrete terms where it's going.)

I wouldn't want to draft the whole thing with absolutely no commentary or revision--what if I missed a major plot hole? On the other hand, I wouldn't want to spend too much time polishing the first chapters--I'd be afraid I'd lose all my momentum.

That's probably much more than you wanted to know about the writing process of someone who's never made an actual sale! Take it for what it's worth, just one person's method.

As to how to write a novel. It's pretty much up to you. If you feel more comfortable doing a complete full draft and then revising, go for it. But likewise, if you find writing a little bit then editting as you go works better, then go for that technique.

I tend to write each chapter on paper and then type it up onto computer so I have a second copy. At this stage I only change something if I have a real problem with the flow, otherwise the aim is to simply copy it up and get on with my rough draft. When I have everything copied up onto computer I print it out and begin revising. This isn't a rigid plan though. If the words are flowing freely I might write two, three or more chapters before copying it up. I suppose I'm really copying up my work onto computer to give myself a break when I'm struggling to think up something to write.

Your post went up while I was writing mine, Eljay. Looks like we use a fairly similar techinique. I have somebody who reads my work chapter by chapter as I write it too. It's useful for picking up some things straight away but other things get missed because they don't really get into the flow. If you have somebody who's willing to sit down with the whole lot when you're finished, either before or after your edit, it helps a great deal.

I do some freelance editing for a print-on-demand company, and they are adamant about only one space. I've started doing two spaces in my newspaper articles, though, 'cause it just looks better.

As to it "looks better"--that is a non issue--you do what the standards are --PERIOD who cares what it looks like to YOU? What matters to agents and editors is that it adheres to the standard form --if you can't or are not willing to follow the standard (which BTW changes often) then they will think you are hard to work with and that you won't be willing to do what must be to make your work a commercial success.

I can't finish a project if I look back to revise. This does mean that, for example, when I went back on the current novel after finishing I realized the main character had a dog on page 9 (of ~350) and *nowhere else*. On the other hand, I have never finished something I looked back on. Better to have a finished book and some revision to do.

2. What's the best way going about writing a novel? The only right answer has already been given -- whatever works for you. I've found that the hardest thing about learning how to write is learning how YOU write. Every writer works a little bit differently. The one thing every novelist must agree upon is this: Sooner or later, the novelist must figure out what his novel is about and where it's going.

You could, like Eljay, figure it out after a chapter or two; or you could speed write one draft and then work your way through a second draft. Or you could orgainze and outline your story before you write. Here's the stages I go through.

(1) Brainstroming -- I sit at my computer and write down every idea I have for a story as it comes, ask questions about the ideas, develop the story more as questions get answered and more questions arise, etc. For a novel, this takes about a week, and I have about 15 single-spaced pages (Times New Roman) of notes, completely unorganized.

(2) Story Treatment -- This is when I orgainze my notes into a 5 to 10 page story treatment (doubled spaced), listing all of principle characters and the story as I know it. I let the treatment sit for a day or two, then I re-read the story treatment again and again over the next several days looking for flaws, jotting down ideas, developing new plot lines, etc. Then I'll rewrite the story treatment, which is usually longer, and send it to a friend of mine, who reads it and points out some of the gaps in the story. My entire goal with this is to develop a coherent story, and I'll work on this until I get a finished treatment.

(3) Background -- I'll spend a few days writing out the bios and descriptions of the principle characters, as well as writing extended descriptions of the principle places in the story. I usually aim between 2-4 pages, singled spaced, for each of these. Basically, this is just getting my thoughts in order. I've developed all of this in my head during number 1 and 2.

(4) Chapter Outline -- The key thing here for me is I develop the scence of my story, listing the POV character, time, and place of 90% of the scenes, as well as what happens in those scenes. (You can't include every scene--it's impossible.) Again, what I'm really looking for is what is needed in Chapter 1 for Chapter 2 to make sense.

(5) First Draft -- 10 pages a day, using correct manuscript format, with one day off a week, until I'm done.

(6) Revision -- After a period of down time, I make an extensive revision of the novel, and then correct it on the computer.

(7) Edit / Proofreading -- You're going to make some typing mistakes as your put in your revisions, and you want to correct all of these.

(8) Give the story to some Readers.

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I'm 100 pages into my first novel using this process, but that's about 30 more pages than I got in my last seven tries at novels -- each of which I didn't plan out.

Hope this helps.

I've participated in several writers groups, and I constantly see people getting bogged down on novels, writing a hundred pages, rewriting them, then rewriting the rewrites, until one day they vanish from the critique group. Many people reach the conclusion that they are never going to be able to finish a novel, and abandon the project.

I also encounter another class of would be novelist who get stuck in another trap: Endless world building and outlines. I swear, I knew one guy who was building a fantasy world and he had notebooks filled with odds and ends of his imagination about the setting--he'd worked out an elaborate scheme of seasons based on two moons, he had figured out a new naming scheme for days of the week, he'd sketched out a dozen different religions and could tell you the various Saints in all of them--but, to my knowledge, he never actually started the novel he supposedly was doing all the research for. And, I suspect, were he ever to do so, he would bore his readers to death with ten page essays disguised as dialogue about the origins of the days of the weeks.

I'm now a firm believer in the notion that you should never look back while you are writing. Momentum is a huge element in creativity. If you are struck with a brilliant idea that should have been set up earlier in the book, write the remaining chapters as if that idea were already on the page. Put it in once you finish. The rewrites that matter can't be made until you reach the end of the story. You can never actually know what your opening should be until you have the ending on paper.

All of this is only my opinion, of course. It may be there are successful writers out there who can't write another word until they've nailed down every word that proceeds it. But I've discovered that the worst novel I can put on to paper is better than the best novel I have in my head. I can actually show people a novel I've written, get their advice and feedback, and have the satisfaction of saying, "Here's my NOVEL" as I hand it to them. (And I always say it just like that, in all caps.) Where as, if you haven't written your novel, and you try telling people about the brilliant novel you are going to write, any day now, yep, most people will be as impressed as they would be if you were telling them about the painting you were going to paint, or the song you were going to write, etc.

And if you aren't satified with the novel you write using the forward momentum method, well, golly, write another one.

James also raises a good point--don't get so bogged down in outlining that you never get around to writing the story. This is one reason why I didn't include any sub-plots in my treatment or my chapter outline (though I had some ideas). I wanted the bare bones of my story--the beginning, the middle, and the end--so that I knew where the story was going. But as a writer you also need to trust your instincts and unconscious to fill in the gaps as you go.

Once I have a first draft often written in 30 days then I edit like crazy.

Someone told me that this is my outline. Maybe. But not an outline like most people think of an outline, that's for sure.