"It was a dark and stormy night." I wonder how many hopeful novelists have typed that sentence at the top of a blank sheet of white paper and then sat hopelessly and helplessly as they struggled to come up with the next thought.

Sometimes novels evolve, meaning that the author does not have a plan in mind. Like sculptors who say the block of marble will determine itself what it is to become, a writer lets the story unfold from chapter to chapter.

Unlike a sculptor, the novelist can return to previous chapters and tweak it by bringing someone back to life or changing a mean-spirited character into a gentle lamb.

One way to be sure to write a second book that will become a best-seller is to write the first one and have it become a best-seller. The second book does not need to be particularly well-written or developed. It merely has to follow on the heels of a best-seller. Publishers love authors who sell books by having their name on a book cover and will sign a deal with an author to write and write some more. Excellence is nice but optional at this point in an author's career.

No other point to this....that's just what I think about it.