How I Wrote My Debut Novel: Part One – The Value of a Writing Discipline

Eight years ago this month I finished my thesis defense, earning my MFA in Creative Writing at Butler University, Indianapolis. My thesis, after another draft or two, became my 2019 debut novel, The Confessions of Adam.

Starting today, over the next eight posts, I am going to speak to eight factors that led to completing my debut novel. The first is the value of developing a writing discipline.

Writing fiction may seem mysterious on the surface, but that mystery resolves once you determine that writing fiction is a skill, like playing the piano or learning to speak French.  Writing then becomes a matter of practice coupled with instruction. If you wish to learn to write fiction, you need—above all—to spend time writing. As frequently as possible. For me, daily is the chosen frequency.

If you wish to learn to write fiction, you need—above all—to spend time writing. Share on X

It is a fact—quality creative production requires regular time spent in practice. The human brain works in such a way that creative insights come from the repeated application of practice. Further, high quality creative work is the result of a large volume of low quality creative work. And the only way to produce low quality creative work en masse is to develop a regular writing discipline.

One of my writing instructors once said, “You can write a novel in 30 minutes a day, but you cannot write a novel is 3 hours each Saturday.” Your creative mind isn’t wired for sprints but for marathons. So, your task: establish a writing schedule you can commit to and write.