Do You Need Help Writing A Novel?
Do You Need Help Writing A Novel?
Are you at a stage where you need help writing your novel or book? If so, you maybe interested to know that quite often the solution to writing a bestseller is created long before the first sentence is ever written. It revolves around one simple question you first need to answer.
Did you create a plan of your novel before you started writing or do you need to actually write the story to find out what happens?
There’s nothing wrong with either answer. Best-sellers have been written using both methods. However the risk of writing a rambling story that goes nowhere, that wastes countless hours of your time and totally demoralises you is much greater if you follow the latter option.
Planning a story is time-consuming. It involves sitting at your desk making notes, coming up with twists and characters traits whilst walking the dog or weeding the garden, and jotting down illegible notes at three o’clock in the morning. To me planning always feels like decorating a room, all you really want to do is paint the walls and see if the colour you have chosen is going to look as good as you imagined it would. Yes, you can skip the preparation part and go straight to the fun bit of creating the finished product, but we all know it won’t look as good, won’t stand up to close scrutiny and will probably take more time in the long run because we’ll have to keep going back to fix it. So in reality you always have to fill the cracks, sand the bumps and wash down the walls before you even think about opening the can of paint, because if you don’t what’s the point of starting at all?
So how do you plan a novel? The basic plot of any story is that the main character has a problem (conflict) which they then find a solution to (resolution). Look back at any stories you have read and you’ll discover this plot every time. Sometimes it is more hidden than others, sometimes it’s more complex than others, but is always there. Some writers or publishers have one particular plot so successful that they always use it, each time choosing to change only the characters, the location and the specifics of the conflict.
One of the main secrets to a powerful book is creating strong, realistic characters. They must be as real to the reader as their neighbour and equally as predictable in their actions and reactions. The reader must ‘know’ the characters, they might not like them but they must know them, the mere mention of their name should conjure up an emotion (positive or negative).
Bear in mind that since most novels only cover a short amount of time some characters life may seem to react erratically in any given event purely because the reader doesn’t know their complete life story. The cause for their reactions may be something you choose to reveal early or include later in the story, the timing of the release of the information is vital to the climax of your story. Because of this many writers go to the effort of creating a profile or biography of their characters before they start writing. It provides a source of information which the writer can return to regularly so that their characters stay entirely as they should – believable.
Taking the time to simply complete a story plan and character profiles will greatly improve your story. Just like washing down the walls before decorating will increase the chances of a seamless paint job. However, for the perfect balanced novel there is still more that can be done. Consider sub-plots, red herrings, chapter outlines, location planning as just a few. Then there’s also the technical (as opposed to the creative) – vocabulary, grammar, editing, proof-reading, sentence structure, manuscript presentation. All of these are vital steps when it comes to writing a great novel.
So I guess your next question would be, ‘Is there anything around to make this whole process easier?’ I could give you the standard writer’s answer, endless amounts of reading, an excellent knowledge of English language and literature, and years of practice, but I won’t.
Thankfully a piece of computer software has been created to make writing your novel easier, New Novelist. You can now get a strong, rounded novel with less plodding and boring preparation, download the software, have fun playing with it and before you know it you’ll have finished your storyplan and be writing what could be your best-seller. Click the graphic below to find out more about the New Novelist software.
