Have you ever felt bad for NOT being a born writer? Guess what… NOBODY is. Writing is something that anybody can develop. Even you. All you need is the passion, perseverance and of course the imagination. If you believe in yourself, and work a little hard, writing a novel for you can become as easy as ABC. Penning a novel is really as simple as painting a picture or even cooking a four course meal. It's an art that requires your heart and soul. And a little thought can get you started.

The first step: All you need to start writing a novel is an idea. You need to have the ability to dream. The simplest way to start thinking of a story or plot is to look at your own experiences. Think back to the time when you were a little child. Think of that summer vacation you spent with your family. Think of what could have happened and never did. Think of all those things you wanted to do. Think of all those places your imagination as a child had taken you. The possibilities of hitting upon an idea are limitless. And once you hit upon that one special thought you want to write about, just jot it down on a piece of paper. Take some time out and think how you want that idea to reach its conclusion. And there, you have your plot! Pen it down on a piece of paper.

Step 2: Now that you have your plot, the most difficult task is over. It's time now to work on the premise of your novel i.e. the way you should start it and introduce your idea, your characters and take forward your plot. For example, say you are writing about a small family during the Indian national struggle. You can start it with the description of a protest march on the streets of a remote part of Central India and a boy looking out of his small window. The boys sees the freedom fighters and runs inside to the bedroom where his elder sister is taking piano lessons from her English piano teacher Ms. Warren. He tells them about the street march and Ms. Warren is worried. This can introduce your characters and the lay the premise for your novel. The succeeding sequence of events can now keep flowing.

Step 3: Now that you have begun your novel, you need to take it to its conclusion. And that requires a stream of events following each other. This also means that you need to come up with a spontaneous flow of ideas one after the other. So let yourself get absorbed into your plot. You'll realize that after some time you don't need to direct your plot, the plot will itself take you along. All you need to do is put your thoughts into words.

Step 4: Make sure you retain this state of complete submersion into the plot. This is the time of high concentration when words keep coming to you and ideas fill your mind. This state if often referred to as the 'alpha state'. After what will feel like minutes you might realize that you have a severe back pain and you have not just written two pages but five!

Step 5: Now practice getting in and out of this 'alpha state'. This helps you to look at your novel from the reader's perspective. Just get out of the plot. Take some time off. Go back and take a look at whatever you've written as the reader. It will help you evaluate whether what you've written is appealing to others as well. It may take you days before you get back to your 'alpha state' again. But once you have mastered the art, it is as easy as switching on and off a light bulb.

FINAL Step: Now that you are done with your novel, it's time for the final look-over. Yes, this is the most tedious part. But then again, this is your book. And you will do it best right? So pick it up and go through it all over again. Check the word usage, coherence etc. See whether one section could have been told in a better way. Maybe you want to change your character's name. Maybe you just want to delete an entire part. This may get boring. It's also time consuming. And a better way to finish this part perfectly might be to get yourself a competent book publisher. They will not only give you inputs on your story but also clean all small errors from your novel.

And that's how simple to get your first novel published. Just remember, if you believe you can, there's nothing that can stop you!