Mystically Alive

The way to begin writing a novel is to channel the glorious story from your psyche in the same way that whales navigate the entire planet without getting lost. Hannibal Lecter said to Clarice Starling, "Look inside yourself."

Why look inside yourself? Because that's where the novel is, inside you, already written in its enthralling, reader-satisfying entirety. Don't strain as if to force it, like a love song let your Pulitzer prize-winning novel flow naturally from the infinite wizardry of your subconscious mind. It's a mystical process, a radical form of ESP.

Those who turn to strategies and techniques and formulas and plans for writing a novel, those who plot and outline and rough draft and talk about conflict or character development or voice or point of view or perspective or style, are running the risk of missing the truth, the authenticity of the novel which lives and breathes inside them.

How can I prove this? Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law - 'if it can go wrong, it will'. Or how about the old adage "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry." So, why plan? When you make psychic contact with your novel, you won't have to worry about how to begin writing because the novel shall write itself.

Joseph Smith didn't sit down with pen in hand and say "I'm going to write the Book of Mormon." On a spring day in 1820 when he was only fourteen years of age, he experienced a supernatural visitation which resulted in the unfolding of the greatest gospel dispensation of all time.

The prophet Muhammad didn't pen an outline of the Qur'an, then set about writing a rough draft that went through a revision process - the holy book of Islam was revealed to the prophet in its completely written splendor by the angel Gabriel.

Torah isn't the product of creative writing class, it's the Law of God as revealed to Moses on the mountain top.

The Holy Bible isn't a random collection of books authored by people who wanted to participate in eschatology, it's the revealed Word of the Divine Almighty.

Therefore, you know that the novel you want to write is already written, all you have to do is get in touch with it.

Louis Dearborn L'Amour didn't say anything about outlines or rough drafts or character or plot. He said, "Read the best writing you can find and write whatever you can write everyday."

Lawrence Sanders said, "Writing for the men's magazines was marvelous training, because you learn to keep the action moving. Forget about philosophy of character, just get on with it."

John Steinbeck said, "You don't take the trip, the trip takes you."

Shirley Jackson didn't say that The Haunting of Hill House was a book project that went through several drafts before being published, she said the ghosts were telling her what to write.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley didn't consult with men of letters about what composition was appropriate for a lady to script - she was with a small cadre of other psychics in a remote wilderness chateau during a violent thunderstorm at midnight when Frankenstein unspooled in her brain like an alien signal from another world.

Hiding from the world behind a veil of secrecy Emily Dickinson penned over nine hundred poems that have made her the subject of bestselling novels, and she said, "I dwell in possibility."

How do you reckon these award-winning bestselling authors could make such profound and broad-sweeping statements? Because they were looking within themselves. They weren't writing novels, they were getting in touch with novels which were already written - novels that were waiting to be transcribed from the great cosmic eternity into paperback bestsellers. They weren't writing the novels, they were letting the novels write themselves.

As an addendum, permit me to offer this bit of wisdom - the best method to begin writing a novel is to be yourself. Don't be what you think society or an employer or a school teacher or a religious organization or even your family wants you to be. Live naturally according to who and what you really are. Search for yourself, look inside yourself, be yourself - when you do, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to begin writing all the novels that live and breathe as a part of the real genuine you.