“Step into a scene and let it drip from your fingertips.” ~ MJ Bush

(I swear this quote gives me chills, I love how honest and poetic it is. This is what it should be like for every author when they write.)

What should all writers have in order to write a novel? The answer: Passion. Sure, you can write a novel without it, maybe it will even turn out well, but I wouldn’t suggest it. Your readers will be able to tell if you are writing something that you don’t care an ounce about. It will show in the style, voice, and tone of your writing. Best case scenario for an author who writes with no passion: they fake it well enough that their readers either don’t mind or don’t notice. Worst case: their readers can sense their lack of inspiration and stop reading. We certainly don’t want that to happen, so better to not take that risk in the first place. 

Passion, technique, and practice are the three things that lead to amazing writing. And the technique will follow if you have passion and you practice, which you can think of as the two roses in the above picture. So if you’re looking at everything you’ve created thus far in the process and feeling bored out of your mind, this might not be the best novel for you to write. If writing this novel doesn’t make you feel excited and energized, don’t write it. Find a different subject to focus on, one that makes you feel as I just described. That doesn’t mean don’t write anything, just don’t write what you aren’t passionate about.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I had many novel endeavors before I started writing The Meer, and none of them panned out. I enjoyed planning them I just couldn’t force myself to actually write and focus. Then I finally settled on the idea of a meerkat family for the topic of a novel, which grew into the general topic of a series. Thus, The Meer was born. In my post ‘What Is The Meer?’ I reveal that I have always loved meerkats and been enamored with their social lives. This led to the passion I feel for writing The Meer.

So, my advice? Find that subject, that story, that character, that something that you are passionate about and write about it. If it’s not the novel that you’ve been working on that’s alright; let what you’ve already done serve as practice and move on to the topic that you care about most.