How to Write a Novel

by Stephanie Morrill

Okay. I'm leaving on vacation today and therefore decided you all needed a 2,000 word blog post from me to tide you over.

Kidding. What really happened is that I became frustrated with the "Steps to Writing a Novel" page that I had posted from when we started our Write Now program in 2011. It began to feel very inadequate to me, though I was regularly receiving emails from writers who said they were using it.

So I decided to improve upon it. Below is the result. You can easily find it up top there by clicking that handy "How to Write a Novel" tab:

The good news is that every writer is different. I began my writing journey as a "pantser." A writer who writes by the seat of her pants without an outline. I wanted to be an outline type girl (After all, I love everything to be neat and orderly) but it just didn't work for me.

The pluses of writing as a pantser, I've found, is the creativity. The story can wander as you see fit that day.

The bad thing is ... the story can wander. Which means a lot of tightening up, trashing, and rewriting during the revision process.

After 11 years of pursuing publication, 8 years of doing it full time, and 4 years of being a published author, I've developed into a hybrid of pantser and plotter. I'm a plantser, you could say.

With every book I write, I learn more about the craft and more about what works for me as an author. It's hard to write a solid "Step by Step" guide for writing a novel, but this is my process more or less. Hopefully you find it helpful:

Before I Write Anything

• I have the idea spark, and I start composting. (Here is a link to a printable list of the questions I ask myself when composting.)

Related Posts: Gathering story ideas: How to "get in the way" of great ideas, Making Sure Your Idea is Big Enough

• I might brainstorm with some writing friends and talk the idea over with my agent (who's amazing about dropping what she's doing to help me brainstorm ways to make the idea bigger).

• I write back cover copy, though at this stage I don't worry yet about making it quippy. Really, it's more of a "blurby thing" than it is back cover copy.

• I begin work on a one liner, which is my story boiled down to a sentence or two. They always take me forever, and I can never figure out the right balance.

Getting Started

• When I know my opening line and opening scene, I begin writing.

Related Posts: Writing a good first paragraph, Writing a good first chapter, How to end a chapter, Writing Chapter Two

• I write the first couple chapters. Typically three. Because I'm published, I can sell a manuscript before I've written the entire thing.

• After I've written my three chapters, I have a decent idea of who my characters are, what they want, and how they interact with each other. So I pause my first draft to make a book proposal. That way my agent can be shopping the idea while I keep writing. A book proposal involves:

• A title. For a series this also means a title for the series and the other books.
• My estimated word count
• My target audience
• My one-line, or "The hook" as we list it in the proposal.
• Comparitive titles, which I possibly hate even more than the one-liner. This is a handful of titles that's similar to your book. The point is for the publishing house to get an idea of similar titles that are already on the market and how they're selling. It's tricky stuff because you want to show that your book will be successful, but I've also heard agents say to not put down books that are phenomenal best sellers. Like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Amazon.com is a good resource for these, but I've actually found that my library's website is even better.
• My author bio and a picture of me looking cute and likable and, "Don't I look like a professional, fun person to work with?"
• Sales Hooks/Author Promotion, which is anything that will say to publishers, "I can sell some books for you!" I put endorsements here, awards my books have won, and stuff like being featured on the cover of The Kansas City Star. 
• Marketing Strategies, which is what it sounds like. It's all the fun marketing stuff I've come up with for this particular book or series. 
• Book summaries for all books being pitched.
• Sample chapters
• Synopsis, typically 2 to 3 pages.

Writing the first draft

• Once I've gotten the book proposal turned into my agent, I get back to writing my first draft. For me it works best to write without editing. It means my first drafts are lousy, but they're for my eyes only, so it's okay. I've learned to turn off my internal editor, and it's transformed the way I write. (And while many other writers are supporters of writing bad first drafts, many others like to edit as they go. Roseanna M. White wrote a guest post about that on here.)

Because of all the work I put into the book proposal, particularly with writing the synopsis, I now have a decent idea of what will be going on in my story. I've found this provides just enough structure for me that I know where the book is headed,  but I still have the "pantser" freedom to figure out how to get there.

