There are hundreds of different writing techniques, and different techniques help different authors. There are techniques specific to authors of non-fiction, memoirs, poetry, children's books, and screenplays. But novelists and fiction writers are as unique as any of the others and have techniques specific to them. But how do you really narrow it down and decide which fiction writing method will best fit you?
The best answer is simply to experiment. This will help you discover how best to put pen to paper. I obviously can't cover all fiction writing techniques, but I can give you an overview, a place to start. Alter and adapt these techniques to suit you own style. Then get started and create that novel that's sitting inside you.
General Fiction Writing Techniques
Novels aren't the only type of fiction, though they are my favorite. You might be writing short stories or even flash fiction, and many techniques transpose from one type of fiction to another. Some techniques will fit best with a specific genre, others can be used for any fiction genre at all.
If you're writing science fiction, fantasy, or historical fiction, you might want to try time-stretching. This technique is simply writing as if you're years away from the action. Perhaps your story is happening hundreds of years in the future or the past. Look at most fiction and you'll see that you're fairly close to the action. Being more removed can change it up a bit and make your story stand out. Think about it for a little while, put yourself in the right mindset, and this technique becomes more than a little interesting. But a word of caution: don't just jump into this technique. Use it sparingly at first, perhaps just in flashbacks or in a prologue or epilogue. Once you've got a handle on it, expand its use. It can be tricky to master time-stretching, so practice until you've got it.
Need something a little more generic? How about descriptive writing? And I don't mean the kind of descriptive writing you learned in high school. I mean descriptive writing that draws the audience into your world. The sensory descriptions that make your words pop off the page and surround the reader. Engage the five senses, but don't bore the reader. Don't go on and on about the lustrous sheen of the marble. Say it once, say it well, and move on. But if you treat every scene as a new opportunity to surround the reader with the environment you've created, you'll soon have a beautifully crafted work of fiction on your hands.
And what if you're having trouble getting started? This happens to everyone. You're all ready to go, all ready to write your story, and ... nothing. Been there. Try writing exercises and prompts to get your juices flowing. Once they're flowing, keep them flowing, and don't get distracted.
Novel Writing Techniques
Writing a novel is much like writing most fiction. Except for the length. The sheer size of a novel has stalled more than one aspiring novelist before the thing ever got finished. Finishing that novel is less about specific writing techniques as it is about just getting to the finish line without falling over in exhaustion.
Try keeping a writing journal. Oh, I can hear the groans now. Yes, I know it sounds like I'm suddenly your high school English teacher. But journals really do work. Keep track of your progress. Write down your word count. Track your plot. As you see your progress boiled down to a few sentences, you could find yourself more motivated to keep going. It's a long way, but you will eventually get there.
By that same token, set goals. Tell yourself that you're going to write X number of words every day. I write 5000, but I'm a writer by profession. Maybe you'll want to start with 500 words a day, 5 days a week. Or 200 words. Whatever. But make sure you keep these promises you make to yourself. If you let yourself ignore your goals for one day, it becomes easier to ignore them the next.
Genre has nothing to do with these little tips. All writing can be improved by a willingness to keep going. Keep the end in sight and your novel will slowly take shape.
Supplemental Writing Activities
Some of the things that help me improve my writing actually involve very little real writing, at least as far as the story is concerned. I write fantasy fiction, so not all of these will be applicable to you. But fantasy is by its very nature an act of creation, from the world my characters exist in to the creatures they interact with.
I start with creating the world itself. High fantasy, by definition, takes place in a different realm, not in the world we live in. Therefore, I have to create everything from scratch. I sketch out maps (even though I'm the worlds worst artist), then transform those sketches into words. I describe mountain ranges, cities, rivers ... whatever happens to be on the map. And I keep these descriptions in a folder. This lets me take a shortcut later. I can pull out the descriptions and slip them into my books.
Characters get the same treatment, but since I can't draw, I look for pictures that look like the people in my books. My sketches look more like stick people, so writing everything out and searching for pictures works best for me. If you're a better artist, you might be able to actually draw your own characters.
These relatively minor techniques help me, both when I'm first starting a new novel and as I progress through the story. But you should use whatever techniques work for you. Don't let anyone tell you what techniques you should use. And don't fret over trends or what anyone else is doing. These things come and go. Just do what works for you.
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?”
There’s no doubt that writing a novel is intimidating for many people. Staring at a blank computer screen and knowing that you have to get your word count to around 100,000 can freeze even veteran writers. The very idea of finishing a novel (writing it, not reading it) can strike terror into the heart of a novice writer. But if you want to write a novel, you’ll have to find a way to get it done. Instead of being frightened by the entire idea of writing a novel, you can try to break it into more manageable amounts.
Break Your Novel Into Chunks
It is far easier to write a chapter than it is to write a novel. Writing a single scene or a little piece of dialogue is easier still. The entire novel might seem like far more than you can possibly manage, but if you break it all down into chunks that you can tackle, you’ll eventually find yourself with a completed novel.
When you sit down at your computer (or pull out pen and paper if that’s your chosen medium), don’t tell yourself that you have to finish this novel. Your mind might rebel and you’ll find yourself just staring at the screen. Concentrate on what’s directly in front of you. Focus on getting through this scene, or that piece of dialogue, or even a single paragraph. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
This is especially effective if you have only small blocks of time to write. If you only have fifteen minutes, you probably should focus on the small things. One paragraph at a time. If you have an hour, you might be able to take things one chapter at a time. Use your available time to judge what your chunks should be.
Write on a Deadline
Deadlines are wonderful motivators. Having a firm deadline forces you to get something done. Even if you procrastinate, that deadline looms before you, making you finish something on time. Impose deadlines on yourself for getting your novel done. You’ll be surprised by how much you can get finished.
When setting a deadline, be realistic and remember those little chunks you’ve broken the novel down into. Set deadlines based on those little chunks. Maybe you want to get a chapter done a week. Or in two weeks. Some novelists aim for a chapter a day. The exact timeframe isn’t that important. Focus on simply setting deadlines you can keep.
Whatever your deadline is, stick to it. If you have trouble holding yourself to your own deadlines, have someone else hold you accountable. A close friend or partner might be willing to check up on you and even pester you into sticking to your own deadlines.
Writing novels can be a little scary. Don’t try to tackle the whole thing at once. Set goals, break it down into smaller pieces, and even consider practicing your craft using short stories. In no time at all you’ll be on your way towards writing your first book.
