I’m Sorry To Tell You, But There’s No Magic Process to Write a Novel

But a Bit of Preparation Will Help A Lot

But a Bit of Preparation Will Help A Lot

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

I just finished teaching a three-day workshop on writing the novel. Nine writers gathered to learn about the elements of fiction, including character, theme, voice, setting, and structure and how to put them together in a novel. It was a great group, some very experienced, some simply exploring the idea of writing a novel, but all fantastic.

One of the attendees had a sly sense of humor. He sat next to me and offered up wry commentary sotto voce. It entertained me and kept me on my toes. From snippets that he read, I deduced he was a fine short story writer.

But on the afternoon of the second day, he asked, this time in a voice loud enough for the whole class to hear, “When are you going to tell me how to actually write the novel?”

And I’m thinking, you mean the part where you sit your butt down at the computer and write every day? That part?

To his credit, we hadn’t yet gone through structure, which ultimately helped him visualize how it all would come together. And I think that was what he meant. But his question cracked me up because, at least the way I first took his meaning, it’s a common idea. And that idea is this:

There’s a magical way to write a novel. And if you just uncover it — maybe in a box buried deep in the woods — and follow what it says to do(because there will likely be spells and incantations) your novel will appear.

Don’t we all wish that was the case?

Later that evening, my husband and I were out walking around the forested campus where the workshop was held. A young couple from a nearby condominium complex was out walking their dogs. When the woman learned I was teaching a three-day novel workshop class, she said, “Oh, so you write novels in three days?”

Um, no.

Would that it were so.

These incidents brought home to me that the process of novel writing is still a mysterious thing to many people. And here’s a news flash: it is often mysterious to those of us who write them as well. It’s like this famous quote:

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.” Somerset Maugham

Every time I begin a new novel, I think of this quote, because it’s like I’ve never written one before. And if this is true for me, having written several novels, I can only imagine how confusing and overwhelming it must be for those who are taking their first step on the novel-writing path.

So, here’s the truth: I can’t tell you how to write a novel. I can’t write it for you. But what I can do is point you towards the elements that will go into that novel — and by pondering those, you can get started.

You can do this. I know you can.

Fundamentals of Fiction

So here we go, the fundamentals of fiction:

— Character

— Setting

— Theme

— Style and Voice

— Structure and Scene

That’s a very basic list, but it will do for a starting point. (That’s all you need — a starting point.)

Writing Mindset: Going All In
What’s Stopping You?writingcooperative.com

What You Need to Know

The most important part of writing a novel is the writing part, okay? So I’m purposely offering you scanty lists of what you need to know before you start writing.

A caveat: if you are a dedicated plotter, this list will drive you crazy. (Plotters, for those of you who don’t know, are writers who want to have everything organized and nailed down and outlined before starting to write. The rest of us who are a bit more, um, loose, in our approach, are called pantsers.)

Character

Who is your protagonist? Who is your antagonist (the person who most gets in the protagonist’s way)? What is your protagonist’s background? Her physical description? What is her burning desire? And what gets in the way of that desire?

Setting

Where does your character live? City, country, town? House, apartment, shack? Does you character like this place or not? Who does he live with? Where does he work? What is her third place (hang out)?

Theme

What is your story about? What is the hum that underlies it all? Love? Death? coming of age? Revenge?

Style and Voice

I’ll tell you a little secret: voice comes the more you write. So quit worrying about it and start writing. Style is your approach to writing. What topics do you obsess over? Do you like writing in first person or multiple third? If you do whatever feels most natural, you won’t go wrong.

Structure and Scene

Reams of material have been written on this topic and will continue to be. It, more than anything, is where writers go when they seek a magic bullet for their novel. You can follow a hero’s journey structure, or a three-act, or the structure that Dan Harmon used when he wrote Community. It doesn’t matter. Just choose one and go with it. I think of structure like this: visualize a clothesline, two poles with a sagging line between them. Structure is what shores up those poles and makes the line taut. The you can hang scenes on it.

Yes, you could get way more complicated and detailed in your preparation for the novel. But the you’d be a plotter. And we wouldn’t want that, now, would we? Seriously, ask the Google for more information on any of these topics if you so desire. You will be rewarded handsomely. Because the Google is like that.

Mindset Equals Success
Move From a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindsetmedium.com

And my point here is to get you going. To get you to the writing, not keep you mired in prep work. Because that is where the real fun begins. And if, as you write, you falter, go back to the things you noted above. Write some more about them if you need to. Do some more research. But then get thee back to the actual writing post haste, please.

The Writing Process

And now you begin. Some writers, and I am one of them, prefer to write chronologically, starting with Chapter One and proceeding on through until the end. Others jump around, working on whatever has the most juice in the moment. Whichever one works for you is fine, just fine — as long as you do it.

Whichever way you choose, though, write to the end before you start rewriting. You’ll know more about your story when you get to the end than you do at the beginning or even in the middle. After you’ve finished your first draft (often called a discovery draft because the author is still discovering the story), that you can start rewriting. You’ll do at least one more draft, and probably even more.

Once your story is as good as you can possibly make it, you get to the last step in the process — going through with a fine-toothed comb to look at sentence structure, word use, and grammar. Fun times!

Et voila — you have written a novel. I told you that you could do it!

You just read another exciting post from the Book Mechanic: the writer’s source for creating books that work and selling those books once they’re written.

If you’d like to read more stories just like this one tap here to visit our page.