This is a working handbook for beginning novelists. It is full of information and workspaces to help the aspiring novelist get ideas from first imagining to paper to publication. It is written clearly and simply, and divides novels into four major categories, which will help the writer narrow focus on the type of novel to write. It also has dozens of workspaces for the writer to fill in or complete to keep ideas moving from one stage to the next, always moving forward. By completing the activities in any one, or all four, sections the writer will have a good idea of where to start, how to keep progress going, and how to complete a first novel...at least in draft form. The handbook is designed to make the writer's idea concrete and ready for publication.