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Thursday, 7 January 2016

A Guide On How To Write A Novel

By Rebecca Bennett


Many people love novels and wish they could tell their beautiful stories using one of their own. Very few have managed to write novels which makes the process to appear daunting. It is not the absence of stories that cause many people to fail to write. The reality is that very few people know how to write a novel. Here are simple steps that will ensure that you have your book in the shortest time possible.

Write a single sentence that captures your idea. This summary should be fifteen words or less. It must capture your intentions and the imagination of your readers. This sentence is so important that it will sell your idea to publishers, book stores and review committees throughout its lifetime. The names of characters and scenes in the story line should not be included. Such a sentence is what you find on major book reviews.

Expand the sentence into a paragraph that captures the main occurrences in your plot. Describe the setup of the story, the major disaster and triumph as well as the ending. Take the Three-Acts structure where Act One captures the introductory disaster, Act Two offers the second disaster midway while Act Three is the ending of your story. Five sentences are enough to summarize the book.

Characters are the drivers of your story. The summary sentence and paragraph provide an idea of what is expected of you. It is time to grow them by assigning names and attributes. This should only be done for the main characters. Minor characters will emerge during the actual drafting. Use a single sentence to describe each character. Each of them should have a motivation, goal, personal conflict and epiphany.

Do not hesitate to revise your one sentence or one paragraph summary from time to time. This is an indication that the details of your novel are teaching you things that were not clear at the beginning. Take the steps as a learning point. Do not target to write a perfect summary at the beginning or capture the characters fully when you start. Some things will become clearer as the story develops.

Developing characters and the story line takes hundreds of hours and even weeks. Once the process of completed, it is time to summarize your story into a single page. The process of analyzing and developing characters is painstaking yet interesting. Everything needs to be condensed into a single page as you begin the process of drafting.

With details of each character and scene, it is time to tie them down. This is another discovery phase. You will create other characters and scenes that did not exist. Try as much as possible to stick to your original design. The demanding nature of this phase will require a working routine. This includes a time and place where you can concentrate for longer hours.

Novels are as a result of focus and dedication to a course. You will be required to set a completing date that will guide your writing exercise. Create an outline and plan of action to guide your daily activities. A lot of reading is required to gain facts about occurrences and scenes. Research must be conducted even by fiction writers. This will enable them to produce a plausible story. The time taken to complete the book depends on amount of time dedicated. Six months to one year should be enough.




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