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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Info Post
By Rebecca Bennett


The thought of writing a novel resides in the minds of thousands of people. Many more have excellent ideas that would make best sellers and classical novels. However, many people do not have an idea of how to write a novel. For those who have succeeded, this is one of the most rewarding experience. By following simple steps, you will realize your dream in months without struggle.

Begin by writing a summary of your story. This summary should be a single sentence that is less than fifteen words. This sentence will be used to sell your book once it is completed. It will be valuable as you seek to convince editors, committees and book stores to stock your title. It must not contain the names of characters. An example is what would be found on reviews by major news outlets.

Grow your summary sentence to a five sentence paragraph that tells of the main occurrences in your story. The paragraph should give a hint of the plot, the disasters and triumphs and the ending. Adapt a Three-Acts structure where the main disaster is introduced in Act One, two secondary disasters in Act Two and an ending in Act Three. This paragraph should be precise.

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 clear details of scenes and characters, time has come for you to bind them into a single story. You will realize that you are engaging in a lot of filling. Characters and scenes that did not exist will have to be created. Avoid diluting or substantially changing your story line based on discoveries made when developing secondary characters. This stage is demanding and requires total concentration and a substantial amount of time.

Writing a novel requires dedication and focus. You must be committed to work on your goals till the end. Split the goals into fragments that make them manageable. Pick an end date which could be six months to one year depending on the time available. You will need to research on some facts even in situations where you are writing fiction.




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