methods of novel writing

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Jun 23, 2023

How to Write a Novel: 13-Steps From a Bestselling Writer [+Templates]

This post is written by author, editor, and ghostwriter Tom Bromley. He is the instructor of Reedsy's 101-day course, How to Write a Novel .

Writing a novel is an exhilarating and daunting process. How do you go about transforming a simple idea into a powerful narrative that grips readers from start to finish? Crafting a long-form narrative can be challenging, and it requires skillfully weaving together various story elements.

In this article, we will break down the major steps of novel writing into manageable pieces, organized into three categories — before, during, and after you write your manuscript.

How to write a novel in 13 steps:

1. Pick a story idea with novel potential

2. develop your main characters, 3. establish a central conflict and stakes, 4. write a logline or synopsis, 5. structure your plot, 6. pick a point of view, 7. choose a setting that benefits your story , 8. establish a writing routine, 9. shut out your inner editor, 10. revise and rewrite your first draft, 11. share it with your first readers, 12. professionally edit your manuscript, 13. publish your novel.

Every story starts with an idea.

You might be lucky, like JRR Tolkien, who was marking exam papers when a thought popped into his head: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ You might be like Jennifer Egan, who saw a wallet left in a public bathroom and imagined the repercussions of a character stealing it, which set the Pulitzer prize-winner A Visit From the Goon Squad in process. Or you might follow Khaled Hosseini, whose The Kite Runner was sparked by watching a news report on TV.

Many novelists I know keep a notebook of ideas both large and small 一 sometimes the idea they pick up on they’ll have had much earlier, but whatever reason, now feels the time to write it. Certainly, the more ideas you have, the more options you’ll have to write. 

✍️ Need a little inspiration? Check our list of 30+ story ideas for fiction writing , our list of 300+ writing prompts , or even our plot generator .

Is your idea novel-worthy?

How do you know if what you’ve got is the inspiration for a novel, rather than a short story or a novella ? There’s no definitive answer here, but there are two things to look out for 

Firstly, a novel allows you the space to show how a character changes over time, whereas a short story is often more about a vignette or an individual moment. Secondly, if an idea is fit for a novel, it’ll nag away at you: a thread asking to be pulled to see where it goes. If you find yourself coming back to an idea, then that’s probably one to explore.

I expand on how to cultivate and nurture your ‘idea seeds’ in my free 10-day course on novel writing. 

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Another starting point (or essential element) for writing a novel will come in the form of the people who will populate your stories: the protagonists. 

My rule of thumb in writing is that a reader will read on for one of two reasons: either they care about the characters , or they want to know what happens next (or, in an ideal world, both). Now different people will tell you that character or plot are the most important element when writing. 

In truth, it’s a bit more complicated than that: in a good novel, the main character or protagonist should shape the plot, and the plot should shape the protagonist. So you need both core elements in there, and those two core elements are entwined rather than being separate entities. 

Characters matter because when written well, readers become invested in what happens to them. You can develop the most brilliant, twisty narrative, but if the reader doesn’t care how the protagonist ends up, you’re in trouble as a writer. 

As we said above, one of the strengths of the novel is that it gives you the space to show how characters change over time. How do characters change? 

Firstly, they do so by being put in a position where they have to make decisions, difficult decisions, and difficult decisions with consequences . That’s how we find out who they really are. 

Secondly, they need to start from somewhere where they need to change: give them flaws, vulnerabilities, and foibles for them to overcome. This is what makes them human — and the reason why readers respond to and care about them.

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As said earlier, it’s important to have both a great character and an interesting plot, which you can develop by making your character face some adversities.

That drama in the novel is usually built around some sort of central conflict . This conflict creates a dramatic tension that compels the reader to read on. They want to see the outcome of that conflict resolved: the ultimate resolution of the conflict (hopefully) creates a satisfying ending to the narrative.

A character changes, as we said above, when they are put in a position of making decisions with consequences. Those consequences are important. It isn’t enough for a character to have a goal or a dream or something they need to achieve (to slay the dragon): there also needs to be consequences if they don’t get what they’re after (the dragon burns their house down). Upping the stakes heightens the drama all round.

Now you have enough ingredients to start writing your novel, but before you do that, it can be useful to tighten them all up into a synopsis. 

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So far you’ve got your story idea, your central characters and your sense of conflict and stakes. Now is the time to distill this down into a narrative. Different writers approach this planning stage in different ways, as we’ll come to in a moment, but for anyone starting a novel, having a clear sense of what is at the heart of your story is crucial. 

There are a lot of different terms used here 一 pitch, elevator pitch , logline, shoutline, or the hook of your synopsis 一 but whatever the terminology the idea remains the same. This is to summarize your story in as few words as possible: a couple of dozen words, say, or perhaps a single sentence. 

This exercise will force you to think about what your novel is fundamentally about. What is the conflict at the core of the story? What are the challenges facing your main protagonist? What do they have at stake? 

📚 Check out these 48 irresistible  book hook examples  and get inspired to craft your own.

If you need some help, as you go through the steps in this guide, you can fill in this template:

My story is a [genre] novel. It’s told from [perspective] and is set in [place and time period] . It follows [protagonist] , who wants [goal] because [motivation] . But [conflict] doesn’t make that easy, putting [stake] at risk.

It's not an easy thing to do, to write this summarising sentence or two. In fact, they might be the most difficult sentences to get down in the whole writing process. But it is really useful in helping you to clarify what your book is about before you begin. When you’re stuck in the middle of the writing, it will be there for you to refer back to. And further down the line, when you’ve finished the novel, it will prove invaluable in pitching to agents , publishers, and readers. 

📼 Learn more about the process of writing a logline from professional editor Jeff Lyons. 

Another particularly important step to prepare for the writing part, is to outline your plot into different key story points. 

There’s no right answer here as to how much planning you should do before you write: it very much depends on the sort of writer you are. Some writers find planning out their novel before start gives them confidence and reassurance knowing where their book is going to go. But others find this level of detail restrictive: they’re driven more by the freedom of discovering where the writing might take them. 

This is sometimes described as a debate between ‘planners’ and ‘pantsers’ (those who fly by the seat of their pants). In reality, most writers sit somewhere on a sliding scale between the two extremes. Find your sweet spot and go from there!

If you’re a planning type, there’s plenty of established story structures out there to build your story around. Popular theories include the Save the Cat model and Christopher Vogler’s Hero’s Journey . Then there are books such as Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots , which suggests that all stories are one of, well, you can probably work that out.

Whatever the structure, most stories follow the underlying principle of having a beginning, middle and end (and one that usually results in a process of change). So even if you’re ‘pantsing’ rather than planning, it’s helpful to know your direction of travel, though you might not yet know how your story is going to get there. 

How to Plot a Novel in Three Acts

In 10 days, learn how to plot a novel that keeps readers hooked

Finally, remember what we said earlier about plot and character being entwined: your character’s journey shouldn’t be separate to what happens in the story. Indeed, sometimes it can be helpful to work out the character’s journey of change first, and shape the plot around that, rather than the other way round. 

Now, let’s consider which perspective you’re going to write your story from. 

However much plotting you decide to do before you start writing, there are two further elements to think about before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). The first one is to think about which point of view you’re going to tell your story from. It is worth thinking about this before you start writing because deciding to change midway through your story is a horribly thankless task (I speak from bitter personal experience!)

Understanding Point of View

Learn to master different POVs and choose the best for your story.

Although there might seem a large number of viewpoints you could tell your story from, in reality, most fiction is told from two points of view 一 first person (the ‘I’ form) and third person ‘close’ (he/she/they). ‘Close’ third person is when the story is witnessed from one character’s view at a time (as opposed to third person ‘omniscient’ where the story can drop into lots of people’s thoughts).

Both of these viewpoints have advantages and disadvantages. First person is usually better for intimacy and getting into character’s thoughts: the flip side is that its voice can feel a bit claustrophobic and restrictive in the storytelling. Third person close offers you more options and more space to tell your story: but can feel less intimate as a result. 

There’s no right and wrong here in terms of which is the ‘best’ viewpoint. It depends on the particular demands of the story that you are wanting to write. And it also depends on what you most feel comfortable writing in. It can be a useful exercise to write a short section in both viewpoints to see which feels the best fit for you before starting to write. 

Which POV is right for your book?

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Besides choosing a point of view, consider the setting you’re going to place your story in.

The final element to consider before beginning your story is to think about where your story is going to be located . Settings play a surprisingly important part in bringing a story to life. When done well, they add in mood and atmosphere, and can act almost like an additional character in your novel.

There are many questions to consider here. And again, it depends a bit on the demands of the story that you are writing. 

Is your setting going to a real place, a fictional one, or a real place with fictional elements? Is it going to be set in the present day, the past, or at an unspecified time? Are you going to set your story in somewhere you know, or need to research to capture properly? Finally, is your setting suited to the story you are telling, and serve to accentuate it, rather than just acting as a backdrop?

If you’re writing a novel in genres such as fantasy or science fiction , then you may well need to go into some additional world-building as well before you start writing. Here, you may have to consider everything from the rules and mores of society to the existence of magical powers, fantastic beasts, extraterrestrials, and futuristic technology. All of these can have a bearing on the story, so it is better to have a clear setup in your head before you start to write.

The Ultimate Worldbuilding Template

130 questions to help create a world readers want to visit again and again.

Whether your story is set in central London or the outer rings of the solar system, some elements of the descriptive detail remain the same. Think about the use of all the different senses — the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of where you’re writing about. Those sorts of small details can help to bring any setting to life, from the familiar to the imaginary. 

Alright, enough brainstorming and planning. It’s time to let the words flow on the page. 

Having done your prep — or as much prep and planning as you feel you need — it’s time to get down to business and write the thing. Getting a full draft of a novel is no easy task, but you can help yourself by setting out some goals before you start writing.

Firstly, think about how you write best. Are you a morning person or an evening person? Would you write better at home or out and about, in a café or a library, say? Do you need silence to write, or musical encouragement to get the juices flowing? Are you a regular writer, chipping away at the novel day by day, or more of a weekend splurger?

How to Build a Solid Writing Routine

In 10 days, learn to change your habits to support your writing.

I’d always be wary of anyone who tells you how you should be writing. Find a routine and a setup that works for you . That might not always be the obvious one: the crime writer Jo Nesbø spent a while creating the perfect writing room but discovered he couldn’t write there and ended up in the café around the corner.

You might not keep the same way of writing throughout the novel: routines can help, but they can also become monotonous. You may need to find a way to shake things up to keep going.

Deadlines help here. If you’re writing a 75,000-word novel, then working at a pace of 5,000 words a week will take you 15 weeks (Monday to Friday, that’s 1000 words a day). Half the pace will take twice as long. Set yourself a realistic deadline to finish the book (and key points along the way). Without a deadline, the writing can end up drifting, but it needs to be realistic to avoid giving yourself a hard time. 

In my experience, writing speeds vary. I tend to start quite slowly on a book, and speed up towards the end. There are times when the tap is open, and the words are pouring out: make the most of those moments. There are times, too, when each extra sentence feels like torture: don’t beat yourself up here. Be kind to yourself: it’s a big, demanding project you’re undertaking.

Speaking of self-compassion, a word on that harsh editor inside your mind…

The other important piece of advice is to continue writing forward. It is very easy, and very tempting, to go back over what you’ve written and give it a quick edit. Once you start down that slippery slope, you end up rewriting and reworking the same scene and never get any further forwards in the text. I know of writers who spent months perfecting their first chapter before writing on, only to delete that beginning as the demands of the story changed.

The first draft of your novel isn’t about perfection; it’s about getting the words down. One writer I work with calls it the ‘vomit draft’ — getting everything out and onto the page. It’s only once you’ve got a full manuscript down that you can see your ideas in context and have the capacity to edit everything properly. So as much as your inner editor might be calling you, resist! They’ll have their moment in the sun later on. For now, it’s about getting a complete version down, that you can go on to work with and shape. 

By now, you’ve reached the end of your first draft (we might be glossing over the hard writing part just a little here: if you want more detail and help on how to get through to the end of your draft, our How to Write A Novel course is warmly recommended). 

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Reaching the end of your first draft is an important milestone in the journey of a book. Sadly for those who feel that this is the end of the story, it’s actually more of a stepping stone than the finish line.

In some ways, now the hard work begins. The difference between wannabe writers and those who get published can often be found in the amount of rewriting done. Professional writers will go back and back over what they’ve written, honing what they’ve created until the text is as tight and taut as it is possible to be.

How do you go about achieving this? The first thing to do upon finishing is to put the manuscript in a drawer. Leave it for a month or six weeks before you come back to it. That way, you’ll return the script with a fresh pair of eyes. Read it back through and be honest about what works and what doesn’t. As you read the script, think in particular about pace: are there sections in the novel that are too fast or too slow? Avoid the trap of the saggy middle . Then consider: is your character arc complete and coherent? Look at the big-picture stuff first before you tackle the smaller details. 

Edit your novel closely

On that note, here are a few things you might want to keep an eye out for:

Show, don’t tell. Sometimes, you just need to state something matter-of-factly in your novel, that’s fine. But, as much as you can, try to illustrate a point instead of just stating it . Keep in mind the words of Anton Chekhov: “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass."

“Said” is your friend. When it comes to dialogue, there can be the temptation to spice things up a bit by using tags like “exclaimed,” “asserted,” or “remarked.” And while there might be a time and place for these, 90% of the time, “said” is the best tag to use. Anything else can feel distracting or forced. 

Stay away from purple prose. Purple prose is overly embellished language that doesn’t add much to the story. It convolutes the intended message and can be a real turn-off for readers.

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Once you feel it’s good enough for other people to lay their eyes on it, it’s time to ask for feedback.

Writing a novel is a two-way process: there’s you, the writer, and there’s the intended audience, the reader. The only way that you can find out if what you’ve written is successful is to ask people to read and get feedback.

Think about when to ask for feedback and who to ask it from. There are moments in the writing when feedback is useful and others where it gets in the way. To save time, I often ask for feedback in those six weeks when the script is in the drawer (though I don’t look at those comments until I’ve read back myself first). The best people to ask for feedback are fellow writers and beta readers : they know what you’re going through and will also be most likely to offer you constructive feedback. 

Also, consider working with sensitivity readers if you are writing about a place or culture outside your own. Friends and family can also be useful but are a riskier proposition: they might be really helpful, but equally, they might just tell you it’s great or terrible, neither of which is overly useful.

Feedbacking works best when you can find at least a few people to read, and you can pool their comments. My rule is that if more than one person is saying the same thing, they are probably right. If only one person is saying something, then you have a judgment call to make as to whether to take those comments further (though usually, you’ll know in your gut whether they are right or not.)

Overall, the best feedback you can receive is that of a professional editor…

Once you’ve completed your rewrites and taken in comments from your chosen feedbackers, it’s time to take a deep breath and seek outside opinions. What happens next here depends on which route you want to take to market:

If you want to go down the traditional publishing route , you’ll probably need to get a literary agent, which we’ll discuss in a moment.

If you’re going down the self-publishing route , you’ll need to do what would be done in a traditional publishing house and take your book through the editing process. This normally happens in three stages. 

Developmental editing. The first of these is to work with a development editor , who will read and critique your work primarily from a structural point of view. 

Copy-editing. Secondly, the book must be copy-edited , where an editor works more closely, line-by-line, on the script. 

Proofreading. Finally, usually once the script has been typeset, then the material should be professionally proofread , to spot any final mistakes or orrors. Sorry, errors!

Finding such people can sound like a daunting task. But fear not! Here at Reedsy, we have a fantastic fleet of editors of all shapes, sizes, and experiences. So whatever your needs or requirements, we should be able to pair you with an editor to suit.

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Now that you’ve ironed out all the wrinkles of your manuscript, it’s time to release it into the wild.

For those thinking about going the traditional publishing route , now’s the time for you to get to work. Most trade publishers will only accept work from a literary agent, so you’ll need to find a suitable literary agent to represent your work. 

The querying process is not always straightforward: it involves research, waiting and often a lot of rejections until you find the right person (I was rejected by 24 agents before I found my first agent). Usually, an agent will ask to see a synopsis and the first three chapters (check their websites for submission details). If they like what they read, they’ll ask to see the whole thing. 

If you’re self-publishing, you’ll need to think about getting your finished manuscript to market. You’ll need to get it typeset (laid out in book form) and find a cover designer . Do you want to sell printed copies or just ebooks? You’ll need to work out how to work Amazon , where a lot of your sales will come from, and also how you’ll market your book .

For those picked up by a traditional publisher, all the editing steps discussed will take place in-house. That might sound like a smoother process, but the flip side can be less control over the process: a publisher may have the final say in the cover or the title, and lead times (when the book is published) are usually much longer. So it’s worth thinking about which route to market works best for you.

Finally, you’re a published author! Congratulations. Now all you have to do is think about writing the next one… 

As an editor and publisher, Tom has worked on several hundred titles, again including many prize-winners and international bestsellers. 

8 responses

Sasha Winslow says:

14/05/2019 – 02:56

I started writing in February 2019. It was random, but there was an urge to the story I wanted to write. At first, I was all over the place. I knew the genre I wanted to write was Fantasy ( YA or Adult). That has been my only solid starting point the genre. From February to now, I've changed my story so many times, but I am happy to say by giving my characters names I kept them. I write this all to say is thank you for this comprehensive step by step. Definitely see where my issues are and ways to fix it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Evelyn P. Norris says:

30/10/2019 – 14:18

My number one tip is to write in order. If you have a good idea for a future scene, write down the idea for the scene, but do NOT write it ahead of time. That's a major cause of writer's block that I discovered. Write sequentially. :) If you can't help yourself, make sure you at least write it in a different document, and just ignore that scene until you actually get to that part of the novel

Allen P. Wilkinson says:

28/01/2020 – 04:51

How can we take your advice seriously when you don’t even know the difference between stationary and stationery? Makes me wonder how competent your copy editors are.

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

29/01/2020 – 15:37

Thanks for spotting the typo!

↪️ Chris Waite replied:

14/02/2020 – 13:17

IF you're referring to their use of 'stationery' under the section '1. Nail down the story idea' (it's the only reference on this page) then the fact that YOU don't know the difference between stationery and stationary and then bother to tell the author of this brilliant blog how useless they must be when it's YOU that is the thicko tells me everything I need to know about you and your use of a middle initial. Bellend springs to mind.

Sapei shimrah says:

18/03/2020 – 13:59

Thanks i will start writing now

Jeremy says:

25/03/2020 – 22:41

I’ve run the gamut between plotter and pantser, but lately I’ve settled on in-depth plotting before my novels. It’s hard for me to do focus wise, but I’m finding I’m spending less time in writer’s block. What trips me up more is finding the right voice for my characters. I’m currently working on a sci-fi YA novel and using the Save the Cat beat sheet for structure for the first time. Thank you for the article!

Nick Girdwood says:

29/04/2020 – 10:32

Can you not write a story without some huge theme?

Comments are currently closed.

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How to Write a Novel (Without Fail): The Ultimate 20-Step Guide

by Joe Bunting | 0 comments

Want to Become a Published Author? In 100 Day Book, you’ll finish your book guaranteed. Learn more and sign up here.

What if you could learn how to write a novel without fail? What if you had a process so foolproof, you knew you would finish no matter what writer's block throws at you? The zombie apocalypse could finally strike and you’d still face the blank page to finish your novel.

