You’re reading a novel and not soon enough, you find yourself criticizing the hero or heroine. You don’t like them. You stop reading because the story is awful and you’ve thought how you prefer the novel to be written. Your ability to identify what made you stop reading is a sign that you’re a writer at heart. Even more so, if you decide to write a novel.
If writing a novel is that easy, everyone can produce 100,000 words every week–all you have to do is to sit in front of your computer and start writing. You could write up to 50 pages, but then you start to run out of ideas. Just like any other project, writing a novel requires planning and certain skills to master.
Although writing a novel or other type of fiction requires the writer to have an excellent storyteller talent, you can still develop the storyteller in you by mastering its important elements. The novel is constructed with many elements, but other than mastering the mechanic, transition, description and narrative, you need to learn these major essentials in a novel. They are:
1. Plot – Plot is not a story. A story can be something happening—a murder–in a town where the hero or heroine lives, but there is no impact on these characters. But, when someone is murdered in a town where the main characters live, and the victim is closely related to the hero or heroine, that’s a plot. The main character will react to what happened by getting angry and want to find who did it—or pretend to not care but, the main character is actually deeply impacted and she or he begins a journey to solve it. A good plot is a well thought cause and effect scenes without too many coincidences.
2. Characters – You will need the main players for your novel—the hero/heroine and the villain. Any others are just secondary and peripheral characters. Just like in real life, your main characters face conflict, problems or other issues to drive the plot to climax and finally reach the ending in satisfaction or despair.
3. Point of view – There are three types: first person, second, and third person point of view. You can choose one or two to deliver your best composition of the novel. First person feels intimate while third person will put a slight distance between the readers. A second person point of view is rarely used, but if that’s the way you want to write the novel, do it. Don’t let anyone discourage you.
4. Dialogue – dialogue should fit the characters’ attitude or behavior to make sense of his or her voice. Also, dialogue in fiction is different from real life conversation. Dialogue in fiction has slant and intrigues to spark readers’ curiosity and make them continue reading. Avoid turning dialogue between two characters into a chat.
The challenge of writing a novel is you have to put all these major elements in one big bowl of your mind at the same time. You can’t think of plot without thinking about the main characters because they are the one who drive the plot forward. While describing your characters, you will think about the point of view and their dialogue as well.
If you can master the important ingredient as listed above, you are ready to start your first novel. With detail plotting, knowing your characters in and out, you will be off to a great start. Now start writing, and don’t stop until you reach the ending.
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