How to Write a Novel

The absolute first thing to do is to get lots of words down and see what happens. Then you'll know what kind of author you are, and where you need to plan and where you can make it up as you go along, what sort of things you like writing about, where your strengths and weaknesses lie, etc. It'll also give you a corpus to look at and learn from.

(The first rule of writing is: hold your fingers slightly above the keyboard and wiggle your fingers. Everything else is secondary. Unless words are coming out of your hands, you're not writing.)

I can strongly recommend signing up for Nanowrimo: http://nanowrimo.org/ Spend the month of November writing a 50,000 word novel. It doesn't need to be good, it just needs to be 50,000 words (more is acceptable). It gives you a structure to write within, with motivating deadlines and a support group (I usually end up in a coffee shop with other Nanowrimoers from my area), and most of all, a defined win condition: once the month is over you get to stop. The goal is quantity over quality, but if you have any talent whatsoever, you'll end up at the end of it with at least some prose you'll look at later and think, wow. This is good.

(And yes, you are allowed to write 'I am a fish' 12,500 times and call yourself a winner. But that's really boring. Wouldn't it be easier just to write prose at random and see what happens?)

I've done it several times; I started my first one with a vague idea and an image of a few set pieces and ended up with something semi-coherent at about 55,000 words with some nice characters and, well, it was good enough to put on my website. Subsequent attempts have been lots better. Some authors end up with saleable novels...

If you're writing fiction (or doing any sort of storytelling for that matter), The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne is an absolute must-read. The podcast is amazing—it's the first podcast I've found worth listening to from the very beginning—and it has opened my eyes so much, helping me understand the fundamentals of story structure and how great novels "work".

I've read Stephen King's On Writing and several other books on novel writing and as a programmer what I really liked about The Story Grid was its analytical approach to storytelling, as opposed to a more emotional, intuitive, "just keep writing and eventually the good stuff will come" approach.

What works for me* :

1. Make a plan.

2. Mostly ignore the plan.

3. Feel. Feel what your characters are feeling. Feel what you want the reader to feel.

4. Write, even if you aren't feeling.

5. Iterate. Be fearless in throwing things out that don't work. Rewrite an entire work if you have to.

Some of these "greats" act like they completely wing it. Stephen King, for instance, has some really great writing. He's a man really in touch with his emotions and can, through his writing, cause those feelings to resonate in you. But, his lack of planning leads, in my opinion, to weak endings that are emotionally unsatisfying and sometimes nonsensical.

*By works for me, I mean my best fiction writing comes out of this, not that it's any good or published.

Edit: Formatting

I've studied various methods (e.g. "pants-ing," Snowflake, outlining, etc.) and for me, a combination of outlining and pants-ing works best for structuring my novels.

Having said that, I don't think the method you use for structuring your novel is nearly as important as how you write. I studied writing in college, and it always amazed me how many people would use passive sentences; had no grasp of tenses, spelling, punctuation, or grammar; didn't understand plotting, or even the three-act structure; mixed up their points of view; couldn't write dialogue; broke the "show don't tell" mantra; never bothered researching their topics; etc.

If you cannot write to begin with, no amount of structure is going to make your novel worth reading, so solve that problem first. I would recommend Million Dollar Outlines, by David Farland, Write That Novel, by David Farland, and On Writing, by Stephen King, as good places to start. I would also recommend joining a writing group, and encouraging your peers to critique the hell out of your work.

In all my worlds, there are no people. They have shape, structure, geometry, the physics and the backgrounds. Places, regions, cities and borders, architecture and machinery.

But there is no one. No characters or villains, no random strangers, no gods or myths. Not even faceless masses. At most there can be vehicles in the distance, or a general, indistinct feeling of inhabitation.

This might be the reason i never really wrote any stories, despite always wanting to. For all the verse, there is no one to write about.

Not sure how to fix that, other than considering a different media. VR, perhaps...

There was only one thing that worked for me to finish my first book. I showed up every day and wrote something. Then I edited the hell out of it (like 8 passes).

The rough draft was 100+ pages. The final version is 64.

There is no shortcut to writing and editing a book. You have to put a lot of time in and just write the damn book.

My book if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0163BAUWC

This worked for my graphic novel:

1. Start with an interesting situation and image. Explore it for a while, ask questions about the situation and weave the answers into the story.

2. Figure out where you want it to end.

3. By now the characters will have established themselves and their desires. Figure out ways to drop situations on the characters that motivate them to go where you want them to. If they refuse then keep trying.

4. Continue until the story's finished.

5. Publish it, for whatever values of "publish" you're comfortable working for - online, self-pub, submissions to publishers/agents, whatever.

6. Take a break. If you enjoyed it then start again.

Or, in the language of the OP, switch between pants-ing and planning. Neither one will cover everything you need IMHO.

Also:

0. Read a lot. In whatever genre you want to work in, and outside of it. Read great stuff, good stuff, bad stuff. Be able to tell the difference; apply that critical eye to your own work.