Every day I talk to writers who don’t know how to write a novel. They worry they don’t have what it takes, and honestly, they’re right to worry.

Writing a novel, especially for the first time, is hard work, and the desk drawers and hard drives of many a great writer are filled with the skeletons of incomplete and failed books.

The good news is you don't have to be one of those failed writers.

You can be a writer that writes to the end.

You can be the kind of writer who masters how to write a novel.

Table of Contents

Looking for something specific? Jump straight to it here:

1. Get a great idea 2. Write your idea as a premise 3. Set a deadline 4. Set smaller deadlines building to the final deadline 5. Create a consequence 6. Strive for “good enough” and embrace imperfection 7. Figure out what kind of story you’re trying to tell 8. Read novels and watch films that are similar to yours 9. Structure, structure, structure! 10. Find the climactic moment in your novel 11. Consider the conventions 12. Set your intention 13. Picture your reader 14. Build your team 15. Plan the publishing process 16. Write (with low expectations) 17. Trust the process and don’t quit 118. Keep going, even when it hurts 19. Finish Draft One . . . then onward to the next 20. Draft 2, 3, 4, 5 Writers’ Best Tips on How to Write a Novel FAQ

My Journey to Learn How to Write a Novel

My name is Joe Bunting .

I used to worry I would never write a novel. Growing up, I dreamed about becoming a great novelist, writing books like the ones I loved to read. I had even tried writing novels, but I failed again and again.

So I decided to study creative writing in college. I wrote poems and short stories. I read books on writing. I earned an expensive degree.

But still, I didn’t know how to write a novel.

After college I started blogging, which led to a few gigs at a local newspaper and then a national magazine. I got a chance to ghostwrite a nonfiction book (and get paid for it!). I became a full-time, professional writer.

But even after writing a few books, I worried I didn’t have what it takes to write a novel. Novels just seemed different, harder somehow. No writing advice seemed to make it less daunting. 

Maybe it was because they were so precious to me, but while writing a nonfiction book no longer intimidated me—writing a novel terrified me.

Write a novel? I didn’t know how to do it.

Until, one year later, I decided it was time. I needed to stop stalling and finally take on the process.

I crafted a plan to finish a novel using everything I’d ever learned about the book writing process. Every trick, hack, and technique I knew.

And the process worked.

I finished my novel in 100 days.

Today, I’m a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of thirteen books, and I'm passionate about teaching writers how to write and finish their books. (FINISH being the key word here.)

I’ve taught this process to hundreds of other writers who have used it to draft and complete their novels.

And today, I'm going to teach my “how to write a novel” process to you, too. In twenty manageable steps !

As I do this, I’ll share the single best novel writing tips from thirty-seven other fiction writers that you can use in your novel writing journey—

All of which is now compiled and constructed into The Write Planner : our tangible planning guide for writers that gives you this entire process in a clear, actionable, and manageable way.

If you’ve ever felt discouraged about not finishing your novel, like I did, or afraid that you don’t have what it takes to build a writing career, I’m here to tell you that you can.

There's a way to make your writing easier.

Smarter, even.

You just need to have the “write” process.

How to Write a Novel: The Foolproof, 20-Step Plan

Below, I’m going to share a foolproof process that anyone can use to write a novel, the same process I used to write my novels and books, and that hundreds of other writers have used to finish their novels too.

1. Get a Great Idea

Maybe you have a novel idea already. Maybe you have twenty ideas.

If you do, that’s awesome. Now, do this for me: Pat yourself on the back, and then forget any feeling of joy or accomplishment you have.

Here’s the thing: an idea alone, even a great idea, is just the first baby step in writing your book. There are nineteen more steps, and almost all of them are more difficult than coming up with your initial idea.

I love what George R.R. Martin said:

“Ideas are useless. Execution is everything.”

You have an idea. Now learn how to execute, starting with step two.

(And if you don’t have a novel idea yet, here’s a list of 100 story ideas that will help, or you can view our genre specific lists here: sci-fi ideas , thriller ideas , mystery ideas , romance ideas , and fantasy ideas . You can also look at the Ten Best Novel Ideas here . Check those out, then choose an idea or make up one of your own, When you're ready, come back for step two.)

2. Write Your Idea As a Premise

Now that you have a novel idea , write it out as a single-sentence premise.

What is a premise, and why do you need one?

A premise distills your novel idea down to a single sentence. This sentence will guide your entire writing and publishing process from beginning to end. It hooks the reader and captures the high stakes (and other major details) that advance and challenge the protagonist and plot.

It can also be a bit like an elevator pitch for your book. If someone asks you what your novel is about, you can share your premise to explain your story—you don't need a lengthy description.

Also, a premise is the most important part of a query letter or book proposal, so a good premise can actually help you get published.

What’s an example of a novel premise ?

Here’s an example from The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum:

A young girl is swept away to a magical land by a tornado and must embark on a quest to see the wizard who can help her return home.

Do you see the hooks? Young girl, magical land, embark on a quest (to see the wizard)—and don't forget her goal to return home.

This premise example very clearly contains the three elements every premise needs in order to stand out:

• A protagonist described in two words, e.g. a young girl or a world-weary witch.
• A goal. What the protagonist wants or needs.
• A situation or crisis the protagonist must face.

Ready to write your premise? We have a free worksheet that will guide you through writing a publishable premise: Download the worksheet here.

3. Set a Deadline

Before you do anything else, you need to set a deadline for when you’re going to finish the first draft of your novel.

Stephen King said a first draft should be written in no more than a season, so ninety days. National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, exists to encourage people to write a book in just thirty days.

In our 100 Day Book Program, we give people a little longer than that, 100 days, which seems like a good length of time for most people (me included!).

I recommend setting your deadline no longer than four months. If it’s longer than that, you’ll procrastinate. A good length of time to write a book is something that makes you a little nervous, but not outright terrified.

Mark the deadline date in your calendar, kneel on the floor, close your eyes, and make a vow to yourself and your book idea that you will write the first draft novel by then, no matter what.

4. Set Smaller Deadlines Building to the Final Deadline

A novel can’t be written in a day. There’s no way to “cram” for a novel. The key to writing (and finishing) a novel is to make a little progress every day.

If you write a thousand words a day, something most people are capable of doing in an hour or two, for 100 days , by the end you’ll have a 100,000 word novel—which is a pretty long novel!

So set smaller, weekly deadlines that break up your book into pieces. I recommend trying to write 5,000 to 6,000 words per week by each Friday or Sunday, whichever works best for you. Your writing routine can be as flexible as you like, as long as you are hitting those smaller deadlines. 

If you can hit all of your weekly deadlines, you know you’ll make your final deadline at the end.

As long as you hold yourself accountable to your smaller, feasible, and prioritized writing benchmarks.

5. Create a Consequence

You might think, “Setting a deadline is fine, but how do I actually hit my deadline?” Here’s a secret I learned from my friend Tim Grahl :

You need to create a consequence.

Try by taking these steps:

• Set your deadline.
• Write a check to an organization or nonprofit you hate (I did this during the 2016 U.S. presidential election by writing a check to the campaign of the candidate I liked least, whom shall remain nameless).
• Think of two other, minor consequences (like giving up your favorite TV show for a month or having to buy ice cream for everyone at work).
• Give your check, plus your list of two minor consequences, to a friend you trust with firm instructions to hold you to your consequences if you don’t meet your deadlines.
• If you miss one of your weekly deadlines, suffer one of your minor consequences (e.g. give up your favorite TV show).
• If you miss THREE weekly deadlines OR if you miss the final deadline, send your check to that organization you hate.
• Finally, write! I promise that if you complete steps one through six, you'll be incredibly focused.

When I took these steps while writing my seventh book, I finished it in sixty-three days. Sixty-three days!

It was the most focused I’ve ever been in my life.

Writing a book is hard work. Setting reasonable consequences make it harder to NOT finish than to finish.

Watch me walk a Wattpad famous writer through this process:

6. Strive for “Good Enough” and Embrace Imperfection

The next few points are all about how to write a good story.

The reason we set a deadline before we consider how to write a story that stands out is because we could spend our entire lives learning how write a great story, but never actually write the actual story (and it’s in the writing process that you learn how to make your story great).

So learn how to make it great between writing sessions, but only good enough for the draft you’re currently writing. If you focus too much on this, it will ruin everything and you’ll never finish.

Writing a perfect novel, a novel like the one you have in your imagination, is an exercise in futility.

First drafts are inevitably horrible. Second drafts are a little better. Third drafts are better still.

But I'd bet none of these drafts approach the perfection that you built up in your head when you first considered your novel idea.

And yet, even if you know that, you’ll still try to write a perfect novel.

So remind yourself constantly, “This first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be good enough for now.”

And good enough for now, when you’re starting your first draft, just means you have words on a page that faintly resemble a story.

Writing is an iterative process. The purpose of your first draft is to have something you can improve in your second draft. Don’t overthink. Just do. (I’ll remind you of this later, in case you forget, and if you’re like me, you probably will.)

Ready to look at what makes a good story? Let’s jump into the next few points—but don’t forget your goal: to get your whole book, the complete story, on the page, no matter how messy your first draft reads.

7. Figure Out What Kind of Story You’re Trying to Tell

Now that you have a deadline, you can start to think more deeply about what your protagonist really wants.

A good story focuses primarily on just one core thing that the protagonist wants or needs, and the place where your protagonist’s want or need meets the reader’s expectations dictates your story's genre.

Plot type is a big subject, and for the purposes of this post, we don’t have time to fully explore it (check out my book The Write Structure here ).

But story type is about more than what shelf your book sits on at the bookstore.

The book type gets to the heart, the foundational values, of what your story is about. In my book The Write Structure , I define ten plot types, which correspond to six value scales. I’ll give an abbreviated version below:

External Values (What Your Protagonist Wants)

• Life vs. Death: Action, Adventure
• Life vs. a Fate Worse Than Death: Horror, Thriller, Mystery
• Love vs. Hate: Love, Romance
• Esteem: Performance, Sports

Internal Values (What Your Protagonist Needs)

Internal plot types work slightly different than external plot types. These are essential for your character's transformation from page one to the end and deal with either a character's shift in their black-and-white view, a character's moral compass, or a character's rise or fall in social status.

For more, check out The Write Structure .

The most common internal plot types are bulleted quickly below.

• Maturity/Sophistication vs. Immaturity/Naiveté: Coming of Age
• Good/Sacrifice vs. Evil/Selfishness: Morality, Temptation/Testing

Choosing Your External and Internal Plot Types Will Set You Up for Success

You can mix and match these genres to some extent. For your book to be commercially successful, you must have an external genre.

For your book to be considered more “character driven”—or a story that connects with the reader on a universal level—you should have an internal genre, too. (I highly recommend having both.)

You can also have a subplot. So that’s three genres that you can potentially incorporate into your novel.

For example, you might have an action plot with a love story subplot and a worldview education internal genre. Or a horror plot with a love story subplot and a morality internal genre. There’s a lot of room to maneuver.

Regardless of what you choose, the balance of the three will give your protagonist plenty of obstacles to face as they strive to achieve their goal from beginning to end. (For best results when you go to publish, though, make sure you have an external genre.)

If you want to have solid preparation to write you book, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of The Write Structure .

What two or three values are foundational to your story? Spend some time brainstorming what your book is really about. Even better, use our Write Structure worksheet to get to the heart of your story type.

8. Read Novels and Watch Films That Are Similar to Yours

“The hard truth is that books are made from books.”

I like to remember this quote from Cormac McCarthy when considering what my next novel is really about.

Now that you’ve thought about your novel's plot, it’s time to see how other great writers have pulled off the impossible and crafted a great story from the glimmer of an idea.

You might think, “My story is completely unique. There are no other stories similar to mine.”

If that’s you, then one small word of warning. If there are no books that are similar to yours, maybe there’s a reason for that.

Personally, I’ve read a lot of great books that were a lot of fun to read and were similar to other books. I’ve also read a lot of bad books that were completely unique.

Even precious, unique snowflakes look more or less like other snowflakes.

If you found your content genre in step three, select three to five novels and films that are in the same genre as yours and study them.

Don’t read/watch for pleasure. Instead, try to figure out the conventions, key scenes, and the way the author/filmmaker moves you through the story.

There's great strength in understanding how your story is the same but different.

9. STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE, STRUCTURE!

Those were the three words my college screenwriting professor, a successful Hollywood TV producer, wrote across the blackboard nearly every class. Your creative process doesn't matter without structure.

You can be a pantser , someone who writes by the seat of their pants.

You can be a plotter , someone who needs to have a detailed outline for each of the plot points in their novel.

You can even be a plantser , somewhere in between the two (like most writers, including me).

It doesn’t matter. You still have to know your story structure .

Here are a few important structural elements you’ll want to figure out for your novel before moving forward:

6 Key Moments of Story Structure

There are six required moments in every story, scene, and act. They are:

• Exposition : Introducing the world and the characters.
• Inciting incident : There’s a problem.
• Rising Action/Progressive complications : The problem gets worse, usually due to external conflict.
• Dilemma : The problem gets so bad that the character has no choice but to deal with it. Usually this happens off screen.
• Climax : The character makes their choice and the climax is the action that follows.
• Denouement : The problem is resolved (for now at least).

If you're unfamiliar with these terms, I recommend studying each of them, especially dilemma, which we'll talk about more in a moment. Mastering these will be a huge aid to your writing process.

For your first few scenes, try plotting out each of these six moments, focusing especially on the dilemma.

Better yet, download our story structure worksheet to guide you through the story structure process, from crafting your initial idea through to writing the synopsis.

I've included some more detailed thoughts (and must-knows) about structure briefly below:

Three Act Structure

The classic writing advice describes the three act structure well:

In the first act, put your character up a tree. In the second act, throw rocks at them. In the third act, bring them down.

Do you wonder whether you should use three act structure or five act structure? (Hint: you probably don't want to use the five act structure. Learn more about this type with our full guide on the five act structure here .)

Note that each of these acts should have the six key moments listed above.

The Dilemma

I mentioned the importance of a character undergoing a crisis, but it bears repeating since, for me, it completely transformed my writing process.

In every act, your protagonist must face an impossible choice. It is THIS choice that creates drama in your story. THIS is how your plot moves forward. If you don’t have a dilemma, if your character doesn’t choose, your scenes won’t work, nor will your acts or story.

In my writing, when I’m working on a first draft, I don’t focus on figuring out all five key moments every time (since I’ve internalized them by now), but I do try to figure out the crisis before I start writing .

I begin with that end in mind, and figure out how I can put the protagonist into a situation where they must make a difficult choice.

One that will have consequences even if they decide to do nothing.

When you do that, your scene works. When you don’t, it falls flat. The protagonist looks like a weak-willed observer of their own life, and ultimately your story will feel boring. Effective character development requires difficult choices.

Find the dilemma every time.

Write out a brief three-act outline with each of the six key moments for each act. It’s okay to leave those moments blank if you don’t know them right now. Fill in what you do know, and come back to it.

Point of View

Point of view, or POV, in a story refers to the narrator’s position in the description of events. There are four types of point of view, but there are only two main options used by most writers:

• Third-person limited point of view is the most common and easiest to use, especially for new writers. In this POV, the characters are referred to in third person (he/she/they) and the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings to a maximum of one character at a time (and likely one character for the duration of the narrative). You can read more about how to use third-person limited here .
• First-person point of view is also very common and only slightly more difficult. In this POV, the narrator is a character in the story and uses first person pronouns (I/me/mine/we/ours) and has access only to their own thoughts and feelings. This point of view requires an especially strong style, one that shows the narrator's distinct attitude and voice as they tell the story.

The third option is used much less common, though is still found occasionally, especially in older works:

• Third-person omniscient point of view is much more difficult to pull off well and isn't recommended for first time authors. In this POV, the characters are referred to in third-person (he/she/him/her/they/them), but the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of any and all characters at the same time. This is a difficult narrative to pull off because of how disorienting it can be for the reader. Readers are placed “in the heads” of so many characters, which can easily destroy the drama of a story because of the lack of mystery.

One final option:

• Second-person point of view is the most difficult to pull off and isn't recommended for most authors. In this POV, the characters are referred to in second person (you/your). This choice is rarely (although not never) found in novels.

Get The Write Structure here »

10. Find the Climactic Moment in Your Novel

Every great novel has a climactic moment that the whole story builds up to—it's the whole reason a reader purchases a book and reads it to the end.

In Moby Dick , it’s the final showdown with the white whale.

In Pride and Prejudice , it’s Lizzie accepting Mr. Darcy’s proposal after discovering the lengths he went to in order to save her family.

In the final Harry Potter novel (spoiler alert!), it’s Harry offering himself up as a sacrifice to Voldemort to destroy the final Horcrux.

To be clear, you don’t have to have your climactic moment all planned out before you start writing your book . (Although knowing this might make writing and finishing your novel easier and more focused.)

But it IS a good idea to know what novels and films similar to yours have done.

For example, if you’re writing a performance story about a violinist, as I am, you need to have some kind of big violin competition at the end of your book.

If you’re writing a police procedural crime novel, you need to have a scene where the detective unmasks the murderer and explains the rationale behind the murder.

Think about the climactic moment your novel builds up before the final showdown at the end. This climactic moment will usually occur in the climax of the second or third act.

If you know this, fill in your outline with the climactic moment, then write out the five key moments of the scene for that moment.

If you don’t know them, just leave them blank. You can always come back to it.

11. Consider the Conventions

Readers are sophisticated. They’ve been taking in stories for years, since they were children, and they have deep expectations for what should be in your story.

That means if you want readers to like your story, you need to meet and even exceed some of those expectations.

Stories do this constantly. We call them conventions, or tropes, and they’re patterns that storytellers throughout history have found make for a good story.

In the romantic comedy (love) genre, for example, there is almost always the sidekick best friend, some kind of love triangle, and a meet cute moment where the two potential lovers meet.

In the mystery genre, the story always begins with a murder, there are one or more red herrings , and there’s a final unveiling of the murder at the end.

Think through the three to five novels and films you read/watched. What conventions and tropes did they have in common?

12. Set Your Intention

You’re almost ready to start writing. Before you do, set your intention.

Researchers have found that when you’re trying to create a new habit, if you imagine where and when you will participate in that habit, you’re far more likely to follow through.

For your writing, imagine where, when, and how much you will write each day. For example, you might imagine that you will write 1,000 words at your favorite coffee shop each afternoon during your lunch break.

As you imagine, picture your location and the writing space clearly in your mind. Watch yourself sitting down to work, typing on your laptop. Imagine your word count tracker going from 999 to 1,002 words.

When it’s time to write , you’ll be ready to go do it.

13. Picture Your Reader

The definition of a story is a narrative meant to entertain, amuse, or instruct. That implies there is someone being entertained, amused, or instructed!

I think it’s helpful to picture one person in your mind as you write (instead of an entire target audience). Then, as you write, you can better understand what would interest, amuse, or instruct them.

By picturing them, you will end up writing better stories.

Create a reader avatar.

Choose someone you know, or make up someone who would love your story. Describe them in terms of demographics and interests. Consider the question, “Why would this reader love my novel?”

When you write, write for them.

14. Build Your Team

Most people think they can write a novel on their own, that they need to stick themselves in some cabin in upstate New York or an attic apartment in Paris and just focus on writing their novel for a few months or decades.

