Finally, you have started your journey and acknowledged that it is now or never! So, you have a plot, few character quirks, an adventurous journey they’re set to embark on, but that’s it. You don’t know what else you need or should do to effectively and smoothly sail through this journey of writing a novel. You’re looking for some tricks and tips on writing a novel that can help you on this journey, moreover, you want the experience to uphold these tips, someone who knows what they’re doing and are extremely good at it.
No one can help you more with these tips on writing a novel than a novelist who has been through your exact situation and gone through similar kinds of questions. Hence, here is a collated version of all the best and most effective tips on writing a novel and bringing your fictional story to an adventurous reality.
1. Love Your Story
This might sound like an obvious thought but many let go of their passion in the midst of their project to align it better with a certain narrative or end. Always remember, it’s your story and you need to be the person who loves it the most and only then you’ll be able to bring justice to it and your work. Also, give as much attention to your story as you do to your characters and the plot.
2. Create A Solid Roadmap – Tips on Writing a Novel
An outline might sound like a frightening word for budding and even experienced writers, however, it is also one of the most important pieces of work you’ll keep on going back to, and be extremely thankful for. Think of it as a solid route map with few landmarks and a guided route to your end destination. There are tons of different kinds of outline structures that writers usually play around with until they finally find something they can stick to, explore these options yourself and enjoy the experience.
This roadmap often consists of your characters, where they come from, what will happen to them from start to beginning, this helps you from not diverting from your destination and keeps a tab of your character’s arc, as well.
3. Craft Your Characters With Care
You’re literally the writer of this story, hence, it is you who decides how your characters should be perceived by the readers? Are they driven by their personality, their goals, their quirks or something else, you need to be well aware of all this.
Moreover, create a solid arc.
No story is ever complete without the main character that goes through an arc, in simpler words, do they turn into a better person or worse? What impact does the ending of your novel have on the life of its main character, moreover, why should the readers keep rooting for the main character?
Along with the main characters, also give utmost attention to your supporting characters that have a strong impact or significance on the story, give them a strong foundation, along with human flaws. And, always remember, to make your characters memorable you need to make them humane and believable which comes with their own struggles, aspirations and even flaws like jealousy, pettiness and others.
For starters try answering all these questions for each of your characters:
- What are they aspiring for? What do they want?
- What is keeping them from getting it? What is the primary hurdle in their life?
- Do they do something about it? What do they do about it?
- What is actually their role in the story and what do they do to take the narrative forward?
4. Have A Solid Plot
The next step on these tips on writing a novel is to expand your idea or story into a plot. While some pretty famous and decorated writers do not believe in the idea of the plot, it certainly holds a big responsibility to one’s story, especially when you’re just a beginner in the process. A plot, also known as the basic story structure, can be different from story to story and writer to writer, however, almost all of those certainly have these 5 things in them.
- An Opener
- An incident that changes everything
- A series of incidents and crises that build tension
- A climax
- And, lastly, a conclusion
Now, not every story needs to follow a similar sequence, in fact, many don’t, but one’s story needs to have these five pointers somewhere in the story to keep the ball rolling and the story going, as well as, ending.
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5. Make Research Your Best Friend
Research will turn into your most trusted friend and sometimes even the most gruelling task, however, always remember to love it and spend ample time on it. Also, don’t just think that fiction is sewed all by imagination, you need to make it believable, at least the ground that they stand on, the events they go through or even the crises. For all of this, you need to have solid and expansive research set into place to add that flavour of authenticity to your work.
Few very important things to completely and categorically go over the research include cultural, geographical and technological aspects of your story. Even if you’re writing a sci-fi piece of work, you would need to keep these things in check.
6. What’s The Prime POV?
Another very important decision that every writer needs to keep in place before even starting is – from whose perspective would the story be told? Point of view in similar words denote what voice would you be using throughout the book? Would it be the first person (I, me), Second Person (you/your) or Third Person (he/she/it)
If you’re not writing from the first person’s perspective then you also need to decide from which character’s POV would the story move forward and how do they serve the lead or the story?
Over time we have seen some very interesting jumbles in this format, people have juggled with different character’s POVs or from an entirely different thing’s perspective, yet the most popular way of narrating and telling the story is from a third person’s POV.
7. Include A Climax – (Tips on Writing a Novel)
The climax might sound like a very overrated point in a story but it is also the peak emotional point of your story that catches the readers off guard making them more invested in the storyline and what is going to happen. The stakes for a good climax are also very high and almost act as the deciding factor of a novel’s worth.
Also, don’t just through your climax without any rationality behind it, the budding conflicts throughout the story ends at an ultimate confrontation, and they should be treated similarly. In addition to this, always remember that your climax just can’t be your ending, it acts as a way to tell your readers that they should buckle up, after all, there is still a lot to come.
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8. Leave The Readers Satisfied
Even though the entire statement sounds like a big role of a paradox since you’ll never be able to satisfy all of your readers. They have stayed with the story and invested a lot on it all to know how the story ends, hence try making it impactful and something that stays with your readers for a long time or even something that pushes them to think more about it.
You can go the usual and most utilized way of storytelling and end it with a happy ending, or simply put all your thinking caps on and end it with a jarring new way. Just remember that your ending should tie up all the loose ends and be emotionally stirring for the readers to end it on a high note.
So, these were a few of the best and essential tips on writing a novel that every budding or even experienced novelist should keep by their side.
