novel writing help

novel writing help

Techniques for Writing a Compelling Novel

1. Creating Engaging Characters

Create the character of your novel in a detailed manner. If you do so, it provides continuity to the plot and they will be more realistic. The character should have a backstory, so that the writer has a clear idea of how their past will affect their actions in the present time of the novel. What are their general motivations and beliefs in life? The writer must always know what the character wants and make it hard for them to achieve it, because that is what life is all about and it makes interesting reading. Always make the character’s actions affect the plot of the novel. An event in the story should force the character to act in a certain way. You should have a general character idea in mind, but it is often useful to fill in a character questionnaire for each person in the story. This can prevent contradictions in the character’s behavior. Always consider the time in which the character lives. You must show consistency in the character’s behavior. Usually, good characters have both good and bad traits and there should always be conflict between what the character wants to do and what they feel they should do. Make the character larger than life. Usually, the most memorable characters are the most exaggerated. This could relate to physical appearance, their problem, or by them taking a certain viewpoint on life. It is often useful to base a character on someone you know, perhaps taking their key traits and amalgamating them with other people. Always bring the character to life. This may sound strange, but some writers talk of their characters as if they have a life of their own! Ultimately, if the writer can predict how the character would act in a given situation, then the character has become real. One good idea is to write a short story about the character, it will probably help you to shape the character’s behavior and you could always include it in the novel!

2. Crafting an Intriguing Plot

An easy way to script a plot is to use a cause and effect chart. This is a series of simple statements “x happened because…” in the leftmost column of a piece of paper. Then draw a series of boxes branching from each statement and write the result of the statement in the box and a statement of why it happened underneath. This visual representation of the plot will quickly reveal any logical flaws or breaks in the cause and effect chain of events and will make sure that the characters are sufficiently starved and then stuffed. This is a technique used by Bret Easton Ellis, in his plotting of American Psycho and once you have finished it will look a little like there was some sort of war on the page.

One interesting way to ensure that your plot is both causal and that it progresses through a series of mounting conflicts is by scripting it. This is a technique used by many of the great popular fiction writers and screenwriters, yet it is equally effective for literary fiction.

Great stories—even great literary stories—hinge on interesting characters entangled in a complex, compelling plot. Plots must have movement—“Things must happen,” says John Gardner, in The Art of Fiction, “there must be light and shade.” At the heart of a compelling plot is conflict—“one damn thing after another,” said Jack Woodford. As a writer, you must make sure that the conflicts your characters face are both substantial and sustained, something that propels them from their initial desires through the rising action to a significant and irreversible change in their situation. Finally, the events of the story must be causally related and meaningful.

3. Developing a Captivating Setting

A great setting adds depth and dimension to your story, evokes mood and atmosphere, and creates a powerful sense of place which can transport your readers to a different time or a different world. A captivating setting involves many things: time, place, environment, circumstances, and atmosphere. Time must be defined in terms of historical period, time of day, season, or year. All generalizations are loose, approximate, and vary according to the climate, social conditions, and so forth. An eternally true statement about the environment cannot be made because the same country or the same city changes greatly from one period to another. For example, Paris in 1900 is vastly different from Paris in 1944, as is England at the height of Victorian power different from England during the years of WWII. Once the specific time has been determined, the events and circumstances surrounding the setting at a given time provide history, which is crucial to good setting. Too many writers rely on history learned in school to form a setting, but history, too, must be specific. We should divide the history into four categories: general, which includes the economic, political, and social situation of the time; the history of the common man; the history of the abnormal, the exceptional, the heroic, or the villainous (which is often the story material); and the history of the environment. An event or circumstance is anything that involves change and brings a character to some new situation. With each change of circumstance, the character will require a new setting, so the event in question will usually have its own setting. Often, events take place in one of the other sixteen elements, but sometimes an event can change an element to another one. Coming back to an event or change of circumstance does not always mean the return to the same setting; it will usually require a new setting. In deciding the history of an event or circumstance, one should use the double “why” exercise to determine cause and effects. This will involve a comparison of the pros and cons of the various things involved.

4. Mastering Dialogue and Narrative

Physical detail is a great way to enliven dull or abstract dialogue – getting characters to do something while they talk. What kind of action is right? Experiment with having your characters do the kind of thing they would prefer not to be caught doing. This can create new tensions between characters and between the dialogue and the underlying situation. And remember to keep it small-scale. If a couple is discussing a relationship breakup while rearranging fifty thousand dollars in used notes in a suitcase, it will go to their heads. Keep big events separate from talk. Step-cutting between events can also create tension – readers will know something is waiting to happen.

There are a lot of writers who play safe with dialogue, for fear of making their characters sound ridiculous or just of getting it wrong. But it’s important not to be too refined. Sharp, witty exchanges can show characters at their best. When people are under stress or are confident of their own ground, their dialogue becomes more distinctive, not less.

Try starting a novel with a long stretch of unattributed dialogue – you’d find it really hard to make it clear who is talking and about what. Dialogue, like the rest of your narrative, moves the story along. Every exchange should end in a different place from where it started. A conversation about the weather must be about more than the weather. If characters are simply passing the time, waiting for something to happen, make this clear so readers know it’s OK to skim.

Good dialogue, in the words of Elmore Leonard, is more like music than like written English. It’s rare in real life to hear someone say exactly what they mean and speak as precisely as written dialogue. Yet dialogue must be more than a string of quotations or a series of announcements.

Mastering dialogue

5. Polishing Your Prose

(Note: make sure to read over the essay on “Having A Point” for this pertains greatly to making your prose better overall.)

But this can be a waste of time. Just open your draft and resave it with a new copy number. Now go over the whole piece and start rewording each part into better style. Trust me, tweaking the same sentence for five minutes will get you nowhere. If you’re struggling to find better words or rearrange a sentence, move on to the next part and come back to it later. This can help to get you into a rhythm where revisions come quickly, and it can save you a lot of time overall. Don’t be afraid to make radical changes if you see a better way to structure your piece. You should always be saving old versions of your work; sometimes minute changes can have unforeseen negative effects and ruin a piece. If you really mess things up you always want the option to go back to a previous draft. Remember, good prose is never written; it’s rewritten. And it may take many drafts to get it just right. Be patient!

Revision requires a different mindset from writing. Always try to put some distance between you and your draft; time away from it can help you return to it with a more critical eye. A fresh eye is important. The best way to achieve a good style is by a process of self-conscious, self-directed change in your writing habits—gradual steps, not sudden jumps. This essay is intended to provide you with a great starting point. But writing is full of false starts. You may know that you need a transition or a certain point made more clearly, but you may not know the exact words to express it. So you sit at your computer, look at the notes you’ve made, and then you just start writing – attempting to force out a whole sentence, paragraph or even a page all at once.