How To Write A Novel
Want to write a book but don’t know where to start? As a freelancer, I have some tips on how to get started!
Let me first tell you that writing a book is not a walk in the park. It takes a lot to write a book. Now there are many kinds of books, but I’ll be focusing on your typical novel. A novel is a story that has fifty thousand words or more, but alternatively as a beginner you may want to start with novellas, which are shorter stories that range from ten thousand to forty thousand words. So now that you know the difference, let’s begin.
Choosing A Genre
If it’s your first time writing a book, I don’t recommend picking a genre that you aren’t very familiar with. Something like historical fiction takes a lot more research and planning. The easiest would be realistic fiction, a made-up story in a real-life world, or fantasy, a made up story in a made-up world. Some genres will have subgenres, like romance. And those subgenres can have another subgenre themselves, like contemporary romance. You don’t have to know all the little details and follow them religiously, all you need is the basics. Is my story realistic or magic? Keep that in mind as you develop your idea and plot.
Developing Idea and Plot
To write a story, you must first have an idea. All stories can be thought of by one simple what if. For example, the book Harry Potter by J.K Rowling could have the what if of “what if witches and wizards were real?” Seems vague, but that’s what you want. Start forming an idea by something vague. Even realistic fiction can be this way. The realistic fiction book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli could have the what if of “what if there was a girl so unique that the world didn’t know what to do with her?” Often times if we want to write a book you already have an idea, which is great. But still ponder the questions your story might ask to help you further along your ideas.
Then you move on to plot. The plot is what’s going to happen in your story from start to finish. There’s two ways you can go about developing plot. If you’re the kind of person who likes to plan, creating some sort of outline, like a web, will be helpful so that you can plan out the major events of your story. But others, like myself, are terrible at planning and would rather just write. And that’s great, but I recommend getting at least your main ideas down. You remember that plot mountain that your teachers taught you back in elementary school? Use that to get out your main ideas before you start writing. Know your beginning, rising actions, climax, and resolution.
It could even just be one measly sentence, but you need something to keep you on the right track. One of the worst mistakes you can make as a writer is start with one idea and end with something completely different. It makes for a confusing story with a lot of flaws.
Creating Characters
You may want to create your characters before your outline, or after. It’s up to you. You can use stand ins such as “boy” and “girl” or “character A” and “Character B” and then plan the characters afterwards. Keep in mind that no matter what order, planning good characters is essential to a writer’s success. You need solid, believable, and balanced characters. Here’s some important things to consider with characters.
Diversity: Even the name of your character can be important. Why are they named that? Is it a part of their culture? What is their culture? Knowing your character’s ethnic background may determine the way that you portray them, so it’s essential that you decide.
Looks: You need to mentally create a look for your characters and then jot it down before you forget. Believe me, if you don’t write it down, you will forget. It doesn’t have to be extensive. Include the essentials like their skin tone, eye color, hair color and style, height, body type, and maybe even jot down some style ideas. If you are going to have a cover created, it’s likely that you’ll want the main character on the cover, so knowing what you want them to look like in detail is essential for your artist.
Relationships: If you are including friends and family in the book, it’s important you write down these characters names, the relationship to the character you’re planning, and what they look like for future reference.
Personality: You need to figure out what kind of person your character is. If you decide at the beginning that your character is shy and then suddenly have them being overly friendly to a lot of people, the readers will recognize this as out of character. Now characters can have out of character moments, but there has to be a reason for it. Random shifts in personality will confuse the reader and make the story less enjoyable, because the character is molding to fit the personality that works with the scene. Even more important, balance your characters quirks and flaws. No one wants to read a story about someone overly perfect, or someone who has many flaws for no apparent reason. Believable characters have balance.
Determining Setting
Setting is another thing that you need to get straight from the start. But, it can be more ambiguous than you might think. If it’s a fantasy book, you need to have your world created and planned to avoid confusion for yourself and the reader, but if it’s realistic fiction, you can choose any place in the world. Whether it’s Paris or your hometown, it’s entirely your choice. You may not even have to name a specific place. In my two novels, Friends with Benefits and Kaimi (available on Amazon), I establish setting by describing their environments, rather than picking a city or state for them to reside in, as setting wasn’t a main focus for my books. My novels main settings are the characters houses and schools, they don’t go many other places, therefore there’s no need to establish a complete specifics.
How to Write
The only way to write a novel is to, well, write. You need to motivate yourself, and try to set a time limit for yourself. You should be writing a little bit every day, or at least a few times a week to progress in your progress. I have a hard time with this as much as the next person. What worked for me is actually a writing challenge that takes place in November known as nanowrimo, or national novel writing month. The challenge is to write a full length, fifty thousand word novel in just that one month. You don’t win any prizes for winning, but completing the challenge makes you eligible for exclusive winner merch, and discounts on some of the best author tools out there. So if you’re wanting to become a serious author, this is a great way to write your first book, and get some great discounts in formatting/writing softwares for succeeding.
The “Now What” Months
So, you’ve written a first draft. Now what do you do? The answer is simple. Now you edit. I know that editing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and editing your own work by yourself is practically impossible. You will most likely want a fresh set of eyes reading your manuscript, so find someone, whether it be a friend or family member that will give you an honest opinion, or hiring a professional editor. You can find professional editors a lot of different places, but I recommend Reedsy.com. All of those editors are freelance, budget-friendly, and great to work with. You can find cover designers and other services as well, so it’s worth looking into if writing is something you’re considering seriously.
