How To Write a Novel

Have you been dreaming about writing a novel and becoming an author but don't know how to get started?

Well, you're in luck!

We'll tell you everything you need to know about writing a good fiction novel and how to get it on the shelves of bookstores.

This article will provide useful tutorials, tips and advice for beginners and skilled authors alike. 

The basic 10 steps to writing a novel are:

1. Brainstorm an idea

2. Outline: plot, characters, story

3. Pick a point of view

4. Write ending first

5. Write first draft

6. Open with a hook

7. Revise, develop, refine

8. Long edits, proofread, finalize

9. Copyediting

10. Publish!

This is a simplified guide that gives an overview of the process. Each step requires explanation and more information.

So let's dive in deeper!

 

Conceptualize Your Story

 

Before you start typing anything, you must have a good concept of what your story is about. Brainstorming is important.

I call this the dream phase; the process in which you dream everything up for your story. You can do this while working, doing menial tasks, driving, chilling on the couch etc.

Start thinking about what your main characters will be like, where your story takes place, what challenges the characters will face, and what kind of story you want to tell.

In your mind, live the story.

When you start writing, the words will flow much easier if you've completed this step.

Don't worry about getting everything correct in the dream phase. Your story will evolve and change as you write it.

 

Outline Your Novel

 

Include:

1. Beginning (summary)
2. Middle (summary)
3. End (summary)
4. Character Profiles
5. Objective
6. Conflict
7. Solutions
8. Story Map
9. Important Information

 

The outline of your novel is just for you to see and keep track of everything of importance. Don't worry about making the outline tidy; nobody else will see it.

An outline is a very important tool to keep you and your novel organized, use it! The outline contains your basic plot, the story's conflict, the story's objective or solution, the story map, a list of characters and their profiles, and anything else you want to add that pertains to the story.

The outline is your cheat sheet. Glance at it often while you're working on your first draft to help keep everything in order.

Your outline can be as long and detailed or as short and summarized as you wish. There is no hard and fast rule of how an outline should look.  

 

Pick a Point of View

 

Perspective and the narrator's voice matter. Who is telling your story? Before you can begin writing your first draft, you must decide on a point of view.

The 3 main points of view of writing are:

1. First-person (a character in the story, usually the main character.)

2. Second person (a technique used to allow the reader to become the main character.)

3. Third person (the narrator is an unknown entity.)

Since second-person POV is rarely used in literary fiction, we'll focus on first-person and third-person, the two most common points of view.

First-person perspective is when the main character tells the story.

For example:

I crept into the parlor and saw Sarah bleeding to death. My immediate reaction was to put her out of her mystery, but my undying, unconfessed love for her stayed my hand.

Third-person perspective, using the same example, would sound like this:

John crept into the parlor and winced at the sight of Sarah's blood on the floor. Her tormented writhing was the only sign of life she offered. Unsheathing his knife, he closed his eyes as he drew back his hand to set her free. "I can't," he uttered, dropping the knife. "I love her."

For your debut novel, we recommend that you pick a point of view and stick to it throughout the novel, but you don't have to.

Skilled authors sometimes use a format called multiple POV, where different characters tell one continuous story.

If you choose multiple POVs, remember that clarity is the highest level of importance in a novel. Your reader must know what's going on and who is telling the story.

Don't confuse your readers with head-hopping. That is, changing the point of view too frequently.

Stick to an organized, reader-friendly format and consider using only first-person limited or third-person omniscient.

 

Open Your Novel With a Hook and Never With Backstory

 

One big mistake that new novel writers often make is boring the hell out of their readers with backstories.

I can't stress this enough: never open a novel with a backstory!

As writers, we're compelled to want our audience to know everything about the characters (the way we do) right off the jump.

Don't worry, the reader will know everything you want them to know by the end of the story. But if you start with a boring backstory, they'll never make it past the first page.

The truth is, you have very little time and space to captivate and hook your audience before they put your book down and decide to read something else.

The human attention span is exceedingly fragile.

Don't lose your audience.

Start your novel with something exciting. Add mystery and intrigue. Write something enticing that makes the reader want to keep reading.

Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club has one of the best hooks of all time. The writer doesn't waste any time creating intrigue and excitement.

"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that, Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying 'The first step to eternal life is you have to die.'" ~First sentence of Fight Club.

The reader instantly wants to know what's going on, so they keep reading. And, if they're a fan of Palahniuk's minimalist writing style and transgressive fiction, they'll keep reading until the end.

The writer hooks the reader and keeps them on the line with good storytelling.

Novels are like dreams. You can drop your reader directly in the middle of an action scene and they'll follow along. That is, if they are entertained and intrigued.

 

Write the Ending First

 

The ending is one of the most important aspects of your novel. Knowing how your story will end will make writing the beginning and middle much easier.

We suggest writing your ending first and then go back and write the beginning and middle.

If you write your story with no clear understanding of how you will end it, you will be doing a lot of editing to make the story come together and make sense.

Save yourself a lot of trouble; know your ending before you write the bulk of the story.

 

Conflict is Key in Novel Writing

 

A good conflict is the heart of a great story. Without conflict, the story will be like flat soda; unconsumable and worthy of tossing in the garbage.

Think of all of your favorite books, movies and stories. What do they all have in common? They're all great stories because they have conflict.

In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Frodo must take the Ring of Power to Mordor to be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom to save Middle Earth.

That is the objective.

The conflict is that there is war raging all around him, a wizard who is trying to kill him, and Lord Sauron who is tracking his every move, calling the ring to return to its rightful master.

