[Sticky] Novel writing

Imagine holding your newly published book in your hands. Does that excite you? You can give wings to your imagination and power to your words by following the 11 elements.

Writing a novel is to dive into your head and go on an adventure journey. You need to make, cultivate and join the pieces to create your world. Every novel has its structure, pace.

Writing a novel becomes difficult sometimes.  Just after you start and finished writing few pages, you lose interest or get tired.

To overcome such problems and succeed, you need to ask yourself –What makes your novel special?

The following 11 elements will act as an Author’s armour and help you write and publish your Novel :

1.Frame a winning story idea.
Come up with an idea which you want to read. Invest in identifying what is that you are most passionate about and live with that story idea. It should captivate your mind and blow up your imagination. It should be deep enough for the readers to shape up and drive the world with its journey full of flows, swings and conflicts. Excitement arouses deep craving in readers. This type of idea can inspire you to write your dream novel.

2.Identify the soul in the novel
Every story has its soul to make it alive and has its message to convey and its purpose for existence. Try to find out the rhythm. How it breathes, behave and impact the reader? and energizes its characters and hold them throughout its journey. Imagine your story as a whole living being.

3.Identify yourself as a pantser or an outliner
If you are an outliner you will plan each character before you start writing. It gives you the way ahead and motivates you for the journey. Pantser is good at creating characters from scratch and can organise them according to the flow of the story. It will give you the flexibility to shape the novel the way you want. Understand yourself whether you are a pantser or an outliner. Identify your signature style of writing. There are no rules for character ideation so be spontaneous and do what matters to you the most.

4.Nail down your story plot
The story plot is the foundation base on which the whole structure of your story is going to stand. It needs to be strong enough to hold all characters in a manner that can be as convincing as possible. Here you expand your ideas to create situations for your characters. For example, the uncertainties, the conflicts faced by the characters and how the characters get out of those conflicts.

Each novel has a similar sequence with some different variations.
• An exciting opener
• Marathon of the story, which includes crisis, resolution and climax
• A satisfying conclusion

Regardless of how you plot your story, your goal is to grab the readers by bottleneck till the end.

5.Create the unforgettable protagonist
Even before you start, you need to know all the characters that are involved. The protagonist will be holding the arc and centre of your novel. There will also be an antagonist create several challenges for the main lead. The challenges need to look more realistic and make him a memorable and worthy foe. The protagonist must have unique characteristics which will help him overcome the obstacles during the climax. This will make him an unforgettable character.

Create sub-characters through which the plot of the story will orbit around. Give them names for identification.

Understand each character’s natural strength, weakness, and insecurities, making them different, humanly and realistic.

6.Do your research and homework
The most important part is the research on your story. The fact should co-relate with the time, geographical presence and traditions. If your plot dates back to the medieval period, the characters should look like living person from that era. If you are writing about any disease, you need to know the symptoms, remedies and behaviour during the stages. Read more books of the same genre to get clarity and navigate your ideas.

7.Find the opener of the story and choose a point of view
The opening of the story should be exciting and without thinking about any rules. Your goal should be to excite the reader so they can turn to the next page of the novel. You need to choose the camera for your reader as the point of view. You can write it in any form as the first person (I, me), second person (you, your ) or third person (he, she or it).

8.Turn on the reader’s theatre
The story should directly relate the readers with the characters. It should feed their mind with emotions to engage in their mental projectors with the flow of the story.

9.Intensify the tension.
Soon your readers being grabbed by the hypnotic opener, the protagonist tumble into troubles. Now, whatever he does to get rid of the problems makes it worse. Conflicts are the fuel of the story. Every possible way you can make the protagonist’s life difficult till it breaks yourself. The more helpless the main lead and more pathetic the situations, it will lead to a powerful climax and satisfying ending.

10.Write a mind-blowing Climax.
The ultimate peak of the emotions in the story comes when the lead character faces his real test with the unrivalled tension. It will spike up the temperature in the readers’ mind.

11.Give the readers a satisfying ending.
A satisfying ending should release the tension of the reader’s mind and respect their engagement with the Novel. Take your time to write the switch to make the curtains fall.

The magnitude of the novel-writing process is overwhelming. Don’t let your fear stops you follow the elements and you will see it will turn out like magic. Stay disciplined in writing and hold your breath till you make the best of it.

Follow the above elements while you are writing. Maybe by this time next year, You are holding your first copy and can able to see your Novel in corner of every bookseller.

Written by: Divya Sagarika Majhi, Digital Writopreneur and Novel Writer
Digital Writopreneur, Novel writer, Artist and Banker

Edited by: Rajinder Soni, Writopreneur’s Coach and CEO