Writing a Novel

This week I will be learning how to write a novel. Compared to my first entry most of this subject was done in a somewhat random fashion. I tried to read articles go to lectures and such to learn how to write but in the end I found that for me Structure is not a good thing when writing.

The first thing I can say for sure though is you need to understand what you want to write. Pick a genre and age group. For me i decided on a sci-fi/psychological story for late teens. Make sure that you like and understand what you are writing about. I can't tell you how many times I've read sci-fi stories written by someone who thinks light years is a unit of time. Many people may over look this but when writing in a specific genre you have to assume that your audience have a good understanding of the material and mistakes like that take them out of the world you are trying to create.

After you have your area figured out read...a lot. Don't just read stories with similar ideas as your own. Observing different styles will help you find your own. If you can read some short stories as well as novels. The more exposure to literature the better.

Now start writing. Try short stories at first these will help you get the hang of developing a basic plot and some minor dialogue. Give your stories to people to read. Don't feel bad about any criticism they give you, many times I asked people for more to better help my skills progress.

After a while you should begin to see where you talent lies, whether you can describe scenes with beautiful detail, provide realistic and flowing dialouge or convey character emotions will have a large impact on the stories you can write.

Now that the foundation is set build yourself an outline for the story you want to tell. Include major plot points and any particular scenes you really want in your final novel. Using the out line you can now begin writing you first novel.

While writing use the outline as a guide but never think that you can't deviate from it. If you have a sudden ideal put it in. Don't dwell on any one part to long, just get everything down. Again give your story out and listen to opinions. Next go back over your story and improve it, adding more detail or removing excessive amounts of details as necessary. The best advice I can give you is don't over use exposition. It can be tempting to just tell the reader the whole story and how they should feel, but good stories let the world expose itself to the reader. For example instead of saying that two characters are in love with one another in the first paragraph let their actions show it over several. Repeat these steps as many times as needed.
The last step is to try and get it published. Now I've never had anything published so take everything in the next bit with a grain of salt. There are a lot of publishing houses out there, many of them have certain areas they cater to genre,age group ect. so do some research and then start sending you drafts in. Just as with giving it out to friends listen to any problems the publisher gives you.

This article by no stretch of the imagination is a guarantee of getting publish and you may have to write several novels before one if any get published, but keep with it. If nothing else you will have fun creating your own world.

Noob rating
(5/10) It's a lot of work but most people have some experience with stories that will help them.
Total rating
(7/10) Sitting down each night to work on my own story was a blast. I found myself looking forward to it as much as reading a new chapter of the books I read.