There is essentially no chance the wounded and fragile Frodo will ever make it to Mordor. He is barely hanging on as he navigates a labyrinth of evil while simultaneously being consumed inwardly by his lust for the ring's power.

In Tolkien's story, success is a pure triumph of good over evil. One of the greatest stories ever written because of its dense and intricate layers of conflict.

Your story needs a good conflict and a way to creatively overcome it.

 

Protagonists & Character Development

 

Our favorite stories are the ones that have characters we can relate to and identify with. Your characters can't suck. They have to be awesome.

You want your reader rooting for your protagonists (main characters) to overcome and accomplish whatever it is they set out to achieve. 

If your reader doesn't develop an emotional connection with the lead character(s), then they simply won't finish the book. They will stop reading it.

Creating a character that people resonate with doesn't rely solely on compelling the reader to fall in love with them. Nay. Your character must be authentic, with flaws and shortcomings.

Our favorite characters are the ones who have the power to hurt our feelings when they do something we don't like. They have to disappoint us, let us down and then win us over.

We relate with these sorts of real characters because that's who we deal with in our lives. We love our family and friends, but there's conflict and a need for growth and development in our relationships.

Your characters should have flaws, and if they overcome those flaws, there has to be an enriching and satisfying reason why that makes sense.

Yes, you're writing fiction, but not really.

As Albert Camus said, "Fiction is the great lie through which we tell the truth."  

As a writer, you are charged with the task and responsibility to guide your characters through a simulated reality; to cultivate them like a garden. 

If your characters are not compelling, you do not have a story--even if the story itself is great. You must have characters with substance and depth.

Focus a good deal of your time and energy on characters and character development. If they're to become a hero, how do they achieve that? It doesn't happen overnight. What experiences do they go through that causes them to grow in certain ways?

The canvas is blank and the brush is in your hand. It's up to you to convince the reader that these characters are real, alive in some alternate universe. Your reader must care about the characters for your novel to be considered good.

 

Draft Now Edit Later

 

As Ernest Hemmingway once said, "Write drunk, edit sober."

When you're in the flow of writing, don't interrupt it with constant editing and rereading. Just let the words flow from your mind and onto the page. 

You will be doing a lot of editing later, so just focus on writing the story. The best way to write is to allow that easy flow of words to pour out onto the page. It's being in what we writers call 'the zone.'

A novel is much like a painting. You have to throw some paint down on the canvas and get it looking like something first. Then, go back and put in the details later.

Your first draft will be ugly, your second draft will start looking like something, your third and fourth draft will look better, your tenth will be almost there, and your final draft will be polished and awesome.

Yes, there's multiple drafts and a lot of editing for writing a novel.

 

Editing Your Novel for Self-Publishing

 

Once you have written your story, be prepared for a few months of editing.

Before you take your story to a copy editor or pay for editing, do most of your key edits yourself. Use Grammarly and other writing tools to check for spelling and grammar errors.

If you're self-publishing your novel on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you have to pay for your own professional editing if you want the novel to be done right.

All of the editing and proofreading is your responsibility when you're self-publishing a novel.

 

How to Traditionally Publish Your Novel

 

If you don't feel up to the task of editing and publishing your own novel, consider traditional publishing.

With traditional publishing, you lose some of the control over how your cover, blurb and editing look, but there are some major perks to traditional publishing.

The main perk of traditional publishing is that your book will be sold in bookstores across the country. With self-publishing, you must have your own marketing platform for driving traffic to your novel's URL.

 

Queries

 

If you're taking the route of traditional publishing, you'll need a literary agent or a publishing house that will agree to work with you without a literary agent.

In most cases, you'll want to have a literary agent.

A literary agent is a lawyer who represents you, negotiates your contract with publishers, and gets you paid.

Their salary is based on a commission; a percentage of your book sales, usually 15%.

If someone claiming to be a literary agent asks you for upfront money for their services, run the other direction. Literary agents work on commission and will never ask you to pay upfront for their services.

Literary agents are the gatekeepers into the world of professional novel writing. Treat them with utmost respect and maybe you'll get an agent. (Getting a literary agent is not easy, by the way.)

A query is a letter to a literary agent that tells them who you are and a brief synopsis of what your story is about.

If the query letter intrigues the literary agent and it looks like a project they're potentially excited to get behind, the agent will ask you for a manuscript. (Your manuscript is the final draft of your novel.)

If you're querying, send your query letter to many literary agents and allow a few weeks to several months before getting a response. Do not expect a response from a literary agent at all, let alone before 4 weeks have passed.

 

How Traditional Publishing Works Step by Step

 

1. Send a written query to a literary agent.

2. Submit your manuscript to interested agents (only when asked to.)

3. Agree to representation.

4. The literary agent works out a deal with the publisher (Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster etc.)

5. You sign the rights to your story over to the publisher.

6. You are paid royalties for novel sales.

 

And that's all there is to it. Your literary agent will help you understand it better as he or she walks you through the process.

 

The Bottom Line

 

Writing a novel is an enjoyable and rewarding experience. For many people, it's a bucket list item; something they hope to achieve before they pass on.

With these tips, you will be on your way to writing the next great novel of our age. On average, from conceptualization to publishing, the process of novel writing takes about 2-3 years for new writers.

Give yourself the space and time necessary to write your novel and enjoy each step of the journey.

Best of luck to you and we hope you make lots of book sales when you're done!

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