There are so many decisions to make when it comes to launching your career in professional writing. One of the first decisions you’ll have to make is what, exactly, you want to write. There are many choices that can lead to a valid career, so when deciding which path to follow, consider your own desires and talents.
Fiction or Non-Fiction?
This is really the first big decision to make after you’ve committed yourself to professional writing. Some people find this decision comes to them easily. If you love to write fiction, as I do, then you write fiction. If non-fiction is more your style, then you write non-fiction.
But what if you don’t know which one you’re drawn to? Then try both. There is certainly no rule against writing both fiction and non-fiction. I do it (obviously, as I wrote this article, and it’s non-fiction). I would say that most successful writers tackle both fiction and non-fiction. There’s nothing wrong with writing novels or poetry while you also write articles or non-fiction books. If you can do both, and you want to do both, then you should.
Once you’ve made this decision, you’ll have to go on to decide what, specifically, you’re going to write in each category. There are so many options that it can boggle the mind. You would be best served by limiting your own options so that you spend less time thinking about writing and more time writing.
The Many Types of Fiction
Novels, novellas, and short stories are all popular forms of fiction that are fun and exciting to write. Poetry, which is considered fiction for lack of a better option, can be as great an experience as any other form of writing. Which of these you choose is up to you.
Novels are incredibly popular and many writers have dreams of seeing their novel on the bookshelf of their local store. Novels are an experience like none other. Crafting a story, mastering the essentials of novel writing, and discovering a genre (which range from fantasy to woman’s fiction) are all important parts of the process. However, novels aren’t for everyone. Novels tend to run around 100,000 words, and not everyone has the patience for writing and revising such a substantial work.
Novellas are another option for those who want to write a comprehensive story without writing 100,000 words. Novellas typically run from 15,000 to 40,000 words. These are harder to get published on their own, but work well in anthologies.
The market for short stories doesn’t always seem very large. Short stories, typically under 10,000 words, can be excellent for practicing the art of writing longer works of fiction. In addition, some authors are seeing success when publishing books full of up to ten short stories. If you find yourself more inclined to write short stories, give it a try.
Poetry is the final category of fiction. It is satisfying and can help you stretch yourself as a writer, but most poetry books don’t sell more than 500 copies. It might not be the most lucrative venue, but poetry can be used to practice selecting just the right word. If you like to write other fiction, you might be able to find a place to insert a poem or two. This can enhance your writing.
The Never-Ending Field of Non-Fiction
Non-fiction is a different monster all together. Anything that isn’t fiction is, by definition, non-fiction. Your options can include: informative or entertaining articles, travel guide books, manuals or guides, web content, advertising, how-to books, or full-length manuscripts. The topics you might choose to write on are endless.
When deciding on a topic and medium, think about your interests and passions. You’ll always get better results if you follow your passions. Non-fiction tends to be easier to sell than fiction, so it’s very likely you’ll be able to find a market for your work at some point.
Writing for Money
Many writers would argue that in order to call yourself a professional writer, you have to get paid. There might be some validity in this, and honestly, if you want to make a living by writing, you do have to find a way to get paid.
If you’re writing fiction for money, consider that sort stories are easier to write and sell in short periods of time, especially as e-books. However, there is money to be made in all forms of fiction writing. You just have to find what you’re good at and write it. In my case, I’m best at fantasy novels, so that’s what I write. I’d be abysmal at writing a mystery, as an example, so no one would want to read it.
Non-fiction tends to pay better than fiction, at least on average. Let me amend that. Well-written non-fiction pays better than well-written fiction. In general, non-fiction markets are wider and less saturated. You can select a niche and write several books relating to the same topic and sell them all (or self-publish them, if that’s what you choose to do).
There are dozens of places to get started as a professional writer. You can publish books, look for content sites on the internet, or write articles for local papers and magazines. If you’re a decent writer, someone will buy your work at some point. The real key to becoming a professional writer is perseverance. You’ll probably be rejected more than once. I myself have a stack of rejection letters. It comes with the territory.
A plot seems like a straightforward thing, even when that plot is complex. A leads to B which leads to C and so on. It’s kind of like driving a car down a road with no forks. The road may meander a little, but you don’t really get lost.
