How to Write a Novel: A Blueprint for Crafting Your Story
Wondering how to write a novel?
For many people, writing a book is a dream. However, only a small number of would-be authors actually succeed in writing, publishing, and promoting a book. How to Write a Novel: A Blueprint for Crafting Your Story…
The urge to write is strong, and for the majority of serious authors, they must get their works in front of readers who need to read them. Most people hire book writing company and also get help for marketing.
You can help in this situation. Your book is what the world needs.
It takes more than just a dream to write a book—it takes a lot of work. To make that dream a reality, you must be prepared to put in a lot of effort every day.
You might be wondering how I start a novel. I’m going to delve into that in this post. Every novel starts with an idea, and from this idea, thousands of your most devoted fans eventually read and loved the finished product.
#1 – What is a novel?
A novel is a work of fiction written in narrative language with a strong emphasis on the characters, the action (or drama), and the plot.
A novel is organized around a number of master scenes, at least two crucial complications (sometimes referred to as inciting incidents), and a climactic event that completely unravels the plot. To move the plot along at a breakneck pace, a number of master characters and minor characters will interact through speech and deed.
The genre and type of book determine how many words are in a novel. For most genres, books typically have 60,000–90,000 words.
Some works that are under 30,000 words long are referred to as novellas. For instance, The Old Man and the Sea, a renowned novella by Ernest Hemingway, has just 27,000 words, yet The Stand, Stephen King’s longest novel (after he cut 500 pages! ), has just under 473,000 words.
Check out How Many Words in a Novel? How to Write a Novel: A Blueprint for Crafting Your Story? for a breakdown of the number of words in novels by genre. Word Counts Precisely By Genre. Start as ” Article writing services“.
It’s time to decide what kind of novelist you might be now that you understand what a novel is.
#2 – Know what type of novelist you are
We want to get this right from the start since knowing whether you are a planner or a pantser will affect your entire writing approach.
The Planned
A plotter is someone who invests a lot of effort in generating a thorough book layout for their work, complete with master scenes, pivot points, and character biographies, before actually writing the book.
A plotter clearly directs how the novel will begin…and how it must end—writing out every detail, How to write a novel: a blueprint for crafting your story down to the smallest scene. Typically, a detailed plotter won’t begin writing until all of these details have been resolved.
The Harry Potter novels’ best-selling author J.K. Rowling is a well-known planner. James Patterson and John Grisham (The Firm, The Pelican Brief) are two more well-known plotters.
A pantser is what? The antithesis of a planner is a pantser.
A Pantser
The phrase “writing by the seat of your pants” is what the term “pantser” refers to.
You begin with a few notes and a seed of an idea. You start writing your story after creating a rough plot and a few scenes.
Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, and David Morrell are well-known pantsers (First Blood).
Thus, how much time and effort you devote to developing characters, storyboarding or scene design, and outline writing will depend on the type of writer you are.
Combining Plotter with Pantser
Perhaps you fit halfway in between thorough plotters and seat-of-the-pants pantsers. Most authors do.
My preferred method is to create the key characters, the overarching plot, a number of master scenes, and the beginning or opening scene. I have a rough title and a succinct outline. I start writing in order to gain momentum. The only way I can determine which direction the story will go in is by actually writing it.
When writing, momentum is essential. Your imagination will soar when you put your fingers to the keyboard if you can see just a little beyond the outline (or pen to paper).
#3 – Start with a novel idea
Naturally, every novel begins with a concept or concepts. Maybe you have a thousand different tale ideas floating around in your head or on paper, but in order to write a novel, you must focus on just one.
What is the overall plot of your book? Write your novel’s central theme in only one sentence.
A general example might be: Tragic teen love affair that ends in suicide.
For example, two teenagers from different families fall in love and, in a startling turn of events, decide to die together rather than live apart.
Even if all the concepts or specifics aren’t yet clear, whatever your novel idea is, jot it down and store it in the back of your mind or hire a book publishing agent.
There are only a few guidelines to adhere to while coming up with narrative ideas.
- You must be intrigued. This novel will take you more than 60k words to complete, so if you become bored or stuck, you’ll quit writing.
