What Does it Take to Write a Novel

Several people have asked how you go about writing a novel and what the process is. So here is how I do it others may go about it in a different way.

First, you need an idea of what you what to write about. That idea can come from almost anywhere just as it does for writing an article on AC. Second, you need to create a place where your story can occur, it can be a real or factious place, your choice. Third, you need at least one character to help tell the story. It can be a person, animal or thing, but I preferable a living one myself; otherwise it is harder.

Now comes the interesting part. Once you have these components, you need to write a plot with a challenge the character will need to solve along with your reader. So, the more conflict it has the better. It is easy to find a problem but solving it is not always as simple as it may sounds. Just as in real life, problems occur and the solution is not always easy. The more difficult you make the problem the more fun you will have trying to figure out the solution.

Of course, if you have characters, they need to have personalities much as real people do. What I do is pretend I know this person. I want to know as much as possible about them. This gives me an idea of how they think, what they will do, what motivates them and any idiosyncrasies they might have. So I make a chart to remind me what they look like, where they came from, what their ambitions are and all about them.

There should be a bad person to try to stop your character from achieving their goal also. I do a chart of them as well. Keep in mind though that no one is ever all good or all bad, maybe there is a reason behind what they do too. One hard part is being sure you keep track of your character especially what they look like. A person should not be tall in one chapter and short in another, unless you cut off their legs. Grin! Having a second character that is difficult will give us more conflict.

Dialog has to have a place and you need your conversations to sound like real people talking to each other. This will make the reader more comfortable with your characters.

Okay now have an idea, characters both good and bad with personalities, problems to solve, dialog and a resolution to their problems. Sounds simple doesn't it?

Once you have it all together then the real work begins. There is editing, reading it aloud, preparing it for publication, deciding on a title, sending it off for a copyright, finding someone to publish it and promoting it. All of which take time and lots of patience. Then you wait. That is the hardest part of all. You may be rejected many, many time before you ever get there, but you keep trying if you really want to write.

This reminds me of Steven King, who sent in "Misery" dozens of time and got rejected. He was going to throw it in the garbage when his wife insisted he try just one more time. Someone finally bought it and it was a great novel and movie that some of you may have seen

The pleasure you get from finally achieving your goal, seeing your own writing in print is immeasurable. The royalties you get are never what you expect them to be or think you are worth. It is not a rich man's profession unless you are able and willing to get out on the road to promote your work. This too is time consuming and lots of work.
That about sums it all up; that is how you write and sell a novel and believe me it is a lot of work, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.