But that analogy only applies to a finished plot. Developing a plot is another story entirely. It’s more like climbing a mountain that changes constantly. You lose your footing and suddenly you’re back where you started and the path ahead has altered. Creating the entire arc of your story takes commitment and just a little bit of luck.
Starting the Arc of Your Plot
I, like many writers, have the most difficulty with that opening chapter, the very beginning of my plot, the very base of the mountain. It can be difficult to know exactly where to begin. You need to grab your readers, get them interested so they’ll keep reading, but without confusing them so much that they put the book down. Picking out your first plot point can be a frustrating experience.
There are many ways to engage the reader. You can (and usually should) start with some piece of action. This action could be physical, but it also could be an emotional, mental, or even spiritual conflict. You have to figure out where your story really beings so you can tell it well.
One problem that arises is that sometimes you really feel that you need to start your story in a spot that is almost devoid of action. This happens to me with distressing frequency. I often get the urge to start a story with exposition or just plain character development, which is contrary to what most authors do.
There are many ways to compensate for this little problem. My favorite is to simply add a prologue. This way, I can add some action that is relevant to the story without interrupting the arc of the story. This doesn’t work for every story. In fact, it rarely ever helps. Most of the time, you’ll still need to find that inciting incident to start with. Once you’ve got that, you can move on to the core of your story.
Building Suspense With Your Plot
A good book builds suspense. This is true regardless of the genre. You need to have a series of events that will eventually lead to the big crisis in the novel, a struggle to get to the top of the mountain. This can happen over a single chapter or it might be stretched out through 50,000 words. The point isn’t how long it takes for the characters in your novel to get there. It’s simply to get there.
For the most part, the suspense-building part of developing your plot is all about throwing up hurdles that your characters, and especially your protagonist, have to overcome. They don’t necessarily succeed. At least, not at this point in the story. And if they do succeed, be prepared to introduce a new complication, one that doesn’t get solved right away.
The Crisis of the Novel
Novels are based around conflict of some sort. You might find it difficult to really define the ultimate crisis of your story while you’re in the middle of developing your plot. Step back and remind yourself of your story arc. If we’re sticking with the mountain analogy, the crisis of the story would be the mountain itself. It’s the entire point of the story, the “big bad” as some people would say. The crisis will vary, of course, depending on the type of book you’re writing. If you’re writing sword and sorcery fantasy, the crisis might be an evil mage who captured the princess. Historical romance often involves a guy pursuing a girl, but the girl is … reluctant. Your crisis can be physical or emotional. It really depends on the type of story you’re creating.
Both of my examples sound a little cheesy and overdone, but in the hands of a talented author, they become a unique and interesting story. The trick to developing a plot that will engage and keep your readers is to never stray too far from the crisis, from the purpose of the story. One way to think about this stage of developing your plot is to come up with the absolutely worst thing that can happen to your characters. Put them in a situation that seems hopeless. This is crisis moment of your story.
The Climax of the Story
When you reach the top of the mountain, something has to happen. And that something had better be the climax of the story. If you’ve done your job as a writer, the climax of the story will happen quickly, not be drawn out over five or ten chapters (unless those chapters are relatively short).
This part of the novel can be described as the resolution of the crisis. Your protagonist can’t sit in that oubliette until the day he dies. Well, he can, but that wouldn’t make for much of a story unless the entire thing takes place in his head, which would make him just a little crazy. In almost all cases, you eventually have to let the story resolve.
The climax should be swift and logical. The protagonist can’t suddenly find the key in his pocket if it wasn’t there before. And if it was there, why didn’t he use it? Things have to make sense, especially the climax of your story. This is where you can turn readers off your work for good if you’re not careful.
Make sure that everything that happens here has been set up in some way, even if the reader didn’t realize it at the time. If a reader can look back through your book and pick out the clues that led to the climax, then you’ve developed your plot to the point where every piece of the puzzle makes sense at the end.
Resolving Your Story
You may have resolved the crisis, but in most cases, there will still be a little left to wrap up. You can’t leave your readers standing on the top of the mountain. You have to bring them down the other side and pull all the various parts of the story together.