And that’s why most people fail to finish writing a book .

As I’ve studied the lives of great writers, I’ve found that they all had a team. None of them did it all on their own. They all had people who supported and encouraged them as they wrote.

A team can look like:

• An editor with a publishing house
• A writing group
• An author mentor or coach
• An online writing course or community

Whatever you find, if you want to finish your novel, don’t make the mistake of believing you can do it all on your own (or that you have to do it on your own).

Find a writing group. Take an online writing class . Or hire a developmental editor .

Whatever you do, don’t keep trying to do everything by yourself.

15. Plan the Publishing Process

One thing I’ve found is that when successful people take on a task, they think through every part of the process from beginning to end. They create a plan. Their plan might change, but starting with a plan gives them clear focus for what they’re setting out to accomplish.

Most of the steps we’ve been talking about in this post involve planning (writing is coming up next, don’t worry), but in your plan, it’s important to think through things all the way to the end—the publishing and marketing process.

So spend ten or twenty minutes dreaming about how you’ll publish your novel (self-publishing vs. traditional publishing) and how you’ll promote it (to your email list, on social media, via Amazon ads, etc.).

By brainstorming about the publishing and marketing process, you’ll make it much more likely to actually finish your novel because you're eager for (and know what you want to do when you're at) the end.

Have no idea how to get published? Check out our 10-step book publishing and launch guide here .

16. Write (With Low Expectations)

You’ve created a plan. You know what you’re going to write, when you’re going to write it, and how you’re going to write.

Now it’s time to actually write it.

Sit down at the blank page. Take a deep breath. Write your very first chapter.

Don’t forget, your first draft is supposed to be bad.

Write anyway.

17. Trust the Process and Don’t Quit

As I’ve trained writers through the novel writing process in our 100 Day Book Program, inevitably around day sixty, they tell me how hard the process is, how tired they are of their story, how they have a new idea for a novel, and they want to work on that instead.

“Don’t quit,” I tell them. Trust the process. You’re so much closer than you think.

Then, miraculously, two or three weeks later, they’re emailing me to say they’re about to finish their books. They’re so grateful they didn’t quit.

This is the process. This is how it always goes.

Just when you think you’re not going to make it, you’re almost there.

Just when you most want to quit, that’s when you’re closest to a breakthrough.

Trust the process. Don’t quit. You’re going to make it.

Just keep showing up and doing the work (and remember, doing the work means writing imperfectly).

18. Keep Going, Even When It Hurts

Appliances always break when you’re writing a book.

Someone always gets sick making writing nearly impossible (either you or your spouse or all your kids or all of the above).

One writer told us recently a high-speed car chase ended with the car crashing into a building close to her house.

I’m not superstitious, but stuff like this always happens when you’re writing a book.

Expect it. Things will not go according to plan. Major real life problems will occur.

It will be really hard to stay focused for weeks on end.

This is where it’s so important to have a team (step fourteen). When life happens, you’ll need someone to vent to, to encourage you, and to support you.

No matter what, write anyway. This is what separates you from all the aspiring writers out there. You do the work even when it’s hard.

Keep going.

19. Finish Draft One… Then Onward to the Next

I followed this process, and then one day, I realized I’d written the second to last scene. And then the next day, my novel was finished.

It felt kind of anticlimactic.

I had wanted to write a novel for years, more than a decade. I had done it. And it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought.

Amazing, without question.

But also just normal.

After all, I had been doing this, writing every day for ninety-nine days. Finishing was just another day.

But the journey itself? 100 days for writing a novel? That was amazing.

That was worth it.

And it will be worth it again and again.

Maybe it will be like that for you. You might finish your book and feel amazing and proud and relieved. You might also feel normal. It’s the difference between being an aspiring writer and being a real writer.

Real writers realize the joy is in the work, not in having a finished book .

When you get to this point, I just want to say, “Congratulations!”

You did it.

You finished a book. I’m so excited for you!

But also, as you will know when you get to this point, this is really just the beginning of your journey.

Your book isn’t nearly ready to publish yet.

So celebrate. Throw a party for yourself. Say thank you to all your team members. You finished. You should be proud!

After this celebratory breather, move on to your last step.

20. Next Drafts: Draft Two…Three…Four…Five

This is a novel writing guide, not a novel revising guide (that is coming soon!). But I’ll give you a few pointers on what to do after you write your novel:

• Rest. Take a break. You earned it. Resting also lets you get distance on your book, which you need right now.
• Read without revising. Most people jump right into the proofreading and line editing process. This is the worst thing you could do. Instead, read your novel from beginning to end without making revisions. You can take notes, but the goal for this is to create a plan for your next draft, not fix all your typos and misplaced commas . This step will usually reveal plot holes, character inconsistencies, and other high-level problems.
• Get feedback. Then, share your book with your team: editors and fellow writers (not friends and family yet). Ask for constructive feedback, especially structural feedback, not on typos for now.
• Next, rewrite for structure. Your second draft is all about fixing the structure of your novel. Revisit steps seven through eleven for help.
• Last, polish your prose. Your third (and additional) draft(s) is for fixing typos, line editing, and making your sentences sound nice. Save this for the end, because if you polish too soon, you might have to delete a whole scene that you spent hours rewriting.

Want to know more about what to do next? Check out our guide on what to do AFTER you finish your book here .

Writers’ Best Tips on How to Write a Novel

I’ve also asked the writers I’ve coached for their single tips on how to write a novel. These are from writers in our community who have followed this process and finished novels of their own. Here are their best novel writing tips:

“Get it out of your head and onto the page, because you can’t improve what’s not been written.” Imogen Mann

“What gets scheduled, gets done. Block time in your day to write. Set a time of day, place and duration that you will write 4-7 days/week until it becomes habit. It’s most effective if it’s the same time of day, in the same place. Then set your duration to a number of minutes or a number of words: 60 minutes, 500 words, whatever. Slowly but surely, those words string together into a piece of work!” Stacey Watkins

“Honestly? And nobody paid me for this one—enroll in the 100 Day Book challenge at The Write Practice. I had been writing around in my novel for years and it wasn’t until I took the challenge did I actually write it chapter by chapter from beginning to end in 80,000 words. Of course I now have to revise, revise, revise.” Madeline Slovenz

“I try to write for at least an hour every day. Some days I feel like the creativity flows out of me and others it’s awkward and slow. But yes, my advice is to write for at least one hour every day. It really helps.” Kurt Paulsen

“Be patient, be humble, be forgiving. Patient, because writing a novel well will take longer than you ever imagined. Humble, because being awake to your strengths and your weaknesses is the only way to grow as a writer. And forgiveness, for the days when nothing seems to work. Stay the course, and the reward at the end — whenever that comes — will be priceless. Because it will be all yours.” Erin Halden

“Single best tip I can recommend is the development of a plan. My early writing, historical stories for my world, was done as a pantser. But, when I took the 100 Day Book challenge , one of the steps was to produce an outline. Mine started as the briefest list of chapters. But, as I thought about it, the outline expanded to cover what was happening and who was in it. That lead to a pattern for the chapters, a timeline, and greater detail in the outline. I had always hated outlines, but like Patrick Rothfuss said in one of his interviews, that hatred may have been because of the way it was taught when I was in school (long ago.) I know I will use one for the second book (if I decide to go forward with it.) Just remember the plan is there for your needs. It doesn’t need to be a formal I. A. 1. a. format. It can simply be a set of notecards with general ideas you want to include in your story.” Patrick Macy

“Everybody who writes does so on faith and guts and determination. Just write one line. Just write one scene. Just write one page. And if you write more that day consider yourself fortunate. The more you do, the stronger the writing muscle gets. But don’t do a project; just break things down into small manageable bits.” Joe Hanzlik

“When you’re sending your novel out to beta readers , keep in mind some people‘s feedback may not resonate or be true for your vision of the work. Also, just because you’ve handed off a copy for beta reading doesn’t mean you don’t have control over how people give you feedback. For instance, if you don’t want line editing, ask them not to give paragraph and sentence corrections. Instead, ask for more general feedback on the character arcs, particular scenes in the story, the genre, ideal reader , etc. Be proactive about getting the kind of response you want and need.” B.E. Jackson

“Become your main character. Begin to think and act the way they would.” Valda Dracopoulos

“I write for minimum 3 hours starting 4 a.m. Mind is uncluttered and fresh with ideas. Daily issues and commitment can wait. Make a plan and stick to the basic plan.” R.B. Smith

“Stick to the plan (which includes writing an outline, puttin your butt in the chair and shipping). I’m trying to keep it simple!” Carole Wolf

“Have a spot where you write, get some bum glue, sit and write. I usually have a starting point, a flexible endpoint and the middle works itself out.” Vuyo Ngcakani

“Before I begin, I write down the ten key scenes that must be in the novel. What is the thing that must happen, who is there when it happens, where does it take place. Once I have those key scenes, I begin.” Cathy Ryan

“In my English classes, I was told to ‘show, don’t tell,' which is the most vague rule I’ve ever heard when it comes to writing. Until I saw a post that expanded upon this concept saying to ‘ show emotion, tell feelings …’. Showing emotion will bring the reader closer to the characters, to understand their actions better. But I don’t need to read about how slow she was moving due to tiredness.” Bryan Coulter

“For me, it’s the interaction between all of the characters. It drives almost all of my novels no matter how good or bad the plot may be .” Jonathan Srock

“Rules don’t apply in the first draft; they only apply when you begin to play with it in the second draft.” Victor Paul Scerri

“My best advice to you is: Just Write. No matter if you are not inspired, maybe you are writing how you can’t think of something to write or wrote something that sucks. But just having words written down gets you going and soon you’ll find yourself inspired. You just have to write.” Mony Martinez

“As Joseph Campbell said, “find your bliss.” Tap into a vein of whatever it is that “fills your glass” and take a ride on a stream of happy, joyful verbiage.” Jarrett Wilson

“Show don’t tell is the most cited rule in the history of fiction writing, but if you only show, you won’t get past ch. 1. Learn to master the other forms of narration as well.” Rebecka Jäger

“We’ve all been trained jump when the phone rings, or worse, to continually check in with social media. Good work requires focus, but I’ve had to adopt some hacks to achieve it. 1) Get up an hour before the rest of the household and start writing. Don’t check email, Facebook, Instagram, anything – just start working. 2) Use a timer app, to help keep you honest. I set it for 30 minutes, then it gives me a 5-minute break (when things are really humming, I ignore the breaks altogether). During that time, I don’t allow anything to interrupt me if I can help it. 3) Finally, set a 3-tiered word count goal: Good, Great, Amazing. Good is the number of words you need to generate in order to feel like you’ve accomplished something (1000 words, for example). Great would be a higher number, (say, 2000 words). 3000 words could be Amazing. What I love about this strategy is that it’s forgiving and inspiring at the same time.” Dave Strand

“My advice comes in two parts. First, I think it’s important to breathe life into characters, to give them emotions and personalities and quirks. Make them flawed so that they have plenty of room to grow. Make them feel real to the reader, so when they overcome the obstacles you throw in their way, or they don’t overcome them, the reader feels all the more connected and invested in their journey. Second, I think there’s just something so magical about a scene that transports me, as a reader, to the characters’ world; that allows me to see, feel, smell, and touch what the characters are experiencing. So, the second part of my advice is to describe the character’s experience of their surroundings keeping all of their senses in mind. Don’t stop simply with what they see.” Jennifer Baker

“Start with an outline (it can always be changed), set writing goals and stick to them, write every day, know that your first draft is going to suck and embrace that knowledge, and seek honest feedback. Oh, and celebrate milestones, especially when you type ‘The End’. Take a break from your novel (but don’t stop writing something — short stories, blog posts, articles, etc.) and then dive head-first into draft 2!” Jen Horgan O’Rourke

“I write in fits and spurts of inspiration and insights. Much of my ‘writing’ occurs when I am trying to fall asleep at night or weeding in the garden. I carry my stories and essays in my head, and when I sit down to start writing, I don’t like to ‘turn off the tap.’ My most important principle is that when I write a draft, I put it out of my mind for a few days before coming back to see what it sounds like when I read it aloud.” Gayle Woodson

“My stories almost always start from a single image… someone in a situation, a setting, with or without other people… there is a problem to be solved, a decision to make, some action being taken. Often that first image becomes the central point of the story but sometimes it is simply the kick-off point for something else. Once I’ve ‘seen’ my image clearly I sit down at the computer and start writing. More images appear as I write and the story evolves. Once the rough sketch has developed through a few chapters I may go back and fill in holes and round things out. Sometimes I even sketch a rough map of my setting or the ‘world’ I’m building. With first drafts I never worry about the grammatical and other writing ‘rules.’ Those things get ironed out in the second round.” Karin Weiss

“What it took to get my first novel drafted: the outline of a story idea, sitting in chair, DEADLINES, helpful feedback from the beginning so I could learn along the way.” Joan Cory

“I write a chapter in longhand and then later that day or the next morning type it and revise. The ideas seem to flow from mind to finger to pen to paper.” Al Rutgers

“Getting up early and write for a couple of hours from 6 am is my preferred choice as my mind is uncluttered with daily issues. Stick to the basic plan and learning to ‘show’ and ‘not tell’ has been hard but very beneficial.” Abe Tse

If you're ready to get serious about finishing your novel, I love for you to join us!

And if you want help getting organized and going, I greatly recommend purchasing The Write Planner and/or our 100 Day Book Program .

Frequently Asked Questions

If you're working on your first-ever novel, congratulations! Here are answers to frequently asked questions new (and even experienced) writers often ask me about what it takes to write a book.

How long should a novel be?

First, novel manuscripts are measured in words, not pages. A standard length for a novel is 85,000 words. The sweet number for literary agents is 90,000 words. Science fiction and fantasy tend to be around the 100,000 word range. And mystery and YA tend to be shorter, likely 65,000 words.

Over 120,000 words is usually too long, especially for traditional publishing. Under 60,000 words is a bit short, and might feel incomplete to the reader.

Of course, these are guidelines, not rules.

They exist for a reason, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow them if you have a good reason. For a more complete guide to best word count for novels, check out my guide here .

How long does it take to write a novel?

Each draft can take about the same amount of time as the first draft, or about 100 days. I recommend writing at least three drafts with a few breaks between drafts, which means you can have a finished, published novel in a little less than a year using this process.

Many people have finished novels faster. My friend and bestseller Carlos Cooper finishes four novels a year, and another bestselling author friend Stacy Claflin is working on her sixty-second book (and she’s not close to being sixty-two years old).

If you'd like, you can write faster.

If you take longer breaks between drafts or write more drafts, it might take longer.

Whatever you decide, I don’t recommend taking much longer than 100 days to finish your first draft. After that, you can lose your momentum and it becomes much harder to finish.

That’s It! The Foolproof Template for How to Write a Novel

Writing a novel isn’t easy. But it is possible with the write process (sorry, I had to do it). If you follow each step above, you will finish a novel.

Your novel may not be perfect, but it will be what you need on your road to making it great.

Good luck and happy writing!

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Which steps of this process do you follow? Which steps are new or challenging for you? Let us know in the comments !

Writing your novel idea in the form of a single-sentence premise is the first step to finishing your novel . So let’s do that today!

Download our premise worksheet. Follow it to construct your single sentence premise.

Then post your premise  in the Pro Practice Workshop (and if you’re not a member yet, you can join here ). If you post, please be sure to leave feedback on premises by at least three other writers.

Maybe you'll start finding your writing team right here!

Happy writing!

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Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

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Six Tried and Tested Methods for Writing a Novel

Kathy Edens

There are two sides to novel writing : either you’re a planner or a seat-of-the-pants-er. This article is primarily directed at the planners out there because, well, seat-of-the-pants-ers just sit down and start typing without plans, right?

They may have an idea of where their novel is going, but they’ll only figure out how to get there by sitting down and writing. We’ll call this the Headlight Method of writing, thanks to E.L. Doctrow, who said:

"Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way."

More power to you.

Now let’s talk about some methods for planners .

1) The Snowflake Method

2) the 30-day method, 3) the 5-step method, 4) write from the middle method, 5) the 5-draft method, 6) the novel factory method, so what’s the best method.

Randy Ingermanson is called “the Snowflake Guy” for this novel writing method that came about from publishing six novels, winning dozens of awards, and teaching at writing conferences. Ingermanson was a software engineer for many years, and found the creation of a perfect snowflake using a computer an interesting process of layering on basic shapes.

Here’s what a snowflake looks like on a computer screen:

How does a computer generate that intricate shape? Here’s the process:

Layer after layer. Ingermanson says you start small and build until it looks like a story. His method has 10 steps that are fairly nuanced. If you’re interested in how this works, check out his website, AdvancedFictionWriting.com .

Karen Wiesner has published over 90 books and won numerous awards. Her book, From First Draft to Finished Novel: A Writer’s Guide to Cohesive Story Building , was published by Writer’s Digest Books. It’s a fantastic read that starts with an outline, and each subsequent step builds upon the previous one until you have your first full draft of a book.

The basic premise of this method is an outline that you continually adjust and edit to reflect what you’re learning through the process of writing each stage of your novel. Each step in the 30-day method adds another layer to the outline until at the end of 30 days, you have a complete rough draft of your novel that just needs to be fleshed out.

Wiesner says, “Without robbing you of the joy of your craft, this guide will teach you how to become a systematic, self-disciplined, productive author—no matter your genre or level of experience.” It’s definitely worth the read.

This method from the fantasy writers’ blog Mythic Scribes , is less structured than the previous two methods. You start by summarizing your idea in one or two sentences. If you can’t get your main concept down to two or fewer sentences, your story may lack focus.

Then you write a synopsis that covers the main elements of plot, offers insight into characters, and speaks to their motivations. This should be a three- to five-page treatise.

Next you take your synopsis and outline your story. Whether you choose to go the old school route with Roman numerals or just write a paragraph on index cards for each scene, chart out your story in a way that inspires you.

Step four is the meat: writing with abandon. Here’s where the creative muscle is flexed. You have your outline to use as a road map; now you can fill out that skeleton with all of your great ideas.

The final step is to revise your completed manuscript . Read more about the 5-Step Method here .

James Scott Bell, who has been instrumental in helping hundreds of writers craft amazing stories, wrote the book Write Your Novel From the Middle . His contention is that there is a “mirror moment” in all of fiction where you discover, truly, what your novel is really all about.

It’s a moment in a scene in the middle of your story that clarifies the entire story. Bell uses a movie example to help you pinpoint the mirror moment. In Casablanca , Ilsa comes to Rick after closing time to explain why she left. The scene is tense because he’s drunk and says some derogatory things to her, and she cries and leaves. Rick has a mirror moment where he wonders what kind of man he wants to be. The rest of the movie covers his quest to become the kind of man he wants.

Bell’s method asks you to be intentional about what this moment is in your own manuscript. He says if you can pinpoint that “ahah” moment, everything else will be illuminated for you. Here’s great guest post that Bell wrote for Writershelpingwrites.net in 2014 .

Jeff Goins uses this method for all of projects, products, and books he writes. It starts with Draft #1: The Junk Draft. He says he “vomits” everything out on paper without editing or revision. Just get it down.

Draft #2 is the Structure Draft where you look at how your story is structured. Does it flow? Will people understand the order it’s in?

Draft #3, the Rough Draft, is where you have an actual work-in-progress that you start to polish line by line, chapter to chapter. This is followed by Draft #4, the Surgery Draft, where you start cutting out anything and everything that extraneous.

