Keyword: Novel writing tips

Secondary keywords: How do you write a novel effectively, is there a novel-writing formula, writing a novel outline

Word Count: 1812 including title

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Novel Writing Tips

by Jan Tucker

Writing a novel is a rewarding experience and a Herculean task.

One huge reward? Once you finish and actually publish your novel, you’ll feel a burst of satisfaction and pride that stays with you.

Now Novel reveals many advantages to writing a novel. Among them: creativity and achieving goals make us happy, writing is healing, and mastering writing increases confidence.

Even so, it can feel scary to embark on your first novel writing project.

The antidote? As an aspiring author, you can achieve success by seeking actionable advice and learning the novel writing tips and techniques you’ll find in this post.

Here, you’ll learn five helpful novel writing tips that will carry you through any rough spots you encounter. Just make sure to apply what you learn to your novel.

Let’s get started. How can you hit a home run with your first novel? 

1. Establish effective writing habits & routines for success

There’s nothing like achieving success with your novel the first time out of the gate.

The secret every successful author swears by? Establishing great habits upfront will get you there.

Schedule a time and place for writing

Being in a comfortable, familiar setting designated strictly as your writing space helps you get in the mood to write the moment you sit down.

To regulate your sleep, keep your bedroom strictly for sleeping.

To regulate your writing, keep your writing space strictly for writing. This keeps you organized and creates an energy that identifies this spot as your place to write.

Having a consistent time to write is important—when are your biorhythms best for creativity and flow?

Do you write better in the morning? After dinner?  

Try writing at different times. When you pinpoint the time that’s best for you, develop a habit—stay with that time. You’ll avoid procrastination by committing and you’ll get into a rhythm that gives energy to your writing.

Embrace two secret weapons

These weapons may sound unpleasant at first, but when you commit to them, you’ll experience their value.

• Consistency: Every successful author emphasizes the importance of writing every day.

Craft your content explains that it’s deeper than how many words a day you write. 

It’s about what you’re doing to keep the reader engaged and about improving your skills as a writer.

Laura Norris explains that running a marathon requires nutrition, cross-training, and recovery. But running is what prepares you best for the race.

It’s no different with writing. Writing, writing, writing, is what makes a great writer.

• Discipline: Discipline yourself to sit in your seat and write.

It’s simple. Norris explains that discipline leads to consistency. It’s required. 

Commit to yourself to do what it takes and don’t turn back.

Set goals, milestones, and daily targets to propel your progress

Books can take years to write. Using the following techniques, you’ll make the swiftest progress and complete your novel.

• Set a goal—a realistic deadline to finish or publish your book.
• Work backward to determine how much time to allocate to writing.
• Plan a writing schedule to stay on track and meet your goals.
• Identify milestones—significant achievements needed to reach your goal.
• Assign targets—specific tasks, complete with the dates needed to reach your milestones.

Now you feel committed, and you have the first tools, but what about that blank piece of paper you’re staring at? How do you know where to start?

2. Absorb wisdom from other writers

Almost every successful author is a voracious reader.

Why? If you want to climb mountains, you don’t just climb. You read and watch and learn everything you can about climbing mountains to add to and improve your own skills.

If you want to write a novel, you don’t just write. You:

• Read other successful novels to analyze writing secrets and techniques. 
• Identify how successful novels implement the tips, techniques, and elements you’ll learn in this article.
• Absorb how successful stories are written.

Reading books is essential. Watching movies, TV shows and series, and even news stories is invaluable for the same reasons. 

You’ll learn how stories are expertly developed and see how substories are layered in. You’ll witness how authors and writers incorporate more tips you’re about to gather in this post.

Explore different fiction writing styles 

The four types of fiction writing styles are persuasive writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, and expository writing.

As a novelist, you will learn to use all of these for specific purposes.

Study these styles through others’ writing. Practice all of them to become skilled.

Experiment with different genres

There is a wide variety of novel genres. Some examples are science fiction, fantasy, mystery/thriller, historical fiction, romance, horror, and realism.

To greatly enhance your writing, choose several that are of interest to you and create some projects for each to develop your craft. 

Be sure to read successful novels in your selected genres to learn how it’s done expertly.

Now it’s your turn. How will you decide what to write about?

3. Tell the story that’s in your heart

A portrait painter paints masterpieces when they feel a special connection with their subject. To be successful, an author must be similarly inspired by their story.

