Writing for first-time novelists

Glad you enjoyed it Celticman.

My favourite passage is this one, on How Do I get Ready to start?

"I’m often asked by hopeful writers what they need to do to prepare to write a book. Beyond making yourself a pot of tea and kicking the cat off your office chair, nothing. The urge to write is a sacred call from the gods that must be heeded without fail. What usually follows immediately afterward, the urge to prepare to write, is the first sign of procrastination kicking in. You may think, “But I need to make notes, or do research.” If you choose to do that, fine. But we’re talking about fiction here, and you don’t need to do that in order to write a work of fiction. The only thing you need to do in order to write fiction is to write fiction. Everything else is… not writing."