Draft #5 is the Last Draft, your finished manuscript that you may tweak, but this is the one you send out to beta readers and editors to review.

Read more on Jeff Goins’ blog here .

We previewed this method last year in our post: A Novel Writing Formula . It’s one of our most popular articles. Let’s do a quick recap.

You start with the backbone of any story: the premise. This is one line that details what your novel is about, including character, situation, objective, opponent, and disaster. From there, you begin to create your novel one step at a time, with each step building upon the previous one.

There are 15 steps that lead you from the premise through character introductions, synopses, goal to decision cycle, locations, advanced plotting, and more. The most intriguing step is when you go through each scene from the viewpoint of each of your major characters. This can add depth and realism that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

If you’re interested, The Novel Factory has an excellent software program that automates each one of these steps in an easy-to-use format that will help you write your novel seamlessly and quickly. Have a look at our full review of The Novel Factory .

The best method is the one that speaks to you. It’s the one that you’ll commit to and use to start writing your novel . But more importantly, it’s the one that will help see you through to the end.

Only you can decide what’s the best method for you because every writer is different with different needs and motivations. Choose what works best for you. Or experiment with different methods to find the one that helps you be your most productive ever.

And then stick with it until you have a finished manuscript.

Happy writing!

If you enjoyed this post about writing a novel , you might also enjoy these articles from our archive:

• How to Construct a 3D Main Character
• Are You Ready to Draft Your Story Arc?
• How to Create Your Story’s World
• How to Create a Compelling Character Arc
• Are You Ready to Draft Your Plot?
• 4 Plot Pitfalls You Need to Avoid
• Map Out Your Character’s Transformation Using the 9 Enneagram “Levels of Development”
• The Four Drafts Your Novel Needs (and Why You Probably Won't Use a Single Word of Your First Draft!)

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Kathy Edens is a blogger, a ghost writer, and content master who loves writing about anything and everything. Check out her books The Novel-Writing Training Plan: 17 Steps to Get Your Ideas in Shape for the Marathon of Writing and Creating Legends: How to Craft Characters Readers Adore... or Despise.

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The novel form is a large, unwieldy, towering project, and if you find yourself wondering how to write a novel, you might already be daunted by the project’s size and complexity. Good. How you’re feeling is how every great novelist has ever felt before approaching the blank page; you have already put yourself in the same annals as James Joyce, Sylvia Plath, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Toni Morrison. 

Writing a novel is like building a house: no matter how much planning and work you put into it, there is always more work you can do. No novel is perfect, and the effort required to build believable worlds, complex characters, and an entertaining plot that explores nuanced themes is certainly overwhelming. If you’re here, you’re probably wondering how you can fit all of these requirements into 300-odd pages. The novel writing tips in this article have you covered. 

Whether you find yourself nervous to start writing a novel for the first time, or whether you’re intrigued by the novel form but don’t know where to begin, this article will help ground you in how to write a novel. In truth, there’s no single, one-size-fits-all novel writing roadmap, but use these ideas as a diving board, and you will soon be swimming through the writing process.

This article answers the most important questions in writing a novel, including:

• What is a novel?
• How many words are in a novel?
• What are some different approaches to writing a novel?
• What are the elements of novel writing?
• What fiction techniques can I use in my novel?
• What are some books on how to write a novel?

So, are you ready to learn how to write a novel? Let’s dive into the novel form, the elements that make a novel come to life, and some other novel writing tips to support you on this long and wondrous journey.

How to Write a Novel: Contents

How Many Words Are in a Novel?

How to write a novel: a 6-phase approach.

• The Pantser Method
• The Plotter Method
• The Plotser Method
• Write a Discovery Draft
• The Snowflake Method
• The 5 Draft Method
• Starting with Short Stories
• Point of View
• Plot and Structure
• Style and Tone
• Scene Vs Summary
• Description

Novel Writing Tips: Find Your Voice as a Novelist

Books on how to write a novel, what is a novel.

Before diving into how to write a novel, let’s first demystify the novel itself. A novel is a book-length work of fiction that tells a complete story (or, as is usually the case, multiple stories). By immersing the reader in a world with complex characters, settings, plot points, and themes, novels emulate real life and inevitably impart wisdom about the human experience.

What is a novel? A novel is book-length work of fiction. By immersing the reader in a world with complex characters, settings, plot points, and themes, novels emulate real life and impart wisdom about the human experience.

Some people might balk at the idea that a novel always emulates real life. After all, there are many genres of fiction that ignore what everyday life looks like. How could a novel set on Mars, or a novel about secret agents, or a novel from the point-of-view of cats, reflect the human experience?

No novel can capture the totality of life, although it might try to. Novels like War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Les Misérable by Victor Hugo each total over 1,000 pages, and each novel examines the complexities and philosophies of simply being human, but none of them can convey the entirety of what it means to be alive.

Rather, novels capture a slice of the human experience. So, even a novel about cats will have its characters make tough decisions, like the ones that human beings make. Even a novel set in a galaxy far, far away might address philosophies of life, love, and conflict.

In fact, these elements—character, setting, plot, etc.—often act as metaphors for human experiences, representing our shared struggles in fictional realms. Such is the magic, the mystery, and the goal of novel writing.

Works of fiction can be categorized into different lengths, such as flash fiction, the vignette, the novella, and the novel. Although these categories are arbitrary, it is important to understand how the length of a work of fiction affects the story itself. It is also worth thinking about length, because length impacts the story’s publication opportunities—both literary journals and publishing houses pay a great deal of attention to word count.

How many words are in a novel? Fictional works of this length, as well as others, are summarized in the chart below:

Some publishers and literary journals may have different definitions for each category of fiction, but these lengths are common definitions. Most publishers claim a novel is 50,000+ words, although you will find some theorists argue that the minimum length is 40,000.

How many words in a novel: 50,000+, though definitions vary.

For a longer breakdown of fiction forms by approximate word count, see our interview with Writers.com instructor Jack Smith .

Although the minimum length of a novel is 50,000 words, novels of this length are rarely published by conventional publishing houses. Why? The primary reason is that book buyers are less likely to purchase short novels. A 50,000 word novel will rarely satisfy the reader’s desire for a well-developed story, with complex characters and themes. Short novels—as well as novellas—simply don’t appeal to the modern reader.

So, what is the ideal length for a novel? If you are writing a novel, and you haven’t previously published any novels, then a good goal to reach for is 70,000-90,000 words. Novels of this length are long enough to satisfy the reader’s desires without being too drawn out that the story becomes boring. 

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, and there are certainly debut novelists who publish shorter and longer books. But, this Goldilocks zone is sure to please many traditional publishers.

One way to think about writing a novel is through a 6 phase approach. The following phases aren’t the only way to write a novel, but many novelists include these 6 things in their process:

• Generating an Idea
• Writing a Novel Outline
• Establishing a Writing Schedule
• The First Draft
• Edit, Rinse, Repeat

Let’s explore this novel writing process. 

Phase 1: Generating an Idea

The first step to writing a novel is having an idea. Novel ideas can come out of anywhere: you might decide to expand upon a short story you had previously written, or you might decide to build an entirely new fictional world and use the novel to explore it. Your novel idea might try to dissect the psyche of an individual character, or it can try to comment on society as a whole. The novel is infinite, and so are the ideas that jumpstart one.

Generating an idea for your novel is much the same as generating a story idea . A story idea generally answers the following three questions:

• Who is your main character?
• What does your main character want?
• What prevents the main character from getting what they want?

Novel Writing Tips: From Idea to Novel

Novel-length projects are complex. To push your writing past 50,000 words, your novel will likely confront complicated situations and ideas. Let’s compare two stories written by Agatha Christie, both of which share the same premise but are written at vastly different lengths.

“ The Plymouth Express ” (short story): A young naval officer discovers the body of the Honourable – and nearly-divorced – Mrs. Rupert Carrington.

The Mystery of the Blue Train (novel): Detective Hercule Poirot investigates the case of a woman murdered in her train compartment, whose death may have been motivated by death, jealousy, greed, or revenge.

The first premise works perfectly for a short story. We are given the basic event of the story, the central character in question, and enough detail to make the story vaguely interesting.

The second idea, by contrast, shifts the focus of the story onto the motive of the murderer. This allows the story to develop into a novel, as it can muse on the concepts of love and greed, while also giving a narrative framework from the lens of the detective.

So, to write a great novel, start with an idea that offers the basic components of a story, but also offers room to explore the world and its characters. In much the same way as Agatha Christie writes the dark side of the human psyche, your novel can write about people, history, or the world at large.

Novel Writing Tips: How to Start Writing a Novel

Most novels begin at or near the start of the story’s conflict. The reader must become acquainted with the protagonist(s), their motivations and challenges, and the conflict that fuels the story’s plot. Readers must also learn about what everyday life looks like before the conflict begins, and they must be given ways to relate directly with the protagonist(s).

Most novels begin at or near the start of the story’s conflict.

Some stories, of course, begin in the middle or the end of the conflict. If you decide to do this, you must still tell us how the story began, otherwise the reader will get lost in the weeds of a conflict they don’t understand.

If your novel starts at the beginning of the conflict, keep this advice at heart: do not start your novel on a typical day. Start your novel on the day that something changes. 

You might be wondering how to start writing a novel’s first line. This list of 100 first lines in novels might help you find inspiration.

Novel Writing Tips: Know Your Purpose

Once you have an idea, the novel writing process will feel much less daunting if you can identify three things: the genre for your novel, an audience that might enjoy your novel, and your intent for writing the novel.

Define Your Genre

Knowing the genre of your work will help you structure the story you want to write. You might know your novel will be fantasy, mystery, or literary fiction, but go one step further: is it urban fantasy or magical realism ? Is it noir mystery, a medical thriller, or both?

Delving into the genre of your novel requires some time, and it can bring up questions to motivate the plot and details of your fiction. This list of fiction genres is a great place to start unpacking your novel’s genre, though you might end up writing something even more niche.

Genres are just conventions for writing a novel, and while those rules can help guide your work, rules are made to be broken.

Now, “genre” is not a roadmap. Genres are just conventions for writing a novel, and while those rules can help guide your work, rules are made to be broken. Combine genres, avoid genres, or create a new one entirely; either way, know the conventions for your story, and plan accordingly.

Define Your Audience

Knowing your audience will help you plan out your story and develop a writing style for the novel. Of course, write your novel for yourself, not for your audience. But, if you know that a certain readership will gravitate towards your work, there’s no harm in considering what that readership will like.

For example, you might realize that a young adult audience will love your fantasy novel, so you decide to draw inspiration from The Hunger Games or from the Percy Jackson series. Or, you might write a mystery novel that appeals to women readers, so you consider making your main character a female detective. These considerations won’t define your work, but they will certainly guide it.

Define Your Intent

Answer this question: why do you want to write this novel?

Examining your own intent is one of the best tips for writing a novel. Because there is no set procedure on how to write a novel, many of the answers will come from inside yourself. You found yourself attracted to your novel idea for a certain reason, so whether you want to explore the human psyche, examine society, or build a lush and beautiful fantasy world, defining your intent will help you figure out where to start—and where to keep returning.

Phase 2: Research and Planning

All novels require research. Whether you’re writing romance, historical fiction, or autobiographical fiction , you will end up researching relevant details to make your novel more convincing. Having a plan for finding and organizing this research will make writing a novel much easier.

Research can help jumpstart ideas that you will work into your story outline ; more on that below. It will also make the act of writing go by much quicker, as your notes and knowledge base will be much easier to reference. Keep your research organized in a word processing software, like Bear, Scrivener, or Microsoft OneNote.

Here are some free resources to help you with your research:

• Boolean search operators (for mastering search engines)
• The Smithsonian
• Archive today (for accessing paywalled journalism)
• 101 free journals and databases

Most importantly, your local library or university may be able to provide free access to certain research databases. When in doubt, ask a local librarian!

Starting with research will help jumpstart the creative process and make the writing experience much smoother. Your preliminary novel research won’t be comprehensive, and you will likely have to do more research once you start the actual writing process. However, getting it out of the way now will help jumpstart the creative process and make the writing experience much smoother. It will also help you outline your novel, or even spark ideas for what happens in the story. 

Phase 3: Writing A Novel Outline

The story outline scaffolds your novel idea into a working plot. Outlining your novel is a long process, and some writers will take months to outline their ideas before they put the first word down. There are many different ways to write a story outline, but your outline should match your intent for writing the story.

For example, if you want to write a character-focused novel, then writing a novel outline that’s focused on character development might work best. Or, if your novel relies on heavy world-building and setting, then a scene-based outline will do the trick. Let your novel’s purpose guide the outline, then let the outline guide the novel itself.

Let your novel’s purpose guide the outline, then let the outline guide the novel itself.

Note: this method is called the “plotter” method, where you map out key details of the story before you start writing it. The opposite method is called the “pantser” method. If you write without outlining, you “write by the seat of your pants.” Both methods have their benefits: while plotting helps you work out the kinks in your story, pantsing allows you to surprise yourself with where the story might take you. If you’re daring enough, you can even do what our instructor Sarah Aronson does: write a “discovery draft,” where she pantses the first draft of the novel, then delete it (yes,  delete it entirely ), and write a new draft from scratch. 

If you’re uncertain which method to take, try writing some short stories using both plotting and pantsing methods.

For help getting started with this phase of writing your novel, see our practical guide to writing a story outline .

Phase 4: Establishing a Writing Schedule

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. —Stephen King

Wouldn’t it be great if we could dream up a novel one day, write it the next, and publish it the day after? Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint, so if you want to get to the finish line you’ll need patience, diligence, and discipline.

Stephen King put it best when he said “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”

Of course, King has the resources to devote his entire life to writing, which is why he can churn out a first draft in three months. On the other hand, you might be writing your first novel while also working, caring for family, and living day-to-day life.

So, the next step for your novel is to build a working schedule. You might decide you have room to write 500 words a day, or time to write for 30-60 minutes a day. What matters is consistency: setting and keeping a defined schedule for you to sit down and focus your mind on your novel.

Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint.

Give yourself a working timeline with weekly or monthly goals, and try to write every day. A consistent writing practice will carry you to the finish line.

Phase 5: The First Draft

Armed with an outline, a schedule, and a passion for your idea, it’s time to start writing. Your writing doesn’t have to come out quickly, and it doesn’t even need to be good writing. The first draft simply needs to exist: if it’s written, then it’s already successful.

The previous phases are intended to give you the structure to write your novel. When it comes to the writing process itself, everyone’s novel writing experience is different. However, remember to stay diligent, join a writing community , and remember that a first draft is allowed to be bad —that’s why we edit!

Phase 6: Edit, Rinse, Repeat

The editing process is often what takes the longest for a novel. You could write a novel in three months and edit it for three years or longer. Like the writing process, there’s no strict timeline for editing your novel, but don’t expect the editing to be quick and easy.

When you finish your first draft and get to the editing stages, give yourself a small brain break and reward yourself—because woohoo , you wrote it! Then when you get back to the drawing board, examine your writing with a critical eye, figure out what the novel needs, and set up an editing schedule like you set up a writing schedule.

A [story] is never finished, only abandoned. —Paul Valery

Follow this process for as many novel drafts until you’re satisfied—and remember, no novel will ever feel perfect. Paul Valery once said “a poem is never finished, only abandoned.” It’s the same with the novel.

Once you feel like you’ve worked on your novel for long enough, and you don’t know how to improve it further, find beta readers. Beta readers are people who read your novel and give useful feedback on how they experienced it, what’s working and what isn’t, and what you might want to do in your next revision. Typically, beta readers will swap ready novel drafts, so you’ll read theirs while they read yours. Do this with writers you trust and whose opinions you respect, and you’ll have feedback that can take your novel draft to the next level.

What comes after that? When you’ve finished writing a novel, check out our guides on publishing:

• Tips on Self-Publishing
• Self-Publishing on Amazon
• Literary Agents (for traditional publishing)

How to Write a Novel: 8 Additional Approaches

How are novels written? What does the process look like for writing a novel? Different novelists have different approaches to the form, and indeed, different novels might require their own unique approaches. 

The following methodologies are tried and true, as they’ve been utilized by countless storytellers. Use these plans as structures to guide your own writing process, and go with what feels comfortable for both you and your work.

Here are 8 different approaches on how to write a novel:

1. How to Write a Novel: The Pantser Method

The “pantser” method gets its name from the phrase “writing by the seat of your pants.” This is the least structured of any particular novel writing approach. To be a pantser, you only need to do one thing: make things up as you go. 

Pantsers do not do much planning in advance. They will likely have a story premise and a sense of who the characters are, but after they’ve written the inciting incident, everything gets made up on the spot. Pantsers simply follow their characters around as they make decisions, mess things up, and follow the plot to its logical conclusion.

Some novel writers are scared of the pantser method, as the innate formlessness of this approach makes it hard to guarantee the first draft is even readable . But, others find this approach to be delightfully freeing. Novel writing is a long process, and if you can have fun with it by letting your imagination run wild, why not give it free rein on the page? 

2. How to Write a Novel: The Plotter Method

Plotting is the opposite of pantsing. If you’re a plotter, then you have all the important details written down before you pen the first word of your manuscript. 

Novel writing requires a lot of attention to detail. Later in this article, we discuss the elements of fiction writing that plotters must consider as they plan things out, including:

• Characters and conflicts
• Settings 
• Point of View 
• The plot itself

Plotters may also want to consider what kinds of themes they want to target, and the styles they want to employ in their writing. Of course, these things also develop organically, and it may be better to allow those elements to emerge naturally. 

Plotting in advance gives novelists a structure to follow. But, some writers feel constricted by having a strict roadmap to follow—they want to steer off course, to consider different ideas, but should they?

While some novelists are strict plotters or strict pantsers, some fall in the middle: the plotser.

3. How to Write a Novel: The Plotser Method

“Plotser” is a portmanteau of “pantser” and “plotter.” It’s an ugly word, but it’ll do. 

Plotsers use a mix of planning and pantsing in novel writing. They might sketch out the details of their characters and form a working plot, but also allow themselves to follow new ideas as they emerge. The plotser doesn’t view their plan as the final roadmap for the novel, but rather as a living document, much like the novel itself, that changes and adapts over time. 

So, which are you? A plotter, a pantser, or a plotser? Again, go with what feels natural to you, and what makes sense given your own traits as a creative writer. 

The following approaches to novel writing can be used by plotters, pantsers, and plotsers alike—they are simply other means for developing ideas and turning them into fully fledged first drafts. 

4. How to Write a Novel: Write a Discovery Draft (and Throw it Away!) 

A “discovery draft” is most closely aligned with the pantser method. It’s a first draft that you use simply to explore what your novel could be. Any idea is fair game, as you simply want to learn about who your characters are and what situations they’ll get themselves in as you’re writing your novel . 

This method, which our talented instructor Sarah Aronson uses, is simple. Write a discovery draft. Then, when you’ve written the last word, throw it away. 

What? Yes! Throw it away. Delete the copy. Kill your darlings. Goodbye, nice to see ya, I’ll never hear from you again. 

What’s the point of this? By deleting your discovery draft, you empower yourself to write a completely new draft with everything you learned by writing the first one. Instead of going back, copying and pasting, and fiddling with words you’ve already written, you write an entirely new draft based on what you remember.