It’s about the creative spark.

When you think of your characters, their exploits, trials, tribulations, how they will interact with others in the story, and, of course, the story itself, you should feel excited. You’ll feel like the story wants to write itself. 

After all, you are holding the strings that will decide what to do for each step.

Draw inspiration from real-life characters

If you feel your characters are alive and their stories are real, you will be able to create a realism that keeps your audience reading until the end and wanting more.

The best way to make your characters feel real to you and your readers is to pattern them after real people.

You can assign qualities to them, determine how they will look and act, and paint their emotions with confidence when they emulate real people. 

Many prominent authors say their characters take on lives of their own and build their own stories. This is the true mark of stories that come from the heart.

4. Create compelling characters

Characters are one of the most important aspects of any story. How can you help your reader make that essential connection with them?

Become a dialog expert

Dialog is crucial to creating realistic characters.

To enhance your storytelling, successful dialog must pass 3 criteria. It must:

• Move the story forward.
• Reveal relevant information about the character.
• Help the reader understand relationships between the characters.

To create dialog like a pro in no time, study New York Book Editors’ eleven top tips for the most effective dialog. Although the tips are easy to understand and implement, never underestimate their power.

It’s well known in the industry that dialog is the perfect tool to use to “show, don’t tell.” Use dialog to show different sides of a character’s personality, give each character a unique identity, explain twists in the plot, and throw the reader off to enable later plot surprises.

For a Rich Story, transform one or more characters

Dialog is key, and transformation, especially of the primary character, is a must in every novel. 

In life, we all meet challenges and we are molded by them. 

Readers identify and solidly connect with characters who are transformed by their experiences. 

Whether they identify with the changes completely or totally disagree with them, these transformations will arouse strong emotions in your readers. 

Readers want to experience strong emotions when they read. They want to be moved. Transformation is a sure way to achieve this.

Now let’s determine how to structure the novel. Where do you start? How do you keep the story moving forward? How do you write a novel effectively?

5. Explore the recipe for a winning novel

Is there a novel-writing formula? Not a formal one, but numerous successful frameworks ensure success.

Reedsy provides a thorough description of the seven most common novel structures to help your plot unfold.

Study these intently. Familiarize yourself with all of them and map out the possibilities for your novel to see what works best.

As you read and watch others’ stories, practice identifying which structures their works follow.

Engage readers like a pro

Make sure your writing addresses all five senses to draw readers in. Paint visual pictures that engage sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

At the end of every chapter, create curiosity—a reason for them to turn the page to the next chapter. Think of an enticing series you’ve watched on TV. Writers have ways of making you binge watch, unable to resist the next episode. Emulate these with your chapters.

Two resources provide a well-rounded list of 17 ways to engage your audience. Study these and incorporate them:

• Now Novel: What Makes a Good Story?
• Nicole Bianchi: 7 Editing Tips That Will Make Your Writing More Engaging

Consider your choice—to outline or not

Writing a novel outline is a choice. How to decide?

Outlining can be a very helpful tool for a variety of reasons. Outlines:

• Ensure you capture every aspect of your story.
• Help you organize the story so you can make it flow.
• Identify gaps, missing pieces, and opportunities.

Unique outline aspects to consider:

• Use outlines at any point in your project—before, during, or even after.
• Some writers don’t outline—they “discovery write” instead.
• The story unravels while you write this way.
• Your first draft will be stronger and further along with an outline.

How to outline your novel

Outlining doesn’t always come naturally, but these compelling templates and tips might convince you to give it go: How to outline a novel, 8 novel outline templates, 7 steps to creating your book outline.

If learning more about the novel writing craft feels exciting to you—if you feel your heart beat a little faster at the thought of how you can apply these tips to your novel—it’s a great sign that you’re ready to go.

So corral these novel writing tips and get ready to write

Establish and commit to your own effective habits and routines to make your first novel a hit. 

Continue to absorb wisdom from other successful writers.

Tell a story that’s in your heart.

Create compelling characters to make the story real.

Decide which winning novel recipe will make your story shine.

Pour over all the resources in this post for detailed help.

Very soon you will be the one with a published novel experiencing that burst of satisfaction and pride that stays with you.

You’re feeling the pull—no more excuses—don’t waste any time to get started. Change your life from aspiring author to published author as soon as it’s all down on paper.