Small Moving Parts

beginning with 500 words

A novel is made up of small moving parts. When the novel is published, the parts may appear to be in just the right place, to have always been where they are. This is rarely the case. Most writers move things around as they go and move things around even more as they revise.

Don’t be afraid to write a paragraph here, a page there. Not everything has to be a full-fledged chapter in the early stages. If you have a scene in your head that you know you want to write, go for it. But if you sit down at your computer and feel flustered and uncertain, allow yourself the freedom to think in single sentences or images or brief units of action instead.

Tell yourself, “Today I’m going to write 500 words about…” and go from there. There will be days, a few glorious days, when you wake up and know just what scene you want to tackle, just what kind of trouble you want to get your character into.

But there will be other days when the blank page seems blanker, and the hour or two or three that you have set aside to write seems destined to be wasted time. On days when you are stuck, when you just can’t seem to figure out what to write about, begin with 500 words.

---

Michelle Richmond is the New York Times bestselling author of two story collections and six novels, most recently The Wonder Test. She mentors beginning and experienced writers through Fiction Master Class.

Current course offerings:

• Launch your Substack in my 4-week online course, Writing for Substack

• Write your novel in five months in my accelerated course, Novel in Five.