This method might seem crazy. But it works. The second draft you write will be significantly improved than the first, because now you know your characters and plot much better than you did before. You have a better sense of what works for your novel, and what not to include. And, simply by the act of writing a first draft, you have improved your skills as a writer. 

If you’re not comfortable deleting your discovery draft, you don’t have to. One alternative is to reread your discovery draft, plot it out, and then consider how you might want to change the plot before starting a second draft—something more in line with a plotser method. In any case, no matter how counterproductive this method seems, it works , and it will certainly result in a much stronger final draft. 

5. How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method

The Snowflake Method is a tried-and-true approach to novel writing. In a series of 10 steps, the novelist writes their novel from idea to finished draft, starting with the most basic details and fine-tuning them into something complete.

Here’s how to write a novel using the snowflake method: 

Step 1: Write a one-sentence summary of your novel. This is a big picture summary, hopefully under 15 words long, detailing the most basic details: what happens, why, and maybe where and when. For most, this summary is connected to the inciting incident. 

Step 2: Expand your sentence to a paragraph. In that paragraph, include broad plot details: the “disasters” or complications that arise from your protagonist trying to achieve something, and an idea of how the story ends. 

Step 3: Develop a list of your novel’s major characters. Write a 1-page summary for each character that includes their names, backgrounds, motivations, conflicts, and how they change (or don’t change) by the end of the novel. Also write a paragraph summary of each character’s storyline. 

Step 4: Take your summary paragraph from Step 2. Now, expand each sentence into its own unique paragraph, providing more detail about the plot points and complications arising for the characters. 

Step 5: Write a 1-page description of each major character. These descriptions should tell the complete story of the novel from each character’s perspective. For non-major (but still important) characters, your description can be a half page. 

Step 6: Expand the 1-page synopsis from Step 4 into a 4-page synopsis (essentially: turn each paragraph into a full page). At this point, you are making strategic decisions about how your plot points go together, and developing the guiding logic of the story as a whole. 

Step 7: Expand your character descriptions into fully developed character charts. Write down everything you can possibly know about each character, even if those details won’t end up in the novel (you never know, they might!) Spend plenty of time thinking about each character’s transformation throughout the novel. 

Step 8: Turn your 4 page novel into a list of scenes. Chart out each individual scene that will eventually be strung together into the novel. If you want, you can do this in a spreadsheet, reserving different columns for different details relating to each scene (for example: the characters involved, the conflict, which subplot each scene is related to, etc.).

Step 9: Take each idea for a scene you’ve sketched out above, and write a 1-paragraph description of each scene. Allow yourself to be thinking about scene details, dialogue, and other useful notes as you move towards the actual writing process. 

Step 10: Actually write your novel’s first draft! At this point, all of the notes you’ve written down will (hopefully) make the writing process much easier, and much more rewarding. 

The Snowflake Method was developed by Randy Ingermanson. Learn more about this method at his site Advanced Fiction Writing . 

6. How to Write a Novel:The 5 Draft Method

The 5 draft method is a different way of developing raw ideas and material into finished, polished work. This method comes courtesy of Jeff Goins . 

Here’s how to write a novel using the 5 draft method:

Draft 1: The Junk Draft . Also, what we’ve termed, the discovery draft. This is exactly what it sounds like: write what you want, because anything goes. 

“The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” –Ann Patchett 

Draft 2: The Structure Draft . Now that you have your junk draft, it’s time to start making decisions about your story. Will it work? What’s the plot? What things are and aren’t working in your junk draft? (Don’t worry, necessarily, about writing a completely new draft. You can analyze what you wrote and create a working plot before your next draft starts.)

Draft 3: The Rough Draft . This is the draft you’ve written after you have a working plot. Hopefully, you will have written and feel confident about the story as a whole—the work from here is to start polishing the details and getting things just right. 

Draft 4: The Surgery Draft . Take your rough draft, and start shaping things towards a final draft. Cut superfluous details, unnecessary words, unnecessary scenes. Add whatever is needed to make the story whole. At this point, you will most certainly be relying on feedback from other readers to make revising and editing possible. 

Draft 5: The Last Draft . This is where revision turns to editing. The global details have been finalized, and your concerns are largely at the word, sentence, and paragraph level. This is also the point where you start to think about publication.

7. How to Write a Novel: Starting with Short Stories

Novels and short stories rely on the same fundamentals of fiction, yet they’re two vastly different crafts. There are some novelists who are incapable of writing short stories, and vice versa. But, if you feel comfortable experimenting with short-form fiction, you might want to try writing short stories first. 

Many contemporary novelists will use the short story as a space to explore new ideas. Some of those ideas remain as short stories; others end up being developed into novels. 

The novelist Haruki Murakami, for example, will often switch between novel writing and short story writing. After he’s finished a novel, he will work on short stories to tinker with different ideas, one of which often becomes a novel. Writing and publishing short stories can also make getting your novel published possible. Zadie Smith, for example, published her short story “ The Waiter’s Wife ” in Granta , which eventually became her debut novel White Teeth . Smith was discovered by her agent because of, among other things, the stories she was publishing in her university’s literary journal The Mays Anthology . 

Finally, starting with short stories can help you hone your voice and style as an author. Any attempt at writing fiction will naturally make you a stronger fiction writer. 

For more on short story writing, check out our guide:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-short-story

8. How to Write a Novel: NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, occurs every year in November. During this month, novelists will write 50,000+ words towards a first draft of a novel. 

NaNoWriMo started as an internet sensation, and has since developed local community chapters and a cult following of avid novel writers. Writing alongside other frantic novelists, even if just over the internet, can help keep you motivated to get that first discovery draft written. That said, you can also try doing your own NaNoWriMo, during whatever part of the year you’re reading this article. If tomorrow is May 1st, why not try to write a full novel by the time June 1st rolls around?

NaNoWriMo is best done with some preparation. Here’s our guide on the topic:

https://writers.com/nanowrimo-tips  

How to Write a Novel: Honing the 6 Elements of Fiction

Writing a novel requires the synchronous interplay of these 6 elements:

1. Writing a Novel: Character

A character is a person in a book. No matter what genre you’re writing in, readers are most drawn to compelling characters; moreover, a good plot is informed by the decisions that characters make, so you want to spend plenty of time developing your characters as you write your novel. 

Your main character is your protagonist . The protagonist is the main character because their conflicts shape the core of what the novel explores. The protagonist’s stakes must be high enough that readers care what happens. 

What do those stakes consist of? A small thing can be a big thing to one character and not to another. It’s the context that makes it work. Context is what affects the character in terms of needs, desires, goals, etc.

When we think of a character’s stake in the story, we think of conflict . Conflict is what drives fiction. Not all conflicts make for good fiction, but some conflict is essential for writing a novel.

Conflict is what drives fiction. Not all conflicts make for good fiction, but some conflict is essential for writing a novel.

For example, be careful with alcoholic, abusive fathers and husbands—these stories tend to be very clichéd. Stephen King did a marvelous job in Dolores Claiborne with an abusive husband, but generally speaking, it’s hard to escape the clichés ridden in this storyline.

Who should be your protagonist? To answer this question, ask yourself whose story needs to be told. Whose story is important enough to give full treatment to? Whose story is the most intriguing? You might opt for more than one point-of-view (POV), using a character who isn’t a protagonist, but simply an interesting (and necessary) additional perspective.

Let’s return to your protagonist, who is central to understand as you learn how to write a novel. More than any other character in the novel, your protagonist needs to come alive—to seem very real. Avoid writing a one-dimensional, cardboard character. We need to get to know this character in and out—their traits, loves, hates, goals, aspirations, disappointments, etc. Make your protagonist complex—or “round,” as E.M. Forster describes it in Aspects of the Novel .

Protagonists also need the potential for change. In Forster’s terms, they need to be “ dynamic characters .” They need a character arc, in which they change in some way—undergoing some sort of movement, perhaps coming to a newfound recognition.

But not every character needs to be multi-dimensional or undergo change. Secondary characters are an exception. Even so, make them as real as possible , if not fully developed. Who are secondary characters? They might be friends or associates. A secondary character might be an antagonist . They might serve as a foil for the protagonist, to reveal certain things about the protagonist that don’t come out elsewhere.

2. Writing a Novel: Point of View

Point of view is the lens through which the story is told. It is also the choice of person: first, second, or third. In The Great Gatsby , Nick Carraway is the POV character; in The Catcher in the Rye , it’s Holden Caulfield. All novels are “filtered” through these points of view, or perspectives. We’re in these characters’ heads, not in others’.

Generally speaking, the protagonist is the lens through which we view the story’s action. In other words, the protagonist defines the narrator.

There is also the choice of person. First person, in which the protagonist is usually the narrator (using the “I” pronoun), gives an immediacy that’s lacking in third. With the third person, you have the choice of a fully omniscient narrator, a limited narrator, or an effaced narrator (where the author makes no appearance, or presence) with multiple third-person points of view. There is also an objective or dramatic point of view, in which all we come to know about characters is what they say and do. Think of this as close to the script of a play—dialogue and action only.

The riskiest point of view when writing a novel is the omniscient one, because you can easily fall into mere telling, without giving your reader an experience to enter into.

You can find more help in Jack’s article entitled “ Tips on handling the omniscient POV in fiction .”

An unusual point of view for writing a novel is the second person—the “you” POV. Jay McInerney famously pulls it off in Bright Lights, Big City . I deal with the ins and outs of this point of view in a Writer’s magazine article entitled “ When to use the second-person POV in fiction. ”

3. Writing a Novel: Plot and Structure

Plot is what happens and why. It’s a matter of causality. Of course, this can be complicated, though if it’s too complicated your reader will get lost in a thicket of plot threads and story strands. When writing a novel, simple is better than excessively complicated.

Plot is based on conflict; conflict involves reversals. Readers look for foreshadowing (thoughts, events, etc.) that predict future happenings. They also look for echoing, or reminders of different developments. Foreshadowing and echoing stitch a novel together.

As we explore how to write a novel, keep in mind three basic types of narrative structure:

• Five-stage plot structure: exposition (with inciting incident ; rising action; climax; falling action; resolution). Also known as Freytag’s Pyramid .
• Three-act structure, as in screenplays.
• Episodic structure, as in journey stories (e.g. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ).

If you have two protagonists, matters get more difficult. Not only do you need to decide on the overarching structure of the storylines of each character, but you must also decide on how you’ll alternate from one point of view to another.

For more help on structure, check out Jack’s article in The Writer magazine, entitled “ How to find your novel’s structure .” 

Also read Jeff Lyon’s article discussing the difference between a story and a situation. This guide is essential to any storyteller wondering how to write a novel. 

Stories vs. Situations: How to Know Your Story Will Work in Any Genre

4. Writing a Novel: Setting

Setting includes time and place. In fiction, as in real life, characters are someplace, somewhere, when they engage in action and speech. You need to situate your reader in a given environment, whether it’s an apartment, a workplace, a restaurant, a bar, or in the middle of the woods. If you need to create an atmosphere, choose the details that do this.

You need to situate your reader in a given environment.

In some novels, setting is really important and less so in others. In a workplace novel, setting might well be critical to understanding the conflicts the protagonist faces. In a survival story in the Alaskan wilderness, the rugged setting needs plenty of development to feel real to your reader. If you’re writing a novel set on a college campus, it might be enough to give what in movies is called an establishing shot, a wide shot of the campus—and perhaps only a few details about one classroom building where the protagonist has most of her classes.

No matter the importance of your setting, it should influence the decisions that your characters make. The more important the setting, the more personality it should have. Some writers even treat setting like it’s its own character. A great example of this is the novella  Especially Heinous by Carmen Maria Machado.

5. Writing a Novel: Style and Tone

Style refers to the manner of your expression. As you learn how to write a novel, you’ll find that a novel and its style are inseparable. Style affects the novel’s mood , how we understand the protagonist, how we picture the setting, etc.

As you learn how to write a novel, you’ll find that a novel and its style are inseparable.

Some writers are very dense with their language, very detailed—think Charles Dickens, Henry James, or Toni Morrison. At the opposite end there’s Cormac McCarthy, whose style is utterly stripped-down. Style also is related to the use of figurative language like metaphor, simile, and analogy . Style has to do with the sound of the language, with tone. Is it nostalgic, sarcastic, biting?

Style affects tone —the apparent attitude generated by the work. Tone isn’t just related to style, though. Tone is affected by everything in the work: the nature of the protagonist, the plot, the mood from scene to scene, etc.

Lastly, tone is related to voice. You might be interested in Jack’s article on voice in The Writer magazine, entitled “ Setting the tone: How to handle voice in your fiction .”

6. Writing a Novel: Theme or Idea

Theme is the most abstract idea or ideas of your novel. Any number of plots can suggest the same basic theme. Perhaps the theme is the seductive nature of the pursuit of money, or let’s say it’s the rite of passage from innocence to experience. Any number of plots have been borne out of familiar thematic patterns.

When writing a novel, should you begin with a theme in mind? Some writers do, but many writers argue against doing this, claiming that this leads to authorial intrusion, to manipulation intended to make a point. In other words, theme should be a natural byproduct of storytelling, not the primary focus of the storyteller.

Illuminate instead of preach.

Incidentally, be careful to avoid didactic novels. Illuminate instead of preach. The latter might work well in certain nonfiction works, but the novel reader wants to experience the world of the novel, not be told how to experience it.

How to Write a Novel: Fiction Writing Techniques

Now that we’ve covered the large, overarching elements of fiction writing, let’s get into the more granular elements of storytelling. Fiction writers have a few different modes of storytelling at their disposal, including:

• Summary writing
• Scene writing

These different uses of prose allow fiction writers to convey the most information possible, letting them create cohesive, immersive worlds. It is important to vary your uses of each of these storytelling modes: readers get tired if they read pages upon pages of description, or unending snippets of dialogue.

Of course, those considerations are more important in revision. For the purposes of how to write a novel, let’s explore these fiction writing techniques.

1. How to Write a Novel: Narrative Summary Versus Narrative Scene

A novel operates in two main modes of storytelling: summary and scene.

Narrative summary is a telescoping of life over a given period, perhaps a week, a month, a year or more. Here’s how it was for your protagonist from January to June when she was struggling to advance in her career.

Narrative scene, in contrast, is action at a given time. Your protagonist arrives at a meeting and overhears her bête noire making an ugly remark about her. A narrative scene involves us directly in a play-by-play action. It should reveal character and advance plot. It shouldn’t be dead space you fill up.

Good writing has a mix of scene and summary. You never want to bore the reader with too much summary, but you don’t want too much scene either, or else the reader might lose focus on what’s important. You need places where you stop with the action and distill experience in your protagonist’s head: here’s how it’s been; this is what it adds up to at this point…

For a closer look at scene vs summary, check out this craft analysis:

On Timing and Tension

2. How to Write a Novel: Scene Writing with Dialogue

Good dialogue makes a scene, but it’s not easy to write. You’ve got to get the right rhythm going. You have to avoid making it sound like a prepared speech. Listen to conversation. Notice how speakers interrupt each other, or don’t finish ideas… and move on. Notice how they dodge questions. Work with some back and forth. Get your reader involved.

Some ingredients of a good scene:

• Interesting dialogue.
• Revelation of character through language and gesture.
• Setting details that situate the scene and create interest.
• Depending on point of view, character thoughts.

But, there’s no strict formula here. Read it out loud. Does it move? Does it sound real? Make sure it does.

Novel Writing Tips: Character Tags

Avoid dull character tags like “she responded,” or “he replied,” or “she admitted.” Dead language. As much as you can, avoid “he said,” and “she said.” It’s true that Hemingway could make repetition of “said” sound lyrical and carry us right along, but so often it’s dull. As long as the speaker is clear, you can leave off the “said” bit. Now and then, it’s true, you need to insert the tag for clarification’s sake.

3. How to Write a Novel: Description

Description is a word picture. If you want to show versus tell , give your readers imagery that places them in a world of the five senses.

How much description? This is a matter of style. Some writers use very little description, but we feel like we know their characters because of what they say, and how they say it. Or if they do describe, they give a dominant impression, just enough details to individualize the character, place, or thing.

Some writers describe a lot, providing us a real thicket of language. Some don’t. When writing a novel, decide on the purpose. What is vital in telling your particular story? Which details will get at the essence of this character or place? Be careful, too, about inflated, overdone descriptive language, called purple prose —that can kill your writing right off.

4. How to Write a Novel: Exposition

You can think of exposition in two different ways. In terms of the five-stage plot structure, exposition sets forth the present equilibrium of your protagonist just before a complication, or an inciting incident.

A second way to think of it is expository prose, which explains or comments. This technique can be used anywhere in the story, where ideas and feelings need to be bounced around.

Exposition handled through an author can certainly work—and work beautifully—but you must avoid sounding like you’re telling. If this happens, readers will feel that they can’t enter into the story as well—they can’t experience the world you’re creating.

In the case of the third-person limited point of view, do as much as you can to make readers feel like they’re in the character’s head, experiencing their thoughts and feelings.

There are two key uses of expository prose in writing a novel: backstory, and the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings.

Novel Writing Tips: Backstory

Backstory is important in giving your reader context for present conflicts. Backstory shapes where your protagonist has been. You’ve got a choice in bringing in backstory. First, how much do you need to make the present time-frame of the novel clear? Second, you can either front-load it or bring it in as the novel proceeds in memories and flashbacks.

Novel Writing Tips: Thoughts and Feelings

Your protagonist struggles to make a decision, to understand what to do, to decide how she feels about different choices she’s got. Think of the many areas where we engage in private thoughts and feelings. We work things over in our minds. We analyze problems. We sum up.

The culmination of all these different skills—the elements of fiction, the tools of successful prose writing, and the honing of your own writing style—is “voice.” 

What is “voice?” It’s a difficult concept to define in creative writing. In short, voice is the nebulous, ineffable quality of a piece of writing that “sounds like” you. You can’t point to one specific thing and call it voice; it is the gestalt of everything happening in the text. Not just your style and word choice, but also your characters, your themes, your  perspective as a novelist. 

Our instructor Donna Levin puts it another way: voice is “you, artistically projected.”

Voice: you, artistically projected.

No guide on how to write a novel is complete without mentioning voice. Why? Because your voice is what your readers will fall in love with.

Yes, they will love your characters and plots, the ways your novel immerses them in worlds both strange and familiar. But the thing that sells these elements is your voice as a novelist. 

Think of a novel you love. You don’t just love the story and its characters, you love  the way the story is told . That’s voice. It’s a selling point for readers and, if you want to publish your novel traditionally, it’s a huge selling point for literary agents.

So, how do you find your voice as a novelist? That’s the hard part: there’s no easy way to teach it. After all, voice comes from within you. The only advice we can offer is the work you can do to find your voice and coax it onto the page.

So, here’s some advice on that—how to hone your voice as you write a novel:

• Write often and regularly. The more you write, the better you get at writing, and the more you find your own style and approach to the page.
• Write like yourself. Do not try to write like anyone else, and do not try to be a capital-W “Writer.” 
• That said, experiment on the page. Try different styles and techniques. See what works for you, what feels good, and what doesn’t sit right in your ear. You will find what it means to “write like yourself” this way. 
• Spend ample time in revision. You won’t hone your voice just in the first draft; it will emerge as you write, revise, and revise again. 
• Write with confidence. This is easier said than done, of course. But the more you believe in yourself and your work, the easier it is to let your natural voice shine through on the page. 
• Don’t just write a novel. Experiment with short stories, microfiction, essays, poetry, and other forms of writing. Every word you write is an exploration into your voice as an author. 

