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Tips to Write a Great Novel
- 9-15-2009
- Categorized in: Arts & Humanities
Read as much as you can. Read nonfiction, every genre of fiction, and any novel or short story you can get your hands on! Keep mental notes of the kinds of writing that grip your attention from start to end and points when an author places a subtle foreshadowing of events to come. Look at the kinds of writing that bore you, too, so you know what to avoid. Set aside time every day to work on your novel. Everyone is busy, but there are ways to make time you didn't think you had. A daily writing session can last as little as twenty minutes or as much as an hour. Get up an hour earlier and write before work, write during your lunch hour, or write after the kids are in bed-whatever time is most productive for you. Even missing one day can break your streak of motivation.
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| Write Everyday |
If you wrestle with "writer's block" force yourself to stick to your writing session anyway. On the best of days, ideas will pour from your mind onto the keyboard or paper and you may find yourself writing for longer than the twenty or sixty minutes you set aside for writing each day. But even the best of writers have days when nothing happens. Tell yourself that you must write during your writing session, even if all you manage to write is one sentence after a whole hour. If you let yourself miss even one writing session, you'll be less likely to write again the next day.
Set aside an early writing session to work on an outline. You may not yet know the exact plot of your novel, but outline any concepts, characters, themes, and plot points you do think that you want to use. This outline will serve as your guide when you're suffering with writer's block. You'll have direction and a clear goal to accomplish, although it's perfectly fine if in the course of writing you change the plot entirely. If you can't write anything for an outline yet, you may skip ahead to "unchecked writing sessions" and write an outline a week or two into your writing.
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| Set Aside Time To Write |
Practice unchecked writing sessions at least four days a week. This means that you let yourself get immersed in the story without getting caught up on the words. Write out the plot however it first comes to your mind and do not pause to rewrite anything to make it sound better-you can do that later. Unchecked writing sessions work wonders for the mind that's prone to overanalyze, letting you write twenty pages in one session where you might usually write two. In fact, many writers choose to write unchecked every day until a first draft is complete!
If after a couple of writing sessions you still wrestle with writer's block, skip ahead in your story. Who says a novel has to be written from start to end? Many writers get ideas from a single, crucial scene that may be set in the middle of the novel or at the very end. Go ahead and write whatever scene is clearest in your mind. This can help give you direction in earlier scenes, too, as you can write with the goal of getting your characters into that situation and plant clues about secrets revealed later on.
Proofread and edit your novel carefully. You need more than just spell check! Once you've completed a first draft, it's time to read the whole manuscript from beginning to end to make sure that everything flows. If you haven't already, it may be time to rewrite any awkward prose you used during your unrestricted writing sessions. If you wrote some scenes out of order, make sure they connect naturally. The first edit of your novel could take months. Don't rush it!
Have friends or family serve as your first readers. Anyone with the grammar skills to help you proofread your text for errors can be a great help, but you'll want to hear the opinions of even the most casual reader. As the author, you know the plot of your novel and probably think that it's very clear. When your friend or family member reads the novel for the first time, does he or she think the plot is clear, the characters are compelling, and the prose easy to read? What suggestions can he or she give?
Tell yourself that it's okay to let a novel go! Good writing comes with experience. If you find halfway through a novel that the idea isn't as good as you first thought, but you're starting to have more ideas for other works, go ahead and put the first novel aside and work on another one. You can always come back! Even better, if you can write an entire novel from start to end, but perhaps after sharing it with loved ones you find that it's not bookstore-material, you can put it aside and take solace in the fact that you did it. You wrote an entire novel! And you can write one again. Some authors write as many as twelve novels before their first novel is published! Just don't skip any writing sessions and keep moving forward!
If you need more help or motivation in writing your novel, sign up for a writing workshop. Many universities, libraries, book stores, and other community centers offer writing classes and workshops for the public, which can last a week or a few months. You'll get the writing advice and feedback of a professional writer and/or English professor. By sharing your work in progress with the class, you'll also get encouragement and honest advice from fellow writers like you.
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