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.
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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.
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.
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.
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?
When you are outlining a novel or book, you need to consider the following factors:
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.
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.
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.
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:
You can attend these MasterClass courses to hone your skills as a novelist.
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.
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.
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:
After reading your book, you may also have to go through numerous drafts and revisions that your publisher advises.
When you write a book online, you can use AI-assisted tools like Instoried. It can help you in the following ways:
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.
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