About two weeks ago, I finally finished the first draft of my novel, Natural Disaster. It’s been years in the making as I navigated becoming an editor, grandmother, and many other big life changes. My son sparked the idea for this book when he said something off-hand, and that moment appears in the book, albeit changed to fit my story.

Writing an entire novel is very different from writing articles, short stories, and even serial stories. It requires longer focus and going deeper into charac...