How do you take an idea … and turn it into a novel?

Timothy Pike

May 10

It's the age-old problem:

You came up with a really cool, original idea for a story.

You're so excited you go around telling people about it! After you explain it, they get that "And what happens next?" look on their face ... and then ... well, you've got nothing.

You're just not sure where to go from there.

Unless you're Jerry Seinfeld and you can write an entire TV series about "nothing," it may be hard to imagine writing a whole novel around this one idea.

Things have to happen in your story, otherwise your readers will get bored, right?

Yes!

And there's no shortage of good advice out there about what to do.

There's the advice from the creators of South Park: make sure all of the main events of your story can be joined by "but" or "therefore." For example, "This happens, therefore this happens, but this happens, and therefore this happens" creates loads of tension that keeps readers turning pages.

And then there's the "Hero's Journey" story formula, where your hero leaves their day-to-day life, travels to another world (literally or figuratively), then comes back, having achieved or learned something. It's a formula that's worked as long as people have been telling stories.

But that's not all there is to it.

In face, there are a number of things to keep in mind as you start writing your novel—things I'd like to share with you, which is I created the 21-Day Novel Jumpstart.

It's a 3-week, online workshop that gives you everything you need to write the first chapter of your novel ... and get a headstart on developing the next scenes and chapters.

And it's FREE!

You'll take that tiny seed of an idea ... and build on it until you've fleshed out an entire outline that you'll use to write your novel.

During our 21 days together, we will ...

... learn the ins and outs of writing a gripping first chapter
... help each other come up with even more ideas for later chapters
... meet each other in a Facebook group and share feedback on what we're writing
... connect with more readers using the brand-new book discovery platform I created, Discover This!

This FREE seminar is only available to the first 25 writers to sign up. I'm limiting membership so none of us will feel lost in a crowd and we can get to know each other while we write.

After participating in this FREE 21-day workshop, you'll end the program with:

A solid, "reader-approved" first chapter
An outline for the rest of your novel
A growing audience on our book discovery platform
Your first Dream Token: these are credits you can redeem to cover self-publishing costs
A chance to jump right into our 90-day writing challenge, where you'll write the rest!

Again, join us here for FREE, and use invite code CHALLENGE24.