The Writer’s Cookbook has been going for four years now(!). In that time, we’ve published a lot of posts.

So I decided it was time to look back on some of our best posts and create a guide that covers everything you could ever need to know to get started writing your novel.

This guide covers everything from research, to plotting, to writing, redrafting, and editing.

Everything is covered in the order that works for me, but your process may be different. That’s part of what I love about writing (and writing about writing!). If you’ve got a different writing process, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Happy writing!

Reading

Why do the Best Readers Make the Best Writers?

How to Read More Books

How to Find More Time to Read

5 Tips to Help You Read More Actively

7 Life-Changing Books Every Writer Needs to Read

Research

8 Essential Story Ingredients for Flash Fiction and Novels Alike

Mindset

How to Get Back into Writing Fiction After a Long Break

How to Get Out of Your Writing Funk

How to get into the Writing Zone

6 Writing Myths That Are Holding You Back

How I Went From Writing 0 Words a Day to 10,000+ Words a Day and You Can Too

Why You Won’t Love Everything You Write, and That’s OK

The Psychological Benefits of Freewriting

3 Reasons You’re Not Writing as Much as You Could be

 

Genre and Audience

A Short Guide to Fantasy Genres

How to Write for Children

Character Development

9 Character Types to Include in Your Story

How to Write Schizophrenia

How to Write Bipolar Disorder, or Manic Depression

How to Write About Stress

How to Write About ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

How to Write Anxiety

How to Write Sarcasm

How to Write About Grief

How to Write About Depression

How to Write a Panic Attack

How to Write a Sociopath

How to Write a Psychopath

 

Planning and Plotting

The Different Types of Fiction in a Way That Won’t Make Your Head Explode

How to Get Started with Scrivener

Scrivener vs. Novlr – Which is the Best Writing Software For You?

How to Fix Plot Holes in Your Novel (From 14 Writing Experts)

Writing

7 Simple Ways to Find Your Writing Voice

How to Get Started Free Writing

How to Write Fiction Your Readers Will Love

The Curse of Too Much Dialogue

Should You Write How You Speak?

 

Editing

Why I Decided to Rewrite My Novel From Scratch

The Cake Analogy: Why You Should Never Show Your First Draft to Anyone

7 Signs of a Great Editor

How to Rewrite Your Novel

Something missing?

I’m always on the look out for new blog post ideas. If there’s something about writing that isn’t covered in this list, let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I can do 🙂