- You are familiar with this genre of book. If you create science fiction, you must read a lot of it as well. Romance?
- Every waking hour, you read a love story. Your enthusiasm for learning about telling this kind of story stems from your enthusiasm for the book’s concept.
- Try out your concept. Discuss it and let people know.
Conflict: What is the major conflict here?
#4 – Read books in your genre
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else: read a lot and write a lot,” declared Stephen King. These two things cannot be avoided, as far as I am aware.
Whether or not you agree with Stephen King, writers need to read as much as they write.
One benefit is that it aids your book’s structure. When it comes time to write your own book, this will come fairly naturally if you read and pay attention to the structure of the novels you enjoy. Whether you are writing nonfiction, fiction, or a memoir, this is true. Reading excellent writing will improve your writing.
To learn how it’s done, you must study authors who write in your field. If you want to master the horror subgenre, you should start with Clive Barker or Edgar Allen Poe. Consider writing science fiction. Pick up some works by Frank Herbert or Arthur C. Clarke (2010). (Dune).
Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and frequently the terrible novels have more to teach than the good ones, according to Stephen King. He also argues that you may learn from lousy writing.
Copying portions from your favorite books is a good practice method for writing skill. Read and type only. Even though the content isn’t your own, doing this develops your writing habits and prepares you for the writing that will appear in your own book.
This method also works if you’re having trouble writing. Alternatively, if you struggle to move on because you fear writing (what we call writer’s block), take a book off the shelf, open to your favorite scene, and begin typing. Simply don’t release it!
#5 – Set up a novel writing space
Before you begin to write, consider whether your surroundings are ideal for writing.
Is it orderly or disorganized? Are there many distractions in your room, or can you concentrate? Do you have friends, roommates, or family members around you or are you on your own? Is your environment creative or cluttered?
In my opinion, living in disorder (such as noise, distractions, beeps, or a loud TV) will only lead to failure. Before you start doing something else, you won’t get very far with your writing.
I’ve gotten better at knowing what works and what doesn’t when it comes to getting myself ready to pound out words over the years.
Here are some tips to increase author productivity and turn your writing location into a place where you can actually write.
Here are some ideas to set up a novel writing space:
- Showcase images of your favorite authors. Look for at least twenty images of authors you admire. If you can, print these out and stick them all over your room. Use the images as desktop screens or screensavers as a substitute. If you’d like, you can switch out the photo every day. Nothing compares to writing while your favorite author is staring back at you and encouraging you, “Come on, you can do this!”
- Glue a calendar on the wall. If you set goals for each day and week, your book will be written more quickly. Setting your time apart on a calendar is the most effective method to handle this. Every hour you devote to your author’s business should be planned. What is planned becomes done.
- both a chair and a desk. You should think about setting up your writing area so that you have access to both sorts of desks. The standing desk is the first option, as it allows you to escape the unhealthful habit of protracted sitting. You want a chair that is cozy but not overly cozy for sitting. You can alternate between sitting and standing while using the internet. For instance, I split the work 50/50 when I have a three-hour writing session.
- Make your space clutter-free. A cluttered room will kill your motivation and slow you down more than anything else. Your emotional condition may be seriously impacted if your bedroom looks like this. I think that what you see around you takes up mental space. Your subconscious mind keeps track of unfinished business, which results in both physical and mental clutter. Choose a straightforward workplace that helps you feel at ease. The 10-Minute Declutter: The Stress-Free Habit for Simplifying Your Home by S.J. Scott and Barrie Davenport is an excellent resource for this.
It is preferable to find mistakes or inconsistencies now rather than have readers discover them after purchasing your book. It’s better to make it great now rather than later, I promise you that because I’ve been there and experienced it firsthand.
So, when it’s time to finish editing, follow the advice from your editor. Page by page, paragraph by paragraph, and line by line, read the book. As if you were reading it for the first time, read it.
Make the necessary changes, and rewrite any sections that need it based on their suggestions.
When you’re finished, you’ll have a polished novel with a compelling plot for your readers. for further details visit our website “Book Writing Services“.