How can authors know which choices are right for their novels? When you first sit down at your desk and start typing words into the delicious white blank of your computer screen, you won’t always have a clear vision of the story you’re about to write. Like life itself, the story could end up playing out in any number of ways—and the decisions you make at the very beginning could easily turn out to be the wrong decisions for your book.
The great thing about writing a book is that, after finishing a first draft, you will always have the opportunity to go back and correct all the mistakes. You’re at liberty to change your mind about just about any decision you might have made.
The not-so-great thing about writing a book is that, when it turns out you’ve made the wrong decisions in the beginning, the work required to correct those mistakes can be overwhelming.
This is why it’s so important to identify the choices that will shape the manifestation of your stories—and to make the right decisions before you put one word on the page.
So what are these decisions? Some of them will be specific to your story. But others apply to every novel. Consider five particular decisions that will dramatically affect the course of your first draft.