There are techniques for writing for role-playing games that are a hybrid of planning/winging. You want to plan a hook, how the story get's started, who are the main agents and their motivations, then you just let the story unfold. It seems there is room for something in the middle.

I like the snowflake method [0]. It gives you a very strict plan.

Disclaimer: I have not written a novel yet.

[0] http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-met...

Wrapping up with my first novel now. Very much fell into the gardener/pants faction. I had a concept "start up guys can't raise money so they sell cocaine" and just let it unfold from there. Any other fiction folks here subscribe to the planning method?

I'm in the middle of the "Wheel of Time" books. That must have been the most planned out series ever. Or reworked like a million times. At least, that's what I gather from people who have reread the series and praise the amazing foreshadowing in the first half of the series (even books 1 and 2).

For those who don't know, "The Wheel of Time" is 14 books plus a prequel.

Here's what I do. I usually start with a dream. When I wake up, if I've dreamt something interesting I write down a brief sketch or scene or even just an image in a google doc. Then I mull it over for a few weeks, adding new ideas and details to the doc. I love to use the time that I'd otherwise be using for insomnia. If I find myself awake in bed, I spend time tuning the idea or the scene until I fall back asleep. Then I write it down in the morning. Pretty soon I have a plot or a basic outline or just an idea for a beginning or an end. Then I continue to chew on it until a specific first sentence strikes me. Then I drop everything and start writing like a maniac. When I'm going on the writing, I try to let the characters live and let the story go where the characters take it, knowing that they'll eventually end up at the signposts I've set up in the initial sketch. I always use a trick that Hemingway used: stop writing for the day when you know what's going to happen next. That way you'll start right off again tomorrow and not get stuck.

I've written three books this way and I'm writing two more now. I've started a publishing company and published one so far. I'm working on ushering two more through that process (editing, editing, editing, typesetting, etc). That's a whole other story, and just as important.

EDIT: I have a day job (most of the time) as a developer, I do this in my spare time and between gigs.

I've always wanted to write a novel, and I hope to some time before I die (or afterward, I guess.. but who knows what's possible then).

I like the way this article describes architect vs gardener writers. I've always felt this internal conflict of modes when trying to write. I actually think there is a similar spectrum for coders. As a programmer, I definitely architect-first (within whatever scope I'm in) as opposed to feel-it-out-as-I-go. Yet great programmers I know just get started and sort of see where they land. (Iterative refinement is key in both styles, in my experience, and I'm sure the same is true of writing.)

In writing, I always think I should architect the story and setting, so as to validate whether it will be interesting or not at a high-level. But when I try to do this, I seem to end up with uninteresting, low quality results and the process itself feels contrived and burdensome. When I free flow, I seem to do a lot better. But I'm not sure if that's because I just don't have practice in trying to hold all the bits of a story in my head and craft it into a good outline which I can then flow from, and/or if it's because I only write short bits of material (ie the free flow might become unwieldy at length).

Curious what others think about the architect vs gardener coder bit, and also how those who write relate their writing approach to their coding approach.

Collecting a bunch of anecdotes about writing from a litany of disparate writers seems rather odd to me. A little bit of a disingenuous title maybe? This is how "successful" writers wrote novels.

Personally I think the novel is on its way out to pasture the way Sonnets are. How many people read Sonnets? Back in the day, plenty. Look at the names on that list and a significant number either work in relatively well defined genres (King, Gaiman, Martin) or were working in a pre-TV time when reading was an essential pastime (Twain, Proust) and audiences were engaged at a much higher level. That may not seem like a direct connection to "how to write a novel" but it certainly applies to "why write a novel."

I always preferred short fiction. This is why I've pursued screenwriting with much more discipline of late (just entered Shore Scripts, will wait for Nicholls & others next year) trying my hand at TV series (stoner golfer comedy, toy company workplace comedy) and various film ideas.

Honestly I think writing Novels is like writing every part for a Symphony. Even if some of the parts are absolute genius, they're easily drowned out by slop or chaos. Very challenging discipline, and if you feel it's a good fit for you, I do say "You've got nothing to lose but your time and your mind by trying!" Seriously though, happy writing to all.

I love to create words and found using my fingers to create words is so inferior to simply talking them.

I would never have thought that the greatest feature of my phone is not the camera but the microphone. I wish I had voice recorder when I wrote my diaries 40 years ago.

I still write with pen and sometimes fingers to help me uncover how I feel about deep subjects. Often I am surprised my initial thought becomes the opposite to my final conclusion. I recall reading Justice Roberts said something similar. So for me actually writing something ( out) is more formation of thought. My biggest surprise was the hundred 180 degree turn I made on the Karen Ann Quinlan episode.

I wrote a book called The Final Six Days. It is a full length novel about 438 pages. Note that I am a software engineer by trade and not a writer, but I took a stab at it since I've always wanted to write a book.

Here are my takeaways:

1. If took me 8 months from idea to published novel (self-published on Amazon).

2. I used a variation of the snowflake method, as my analytical and natural tendency to architect solutions was a good fit for me. The process was: paragraph, outline (by chapter), short story.