This is where subplots and relationships can be resolved. If you had two characters that hated each other but grew close over the course of the story, here is where you can really make that point. Maybe all the confusion and action was really about a son’s need to separate himself from his overbearing mother. If that’s where the story started, you have to take it back there. Make your story come full circle and your readers will walk away satisfied.
If you’ve managed to navigate the intricacies of developing a cohesive plot, you should have a well-rounded story on your hands. Examine your plot and determine what approach you should use for writing the novel itself. If you’re the type of writer who likes to use a novel outline, the blueprint approach might be for you. Perhaps you’re more of a bits and pieces person. However you approach writing your story, keep the arc of your story in mind and you will soon have a finished product on your hands.
Writing a novel is never easy. This is especially true of writing a first book. For some, the easiest way to begin to write a novel is using the blueprint approach. During this approach, most writers will create a novel outline. Think of an outline as a road map to writing your novel. It will tell you where to start, keep you from getting lost, and eventually guide you to your destination. But just as there is a method to using a road map, so there is a method to using a novel outline.
Starting Your Story
If you’re sitting there staring at your novel outline and just can’t seem to get started, you probably have one of two problems. Either the novel outline doesn’t make sense, or you haven’t yet mastered the art of utilizing your outline. Remember that your outline is a guide. It’s not written in stone.
Your outline might indicate that your story starts in some dark alley, but that might not work in the long run. First of all, dark alleys are incredibly overdone, especially for the opening scene in the book. Okay, so your opening scene probably isn’t in a dark alley. But it still doesn’t work and you can’t figure out why. Study the outline to figure out what’s wrong and how to fix it.
Often you’re simply starting in the wrong place. There’s an old rule that states your novel should start with some point of conflict. This is a great rule, if it works for your particular story. For novels that are plot-driven, starting with a great piece of your plot is perfect.
However, if your novel is character-driven, that just might not work for you. You might need to start your story with some character development. Look closely at your outline and see if perhaps you can reorder the first few chapters or even add a chapter you hadn’t considered before. This might help you get started.
Don’t Throw Out Your Outline
It can be tempting to throw away that outline if you’ve found yourself altering it in the very first chapters. Don’t. Anytime I’ve thrown out even the most basic outline, I’ve come to regret it later. So, don’t throw it away unless it’s so far beyond redemption that nothing can be done. This is unlikely, considering you’ve only just started.
Instead, work with your outline. You must have thought that you had the makings of a good story when you wrote down the outline. It is most likely that you have all the basics. But, as with most writers, you might find that they’re in the wrong order. This is a good thing. It means you’ve got the story, but the pieces are out of order.
It usually helps to see your plot. So, if you’ve written that outline on a piece of paper, pull out your scissors. Cut out your basic plot points and treat the resulting pieces like a puzzle. Study them and rearrange until you come up with what works. Play “what-if” for a little while and add new pieces to your puzzle. You might even find that a dearly-loved piece of plot just won’t fit. If this happens, just keep that little jewel for your next book.
Using a Novel Outline to Navigate Your Plot
Now that you’ve got your outline in order, follow it through your novel. Let your novel flow and take shape, paying attention to the details you’ve laid out. If you’ve spent time developing and honing your outline, the process of connecting your basic plot points becomes easier. Still, the middle of a novel can be the most difficult to construct. But if you use your outline as a road map, you might find navigating through your plot becomes just a little easier.
Keep your newly-revised outline in front of you as you write. It will help you get from plot point to plot point without getting distracted. As you write, glance at your outline and find your place in the story. If you find that you’re drifting from your story for no particular reason, bring yourself back to your plot, using your outline to help you get back on track.
The first and most important purpose of your novel outline is to help keep you from straying from the core of your plot, and to get you back on track when you do. If you can use your novel outline effectively, you will find that any frustration you might have encountered is alleviated and writing your book becomes an relaxing and exciting exercise.
If, when writing a novel, your biggest problem is finding the time to writing the thing, then you’re probably best served by using the bits and pieces approach. However, if you’re like so many people, the problem isn’t that you don’t have time. It’s that you never quite seem to finish anything. You lose interest and move on to another story. There will always be another story.