For more novel writing tips, here’s a list of books on how to write a novel:

• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• On Writing by Stephen King
• The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
• On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
• Write and Revise for Publication by Jack Smith
• Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
• Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
• Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
• Get That Novel Written by Donna Levin
• Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
• Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster

Learn How to Write a Novel at Writers.com

Do my characters seem real? Can you picture this setting? What parts of my novel need editing?

Writing a novel is an ongoing process, and the more you work on it, the more questions you’ll ask. Find your answers at Writers.com. With different novel writing courses to choose from, additional novel writing tips at our blog , and a supportive and caring Facebook group , we’re here to get your novel from idea to bestseller.

Jack Smith is the author of 6 novels and 3 books of nonfiction. He’s a regular contributor to The Writer magazine. He teaches novel writing, as well as other fiction writing courses, for Writers.com.

This is wonderful! congrats!

Thanks for this well-written and detailed article on the novel. I was interested in the discussion about what length/page/word count differentiates writing forms and had not heard of the term “novelette”. If novella length fiction is difficult to find a home for with the exception of small, independent presses, then the novelette length must be near impossible. Or so it seems.

Again, thanks for the informative article.

Our pleasure, Rebecca! I’m happy you found it useful.

I’m so pleased with your article. Thanks for this one! I was looking for some takes regarding this topic and I found your article quite informative. It has given me a fresh perspective on the topic tackled. Thanks!

Good overview. Very helpful. It helps an aspiring writer to think about what he/she is missing, and helps the writer improve. Thank you.

This article provides a comprehensive guide to tackling the daunting task of novel writing, offering insights into essential elements like character, plot, setting, style, and theme. The practical tips and diverse techniques presented here serve as a valuable resource for both novice and experienced writers, demystifying the intricate art of crafting a novel. Excited to apply these strategies to my own writing journey!

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How to Write a Novel: A 12-Step Guide

You’ve always wanted to write a novel. But something’s stopped you.

Maybe you’ve tried before, only to get a few, or several, pages in and lose steam because:

• Your story idea didn’t hold up
• You couldn’t overcome procrastination
• You feared your writing wasn’t good enough
• You ran out of ideas and had no clue what to do next

You may be surprised that even after writing 200 books (two-thirds of those novels) over the last 45+ years, including several New York Times bestsellers (most notably the Left Behind Series), I face those same problems every time .

So how do I overcome them and succeed?

I use a repeatable novel-writing plan — one that helps me smash through those obstacles. And that’s what I reveal to you in this definitive guide.

Imagine finishing your first draft. Better yet, imagine a finished manuscript . Or, best of all, your name on the cover of a newly published book — does that excite you?

Imagine letters from readers telling you your novel changed their lives, gave them a new perspective, renewed hope.

If other writers enjoy such things, why can’t you?

Of course this goes without saying, but first you must finish a novel manuscript.

This guide shows you how to write a novel (based on the process I use to write mine). I hope you enjoy it and can apply it to your own writing!

• How to Write a Novel in 12 Steps
• Nail down a winning story idea .
• Determine whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser .
• Create an unforgettable main character .
• Expand your idea into a plot .
• Research, research, research .
• Choose your Voice and Point of View .
• Start in medias res (in the midst of things) .
• Engage the theater of the reader’s mind .
• Intensify your main character’s problems .
• Make the predicament appear hopeless .
• Bring it all to a climax .
• Leave readers wholly satisfied .
• Step 1: Nail-down a winning story idea.

Is your novel concept special?

• Big enough to warrant 75,000 to 100,000 words?
• Powerful enough to hold the reader all the way?

Come up with a story laden with conflict — the engine that will drive your plot .

I based my first novel, Margo , on this idea: A judge tries a man for a murder the judge committed .

Take whatever time you need to prioritize your story ideas and choose the one you would most want to read — the one about which you’re most passionate and which would keep you eagerly returning to the keyboard every day.

It must capture YOU so completely you can’t get it out of your head. Only that kind of an idea will inspire you to write the novel you’ve always dreamed of.

• Step 2: Determine whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser.

If you’re an Outliner, you prefer to map out everything before you start writing your novel. You want to know your characters and what happens to them from beginning to end.

If you’re a Pantser, meaning you write by the seat of your pants, you begin with the germ of an idea and write as a process of discovery.

As Stephen King says, “Put interesting characters in difficult situations and write to find out what happens.”

One or the other of these approaches will simply feel most natural to you.

But, in truth, many of us are hybrids, some combination of the two — needing the security of an outline and the freedom to let the story take us where it will.

So do what makes the most sense to you and don’t fret if that means incorporating both Outlining and Pantsing.

(I cover strategies for both types and talk about how to structure a novel here .)

Regardless, you need some form of structure to keep from burning out after so many pages.

I’m a Pantser with a hint of Outlining thrown in, but I never start writing a novel without an idea where I’m going — or think I’m going.

• Step 3: Create an unforgettable main character.

Your most important character will be your protagonist, also known as your lead or your hero/heroine.

This main character must experience a life arc — in other words, be a different, better or worse, stronger or weaker person by the end. (I use “he” inclusively to mean hero or heroine)

For most novels, that means he must bear potentially heroic qualities that emerge in the climax.

For readers to be able to relate to him, he should also exhibit human flaws.

So resist the temptation to create a perfect lead. Who can relate to perfection?

You’ll also have an antagonist (also known as the villain ) who should be every bit as formidable and compelling as your hero. Make sure the bad guy isn’t bad just because he’s the bad guy. 😊

He must be able to justify — if only in his own mind — why he does what he does to make him a worthy foe, realistic and memorable.

You may also need important orbital cast members.

For each character, ask:

• Who are they?
• What do they want?
• Why do they want it?
• What or who is keeping them from it?
• What will they do about it?

Use distinct names (even distinct initials) for every character — and make them look and sound different from each other too, so your reader won’t confuse them.

Limit how many you introduce early. If your reader needs a program to keep them straight, you may not have him for long.

Naturally, your lead character will face an outward problem — a quest, a challenge, a journey, a cause… But he also must face inner turmoil to make him really relatable to the reader and come alive on the page.

Heroic, inventive, morally upright, and physically strong? Of course. But your protagonist must also face fear, insecurity, self-doubt.

The more challenges he faces, the more potential he has to grow and develop.

Much as in real life, the tougher the challenges, the greater the potential transformation.

For more on developing your characters, check out my blog posts Your Ultimate Guide to Character Development: 9 Steps to Creating Memorable Heroes , How to Create a Powerful Character Arc , and Character Motivation: How to Craft Realistic Characters .

• Step 4: Expand your idea into a plot.

True Pantsers — yes, even some bestselling novelists — don’t plot. Here’s the downside:

Like me, you might love being a Pantser and writing as a process of discovery, BUT — even we non-Outliners need some modicum of structure.

Discovering what bestselling novelist Dean Koontz calls the Classic Story Structure (in his How to Write Best-Selling Fiction ) changed my writing forever . My book sales took off when I started following his advice:

• Plunge your main character into terrible trouble as soon as possible.
• Everything your character does to try to get out of that trouble makes it only progressively worse…
• …until his predicament appears hopeless.
• Finally, everything your hero learns from trying to get out of the terrible trouble builds in him what he needs to succeed in the end.

Want to download this 12-step guide to refer to whenever you wish? Click here.

Plot Elements

Writing coaches call by different names their own suggested story structures , but the basic sequence is largely common. They all include some variation of:

• The Inciting Incident that changes everything
• A series of crises that build tension
• A Conclusion

Regardless how you plot your novel, your primary goal must be to grab readers by the throat from the get-go and never let go.

For more on developing your plot, visit my blog post The Writer’s Guide to Creating the Plot of a Story .

More in-depth plotting resources:

• Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
• The Secrets of Story Structure by K. M. Weiland
• The Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson
• Step 5: Research, research, research.

Though fiction, by definition, is made up, to succeed it must be believable. Even fantasies need to make sense.

You must research to avoid errors that render your story unbelievable.

Once a reader has bought into your premise, what follows must be logical. Effective research allows you to add the specificity necessary to make this work .

When my character uses a weapon, I learn everything I can about it. I’ll hear about it from readers if I refer to a pistol as a revolver or if my protagonist shoots 12 bullets from a gun that holds only 8 rounds.

Accurate details add flavor and authenticity.

Get details wrong and your reader loses confidence — and interest — in your story.

Research essentials:

• Consult Atlases and World Almanacs to confirm geography and cultural norms and find character names that align with the setting, period, and customs . If your Middle Eastern character flashes someone a thumbs up, be sure that means the same in his culture as it does in yours.
• Encyclopedias. If you don’t own a set, access one at your local library or online .
• YouTube and online search engines can yield tens of thousands of results. (Just be careful to avoid wasting time getting drawn into clickbait videos.)
• Use a Thesaurus while writing your novel, but not to find the most exotic word. I most often a thesaurus to find that normal word that’s on the tip of my tongue.
• There’s no substitute for in-person interviews with experts. People love to talk about their work, and often such conversations lead to more story ideas.

Resist the urge to shortchange the research process.

Readers notice geographical, cultural, and technological blunders and trust me, they’ll let you know.

Even sci-fi or fantasy readers demand believability within the parameters of the world you’ve established .

One caveat: Don’t overload your story with all the esoteric facts you’ve learned, just to show off your research. Add specifics the way you would add seasoning to food. It enhances the experience, but it’s not the main course.

• Step 6: Choose your point of view.

The perspective from which you write your novel can be complicated because it encompasses so much.

Your Point of View (POV) is more than simply deciding what voice to use: First Person ( I, me ), Second Person ( you, your ), or Third Person ( he, she, or it ).

It also involves deciding who will be your POV character, serving as your story’s camera.

The cardinal rule is one perspective character per scene , but I prefer only one per chapter, and ideally one per novel.

Readers experience everything in your story from this character’s perspective.

No hopping into the heads of other characters. What your POV character sees, hears, touches, smells, tastes, and thinks is all you can convey.

Some writers think that limits them to First Person, but it doesn’t. Most novels are written in Third Person Limited.

That means limited to one perspective character at a time, and that character ought to be the one with the most at stake in each scene.

Writing your novel in First Person makes it easiest to limit yourself to that one perspective character, but Third-Person Limited is the most common.

I’m often asked how other characters can be revealed or developed without switching to them as the perspective character.

Read current popular fiction to see how the bestsellers do it.

(One example: the main character hears what another character says, reads his tone and his expression and his body language, and comes to a conclusion. Then he finds out that person told someone else something entirely different, proving he was lying to one of them.)

For a more in-depth explanation of Voice and Point of View, read my post A Writer’s Guide to Point of View .

Step 7: Begin in medias res (in the midst of things) .

You must grab your reader by the throat on page one.

That doesn’t necessarily mean bullets flying or a high speed chase, though that might work for a thriller. It means avoiding too much scene setting and description and, rather, getting to the good stuff — the guts of the story .

Les Edgerton, a gritty writer who writes big boy novels (don’t say I didn’t warn you) says beginning writers worry too much about explaining all the backstory to the reader first.

He’s saying, in essence, get on with it and trust your reader to deduce what’s going on.

The goal of every sentence, in fact of every word , is to compel the reader to read the next.

• Step 8: Engage the theater of the reader’s mind.

Don’t moviegoers often say they liked the book better?

The reason is obvious: Even with all its high-tech computer-generated imagery , Hollywood cannot compete with the theater of the reader’s mind.

The images our mind’s eye evokes are far more imaginative and dramatic than anything Hollywood can produce.

Your job as a writer is not to make readers imagine things as you see them, but to trigger the theaters of their minds.

Give them just enough to engage their mental projectors. That’s where the magic happens.

For more, visit my post on What Is Imagery? and Show, Don’t Tell: What You Need to Know .

• Step 9: Intensify your main character’s problems.

You’ve grabbed your reader with a riveting opener and plunged your hero into terrible trouble.

Now, everything he does to get out of that terrible trouble must make it progressively worse.

Do not give him a break.

Too many amateurs render their hero’s life too easy.

They give a private eye a nice car, a great weapon, a beautiful girlfriend, an upscale apartment, a fancy office, and a rich client. Rather, pull out from under him anything that makes his life easy.

Have his car break down, his weapon get stolen, his girlfriend leave, his landlord evict him, his office burn, and his client go broke. Now thrust him into a dangerous case.

Conflict is the engine of fiction .

(For more on conflict, read my post Internal and External Conflict: Tips for Creating Unforgettable Characters )

His trouble should escalate logically with his every successive attempt to fix it.

You can hint that he’s growing, developing, changing, getting stronger, and adding more to his skillset through his trials, but his trouble should become increasingly terrible until you…

• Step 10: Make his predicament appear hopeless.

Writing coaches have various labels for this crucial plot point.

Novelist Angela Hunt refers to this as The Bleakest Moment. It’s where even you wonder how you’re going to write your way out of this.

The once-reprobate lover who has become a changed man and a loving fiance suddenly falls off the wagon the night before the wedding.

Caught red-handed doing drugs and drinking with another woman, he sees his true love storm off, vowing to never speak to him again.

Imagine the nadir, the low point, the bleakest moment for your lead character. Your ability to mine this can make or break you as a novelist.

This is not easy, believe me. You’ll be tempted to give your protagonist a break, invent an escape, or inject a miracle. Don’t you dare!

The Bleakest Moment forces your hero to take action, to use every new muscle and technique gained from facing a book full of obstacles to prove that things only appeared beyond repair.

The more hopeless the situation, the more powerful your climax and ending will be.

• Step 11: Bring it all to a climax.

The ultimate resolution, the peak emotional point of your story, comes when your hero faces his toughest test yet. The stakes must be dire and failure catastrophic.

The conflict that has been building throughout now crescendos to a final, ultimate confrontation, and all the major book-length setups are paid off.

Star Wars: A New Hope climaxes with the rebels forced to destroy the Death Star.

In the original version of the movie, that scene felt flat. So the filmmakers added that the Death Star was on the verge of destroying the rebel base.

That skyrocketed the tension and sent the stakes over the top.

Give readers the payoff they’ve been set up for. Reward their sticking with you and let them experience the fireworks.

But remember, the climax is not the end. The real conclusion ties up loose ends and puts everything into perspective.

• Step 12: Leave readers wholly satisfied.

A great ending :

• Honors the reader for his investment of time and money.
• Is the best of all your options. If it comes down to clever, quirky, or emotional, always aim for the heart.
• Keeps your hero on stage till the last word.

Because climaxes are so dramatic, endings often just peter out. Don’t let that happen.

Your ending might not be as dramatic or action-filled as the climax, but it must be every bit as provocative and riveting.

Don’t rush it. Rewrite it until it shines. I’ve long been on record that all writing is rewriting, and this is never more true than at the end of your novel.

When do you know it’s been rewritten enough? When you’ve gone from making it better to merely making it different.

Write a fully satisfying ending that drops the curtain with a resounding thud. Your readers will thank you for it.

• Frequently Asked Questions and Novel Writing Tips

1. How long does it take to write a novel?

A lifetime. It will pull from you everything you know and everything you are.

It takes as long as necessary.

I know those answers sound flippant, but remember, speed is not the point.

Quality is the point.

Spend as much time as it takes for you to be happy with every word before you start pitching your manuscript to the market.

How long writing a novel will take you depends on your goals and your schedule.

A manuscript of a 100,000 words, including revision, should be doable — even for a beginner — in six to nine months.

Develop and practice the right habits , set a regular writing schedule, and stick to it.

2. How hard is it to write a novel?

If you’re anything like me, it will prove the hardest thing you have ever done. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Every published novelist (yes, even any big name you can think of) was once right where you are — unpublished and unknown. They ultimately succeeded because they didn’t quit.

Resolve to not quit, and you will write a novel. I can’t guarantee it will become a bestseller, but I can guarantee it won’t if you don’t finish it.

3. How do I know if my story idea has potential?

You’ll know your story has legs if it stays in your mind, growing and developing every time you think of it.

The right concept simply feels right. You’ll know it when you land on it. Most importantly, your idea must compel you to write it.

Tell your story idea to someone whose opinion you trust.

You should be able to tell by their expression and their tone of voice whether they really like it or are just being polite.

• You Can Do This

If you want to write a novel, don’t allow the magnitude of the writing process to overwhelm you.

Attack it the way you would eat an elephant — one bite at a time. 😊

Don’t let fear stop you. Use it as motivation to do your best work.

Avoid wondering What if…?

Take the leap.

Stay focused on why you started this journey in the first place.

Follow the steps I’ve given you, and you may find that this time next year, you’re holding in your hands a manuscript that could become a published novel with your name on the cover.

• Step 7: Begin in medias res (in the midst of things).

Are You Making This #1 Amateur Writing Mistake?

Faith-Based Words and Phrases

What You and I Can Learn From Patricia Raybon

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Organizing Your Writing

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Marketing Your Work

The snowflake method for designing a novel.

Writing a novel is easy . Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction.

Frankly, there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel. There are a thousand different methods. The best one for you is the one that works for you.

In this article , I’d like to share with you what works for me. I’ve published six novels and won about a dozen awards for my writing. I teach the craft of writing fiction at writing conferences all the time. One of my most popular lectures is this one: How to write a novel using what I call the “Snowflake Method.”

This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets over a thousand page views per day. Over the years, this page has been viewed more than six million times. So you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. But you may not, and that’s fine by me. Look it over, decide what might work for you, and ignore the rest! If it makes you dizzy, I won’t be insulted. Different writers are different. If my methods get you rolling, I’ll be happy. I’ll make the best case I can for my way of organizing things, but you are the final judge of what works best for you. Have fun and . . . write your novel!

The Importance of Design

Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. You can do the design work before or after you write your novel. I’ve done it both ways and I strongly believe that doing it first is quicker and leads to a better result. Design is hard work, so it’s important to find a guiding principle early on. This article will give you a powerful metaphor to guide your design.

Our fundamental question is this: How do you design a novel?

For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I write novels the same way I write software, using the “snowflake metaphor”. OK, what’s the snowflake metaphor? Before you go further, take a look at this cool web site .

The first few steps look like this:

I claim that that’s how you design a novel — you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. Part of this is creative work, and I can’t teach you how to do that. Not here, anyway. But part of the work is just managing your creativity — getting it organized into a well-structured novel. That’s what I’d like to teach you here.

If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. You may do some research. You daydream about how the story’s going to work. You brainstorm. You start hearing the voices of different characters. You think about what the book’s about — the Deep Theme. This is an essential part of every book which I call “composting”. It’s an informal process and every writer does it differently. I’m going to assume that you know how to compost your story ideas and that you have already got a novel well-composted in your mind and that you’re ready to sit down and start writing that novel.

The Ten Steps of Design

But before you start writing, you need to get organized. You need to put all those wonderful ideas down on paper in a form you can use. Why? Because your memory is fallible, and your creativity has probably left a lot of holes in your story — holes you need to fill in before you start writing your novel. You need a design document. And you need to produce it using a process that doesn’t kill your desire to actually write the story. Here is my ten-step process for writing a design document. I use this process for writing my novels, and I hope it will help you.

Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Something like this: “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.” (This is the summary for my first novel, Transgression.) The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool. This is the big picture, the analog of that big starting triangle in the snowflake picture.

