About the Author: A Novel

This year's example, About the Author, reuses an old trick: it's another novel about writing a novel. It could only have been written by a writer.
Table of contents

For now, get some stuff on the page. Try a workbook like Novel Starter: Every story begins with conflict. In Gone Girl , a woman goes missing in the first chapter, and her husband appears to be implicated in her disappearance. No matter where you start, remember: Make the reader understand, somewhere within the first 10 pages, why this story is being told. What is at risk in the story? What does your protagonist stand to lose or gain? What does he or she want, and why is it important? The stakes must be clear if you want the reader to care.

Often, there will be more than one thing at stake, more than one big risk. The stakes are both personal and public. Remember, your characters do not exist in a vacuum; their lives play out against a larger backdrop. They are part of the wider world. In the spirit of discovery, allow one character to work in a field about which you know very little, or allow some element of the plot, or a subplot, to delve into something you find unusual.

Why not make her a welder instead? Then go online and research welding. Take a welder out for beer. Write five paragraphs that can be sprinkled throughout your novel that embrace the lingo and physicality of welding.

Writing a novel: 7 tips from bestselling authors

I call these breathers, and I go into depth on the subject in The Paperclip Method: How to Write a Novel Wtihout an Outline. Not for the completion of the novel, but for the first fifty pages. Set a second deadline, far enough in the future, for the completion of the second fifty pages. Be kind to yourself and set yourself up for success by setting realistic deadlines. One of the biggest mistakes beginning writers make is showing their early efforts to anyone who will look. But hold your horses.

Give yourself some time to get your own vision onto the page before other visions interject. Many novels are written by collaboration, but most are not written by committee. Michelle Richmond is the author of five novels and two award-winning story collections. Her latest novel, The Marriage Pact , has been published in 30 languages. Write what you love. Do me a favor — right now, today, start a list of all your crazy obsessions, the things that get your heart pumping, that wake you up in the middle of the night. Put it above your desk and use it to guide you, to jumpstart your writing each and every day.

Jennifer is excited to give away a free copy of her latest novel to a random commenter. She lives in Vermont with her family. Visit her website or connect with her on Twitter. Make her flawed and believable. Let her live and breathe and give her the freedom to surprise you and take the story in unexpected directions. Give that character a compelling problem. At the heart of every story is conflict — whether external or internal, make it a good one, and remember that this problem is going to shape your character, leaving her forever changed. In my books, I make sure something important to the plot is happening in each scene.

Ah, you say, but you sometimes write stories with ghosts and fairies — how believable is that? It works if you make it believable in the universe of the book. I gave her a history and compelling reason to return. Readers hate cheap tricks.

How To Write A Book For Beginners

Stick with it the project. Then work twice as hard to revise it.


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Do your best to get it out in the world. In the meantime, write another. Trust me, you get better every time. It took me four books, two agents and seven years to get my first novel published.

Novel - Wikipedia

It was a long tough road, but so, so worth it in the end! I think the work comes out better when we leave all that behind; when the only thing to be true to is the writing. Agent Donald Maass, who is also an author himself, is one of the top instructors nationwide on crafting quality fiction. Want to build your visibility and sell more books? Your First Novel shows you how to promote yourself and your books through social media, public speaking, article writing, branding, and more.

Order the book from WD at a discount. Thank you for this column. I just published my first novel at the age of 69! I wrote about baseball players in , and this guy played ball in my high school. I remembered what he looked like in his high school uniform, described it, then the other characters just came out of the blue.

In , Latin players were just breaking in in large numbers, and the regular players had names like Joe, Dick, Jimmy, Bobby, etc. I pulled out my high school yearbook and looked at the names boys had back then. I have been toying with the idea of writing a book for many years now. The idea behind my story is to write about events that have happened to myself however I would rather change names, orders events happened and perhaps add some details to make it more entertaining. The story would consist of, love, heartbreak, abuse and murder. Right now however my story does not have a happy ending.

In fact, probably only one or two chapters will seem like things are looking up for the main character but for most of the book it is just her trying to keep sane and deal with everything being thrown at her. Personally I have read many sad stories but they all tend to have some sort of positive at the end. Even romeo and juliet, fair enough they both committed suicide but it was so they could be together.

Is a sad ending suitable or should I really try harder to come up with a positive? Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this. I want to write something along those lines as well. I feel like novels can be written in a negative, darker only if done correctly. This is why I wanted to write a novel about my life obviously with some variations and focus on the somewhat dismal aspects of it as while these things might be upsetting, it is necessary that these things like mental health and abuse are talked about.

Not every story needs a happy ending as that is quite a common cliche anyway. Any sort of ending is great for a story as long as it is suitable and does not seem overly forced or rushed and is an accurate conclusion on the events that happened during the course of the book. My book, which just came out, does not have a happy ending.

A novel idea

You need to find a great editor to help you parse out your ending. Write it the way you WANT it to end, then the editor will guide you with your writing. What matters is writing a great story. I wish I stumbled with this post before.

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Anyways I will be sure to include your info on the next update. You can check my guide here: I appreciate all and any advice.


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Reading this list, I had a light bulb moment. I start writing and y characters come to life even with Flaws…but then they just sit there… I think i understand why now.