Writing Your Novel

People often ask, "How did you manage to find the time to write a novel?"  A lot of people want to write something but feel like they don't have the time or energy to do it.  

Let's look at my situation.  I live alone in a small apartment.  I have a 13-year-old cat who sleeps most of the day.  I have no cable/satellite television and no home phone line.

Now, for those of you who actually have a life, you probably have a lot more to distract you at home.  Some people have children, husbands/wives or boyfriends/girlfriends, roommates, social obligations, pestering relatives, young energetic pets, and let's not forget TiVo and/or DVR.

When it's not convenient to run to the nearest library, then you have to knuckle down and create your creative environment.  Most writers need a nice quiet place to let their creative thoughts flow.  The most important part of writing a novel is WRITING!  So turn off the television, send the kids to see their grandparents or wait until they're at school, set a schedule and let it be known to your nagging relatives or club/party hopping friends that during this time you are absolutely UNAVAILABLE. 

As far as the writing goes, I couldn't give a better piece of advice than this... write for yourself.  During my writing process, I found that if I ever stopped to think about whether or not someone or some imaginary audience would like what I was writing, then it would immediately cause me stress.  Stress is a creativity killer.  Write your story for yourself... Tolkien did it, Terry Goodkind does it, it's a sure way to guarantee you will at least finish your novel because you will be doing it for the most important person in your universe.