The Characters of a Novel
Before you get into the details of your novel and before the entire plot is revealed, you’ll find yourself introducing characters — sometimes a great many characters. Each of these characters, at least the main characters, must have depth and breadth. Good characters usually have both motivation and emotion. There are some exceptions to this, but these are few and far between.
If you have a protagonist who simply wanders around, encountering two-dimensional characters, and really accomplishing nothing, you’ll end up with a novel that any reader will put down before the first chapter has elapsed. Your characters must have reasons for everything they do and they must react in reasonable ways to given situations and stimuli. This doesn’t mean they have to be predictable. But they do have to make a certain amount of sense.
The Plot of a Novel
Something has to happen in your novel. The things that happen come together to form the plot of your story. The core of your plot should be some type of conflict. If conflict is entirely lacking, your readers will quickly become bored and choose a different book, one that satisfies. Keep in mind that the conflict in your story doesn’t have to be violence. You can write an engaging story without having a single murder, crime, or battle. Many of the best stories are not about physical conflict at all.
But something has to be happening. Action and drama should be occurring, even if it’s only inside someone’s head, such as a personal crisis. While you’re crafting your plot, try to keep your readers guessing, especially if you’re writing a thriller or mystery. Keep readers turning pages, caught up in your story. But, like your characters, your plot has to make sense.
The World of a Novel
When creating the setting for your novel, you have two basic choices: use real places or make them up. Science fiction and fantasy writers often craft their own worlds to use as settings for their novels. Other genres occasionally do this as well. As fun as this is and as much freedom as it will give you as a reader, you still have to be careful. You have to make your readers believe your world could actually exist. In other words, you’ll have to suspend their disbelief. To do this, you’ll have to craft a world that is seamless and consistent.
Novels can also be set in the real world, and a great many are. Using familiar locations can be an excellent way of drawing your readers in and establishing the setting for your novel. You certainly don’t have to worry about convincing your readers that your world exists. In addition, many readers find that describing real locations is actually easier than making something up.
However, the problem with using real settings is that you have to get the details right. For example, if you’re writing about a character wandering around the Canadian prairies, you should do your research. Your character might find himself in Selkirk, Manitoba and see a giant statue of a trout. This will upset any reader familiar with the area. Why? Because it’s a catfish, not a trout.
The issue of detail becomes even more important when using popular locations such as Central Park or the Tower of London. You don’t necessarily have to visit all the locations you’re using in your book. You can gather a great deal of information from travel books and websites. However, if you get the opportunity to visit a location you might be using, take it. Your book will be the better for it.
The Details of a Novel
It is often the details of character, plot, and setting that make the difference between a book that becomes a bestseller and one that puts readers to sleep. It is usually best if these details emerge naturally while you’re writing, though it is certainly possible to go back later and insert them. When you do add detail later, however, be sure that it’s consistent with the rest of your story. If it’s not, change the details to better suit your tale.
Regardless of when these details are written, it is important that they look like they belong. If you have a simple plot, the details should remain fairly simple. A more complex plot will naturally lend itself to fuller details. Descriptive writing is an art, one that parallels creative writing. Use this art to enhance your novel, not bore your readers.
The one thing you have to beware of is keeping up with your own details. I have, and very recently, read a book where the color of the hair of the main character changed halfway through the book (and not because it was dyed). It was a good book, but obviously the author wasn’t paying attention to their own story, because this wasn’t the only detail relating to characters and plot that was suddenly altered mid-story.
If you’re writing a novel, you need to pay attention to your own details. If you’ve been talking about how jet-black a character’s hair is, don’t tell me in the next chapter than he has a head of golden wheat. By the same token, don’t have someone shoot the antagonist if that someone only ever carried a sword. It doesn’t make sense and it will put your readers off. The devil really is in the details, at least when writing a novel.
The most essential elements of writing a good novel are characters, plot, setting, and those pesky little details. There is much more to it than that, but master these four things and you’ll be well on your way towards writing your first novel.