When you later write your book proposal, this sentence should appear very early in the proposal. It’s the hook that will sell your book to your editor, to your committee, to the sales force, to bookstore owners, and ultimately to readers. So make the best one you can!

Some hints on what makes a good sentence:

• Shorter is better. Try for fewer than 15 words.
• No character names, please! Better to say “a handicapped trapeze artist” than “Jane Doe”.
• Tie together the big picture and the personal picture. Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now tell me what he or she wants to win.
• Read the one-line blurbs on the New York Times Bestseller list to learn how to do this. Writing a one-sentence description is an art form.

Step 2) Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. This is the analog of the second stage of the snowflake. I like to structure a story as “three disasters plus an ending”. Each of the disasters takes a quarter of the book to develop and the ending takes the final quarter. I don’t know if this is the ideal structure, it’s just my personal taste.

If you believe in the Three-Act structure, then the first disaster corresponds to the end of Act 1. The second disaster is the mid-point of Act 2. The third disaster is the end of Act 2, and forces Act 3 which wraps things up. It is OK to have the first disaster be caused by external circumstances, but I think that the second and third disasters should be caused by the protagonist’s attempts to “fix things”. Things just get worse and worse.

You can also use this paragraph in your proposal. Ideally, your paragraph will have about five sentences. One sentence to give me the backdrop and story setup. Then one sentence each for your three disasters. Then one more sentence to tell the ending. Don’t confuse this paragraph with the back-cover copy for your book. This paragraph summarizes the whole story. Your back-cover copy should summarize only about the first quarter of the story.

Step 3) The above gives you a high-level view of your novel. Now you need something similar for the storylines of each of your characters. Characters are the most important part of any novel, and the time you invest in designing them up front will pay off ten-fold when you start writing. For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells:

• The character’s name
• A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline
• The character’s motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
• The character’s goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
• The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
• The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?
• A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline

An important point: You may find that you need to go back and revise your one-sentence summary and/or your one-paragraph summary. Go ahead! This is good–it means your characters are teaching you things about your story. It’s always okay at any stage of the design process to go back and revise earlier stages. In fact, it’s not just okay–it’s inevitable. And it’s good. Any revisions you make now are revisions you won’t need to make later on to a clunky 400 page manuscript.

Another important point: It doesn’t have to be perfect. The purpose of each step in the design process is to advance you to the next step. Keep your forward momentum! You can always come back later and fix it when you understand the story better. You will do this too, unless you’re a lot smarter than I am.

Step 4) By this stage, you should have a good idea of the large-scale structure of your novel, and you have only spent a day or two. Well, truthfully, you may have spent as much as a week, but it doesn’t matter. If the story is broken, you know it now, rather than after investing 500 hours in a rambling first draft. So now just keep growing the story. Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends.

This is a lot of fun, and at the end of the exercise, you have a pretty decent one-page skeleton of your novel. It’s okay if you can’t get it all onto one single-spaced page. What matters is that you are growing the ideas that will go into your story. You are expanding the conflict. You should now have a synopsis suitable for a proposal, although there is a better alternative for proposals . . .

Step 5) Take a day or two and write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters. These “character synopses” should tell the story from the point of view of each character. As always, feel free to cycle back to the earlier steps and make revisions as you learn cool stuff about your characters. I usually enjoy this step the most and lately, I have been putting the resulting “character synopses” into my proposals instead of a plot-based synopsis. Editors love character synopses, because editors love character-based fiction.

Step 6) By now, you have a solid story and several story-threads, one for each character. Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step (4) into a full page. This is a lot of fun, because you are figuring out the high-level logic of the story and making strategic decisions. Here, you will definitely want to cycle back and fix things in the earlier steps as you gain insight into the story and new ideas whack you in the face.

Step 7) Take another week and expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character. The standard stuff such as birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, etc. Most importantly, how will this character change by the end of the novel? This is an expansion of your work in step (3), and it will teach you a lot about your characters. You will probably go back and revise steps (1-6) as your characters become “real” to you and begin making petulant demands on the story. This is good — great fiction is character-driven. Take as much time as you need to do this, because you’re just saving time downstream. When you have finished this process, (and it may take a full month of solid effort to get here), you have most of what you need to write a proposal. If you are a published novelist, then you can write a proposal now and sell your novel before you write it. If you’re not yet published, then you’ll need to write your entire novel first before you can sell it. No, that’s not fair, but life isn’t fair and the world of fiction writing is especially unfair.

Step 8) You may or may not take a hiatus here, waiting for the book to sell. At some point, you’ve got to actually write the novel. Before you do that, there are a couple of things you can do to make that traumatic first draft easier. The first thing to do is to take that four-page synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a novel. And the easiest way to make that list is . . . with a spreadsheet.

For some reason, this is scary to a lot of writers. Oh the horror. Deal with it. You learned to use a word-processor. Spreadsheets are easier. You need to make a list of scenes, and spreadsheets were invented for making lists. If you need some tutoring, buy a book. There are a thousand out there, and one of them will work for you. It should take you less than a day to learn the itty bit you need. It’ll be the most valuable day you ever spent. Do it.

Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline. Make just one line for each scene. In one column, list the POV character. In another (wide) column, tell what happens. If you want to get fancy, add more columns that tell you how many pages you expect to write for the scene. A spreadsheet is ideal, because you can see the whole storyline at a glance, and it’s easy to move scenes around to reorder things.

My spreadsheets usually wind up being over 100 lines long, one line for each scene of the novel. As I develop the story, I make new versions of my story spreadsheet. This is incredibly valuable for analyzing a story. It can take a week to make a good spreadsheet. When you are done, you can add a new column for chapter numbers and assign a chapter to each scene.

Step 9) (Optional. I don’t do this step anymore.) Switch back to your word processor and begin writing a narrative description of the story. Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand it to a multi-paragraph description of the scene. Put in any cool lines of dialogue you think of, and sketch out the essential conflict of that scene. If there’s no conflict, you’ll know it here and you should either add conflict or scrub the scene.

I used to write either one or two pages per chapter, and I started each chapter on a new page. Then I just printed it all out and put it in a loose-leaf notebook, so I could easily swap chapters around later or revise chapters without messing up the others. This process usually took me a week and the end result was a massive 50-page printed document that I would revise in red ink as I wrote the first draft. All my good ideas when I woke up in the morning got hand-written in the margins of this document. This, by the way, is a rather painless way of writing that dreaded detailed synopsis that all writers seem to hate. But it’s actually fun to develop, if you have done steps (1) through (8) first. When I did this step, I never showed this synopsis to anyone, least of all to an editor — it was for me alone. I liked to think of it as the prototype first draft. Imagine writing a first draft in a week! Yes, you can do it and it’s well worth the time. But I’ll be honest, I don’t feel like I need this step anymore, so I don’t do it now.

Step 10) At this point, just sit down and start pounding out the real first draft of the novel. You will be astounded at how fast the story flies out of your fingers at this stage. I have seen writers triple their fiction writing speed overnight, while producing better quality first drafts than they usually produce on a third draft.

You might think that all the creativity is chewed out of the story by this time. Well, no, not unless you overdid your analysis when you wrote your Snowflake. This is supposed to be the fun part, because there are many small-scale logic problems to work out here. How does Hero get out of that tree surrounded by alligators and rescue Heroine who’s in the burning rowboat? This is the time to figure it out! But it’s fun because you already know that the large-scale structure of the novel works. So you only have to solve a limited set of problems, and so you can write relatively fast.

This stage is incredibly fun and exciting. I have heard many fiction writers complain about how hard the first draft is. Invariably, that’s because they have no clue what’s coming next. Good grief! Life is too short to write like that! There is no reason to spend 500 hours writing a wandering first draft of your novel when you can write a solid one in 150. Counting the 100 hours it takes to do the design documents, you come out way ahead in time.

About midway through a first draft, I usually take a breather and fix all the broken parts of my design documents. Yes, the design documents are not perfect. That’s okay. The design documents are not fixed in concrete, they are a living set of documents that grows as you develop your novel. If you are doing your job right, at the end of the first draft you will laugh at what an amateurish piece of junk your original design documents were. And you’ll be thrilled at how deep your story has become.

Ways To Use The Snowflake

Are you struggling right now with a horrible first draft of your novel that just seems hopeless? Take an hour and summarize your story in one sentence. Does that clarify things? You’ve just completed step (1) of the Snowflake, and it only took an hour. Why not try the next few steps of the Snowflake and see if your story doesn’t suddenly start coming to life? What have you got to lose, except a horrible first draft that you already hate?

Are you a seat-of-the-pants writer who finally finished your novel, but now you’re staring at an enormous pile of manuscript that desperately needs rewriting? Take heart! Your novel’s done, isn’t it? You’ve done something many writers only dream about. Now imagine a big-shot editor bumps into you in the elevator and asks what your novel’s about. In fifteen words or less, what would you say? Take your time! This is a thought game. What would you say? If you can come up with an answer in the next hour . . . you’ve just completed Step 1 of the Snowflake! Do you think some of the other steps might help you put some order into that manuscript? Give it a shot. What have you got to lose?

Have you just got a nightmarishly long letter from your editor detailing all the things that are wrong with your novel? Are you wondering how you can possibly make all the changes before your impossible deadline? It’s never too late to do the Snowflake. How about if you take a week and drill through all the steps right now? It’ll clarify things wonderfully, and then you’ll have a plan for executing all those revisions. I bet you’ll get it done in record time. And I bet the book will come out better than you imagined.

If the Snowflake Method works for you, I’d like to hear from you. You can reach me through the contact page on my web-site.

Acknowledgments: I thank my many friends on the Chi Libris list and especially Janelle Schneider for a large number of discussions on the Snowflake and much else.

Best regards,

Randy Ingermanson, Ph.D.

Want to Learn More About the Snowflake Method?

Want a Tool to Make the Snowflake Method Fast, Easy, and Fun?

The software tool I use is called Plottr , and it’s written by a programmer friend of mine, Cameron Sutter.

Plottr is a program that helps you design your novel using several different methods, including the Snowflake Method.

I liked it so much , I gave Cameron some free labor to make Plottr work way better with the Snowflake Method.

First , I created a Snowflake Method Character Template that Cameron put into Plottr so that you can easily design characters using Steps 3, 5, and 7 of the Snowflake Method.

Then I created a Snowflake Method Plot Template for managing the timelines in Plottr , and Cameron put that in Plottr also. (Timelines let you visualize your scene lists from the Snowflake Method.)

Finally , I created a Snowflake Method Project Template that walks you through the first nine steps in the Snowflake Method, with exact directions on what to do, and in which order, and exactly how to do it in Plottr . Cameron didn’t have any full Project Templates in Plottr , but he liked mine, so he added a Project Template feature to Plottr .

As I said, I use Plottr myself now for my novel design work, and I recommend it to all Snowflakers. Plottr  runs on both Macs and Windows, and it has a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. And it’s priced extremely reasonably.

Click here to learn more about Plottr .

About The Author

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Writing Advice & Epic Fiction

The 7 Best Ways to Outline Your Novel (with Templates)

There is no “right way” to outline your novel. Every writer has their own outlining method. In some cases, writers will use a different outline process for each novel. 

But if you understand all the outlining methods available to you, you can take the pieces you like and craft your own process. I’m about to you the 7 best outline strategies that yield novels your readers will love. Read this, and you will know exactly how to outline for your next novel.

Should You Outline Your Novel?

Yes, because a good outline will keep your story tight and focused.

If your stories don’t make an emotional impact…

Or if you have a trail of half-written novels in your wake… outlining will help you finally achieve your writing potential. 

Best of all, outlines boost your writing momentum. A good outline drives your novel to the most climactic moment of your story with that special kind of “let’s do this” energy.

Good Outlines Are Predictions, Not Maps

Outlines can be wrong. Never be afraid to veer off the path if you find a more interesting route to the end of your story.

Discovery is the joy of writing. As you learn about your characters and your world, you may discover that your outline was wrong, and that’s okay. Revise your outline, and keep exploring.

Remember: you’re the writer. You’re in charge.

The 7 Best Ways to Outline Your Novel

These are the best outlining strategies you need to know before you start outlining your next story:

• The 1-Page Outline for quick, easy outlining.
• The Three C’s Outline for writers who don’t want to overplan.
• The Snowflake Method for turning an idea into a complete novel.
• The 3-Act Structure for stories designed to have a climactic ending.
• The 4-Act Structure , a variation on the 3-act structure.
• The Hero’s Journey for novels that are focused on developing heroes.
• The Beat Map Outline for novels built around the most emotionally-charged moments.

Let’s hop into our first example…

1. The One-Page Outline

If you have never outlined before… TRY THIS.

The one-page outline is fast and easy to update as you write. It keeps your story focused on what matters most: the emotions that lead to a big, climactic finish. No distractions.

It also takes less than five minutes to create.

Want to follow along? Get the free “One-Page Outline” template here . 

How to Outline Your Novel in One Page

• Write Down Your Main Character’s Destiny

I’ll use The Hobbit as my example here: 

Bilbo, a small, unlikely creature who lives in a hole in the ground, will get swept up in a grand quest to slay a dragon.

• Motivate Your Characters with Conflict 

All characters need powerful motivations , because action makes a story move forward. But those actions should come from difficult choices and a strong sense of conflict.

Bilbo is caught between his respectable nature as a hobbit and his secret desire for adventure. He wants to go with the Dwarves, but rare are the Hobbits who leave the safety of home.

• Map the Most Important Moments

Write a bullet point for each major plot point that raises the stakes, or changes the course of the story. 

The idea is to write out a dramatic arc that ascends towards a single, climactic moment.

• After traveling a while with the Dwarves, and almost getting eaten by Trolls and kidnapped by goblins, Bilbo gets separated from the group. Under the goblin caves, he steals a ring of magical power from a dangerous under-dweller. This gives Bilbo a unique power to confront the Dragon alone.
• After regrouping, Bilbo and the Dwarves get attacked by spiders and captured by Elves in the forest. This sets up the real conflict of the story: the Dwarves are not perfectly innocent in the destruction of their old home. 
• The Dwarves accidentally awaken the Dragon too early, causing it to rampage and destroy most of the nearby human town. In the end, the humans end up slaying the Dragon. This further develops the central conflict of Dwarves vs. Everyone Else.
• The Elves and the Humans march on the Lonely Mountain to claim their share of the Treasure. But the Dwarves refuse, almost igniting an all-out war between Men, Dwarves, and Elves. 
• But something else is coming: a dark horde of orcs and goblins and evil beasts are on their way to claim the mountain.

4. Tie the Beginning and End Together

Now that you know where your story is headed… it’s time to find out where it starts and where it ends.

We’re going to craft your beginning and ending at the same time, so we can guarantee a satisfying conclusion. 

Add a single sentence at the top of your outline that explains where the story begins…

Start: Bilbo is winding down for the evening in his quiet Hobbit hole when an old Wizard knocks on his door and calls him to a grand adventure.

Last, add one final sentence about how your story hits its crescendo. You do not need to know exactly how the story ends, only what the final conflict is about. 

Crescendo: Bilbo, once a peace-loving Hobbit, must somehow salvage the broken truce between the good races before the armies of evil arrive.

Notice how the beginning and end tie into each other? We’ll get more into this when we talk about the Hero’s Journey, but suffice it to say this creates, not a random series of events, but a satisfying, complete story.

The one-page outline is the simplest strategy and my personal favorite. I keep one on hand every time I start a novel. It’s an integral part of my NaNoWriMo preparation strategy , too.

In case you missed it, you can download the free One-Page Outline template here . Try it out on your next outline, and let me know how it goes.

2. The “Three C’s” Outline

This is your fastest outlining strategy . It’s perfect for creating intense, rapid-fire stories.

I first heard it from Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code . In his MasterClass course , he talks about the “Three C’s” that every outline should include:  

• Contract: What is the main promise of your story? What answers will your readers get by the end of the story?
• Crucible: What are the stakes for your heroes, and how do those stakes grow? 
• Clock: How much time is left?

Dan starts his outlines with a character who is destined to change. For example, in The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon is destined to transform from a know-it-all lecturer to a man of action. 

Then, he fills in the outline by answering his three C’s. 

But the true secret to his addicting storytelling is “braiding.”

First, you start with multiple storylines. One focuses on the hero, another on the villain, and another is a red-herring or a storyline just for a side-character.

Each storyline has a separate beginning. You slowly braid them together until they all twine together in a final, climactic moment. 

If you want to learn how to do this, I strongly recommend you try Dan Brown’s MasterClass course . These are so easy to watch and rich with valuable writing advice.

3. How to Outline with the Snowflake Method

The Snowflake Method is the best way to expand your unconnected ideas into a complete novel.  

It’s the perfect blend between outlining and discovery. If you know what kind of story you want to tell… but you don’t know the specifics yet, try this method.

Here’s How the Snowflake Method Works:

• Start with a single idea that sums up the core conflict of your story:

Harry Potter, a half-abused orphan, must attend a Wizarding school and stop the man who killed his parents.

• Create your main characters, your setting, and 3-5 of the most important plot points.
• Harry Potter makes a discovery that even his harsh caretakers can’t hide: he is actually a wizard
• Harry Potter sets off to Wizarding School where he meets his two best friends (Ron and Hermione) and some new enemies, including the hateful Professor Snape
• Harry and his newfound friends will uncover a dark plot to steal the Philosopher’s Stone and give it to the Dark Lord who orphaned Harry – a plot which only they can stop.
• Expand your descriptions until you have 2-5 pages of character ideas, plot points, and important scenes.

The snowflake method starts with a few major ideas and builds to an intricate, complete story concept. I find it extremely helpful for brainstorming new novel ideas. 

You can also grab an in-depth Snowflake Outline template here .

4. The Three-Act Outline

The three-act structure is designed to set up and answer a single dramatic question. 

It’s perfect for screenwriting and for new authors because it provides simple, rigid guidelines.

For this one, I’ll use The Shawshank Redemption as an example. Spoilers, ahoy.

Act 1 – Set Up the Question

• Introduce the Character & the World

Andy Dufresne, a mild-mannered banker, is convicted of murder, and sentenced to two life sentences in prison. 

The dramatic question is not “did he do it?”

Instead, we’re focused on, “What happens to a man who believes he has been wrongly convicted?”

• Inciting incident

Andy Dufresne is sitting outside his house in his car, drinking and holding a gun. To the viewer, it seems obvious that Andy, after finding his wife has been cheating on him, had an intent to kill.

• Turning Point

Andy is sent to Shawshank Prison, a place where everyone is guilty… including the warden. After this, everything is different.

Act 2 – Wrestle with the Question

Character faces the dramatic question —> Midpoint catalyst —> Point of no return

• Facing the Dramatic Question

At first, prison is hard for a man as soft as Andy. But over the years, he perseveres because he believes he is innocent. He even starts to create a cadre of friends and unlikely allies, including the Warden himself.

• Midpoint Catalyst

Andy finally gets proof that he is innocent… but the Warden, who has been using Andy to launder money, refuses to let Andy pursue his legal claims. The innocent man is firmly trapped, there is no escape.

• Point of No Return

Andy refuses to give up hope until the Warden kills Andy’s friend – and the only other person who knows about Andy’s innocence. With no choice, Andy begins to accelerate his plans to escape.

Think of this as the bridge to the climax. 

