How To Write A Novel The Easy Way? Can It Be Done? Absolutely. Learning How To Write A Novel Doesnt Have To Be Complicated. When You Follow A Step By Step Process, You Can Take The Complexity Of How To Write A Novel And Dumb It Down To Such A Simple System That It Becomes Almost Like Paint By Numbers.Easy Novel Writing Is A Series Of Connections. You Know, Like The Foot Bones Connected To The Ankle Bone.In The Case Of Novel Writing, Your Connections Look Like This (feel Free To Add The Dry Bones Tune To This List As You Read It If You Know It):IDEA Is Connected ToQUESTIONS, Which Are Connected ToCONFLICT, Which Is Connected To STORY QUESTION, Which Is Connected To THEME, Which Is Connected To PLOT, Which Is Connected To CHARACTERS, Which Are Connected To MOTIVATION, Which Is Connected ToCHARACTER SKETCHES, Which Are Connected ToSETTINGS, Which Are Connected ToSETTING SKETCHES, Which Are Connected ToRESEARCH LISTS, Which Are Connected ToRESEARCH, Which Are Connected To SCENE CARDS, Which Are Connected ToSCENE CARD FILE, Which Is Connected ToPACING, Which Is Connected To QUERY, Which Is Connected ToSYNOPSIS, Which Is Connected ToFIRST PAGES, Which Are Connected ToDRAFT, Which Is Connected ToREWRITE, Which Is Connected ToSUBMISSION, Which Is Connected To SALE!Whew! Seem Like A Lot. Well, It Is A Lot. But That Doesnt Mean Its Complicated.Lets Break It Down:1. IDEA. Your Novel Idea Is The Basic Concept. For Example, The Idea For My Novel, Alternate Beauty, Was That An Obese Woman Finds Herself In An Alternate Universe Where Fat Is Beautiful. This Is Kind Of Intriguing, But Its Certainly Not Enough For A Novel. So You Have To Start Asking2. QUESTIONS. To Flesh Out An Idea, You Need To Start Asking Questions. Your Seed Question Needs To Be What If. For Instance, What If The Woman Who Was In The Alternate Universe Began Losing Weight. You Throw Out A Bunch Of Answers To The What If Question, And Then You Pick One That Tickles Your Fancy And Ask Another What If Question. It Goes Like This: Once The Woman Begins Losing Weight, She Ends Up As Unhappy In The New Universe As She Was In The Old. So What If She Got Fed Up With Being Unhappy. Etc. Etc. As You Work Through What If Questions, You Throw In Why Questions. Why Does The Woman Lose Weight? Why Is She Unhappy? Keep Stringing These Questions Together And Youll Begin To Find Your3. CONFLICT. Conflict Comes From A Character Wanting To Get Something And Being Blocked In Some Way From Getting What He Or She Wants. A Good Novel Makes Characters Lives Miserable Before Everything Turns Out In The End (either Good Or Bad). You Weave Your Questions Together In A Way That Reveals Your Characters Desires And What Obstacles Preventing Him Or Her From Achieving Those Desires. Its The Conflict That Keeps Your Reader Guessing When You Keep Creating4. STORY QUESTIONS. Story Questions Are The Secrets You Keep From The Reader So The Reader Has Questions In His Or Her Mind. You Layer The Conflict, One Upon The Other, So The Reader Has To Keep Reading To Satisfy His Or Her Curiosity. All The Story Questions, When Answered At The End Of The Novel Reflect The 5. THEME. The Theme Is The Central Message Of The Novelthe Statement You Want To Make About The Human Condition. The Theme Is The Unifying Element Of Everything You Put In Your 6. PLOT. Plot Is The Storythe Culmination Of Conflict And Story Question. Its Not Just What Happens In The Novel But Why What Happens Is Compelling. Plot Is Compelling When Its Driven By Life-like7. CHARACTERS. Characters Are The People In Your Story. Think Of Them As The Train That Carries Your Plot Along. Characters Only Carry Along A Plot In A Compelling Way When They Have Clear 8. MOTIVATION. Motivation Is The Psychological And Experiential Explanation For Why Your Characters Do What They Do. Once You Have A Central Motivation For Each Main Character, You Can Easily Create9. CHARACTER SKETCHES. Character Sketches Are Your Characters Bios. These Include Everything From Physical Characteristics To History To Personality To Favorite Color. Great Characters Are Rich With Detail And They Live In Equally Rich 10. SETTINGS. Settings Are The Place Of Your Novel. You Can Create Settings That Your Reader Can Easily Visualize When You Create 11. SETTING SKETCHES. Setting Sketches Are The Who, What, Where, Why, And How Of Your Settings. They Consist Of Diagrams, Pictures, And Other Specific Information To Make Settings Unique And Interesting. You Get This Information And Every Other Fact You Need To Support The Story Of Your Novel From Your12. RESEARCH. Research Will Answer All The Detail Questions, And If You Do It Right Youll Have A Good Balance Of Enough Information And Not Too Much To Bog Down The Story. Once Youve Done Your Research You Can Create13. SCENE CARDS. Scene Cards Are Index Cards That Contain Outlines Of Every Scene In Your Novel. Scene Is A Specific Chunk Of The Story, One That Is Its Own Closed Loop. Every Good Scene Has A Purpose And It Leads To The Next Good Scene. This Is How You Create A14. SCENE CARD FILE. The Scene Card File Is Where You Put All Your Scene Cards. Since Each Scene Has Its Own Card, You Can Easily Rearrange Scenes As Needed To Create Perfect15. PACING. Pacing Is The Rhythm Of The Novel. You Take The Reader For A Thrill-ride, And Then You Slow Things Down. Speed Up, Slow Down. The Story Questions You Created When You Plotted Is What Helps Create The Speed Flow. When You Have Your Novel Paced Well In The Scene Cards Youre Ready To Write A16. QUERY. The Query Is The One To Two Page Letter Needed To Submit To An Agent Or Editor. When You Write It Before You Draft Your Book, It Embeds Your Theme And Central Plot In Your Mind. It Also Helps You Write The17. SYNOPSIS. A Synopsis Is A Narrative Outline Of The Novel, Told In A Compelling Way But Placing All Essential Information In A Concise Package Of Only 10 To 30 Pages Or So. If You Can Put Your Story In This Space, Youll Find It Incredibly Easy To Then Take The Skeleton Of The Story, Fill It In With The Meat Of Your Scene Cards And Write A Magnificent First18. DRAFT. The Draft Of Your Story Is The Natural Result Of All The Connections That Have Come Before. Its Simply Sitting At The Computer And Using All The Elements Youve Created To Spill The Story Onto The Page. Once Its There, You Can19. REWRITE To Polish The Words To Pristine Perfection. Then Youre Ready For20. SUBMISSION. Submission Is Easy When Youve Done All The Other Work. You Already Have A Query, Synopsis, And Polished Manuscript. So You Just Need To Hit Writers Market And Find A List Of Agents Or Editors To Whom To Send Your Query. When The Agent Or Editor Asks For More, Youll Send The Synopsis And Eventually The Draft, And One Day Youll Get The Call Telling You That Youve Made A 21. SALE. This Is When You Scream And Jump Around And Go Out And Buy Your Favorite Meal And Then Be Annoyingly Perky For Weeks On End.And Just Like That, Youve Created A Novel Readers Will Love. All Because You Followed A Paint-by-numbers System For How To Write A Novel.
