One Sentence at a Time

John Keats wrote, "I love you the more in that I believe you have liked me for my own sake and for nothing else. I have met with women whom I really think would like to be married to a Poem and to be given away by a Novel."

Have you ever noticed that people treat you a little differently when you tell them you’re an author? If the statistic that 80% of Americans want to write a book is true, no wonder they treat you differently. You are doing what they only dream of doing.

You do tell people you’re an author, right? You have finished that first novel, right? What? You haven’t written your first novel yet? What’s keeping you from it? You’ve started it, right? You haven’t?

Okay, you’ve got a great idea, right? Yes! You’ve written it over and over. You just haven’t put it on paper (so to speak) yet. You’ve opened a new document over and over, haven’t you? You’ve stared at that blank page for hours. Maybe it’s time to put your hands on the keyboard now.

If it’s any consolation, nearly every writer has been where you are now. We’ve all wondered if the stories we want to tell will ever be read by anyone. The bottom line is that if you don’t put your stories in writing, it’s guaranteed that no one will read them. Put one sentence on that blank page. Then another. Don’t change either sentence. Concentrate on writing the third sentence and the fourth.

Before you know it, you’ll have a chapter. And then two. It’s only a matter of time before your story is on paper. You’ve written your 80,000 words. You’ve written your book one sentence at a time. You’re an author!