Some moment in time the desire entered your mind, “I want to write a novel. How hard can it be?” Well…remember the first time you tried to juggle as kid? “I can to do that,” you said. The clown at the circus made it look easy but when you tossed the first ball into the air, followed by a second, reality hit you on the head. Unless a passionate seed of determination spurred you to practice, most likely, you never became a juggler.

In the same vein, throwing a string of words together on a page won’t produce a quality novel. Your first draft will hit you on the head with the reality of your inexperience. You discover your “novel” lacks: action; tension on every page; true to life main characters with emotions, dreams and goals; a do or die conflict with three major plot points…the list goes on. Without the passion and determination to learn the writing craft you will never become a novelist.

Will you hit the delete button and resume a normal life or is the passion great enough to spend years developing your skills?