The combination of composting and writing my synopsis has helped me determine all these things before I get into the meat of my story:

• Who my main character is and how they will change over the course of the story
• Where the story takes place
• Who the secondary characters are
• Who opposes my main character and why

The first draft process will deepen all these things, of course. Some things that get deepened during the first draft are:

• What's special about my character
• Personality Facets - contradictions within my character
• Worldbuilding, which isn't just for sci fi/fantasy writers, my friends

Even though I allow myself to write "bad first drafts" it's important that the structure of the story is solid. This means it's important for me to have:

• A disturbance in the main character's normal world (use link below for the "doorway" for a fuller description.)
• A "doorway" or invitation for them to begin on their journey
• Obstacles and twists in their journey, for which I like to balance with the pendulum method, where events swing from being good for the main character, to bad for the main character, and back again. It's also good to have a ticking clock nudging them along.
• A black moment or the "whiff of death" as it's referred to by Blake Snyder
• A doorway that leads into the final battle
• Sending in "the calvary" (with these last three, there's no order they HAVE to go in. Usually they happen around each other, though.)
• The climax
• Satisfying wrap up

If this is early in your writing journey, you might have some unique questions and struggles with the first draft. Such as:

• Is the first novel the hardest to write?
• Should I research as I go? (Related posts: Researching Setting, Researching Characters, and Researching for Historicals)
• Concerns about time transitions and how to skip around in time
• How often should I write? What kind of place is best?
• When should I show my story to others?
• How long should my book be?
• How long should chapters be?
• How do I stay organized and keep track of all these details floating around in my head?
• I'm so overwhelmed! This story is out of control!

• Because I'm more of a bare bones writer, I aim for about 10k less then I want the book to wind up being. That gives me plenty of room for all the adding I'll need.

• When I finish a first draft, I take a 6 week break before editing.

During my time off

After I've caught up on laundry and email, all of which were likely ignored as I finished my first draft, I often have a couple story-related things I want to do.

• Sometimes I'll do some general research. Like if my character is really into, say, trees, then I'll spend some time perusing books about trees just to build up my knowledge base.

• I often use this time to make a marketing calendar, listing all the things I plan to do to promote my book and when I intend to do them. If I don't have a release date yet, then I make the dates generic.

Editing the first draft

• The first thing I do is read through my manuscript in as few sitting as possible. I keep a notebook next to me so I can keep a list of things I notice that need to be changed.

I focus on editing the big things first:

• Characters (Things to check for in your characters, Developing Characters at the Right Pace, Examining their Internal and External Motivations
• Plot
• Pacing
• Themes/Symbolism - I might notice themes or symbols that have happened organically through the writing process. If I do, I look for ways to highlight them better in later drafts.

Editing the second draft

Now that the big stuff has been taken care of, I zoom in and start working on my scenes. The first thing I examine is if the scene even matters. Then I can move onto:

• Am I starting the scene in the right place?
• Am I ending the scene in the right place?

Within each scene, I'll examine the following:

• Can I switch out dialogue tags (he said, she said) for action beats?
• Is my dialogue natural?
• Where can my POV be tightened? Am I head-hopping anywhere?
• How's my balance of description?
• Am I using good sentences?
• Are my sentences active rather than passive?
• Can I do a better job of incorporating the 5 senses?
• Am I using "it" too often?

Editing the third draft

Now is when I make it sparkle. The big story stuff - predictable plot twists or flat characters - have all been fixed, so now I get super picky about word choices and grammar.

Related Posts: Some lessons on commas, CAPS, "Quotes" (and parentheses too)

Finishing up

• After I've done my best with it, I send it to my writing partner to get her input. She points out all my comma mistakes and also draws attention to anything that doesn't feel quite right to her. ("Why does your main character say this?")

• When I've input her edits and suggestions, I often read over the manuscript one more time before declaring it done and ready for an editor's desk.

• There are a couple spreadsheets that are helpful for editors. (Or so mine have told me.) If you're more of a plotter, it might benefit you to make these before you start. Sometimes I make mine while writing the first draft, but more often than not they happen after I'm done editing:

• Scene Breakdown Spreadsheet (I made some additions to mine, which I noted here.)
• Character Chart  (And again, I made some additions to mine, which I noted here.)
• Calendar of Events (This I sometimes track during my first draft. Just depends on the story.)

• And then the process begins all over again with another spark...