Getting Started With Novel Writing

More than half of the novels get discarded halfway through. There is a reason for this. Actually, there are a plethora of reasons why novels get discarded midway. But the key one is – waning motivation. The zeal, with which writers begin to write a novel, spirals down as the story continues. Slowly, the fire dies down and the song fades into oblivion. Finally, the writers don’t feel their initial excitement about the story or the characters they have created. As a result, they get blocked and the poor story remains half-told, waiting for its initiator to take notice of it.

Therefore, if anyone of you is considering writing a novel for the first time, be sure that the above paragraph does not manifest in your life. So, how could you avoid the death of a novel? What could you do to push till the end? In this how to write a novel series, I am going to help you work your way through the obstacles.

Write What You Love

Writers, especially the first-timers, make the mistake of following the market trend. While writing a popular genre can be an easy way to find a publisher, you need to ask yourself a few questions. Is it your genre? Does it excite you? If as a writer, you don’t get excited about your story, no one else will find it worth reading. I apologize for the harshness. But this is the truth. If you are a literary fiction writer and high fantasy is selling currently, don’t follow the trend blindly. You will end up with a half-written story at the worst or a finished unreadable manuscript at the best. Therefore, write what you love.

When I started writing Kingdom Of Clay Book 1, I had no idea that I would be able to push through a 90k words long novel, that I had the stamina to do it. But I have not only finished writing the novel, but I have also done the first round of editing. I absolutely love high fantasy with a touch of epic. Thus, I defied the novel-writing challenges (trust me there were too many of them) and finished the first installment of my high fantasy trilogy.

Know Your Characters

Your characters are your story. They pull the plot ahead. If you don’t know them, you will not be able to add content to your novel. Even if you finish your novel, it will not be a compelling read. Thus, focus on your characters even before you put the first word down on the paper. Find out their likes and dislikes. Find out their fears and joys - fears especially. Find out their weaknesses and strengths - weaknesses especially. Spend time with them. This is because there will come a time when they will take over the novel and tell their stories. Weakly built characters don’t assist the creators in creating a strong story. It is one of the best novel writing tips I have accumulated so far.

Know Your World

Because Kingdom Of Clay is a high fantasy novel, I had to spend a lot of time on worldbuilding. I had to create a map of the kingdom where the story took place. I had to create another map of the world of the kingdom. There was a lot of work to do. There is still a lot of work to do. But I at least partly know the world of my story. You need to do this too. Even if yours is a contemporary novel, you need to know the world of the story.

I will write a separate post on worldbuilding later on. But the bottom line is – you need to spend time in the world of your story. If you are writing a series, you will be spending years in this world. Therefore, invest time in creating a captivating fictional world.

I am going to wrap this up here. I will be back soon with more on creative writing.