You're listening to The Beautiful Mess podcast, your cozy comfort listen, and we get a lot of questions from people starting on their very first novel.

So in this week's episode, we're giving you all the advice that we wish we could time travel back and give ourselves on the day we started our first novels.

There's so much writing advice out there,

and no matter who you are, it's not all going to work for you. So in this episode, we'll share

things to think about and consider as you plot and plan to begin a draft of your very first novel.

And the bottom line is, you can do it. And we are here to cheer you on. Hell yeah. We love to be a cheerleader. I think that was one of our past taglines was like, we're your creativity cheerleader. And I think that's still a good one. I stand by that.

That's what I would like to be for people. Yes. Do I have a cheerleader personality? No, I'm not really that fun. But I would like to cheer you on with creativity and curiosity for sure, because I really believe in them.

Yes. And I know, I'm in a writing group now, so I know how scared, like, people are on their first novel. And I did my first novel not that long ago. So I'm all, I, I remember it also. And then I've been reading those stats. Like, have you heard this one that says like 80% of people feel like they want to write, they would like to write a book in their life? Oh, no. But then like it well, it makes sense to me. Yeah, I'm going to butcher it.

But it's like a very, very, very high percentage of people feel like they want to write a book.

Way smaller percentage of people actually write even like a first draft and finish it.

And then way smaller than that, you know, all the other things that can happen.

So it is just such a big intimidating thing and we understand, but it is so fun.

It's super fun.

And I think, so one of our friends in our book club, her dad writes a novel a year strictly for fun and he only gives it to his family to read.

And I just have to say, like, I admire that with all my heart. And he just did like his fifth one. She was. Yeah. Yeah. That is goals.

You don't. He started the year he retired. And that is so epic. So I think that you don't have to go

into it with the idea of publishing. And obviously,

most people do. We get it. We have our own goals too. And that's fine. But I think that it's good

to like find your other reasons that are like your big personal inner reasons for why you're doing it.

And I think that helps carry you through.

Because the first few years, at least for me, were I was crying a lot. And it was hard. It was very, very, very difficult for me to be a beginner, to accept myself as a beginner and to like get

through that phase, you know. And I think that that does like make a lot of people quit

...