However, part of writing that first novel is being able to finish it. This is difficult for many, but it is a necessity if you want to call yourself a novelist. If you find yourself flitting from project to project without really accomplishing anything, you might want to consider the blueprint approach to writing a novel.
Clarifying Your Idea
An architect doesn’t just scratch out a blueprint. He has to think and plan. The blueprint method of writing a novel is similar. You need a firm idea before you begin. If you want to write a novel, you probably already have a basic idea. Perhaps you’ve even started writing the thing and just can’t seem to finish it. If so, revisit the project by clarifying the general arc of the story in a single thought. A sentence or two if you can manage it will help.
You might be asking why you would want to boil down the plot of an entire novel to a single sentence. The answer is simple: it helps to make the idea behind your story clear in your own mind. If you don’t know where your story’s going, you can’t get there. Well, you can, but the route is infinitely complex. Without a firm goal, it’s easy to ramble and eventually abandon the project.
If you really can’t clarify your ideas, then you might have to tweak the idea a little, or tackle a different project altogether.
Expand on Your Idea
Now that you have your basic idea, it’s time to expand it into something larger. Not a novel just yet, but a decent blueprint which will enable you to create a novel. Take your single thought or sentence and elaborate a little, adding the conflict that will form the basis of the novel itself. Make sure you include all the major stuff, including hurdles along the way and how the entire thing eventually resolves itself.
From here, you can, if you wish, draw yourself a novel outline. Personally, I find novel outlines incredibly annoying. I find myself fiddling with the outline instead of actually writing my story. But, for many people, a basic outline does have its advantages. It can help you stay on track and prevent you from rambling, which is the entire point of the blueprint approach. So, if you think you’ll benefit from an outline, now is the time to create one.
Add Some Characters
Now that you know what happens, you need to know who’s involved. As you’ve thought about your novel, you’ve probably already developed your basic characters to some extent. If this is the case, you might only have to fill in the gaps. Outline the details of each main character. Only the main characters. Developing individual stories for a hundred characters is stressful and unnecessary. Stick to just the basics, your antagonist, protagonist, and anyone who plays a significant role in your novel.
Take the time to determination the motivations for each of your characters. For example, in the novel I’ve recently completed, I have several characters, each of them with their own goals and motivations. The protagonist wants only to discover who he is outside of his father’s shadow. There’s also a girl who wants to free her people and a boy who wants to keep his closest friend safe. Then there’s the antagonist. All he wants out of life is to kill all three of them and not lose his slaves. Obviously his goals clash with the goals of everyone else. This is where the fun is, at least from the perspective of a writer.
Finishing the Novel
At this point, you should have a good grasp of your plot and your major characters. Now you have to decide if you should add more details to your outline or start writing. Either way, you’ll have a blueprint that you can follow through to completion. Write your first draft, but don’t be afraid to change something if it just doesn’t work.
Keep your eyes on your major plot points. Figure out how to get your characters to these points, deal with them, and move past them. Let these scenes come together to form a cohesive whole. If you have to rearrange them, do so. You probably will find that in order to get your novel to flow smoothly and logically, you have to do some tweaking. This is okay. It means you’re getting somewhere.
If you’ve already established plot and characters, your first draft should come together with very few problems. I won’t say no problems. There are always little problems that crop up, even when you’re prepared. But, if you’ve planned everything out, at least to a minimal degree, you should be able to fire off a first draft.
At this point, you’re almost done. However, you still need to edit and possibly revise your manuscript. This isn’t as hard as it sounds, and if you planned your novel down to the smallest detail, you might find that you almost don’t have to revise it at all.
There’s much more to writing a novel, of course. But each writer will experience unique problems. In my case, my biggest problem tends to be characters who just won’t do as they’re told. They insist on running off and creating their own little side-plots. I know this sounds a little silly (I’m the writer, after all), but it happens with a regularity that dismays me.
Using the blueprint approach can help you to map out your story, in turn encouraging you to complete the novel. However, you still have to sit down and write the thing. Carve out blocks of time, get your story straight, and soon you’ll be well on your way to writing your first book. Of course, you could always take my best friend’s advice: “Why don’t you just hire a ghostwriter to complete it for you?”
