I’m starting to write a new novel, or should I say, what I hope will be a new novel. I’ve published eight of them, but it’s still scary to announce that I’m attempting another.

Tip #1: It’s okay to be scared. It’s also okay to be excited about the work ahead of you.

I won’t tell you what this new novel is about.

Tip #2: Don’t talk too much about the book you hope to write. Much of what you think and feel needs to stay within you, so it’ll seem like something mystical and magical as you go about putting words on the page. Talk about the book too much and too early will rob it of its power. You’ll lose what first made you want to tell the story.

I will tell you I’ve sat with the premise for this new book for nearly a year now. I even wrote the first chapter, all four sentences of it, a long time ago.

Tip #3: It’s okay to take some time to live with your idea before you begin writing. Let the premise marinate. Let your characters gradually reveal themselves to you. Jot down plot events, maybe even lines of dialogue. Let the book start to show itself to you before you begin.

I didn’t write those opening four sentences until the opening was so vivid to me I had no choice but to write it.

Tip #4:  Sometimes we can daydream our way into the writing of a novel. You know where the book takes place. You know the time period. Let your imagination do some work, either consciously or unconsciously before your work begins in earnest.

Now I’m ready to attend to the writing.

Tip #5:  You have to immerse yourself in the world of your novel, so your readers can do the same. Details can do that work. What are the concrete details of the world you’re creating?

I try to write a little every day. My objective is to add a self-contained section—maybe a complete scene, maybe a passage of exposition or a description of setting or a dive into the interiority of a character. I try to move the draft along a section at a time. Before I stop writing for the day, I begin what I think will be the next section, stopping at a place I can easily pick up at my next writing session.

Tip #6: Live inside your novel each day. If you get stuck, daydream your characters into action. Follow them, knowing in revision you can always tell them, no, you can’t do that.

I try to trust my instincts as my draft unfolds. I know that nothing is written in stone. I understand that a draft is fluid and open to change. My chief task in a first draft is to let th writing teach me more about what my book wants to be

Tip #7: Be bold, be adventurous. Don’t censor yourself, and by all means, don’t let anyone else intrude on your writing process.

This is the last you’ll hear about this new novel of mine for quite some time. I must have an intimate relationship with this new love of mine. We have secrets to learn, secrets to keep, secrets to one day share.