3. Writing the book itself is fun and mind stimulating, it only took me 2 months (about an average of 2 hours per day). It was my favorite part of the process.

4. Editing took me 4 months, and it was the most painful, dreadful, unstimulating, and daunting task I ever had to do. Imagine writing code for months, then self-QA'ing your code. Yes, it's that bad. Hire someone (even a spouse or loved-one) to help you.

5. You will find when you go from short story to full story, your story will mutate into something far more beautiful and deeper than you can imagine. It's because when you write continuously without stopping, ideas just flow out from your subconscious.

6. No matter how many times you read your own novel, you will never, ever, ever find every possible mistake, syntax (i.e. misspelling, misused word, etc), or otherwise. Get a pro to help you.

7. Every reader you invite to read your draft will inevitably come back with a ton of feedback, much of it negative (and unnecessarily nitpicky). Ignore most of it. Write the novel you want to write.

8. No matter what, don't give up. If you get writer's block just have a beer, and come back to it tomorrow.

9. Have your cover professionally designed. Yes, a cover does matter.

Bonus: I read a book called Writing the Breakout Novel that was a huge help, perfect for an engineering mind. It's very technical in nature and deals with ensuring each chapter has enough intrigue. It also takes about character development, POV, etc. I rewrote many areas after that. Everyone I know who read my book has done so from beginning to end so I did something right.

I planned on writing an article on Medium at some point getting into more details about the process, specifically from an engineering point of view.

https://www.amazon.com/Final-Days-Time-Crossers-Book-ebook/d...

I think the more interesting questions would be:

- How to write a novel that is actually a worthwhile read?

- Why should you invest your time into an endeavour that will most likely fail and have no significant outcome?

I have found that most folks who have not written a novel but feel that they would like to have a useless preoccupation with process. A novelist's process is how their habits of mind were adapted to the problems of writing an account of a social simulation that is too large to hold in your head at once (i.e., a novel).

For example, I'm not comfortable starting a work without knowing how it will end. It's a psychological crutch after I found myself without the skill to wind up a couple of works that had gone astray. I got lucky in that my first novel (http://madhadron.com/monologue-sample.html), and the only one I've actually put out, had a clear ending from the beginning of its conception.

I know that I sit down and usually start writing in the middle of a chapter, work to the end as its structure takes form, go back and write the beginning and rewrite from middle to the end to make it hold together. That didn't emerge by plan, just from day after day of writing.

My chapters tend to involve lots of flashback and switching of time. It's how I solved a set of problems about keeping the intensity of the prose constant even though events in the story might be spread around in time. It drew on techniques I had learned to handle for music composition many years before.

But that's me. There's no reason to think that you'll be anything like me. Or like Mark Twain, or Henry James, or Jane Austen.

Don't worry about the work habits of those authors. Instead, study their works. When you have a technical problem, pause and think about places in well written novels where a similar problem arose, and then go analyze how they handle it. For the basic technique of novels, pretty much everything you need is in Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' and 'Pride and Prejudice.' 'Emma' is her most technically perfect novel, but you can't learn from it. Go to Twain for handling dialect. Take your pick of some modern novelists for flashback and the like. I mostly use Ford Madox Ford's 'Parade's End'. I don't really go to Henry James's novels much, but his collected prefaces, also published as the Art of the Novel, or available online at http://www.henryjames.org.uk/prefaces/home.htm, are essentially a textbook on writing novels. Dig through the purple prose. There are utter gems that explicate what the craft is about. Reading the opening chapters of Ezra Pound's 'ABCs of Reading' may also be a useful reference on how to approach learning technique from novels. Writer's block is usually your subconscious telling you that something you're doing isn't going to work. It's a useful message.

I haven't found much else worth the bother. King's 'On Writing', for example, seemed mere exhortation to me. For nonfiction, Williams's, 'Style: Toward Clarity and Grace' is worth your time, but for fiction I really haven't found anything.

I recommend the Art of Dramatic Writing of Lajos Egri to anyone who wants to write fiction in any genre and of any type.

Those here who write, do you use plain text with source control? If so, what's your work flow?

This surprised me:

"Mark Twain too, insisted that a book “write itself” and that “the minute that the book tried to shift to my head the labor of contriving its situations…I put it away…The reason was very simple — my tank had run dry; it was empty"

I'm surprised that the phrase "tank had run dry" was already established during Mark Twain's life. The metaphor refers to automobiles. He died in 1910. Automobiles began to become popular during the early 1890s, but they were still the toys of the rich. The first Model T was built in 1908, and this was the first car built "for the masses".

It's interesting that Twain did not use a steam engine metaphor. "The boiler needs to be stoked." His life overlaps entirely with the peak of the railroad/steam engine. But he uses a metaphor from automobiles?

Story submitted to HN by samclemens, nice. :)

Samuel Clemens was the actual name of Mark Twain, for those who don't know.

HN people trying to write a novel is somehow funny to me!