Write A Novel Essay, Research Paper
Seven suggestions for writing a novelSeven suggestions for writing a novel
A recent posting to the alt.books.purefiction and misc.writing newsgroups has
initiated a spate of private emails to me about getting published, and one
person wanted my street address so he could drive over and literally put his
manuscript into my hands.
I am neither a publisher nor an agent, nor do I want to become one. However, I
understand the frustration that goes with working on something for a large part
of one’s life, only to have it dismissed with “We cannot use this submission at
this time.” Since the success of Consequences, a number of aspiring novelists
have asked me to read their manuscripts. Initially, I was flattered. This
feeling has begun to change, and now I feel like the only private who didn’t
step back when the captain asked for volunteers.
There are many good books on novel writing. From some of the manuscripts I have
seen, one might conclude that no one is reading these how-to books. Perhaps one
reason is the sheer volume of material available. For the people who refuse to
wade through the mass of good advice that’s out there, I have distilled it down
to one page of the guidelines that I followed when I wrote my first novel. My
advice is to rewrite your work until it can pass these seven basic tests before
submitting it anywhere.
If you have plenty of advice sources already and don’t need more, now would be a
good time to stop reading.
John Ross’ Seven Suggestions for Writing a Novel
1. OUTLINE:
Some authors claim they just start writing and see what pops out. If they do
this and are successful, more power to them. I cannot imagine following this
path and ending up with something I liked. I advise laying out the framework of
the entire story (including the ending!) in 2-3 pages before actually starting
the book. Don’t start writing until you have an outline that you really like.
2. DRAMATIC CONCEPT:
Publisher’s Weekly reduces preview descriptions of new books to ONE sentence.
You should be able to do this with your book, also. My novel is over 800 pages,
but its dramatic concept can be stated in one sentence: After federal agents
have gradually and increasingly chilled citizen’s rights for decades without
suffering any penalty, what’s going to happen when they finally hit someone who
knows how to hit back?
Can you sum up your book in one sentence? If you can’t, you don’t have a strong
enough dramatic concept. Develop one.
3. POINT-OF-VIEW:
Control point-of-view with a limited number of point-of-view characters. Don’t
jump back-and-forth within a scene; tell from a single viewpoint for an entire
chapter or section, then switch. Use the “omniscient” viewpoint sparingly. Use
AT LEAST two POV characters; four is a good number for most novels. If your
story is long and stretches over a longer period of time, 6-8 is reasonable. POV
characters must be important ones. Don’t EVER tell from the POV of a minor
character, even for a paragraph. The reader will automatically assume the
character is important, and will wait for him to reappear in the story to do
something crucial to the storyline. If a minor character is thinking something
that the reader has to understand, do a quick rewrite where you figure out a way
to have the character say the thought aloud. Related point: If a character is
very minor but still necessary (because of his actions), don’t even give him a
name. Refer to him as “the hotel manager” or whatever. Doing this will prevent
the reader from expecting him to become integral to the story.
4. TENSION and ESCALATION:
Conflict is crucial to a good story. Equally important is that the conflict
escalate. The stakes must get higher and higher. Go see Fatal Attraction if you
want a lesson in escalation. An excellent first novel with gut-wrenching
escalation is A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. Does the tension in your novel start
innocuously and then steadily escalate to a critical level? Rewrite until it
does.
5. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS:
“Cathy was a kind, hardworking woman whose solid character was grounded in deep
religious beliefs.” Big deal. This tells me more about the author than it does
about Cathy. Put Cathy in a difficult situation and let’s see how she copes.
Then I’ll see what kind of person she is. Doing this, you will also create
characters the reader cares about. Are you lecturing the reader about what your
characters are made of, or are your characters’ actions making it clear?
6. DIALOGUE:
Read it aloud. Does anyone YOU know really talk that way? If not, you need a
rewrite.
7. OBVIOUS BLUNDERS:
A manuscript littered with misspellings, errors in grammar, and incorrect
punctuation brands the author as an illiterate moron. (Raise this
agent/publisher impression by an order of magnitude if your narrative voice
speaks in incomplete sentences).
Hire someone whose English is impeccable to proofread your work. If you don’t
think you need to do this, ask yourself one question: “Do I teach college- or
graduate-level English?” If the answer is “No,” you need a proofreader who does.
If these suggestions sound reasonable and you’d like more detailed advice along
the same lines, I can recommend two books, both by Writer’s Digest Books. For
issues of dramatic concept, read TWENTY MASTER PLOTS AND HOW TO DEVELOP THEM.
For those of you who want to write the next bestseller (I certainly do!) I’d
recommend Al Zuckerman’s WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL. This book has a large
number of real-life examples of what works and why. Especially good are the
first, second, third, and final outlines for one of Ken Follett’s novels, THE
MAN FROM ST. PETERSBURG. (The first outline is lousy, and we see how Follett
changed it into something compelling). Zuckerman also gets into the POV issue in
depth.
I read Zuckerman’s book when I was about halfway through the first draft of
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. I immediately saw some areas ripe for serious
improvement, where minor rewriting made a huge difference.
That’s all I’ve got right now. Those of you in this group can send me email
asking for advice, but I get over 50 emails a day and I can’t answer you
individually. I’ll try to post here or in misc.writing if there are common
questions.
Final point: I do not have an agent, so I can’t give any advice on how to get
one