How to write a novel - getting started

 Do you really want to write a novel? Because wanting is not enough.

You’re only a writer if you can actually write. In the same way that not everyone can do ballet, not everyone can do writing.

Yes, you need a good grip on grammar. But writing is not just the stringing together of words and punctuation. Its purpose is to reward and enrich, and to give your reader glimpses into characters and the world they populate in ways he or she has never before experienced. Its purpose is emotional – to move, amuse, scare, provoke. As importantly, to move them along from one page to the next. And all you have at your disposal is a collection of black marks on paper to achieve all that.

Ready?
 
THINGS YOU’LL NEED:
• A nice new Moleskine and your favourite pen or pencil.
• An idea.

Your idea needs to be a strong one. An original one. One that can be sustained over 50,000+ words. 


How do you know it’s a good idea? You can write it down in a sentence or two. If you need a page to explain it, it’s not a good idea.

Here’s the idea that led to Theory: A wealthy man’s mid-life crisis manifests as a crisis of identity. But the more he pieces together his past, the more his present unravels. 

Here’s the idea behind Wasted: A socially inept young guy has taught himself to forget certain aspects of past. But his forgetting has been so effective that he now forgets everyday things unintentionally, and this leads him down a path he had no intention of following.

And the idea for the unpublished The Same Deep Water as You: Three strangers, a man who has just murdered his father, a woman whose own father died a thousand kilometres away at exactly the same moment, and a little girl who refuses to speak are thrown together by fate.

You’ll note that these are simply ideas at this stage, not full-blown synopses. That’s because you won’t know what the story is just yet.

EXERCISE 1: Practice identifying the ideas behind your favourite books and movies and write them up like the examples above.

EXERCISE 2: Write your idea on the first page of your Moleskine. If you don’t like it, scratch it out and put down another. Keep going until you have a fantastically brilliant idea.

DON'T understimate the power of a strong, clear idea.

Some hints: Keep your ideas within your own range of experience. Don’t try a medical thriller if you’re not a doctor. Don’t try historical fiction unless you have the time and capacity to do the research. Don’t set your story in New York or Rome, unless you know the locations intimately. Consider if your idea is something that you might want to read yourself.

Next time: turning your idea into a story.