by Angela Harris

Created on: April 16, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

I believe being a writer is on everyone's list of dreams. Everyone is said to have a story inside them. At a social gathering when the conversation of careers comes up, the writer in the group immediately becomes bombarded with questions.

I'm not sure if people are fascinated with writing itself or with the writer's imagined lifestyle. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Writers sleep until noon and wander around in their robes and slippers. They grab a snack and hang out until their muses inspire them.

If only writing were that simple. The truth of the matter is that writing is darn hard work. And except for the most talented and prolific authors, the pay is also meager. Writing truly is an act of love, or insanity, depending upon your viewpoint.

The loftiest goal for any writer is to write the Great American Novel. It is also one of the most difficult writing goals to achieve. But there are ways to increase your chances of actually writing a novel, start to finish.

The very first thing you need to do is to make a writing commitment to yourself. Stick to whatever writing goals you decide to make. Consider your writing commitment to be just as important as keeping a doctor's appointment or scheduling time for other important people in your family. If you don't take this important step, that novel will never get finished. Something else will always come up; someone else will always need your help with something. So make a commitment to your novel today.

Second, the commitment doesn't have to be a huge chunk out of your time. If you can write for half an hour every day, you can have a novel finished in a year easily. And that counts even if you cheat once in awhile. Type 60 words a minute and you've typed 1800 words daily. At the end of a year, that's enough for at least three novels. So, even if you're a terrible typist or you spend half of your daily thirty minute writing session daydreaming or planning the plot, you will still have a novel done at the end of the year.

Your daily writing goals don't have to be judged by time. You may decide to write an X amount of pages daily. That's fine, too. Whichever works best for you to keep motivated to write is the way you should proceed.

Whether you plan your novel ahead or write on the fly simply depends upon your writing style. Writers swear by both methods. Some writers sit down, write whatever pops into their heads and run with it. Other writers spend as much time pre-planning their novels as they actually spend

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