How to Write a Novel – The Story

Anything over 50,000 words is regarded as a novel. Anything less, a novella. Unless it’s absolutely astonishing, publishers tend to shy away from a first book that's much longer than 75 or 80,000 words. My assumption is that the increased costs of printing makes a first run just too risky. A 50,000 word novel will be roughly 200 pages long, so 100,000 words would pretty much double the printing cost.

If 50,000 words sounds like a marathon, it is.

But imagine setting out on a marathon with no idea of where you’re going, where the finish line is, or how long the route is. What would your chances of enjoying the run be, let alone your chances of actually finishing?

It’s surprising (or not) how many wannabe writers simply sit down at the keyboard and begin bashing away wildly, with only the nub of an idea to work with. There are so many of them that they even have a name – “pantsers” – because they’re flying by the seat of their pants. Most pantsers run out of steam by around 20,000 words. They’re not even halfway through the marathon and they’re exhausted, lost, confused. It’s bound to happen when you don’t have a plan. I know. I’ve been there.

The first step in planning is to figure out your story.

THINGS YOU’LL NEED:

• An idea
• A computer – a laptop is ideal, because it means you can write anywhere
• Microsoft Word

Western story arcs typically have a three-part structure. It’s a good idea to stick with this, because it’s worked for Hollywood and just about every best-selling novelist you've read.

In the first act, main characters and their routines are established. Themes are introduced. And then you need a “turning point”  or “inciting incident” that takes the story into the second act. This is the “hook” that convinces the reader that it’s worth continuing. It’s the reason for the rest of the story.

The second act unpacks what you’ve established. It introduces obstacles to overcome, expands on character, and moves the action forward. It culminates in a second turning point – generally, at this stage it appears that all is lost, and that your hero is about to be overwhelmed by the weight of what’s gone before.

The third act unravels this further. Your hero either gives in to the forces that threaten him or her, or he/she triumphs.

The final part of the third act consists of the denouement, or conclusion, where you show that your hero has morally conquered or succumbed.

Act I is around 20% of the story, Act II 70%, and Act III 10%.

It’s in the second act that things fall apart. It’s the longest, and throughout you have to ensure that it builds unfailingly, taking your reader to the climax that leads to Act III.

Your story comes down to three basic choices:

• Man versus Man: here, the villain is another person – Holmes’s Moriarty, Luke Skywalker's Darth Vader, Marlow’s Mr Kurtz
• Man versus Self: the villain is a collection of internal conflicts, doubts and fears (this was my choice in Theory)
• Man versus Nature: where the villain is a volcano, an asteroid, global warming or the Antarctic.

You need a villain. You need conflict, friction and tenstion – or else you'll end up with a bland porridge of words that will captivate nobody. Imagine Harry Potter without Voldemort - how could it have been anything more than a cutesy tale about some kiddie wizards?

Write out your story as a synopsis in no more than two pages. This is a lot more challenging than it sounds, but keep at it. It’ll force focus, and it will quickly point out weaknesses and illogical bits, and it will spark off other ideas on how to keep the thing moving forward.

Once you have an end-to-end synopsis that works, and which outlines a compelling story, you’re getting to the point where the real planning begins.

And that’s what we’ll look at next time.