The Trellis Method Steps

The overwhelming majority of writers need to follow a roadmap, and that’s the chief purpose of the Trellis Method steps.

Most top authors find and adapt a writing system to fit their style, and we built that flexibility into the Trellis Method steps.

Sure, you can free-write, and if that’s your thing, do it. However, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, I get it. You’ve got a cascade of ideas, techniques, and instructions flowing in from all directions, including annual goals, daily prompts, and personal aspirations.

Even with your drive, that flood of external advice leaves you feeling drained.

Get the Help You Need, Not More Doubt & Guilt

Shouldn’t all that so-called ‘help’ make writing easier?

• Instead, you shuffle and reshuffle all that external advice you’ve collected, robbing you of the precious time to write.
• You jump from one thing to the next, then get distracted by another shiny object, a promised solution, or an urgent commitment.
• When you return to write, the storm clouds of doubt gather.
• You suffer through another thunderstorm of uncertainty, hit by bolts of guilt because you’re not much further ahead than before.

As you absently flip through your calendar’s pages, it’s obvious that the breakthrough you expected still hasn’t arrived, and you wonder, where has all the time gone?

The Trellis Method’s Steps Guide Your Priorities

You may have seen my two rules before, and if not, here they are:

It’s easy to let goals drive actions instead of obeying your heart, and with that in mind, I view goals differently than most.

Think of the Trellis Method’s steps like goals, serving as your helpmates and emphasizing priorities without making unnecessary demands.

The Trellis Method Steps Allow Starts and Stops

It’s a fact: writing a novel is not a linear process.

• Life demands you pay attention to urgent matters, the things that make you stop writing and do something else.
• Seldom do writers get to focus on one thing long enough to finish it.
• They stop and then have to resume their efforts.

That means you need a writing system that allows you to break away from creating your novel, attend to whatever matters most in your life at that moment, and later resume where you left off.

Create Your Novel with the Trellis Method Steps

I’ll close this post with the steps that take you from the idea for a book to the promotion of your novel.

• Treat the Trellis Method steps like writing principles, not rules.
• Use the prompt-based worksheets to gather and then apply the essential details readers expect.
• Make continuous progress with a system that allows you to pause, deal with life’s many realities, and later resume right where you left off — without losing any creative fuel for your novel-building engine!

A Writing System to Overcome Life’s Distractions

The Trellis Method’s steps support a unique writing system.

The system allows you to focus on one step at a time.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Trellis Method, click here.

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