The publishing houses worldwide publish millions of novels and books every year. Then, some writers prefer to self-publish their work. If you are an aspiring writer thinking, ‘I want to write a book’, imagine the level of competition you will face! Additionally, you have to mentally prepare yourself that your novel might get a rejection by the publishers. After all, even best-selling novelists like Agatha Christie and Paul Coelho had to go through repeated rejections during the beginning of their careers.
The process of writing a book or novel can be challenging without any help, especially if you are an amateur. So, here are steps to writing a book and publishing it successfully.
Table of Contents
Choose a Genre
The James Bond series novel creator, Ian Fleming, was best known for the intrigue and adventure genre. Nora Roberts preferred writing the steamy romance genre. Jeffrey Archer had thriller and drama genres close to his heart.
You have to find a genre of your own. Write what you love or are good at writing. You can also take help of jasper for writing such interesting articles. You can check out jasper price here.
Note Down Story Ideas
When you decide to write your own book or have a story in mind, ideas can strike anytime and anywhere. It could be challenging to remember every idea. Keep a pocket diary handy so that you can jot down all ideas in one place and refer them later.
You can even use online tools such as Evernote, Trello, and Google Drive to note and organize your ideas.
Develop Plot and Subplots
When plotting a novel, you need to think of both the main story (plot) and supporting or side story (subplot). Ensure that the subplot doesn’t overshadow or deviate from the main plot. Instead, it should add interest to the main story in time, place, or thematic significance.
Develop Characters
Most novelists start developing the characters of their stories in their minds. You start imagining how characters look, what they do, and how they behave. When creating characters, write down their personality, appearance, voice, backstory, motivation, and goals. This would give them a lifelike image from the readers’ perspective. Who doesn’t remember the iconic novel characters like Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Potter?
Create an Outline
When you are outlining a novel or book, you need to consider the following factors:
- Determine the story premise that will drive the plot.
- Create a profile of characters in detail.
- Explore the settings of the scenes.
- Map the events in chronological order.
- Build captivating scenes around the characters.
- Segment the story into chapters.
Use Snowflake Writing Method
Snowflake method writing is a prevalent technique with writers. It requires you to start with an idea and then write one sentence around it. Then, you expand this sentence into one paragraph while adding characters. Next, you expand one paragraph into several sections and write a full-fledged page. You follow a similar style to write more pages and complete a chapter.
Think from a Reader’s Point of View
Naturally, you want to narrate a story from your perspective. However, you need to keep in mind that eventually, readers will have the final say on whether they liked the novel or not. Choose a point of view that triggers their emotions, hooks them till the climax, and leaves them wanting more. It is also important to write in lucid language to reach a wider audience.
Study the Work of Other Authors
Before you start writing novels, you need to earn ‘well-read’ status. The more you read, the more you will get knowledge about writing a titillating and successful novel. Read the works of authors across various genres and take lessons from their strengths.
Experts recommend aspiring writers to read ‘On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft’ which is Stephen King’s book on writing. He shares valuable insights into improving your writing skills for a novel.
Attend MasterClass Online Writing Courses
The writing MasterClass is a popular course that offers ‘how to write’ courses across different subjects from famous fiction authors. Here is a list of a few useful courses:
- Neil Gaiman MasterClass: This is a course on the art of storytelling. Neil Gaiman teaches how he brainstorms ideas, compelling characters, and a vibrant fictional world.
- Margaret Atwood MasterClass: This course on creative writing where Margaret Atwood talks about abstract and practical elements of writing to engage readers.
- Dan Brown MasterClass: This course by Dan Brown is apt for writers who want to write gripping thrillers. He teaches the step-by-step process to transform ideas into a page-turning novel.
- Shonda Rhimes MasterClass: This course is ideal for novelists writing for television series. She guides you on pitching your story idea, writing a pilot, and creating characters.
You can attend these MasterClass courses to hone your skills as a novelist.
Write One Chapter at a Time
It can get overwhelming if you start thinking of all chapters of your novel at a time. Take baby steps and write one chapter at a time. Before you begin, create a chapter outline about the main topic, sub-points, opening paragraph, and concluding paragraph. This process will make it easier to write a chapter easily and quickly.
Manage Writer’s Block
A writer’s block is a phase most writers face at some point in their novel-writing journey. If it happens to you, do not force yourself to write. Go for a walk, read a book, listen to music, spend some time in nature, or do anything that helps your overcome this block. You even register on book writing websites such as NaNoWriMo or Language is a Virus which offers inspirational posts, and creative writing prompts to help you manage writer’s block.
Edit and Proofread
Editing and proofreading are integral processes of novel writing. You can do it yourself or seek the services of a professional editor-proof reader. There are two reasons to follow this step:
- Eliminate language and grammatical mistakes.
- Understand whether the novel delivers what it promises.
After reading your book, you may also have to go through numerous drafts and revisions that your publisher advises.
Use Novel Writing Tools
When you write a book online, you can use AI-assisted tools like Instoried. It can help you in the following ways:
- When you run your novel’s chapters through Instoried, it can predict the emotional engagement of the text you have written. It also gives real-time and phrase-level suggestions that are instrumental to enhancing your story’s quality and emotional engagement.
- A positive tone in your story has more likelihood of engaging the readers and establishing an emotional connection with them. Instoried is useful for conducting tonal analysis of the written text and recommending whether your story has a positive, negative, or neutral tone.
- If you are stuck at creating compelling headlines for chapters, Instoried can analyze the body of the story and recommend attractive and engaging headlines.
- Instoried can also analyze the headlines you have created and suggest whether they can hook the readers or not.
- Plagiarism is a significant issue for budding novelists. Instoried can run your story through a plagiarism checker and ensure no duplication with other novels.
Conclusion
Writing novels is a daunting endeavor. However, it is not impossible. All you need is a good story idea, imagination, and determination to execute it. Of course, the steps mentioned above will also help you to start your novel on the right foot and see it to completion. Lastly, don’t try to control the outcome. Let your words flow as they come to you and rest everything will fall into place gradually.
