I wish I could spend every moment writing on novels. The problem is that I can't physically or mentally do that. I begin to write a novel when I have a novel length inspiration. They come about once every six months now, so I can potentially expect to write a novel every six months or two a year. My usual inspiration is an opening scene or a developed scene. These usually manifest themselves as a theme question. You can see some of these theme questions in the novel secret pages at
www.ldalford.com. In the case of the newest novel I wrote, the scene was a girl being beat up and a young man rescuing her. The question was what incidents would drive the circumstance of an Anglo-Saxon maiden in the modern world. That's the plot statement of the novel. Once I had a plot statement and an opening scene, I could begin on the novel. The novel called for me to write it. I couldn't stop the flow of ideas. Once I fleshed out the major characters in the first chapter, I began to outline the novel. I usually outline very loosely by scene. I add scenes and develop plot details by chapter. When I am writing, I write daily from about 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. I usually write a chapter a day about 6000 words or 20 pages. I aim for a novel of around 100,000 words. About 20 chapters. I finish a novel after about one month. Tomorrow, I'll give you more details on writing my latest novel and generally about how I go about writing a novel.