Act 3 – Resolve the Question

• Final Buildup

This is your chance to increase the momentum to breakneck speeds.

In the Shawshank Redemption, this culminates in Andy acting in increasingly strange ways, including blasting illegal opera music for all the inmates to hear, and asking his friend Red to get him a rope.

As the viewer, we are lead to believe Andy is about to kill himself. This appears to finally answer our question: when an innocent man is considered guilty, surely he must break down.

But then, we hit the climax…

The morning after Andy asks for the rope, the Guards can’t find Andy in his cell. The whole prison gets turned upside down, and dogs are brought in to chase Andy down.

Where could he have gone?

• Bridge to the Future

In a long reveal, we discover that Andy never gave up hope. He knew he would have to fight for his innocence, and so he spent the last decades digging an escape tunnel.

If you’ve seen the movie or read the book (both are incredible!), you’ll know that Andy also leaves a special gift for his friend Red – a bridge to their future lives.

This finally answers our dramatic question: when you know you are innocent, never stop fighting. 

Key Point: t he Three-act Structure Thrives on Change

At the end of each act, and at the midpoint, something happens which changes the course of the story. This generates an incredible amount of momentum that steamrolls the story into the climax.

The Three-Act structure is perfect for new writers and for writers who prefer to outline only the most important parts of their story. 

It leaves plenty of room for creativity, and it forces the writer to consider how their characters will adapt to sudden, dramatic changes. 

Here’s a fantastic 3-Act Novel Template from author Abbie Emmons. Notice how many different ways there are to cut up the three acts? No matter which outline strategy you choose, it will always be unique to your novel.

5. The 4-Act Structure

Some writers disagree with the 3-act structure. They argue that the Midpoint is actually the split between Act 3 and Act 4.

Instead of one dramatic question, they believe that each act is it’s own story – building up to the final act and resolution. Here’s a fantastic video that explains the concept: 

The 4-act structure can be outlined like this:

• Act 1: Character’s current world is interrupted
• Act 2: Character develops a new strategy to deal with the interruption
• Act 3: Character’s strategy fails. Miserably.
• Act 4: Character develops a better strategy that works… or, if you’re writing a tragedy, that makes everything irrevocably worse.

If you’ve already attempted the 3-act structure and found it lacking, try out the 4-act structure. 

It’s more specific and I love how the 4-act structure focuses on plotting out smaller objectives and questions that build towards the climax.

6. How to Outline Using the Hero’s Journey

One of my writing professors believed there were only two types of stories:

• A character comes to town
• A character goes on a quest

If you believe this theory, then the Hero’s Journey perfectly outlines all quests. The Hero’s Journey is essentially an expanded version of the 3-act Structure.

There are very specific beats you’re supposed to hit… but again, outlining is a prediction, not GPS directions.

Here’s how it works :

• Hero has a problem with the current world
• Hero is called to action and must enter a new world
• Hero returns to the world, having gained the power to overcome the original problem

If you’re trying to learn how to write better heroes …

…try the Hero’s Journey. Despite all it’s prescriptions, it’s still surprisingly flexible.

Every fantasy or science fiction writer should outline with the Hero’s Journey at least once. You will find yourself using the landmarks in this monomyth for the rest of your writing life.

7. How to Create a Beat Map Outline for Your Story

There’s an old trick to outlining called “beat mapping.”

You write a list of the main emotional “beats” you want in your story. Then, you arrange them into an ever-increasing arc of rising emotions.

The power behind beat mapping is that emotional momentum. Start with simple beats, add layers of events that create conflict, and watch your story rise to a powerful, emotional climax.

What is a “beat?” A beat is an emotional event that changes the course of the story. For example: 

• A boy finds a magic sword in a stone
• The lead detective is found dead in the street
• Two star-crossed lovers realize they were meant for each other (finally!)

The hard part is figuring out how granular you want to get with your beats. In a romance novel, the first kiss is probably an extremely important beat. But what about the second kiss? The third? 

There’s a fantastic book called Save the Cat!  that I strongly recommend because it details the beat mapping process. It will give you an idea, along with numerous examples, of how to beat map any story. 

Conclusion: Your Novel Outline Process is Unique to You

An outline is the single most powerful tool for completing your story. Whether you’re writing a rapid-fire thriller or a slow-burning romance novel, your work becomes 10x easier the moment you create an outline.

The perfect outline will:

• Show you the whole story
• Prevent you from getting stuck “in the middle”
• And help you actually finish your story

Start with a simple one-page outline. And if you find that feels good, try one of the other outline methods listed above. 

Remember: you are the master of your outline… and your outline process. Pick and choose the elements that feel most important for you, and you can go back to focusing on the best part of writing: telling a damn good story. 

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Columns > Published on October 28th, 2014

8 Ways to Outline a Novel

There are countless ways to outline a novel. Ultimately, the "right way to outline" is whatever way works best for you.To give you a few options to explore, this article will introduce you to a few of my favorite outlining methods. But first ...

Why bother outlining?

Outlining isn't a moral imperative, and it doesn't work for everyone. But even if you are a “pantser” (a.k.a. “a discovery writer”), there are some noteworthy advantages worth exploring.

• You reduce the amount of work you'll need to do during writing. By planning out ideas first, you can trim down the amount of time spent in writing the novel itself. This is especially beneficial for those of you looking to do some last-hour preparation for NaNoWriMo.
• You give yourself a chance to spot potential roadblocks and plot holes. Since outlining gives you a broader view of the work, you may be able to identify story problems or areas that will require creative solutions. Even if outlining doesn't automatically solve these problems, it gives you some time to mull your solutions over prior to hitting the roadblocks.
• You can save yourself some hassle. When writing off the cuff, it's entirely possible to paint yourself into a corner. While this isn't a problem per se, it does require that you spend time painting yourself back out again. Outlining can help you eliminate this issue.
• You get the creative juices flowing. By starting to think about the various aspects of your story, you're jump-starting the creative processes. Even if you never refer to your outline again, your mind will be primed for writing.
• You get the chance to thread ideas through your piece. Outlining helps you choose ways to foreshadow, drop hints, or unify the theme in earlier parts of your work.

For these and other reasons, outlines are often worthwhile. So, what are some possible ways to outline your novel?

1. The Expanding "Snowflake" Outline

The snowflake method is one highly specific form of what I call the “expanding outline.” In any expanding outline, you start with the simplest form of the story:

Jack/Jill get injured while climbing a hill trying to get water.

Then you expand on it:

Jack, the mayor's son, is sent to fetch water. Jill comes with him. They get injured while climbing the hill where the well is.

Then you expand on it more:

Jack, who is the mayor's son, is sent to fetch water for the town. His girlfriend Jill comes with him. At the top of the hill where the well is, the two are attacked. They attempt to escape but trip and fall down the hill. They are both injured.

This process continues until every part of the story has the level of detail you want. The “snowflake method” advocates a specific way of getting to that level and can be rather intensive; you can find the specifics of the "snowflake method"  here . Whether you use the precise methodology of the snowflake or simply expand an idea repeatedly until you're satisfied, this method is a good way to identify when some of your ideas could still use development.

2. Pure Summary

Basically, the idea here is to write your story from beginning to end but replace all scenes and dialogue with summaries. It's your entire story, just laid out while still at the maximum level of compression.

Jack and Jill are called in for a royal audience. The king tells them they need to get water. They leave. They talk about the consequences of disobeying the king, deciding that they had better obey. They climb the hill, which is very steep. At the top of the hill, they look around for a while. They talk about the tyranny of the kingdom, deciding that they hate the king and would rather die than serve him. Jack commits suicide by throwing himself down the mountain. Jill then does the same. When the people see this, they start a revolt. The revolt rages through the streets for a while. They overthrow the king.

This method helps give a cohesive sense of the story and gives a good road-map for you to follow during the writing process itself.

3. The Skeletal Outline

You've probably used skeletal outlines for academic papers before. The notion here is to lay out your core points (or, in this case,  narrative points) in the order you feel will best aid the flow of your argument (or, in this case, storytelling). It gives a good birds-eye view of your structure and can help you re-form your story for maximum impact.

I. Exposition ----The story takes place in a village named Hillside ----We are introduced to Jack, who is a paladin. ----We are introduced to Jill, who is a thief. II. Inciting Incident ----Jack catches Jill stealing a crown. While he's arresting her ... ----Goblins sneak into the village and light buildings on fire. III. Rising Action ----Jack/Jill both decide they must climb the hill to get the magical Pail of Endless Water. ----On the way up the hill, J/J encounter and fight goblins. ----At the top of the hill, J/J find that a dark priest named Ravimag has been controlling the goblins. IV. Climax ----Jack/Jill fight Ravimag ----Jack is flung from the hill by Ravimag ----In anger, Jill stabs Ravimag and retrieves the Pail of Endless Water, then leaps down the hill V. Falling action ----Falling VI. Resolution ----Flash forward to a time when Jack is discovered, still healthy ----Jack/Jill have saved the town from the fire and Ravimag ----Jack/Jill are celebrated by the people ----Jack lets Jill go, even though she stole the crown

If you're struggling to form a plot, you can even use the hero's journey or Freytag's Pyramid as your base-line (as I did above) and then graft your own characters and ideas to the appropriate points.

4. Flashlight Outlining

Just like a flashlight gives great illumination to what's near and only a small amount to what's far, the "flashlight method" of outlining is all about letting yourself discover the story gradually while still doing enough planning that you can anticipate any walls you're about to crash into. 

Chapter 1. Jack/Jill are on opposing teams for a boys vs girls basketball game. Jack is charming and flirtatious, but arrogantly thinks that the boys will have no trouble winning. When he taunts Jill, she pushes past him and breaks his nose. Chapter 2. Jack/Jill meet again in a park, and after bickering for a bit, they decide they need to have a set of challenges to see who is really the better athlete. They start with a javelin throw, which Jack wins. Chapter 3. For the second challenge, Jack and Jill do some sort of gymnastic event, which Jill wins.  Other chapters: Jack/Jill go back and forth winning events. Eventually, Jack/Jill decide to have a final challenge of having a race up the hill to the well. Jack is ahead but falls and gets injured, and Jill decides to help him instead of winning.

While it may not provide all the time-savings advantages of other outline methods (especially for the NaNites out there), it  does  help you shape your story more consciously than if you just go off the cuff.

5. Free Writing

Free-writing is the most pantser-friendly way to approach your story, and it's my personal favorite method for outlining a longer piece. The advantage of this method is that you can bring whatever level of detail and thought you happen to have available, make notes on your goals, and ask yourself questions as you go. For example:

This story is about Jack and Jill, who are going to fetch some water. They're doing this for their town, because the town was built on top of some ancient ruins that contain a monster. This monster is paralyzed by water. The water has to come from a special well, which was blessed by a shaman a long time ago. Jill is the descendant of this shaman, and she has some magical abilities, but she doesn't know that at the beginning of the story. Jill has the obligation to get the water as part of the ceremony to paralyze the monster, but she doesn't believe that the monster really exists, because she's never seen it before and it's been gone for so long. Jack is Jill's guardian, and he uses a giant axe to fight the monsters that live on “the hill.” When going up the hill, Jack and Jill have to fight their way through multiple enemies. Maybe evil llamas of some sort. And lizards. At the top of the hill, Jack is injured and Jill chooses to stay with him. She finds she can magically control the elements, which she has to do to defend him. However, because she hasn't returned with the water for the ceremony, the monster begins to wake up and there is an earthquake while Jack and Jill are coming down the hill. They both fall down and are injured again.

For me, free-writing isn't so much about giving myself a road-map as it is about spontaneous idea generation and giving myself enough content that I can start to really daydream about my story.

6. The Visual Map

This is my second-favorite way to look at a story, partially because it gives you the freedom to draw in connections and expand on concepts on the fly.

I won't share my example of this, partially because every person's approach will differ but mostly because I took a picture of my sketch and realized that my handwriting is completely illegible. To summarize, I started with blocks for the core plot and character points and then branched off from these as I asked myself more questions. What was Jack's motivation? He was the son of the mayor. Why did they need water? There was a drought. Why did they fall? There was a cougar. Why was there a cougar? Because of the drought, maybe? You get the idea.

7. Contextual Preparation

Even if you choose not to write out your plot, there's a lot of advantage to writing about the context in which the story takes place. That means developing your setting , systems (e.g., technology, deities, magic, politics, etc.), and thinking about the questions you want your reader to be asking. For discovery writers, having a well-developed sense of character is especially important (take a look at this  in-depth character questionnaire  for more help on that front).

Jack/Jill live in the land of Fulululu. Fulululu is a fairy kingdom where all plant-life serves as the homes of the fairy creatures. All the fairies cast spells through the use of magical mushrooms. These mushrooms allow them to control time and space. The Kingdom of Fulululu is ruled by King Bakon, who is a pure-blooded fairy. Jack is half fairy and half dandelion. This has raised some controversy, as there are those in the kingdom who oppose fairies marrying dandelions. Jill is Jack's best friend. She is a dragonfly.

With a sense of the world and characters, you can more easily launch into the story and get a stronger sense that characters are finding their own plot—all while keeping the tone and rules of your world consistent.

8. Outlining Software

I've never used any software myself, so I can't personally testify to the effectiveness of any one option. That said, there are several popular programs for writers, with the most notable being  Scrivener . A quick Google search will show you dozens of other options, and there are even those who advocate using non-traditional tools like Excel and Trello for your outline.

These are just a few of the methods that have been recommended to me, that I've been exposed to, or that I've experimented with. Hopefully at least one proves useful to you. Meanwhile, do you have any specific methods of your own? We'd love to hear your preferred approach in the comments, below.

About the author

Rob is a writer and educator. He is intensely ADD, obsessive about his passions, and enjoys a good gin and tonic. Check out his website for multiple web fiction projects, author interviews, and various resources for writers.

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But enough background — let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Here are the steps of the Snowflake Method, including instructions, time estimate and desired result.

Step 1: Create a one-sentence summary of your novel.

In about 15 words or less, create your elevator pitch, or a summary of your main story.

It should include the main character and the key thing they do in the story. This is usually an objective or a challenge.

This sentence will sound a lot like the sentence they’ll put on your book when you get on the NYT Bestseller list (so you can find more inspiration and examples there)

For example:

• Wonder: A boy with a facial deformity starts school.
• Circe: Zeus banishes Helios’s daughter to an island, where she must choose between living with gods or mortals.
• One of us is Lying: For five students, a detour into detention ends in murder.

Notice that no character names are used at this point, stick to key descriptors of your main character or characters.

Good one-sentence summaries should ideally introduce some empathy for the main character, stakes and conflict.

Taking the first example, if it had simply been ‘a boy starts school’, then we’re not exactly leaping out of our seats with excitement.

But the fact that he has a facial deformity neatly does two things. It gives us empathy for him, and it gets us worried about how he’s going to be treated when he arrives for his first day.

In the second example, empathy and conflict are built by telling us Helios’s daughter is banished, and further conflict is raised by expressing that she must choose between gods and mortals.

Finally, the third example contains murder as the conflict, and we immediately have empathy for the students – young people who have been suddenly thrust into a horrifying situation.

Remember that writing a great single sentence summary is probably harder than writing a novel, so don’t beat yourself up if you’re struggling with it. Just keep practising, and you will get better with time and experience.

Time required: 1 hour

End result: A one-sentence summary of your main story.

Step 2: Create a single-paragraph summary of your novel.

Next, expand your single sentence summary into one paragraph, about five sentences long, that describes your story’s set up, major turning points, and ending.

Randy likes to think of it as ‘three disasters plus an ending’, with each disaster taking up a quarter of the book, and the disaster taking up the last quarter.

However, you could use a different type of plot outline to create your paragraph outline.

End result: A one-paragraph summary of your novel.

Step 3: Breathe life into your characters.

So, we’ve got a high level overview of our plot. Now let’s do the same for our characters.

Write a one-page summary for each of your main characters. Great fiction is driven by great characters, so spending time developing them is a great investment.

In each summary, include:

• Your character’s name
• The character’s motivation (what do they need?)
• Your character’s goal (what do they want?)
• The character’s conflict (what is their main flaw or obstacle)
• The character’s epiphany (what will this character learn throughout the course of the story?)
• A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline
• A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline

Time required: 2 hours per character.

End result: A one page character overview for each main character.

Step 4: Flesh out your story.

Now, begin to expand on each sentence of the story summary you created in Step 2.

Develop each sentence into a paragraph of its own. Randy recommends having each of these paragraphs ending at a turning point or in disaster except the last one, which will end your book.

When you’re done you should have roughly a one page outline of your book. Don’t worry if it doesn’t exactly fit on one page.

Length isn’t as important as seeing whether your story is working or not. If something isn’t quite right, it’s better to know now than after you’ve invested many hours (or even weeks) into writing.

Time required: 1 to 2 days.

End result: A one-page skeleton summary of your novel.

Important note: Never be afraid to revisit and revise earlier steps as you learn more about the story. It’s perfectly natural and a good thing that your story evolves and you make tweaks as you learn more.

Step 5: Expand on your characters.

In step five we return to our characters.

Write a one page description of the story from the point of view of each of the major characters, and a half page one for each of the minor characters.

This can be really fascinating and really lift your novel into three dimensions, as each of your characters has their own experience of the events. It can highlight potential plot holes, inspire interesting new twists and open up new avenues for conflict and relationships.

Note that you don’t need to do this step for every single character – minor walk on roles don’t require it.

Time required: 1 to 7 days.

End result: A single page description of the story for each major character, and a half page for each supporting character.

Step 6: Write a four-page synopsis of your story.

You might be starting to notice a pattern here — one that represents the fractals of that snowflake.

The single sentence that you turned into a single paragraph that you turned into a single page…

Now you turn that into four pages.

In my experience, I get quite involved in this step and go way further than four pages, sometimes writing up to ten.

But again, the exact number of pages isn’t important – what’s important is that you’re layering creativity into your story.

At this point the work you’ve done on your characters in the previous step will likely influence your plot, and you’ll weave some new details in.

You’ll also have to think harder about how things tie together and where important plot developments and twists will be.

As you write this longer summary, you’ll want to return to your earlier steps and update them with this new knowledge.

Time required: Up to a week.

End result: A four-page synopsis of your story.

Step 7: Create character charts.

Effective authors often know far more about their characters than they ever reveal on the page.

This intimate knowledge helps their characters feel more like real people with backstory, quirks and internal contradictions.

Build on the information you created in Steps 3 and 5, but this time, add more detail (like physical descriptions, quirks , birthdays, etc.) and think hard about your characters’ arcs. How will they change throughout the story? What will they learn?

It’s the emotional journey your character goes on that will stay with readers long after they’ve forgotten the nuts and bolts of the plot.

Time required: A week to a month.

End result: Full-fledged character charts for each of your important characters.

Step 8 : Create a list of your scenes.

This step will ease you into writing your complete first draft.

Take the four-page synopsis you created in Step 6 and use it to make a list of all the scenes you’ll need for your novel.

You can do this with a spreadsheet or with dedicated novel writing software .

For each scene, note down the Point of View character, and a brief summary of what happens in the scene. No more detailed than what you could fit on an index card or post it note.

Time required: Two to four weeks

End result: A completed list of scenes with brief descriptions.

Step 9: Write a narrative description of each of your scenes.

This step further eases the pain of the first draft, as you’ll already have done so much of the work.

For each of your scene descriptions, write a narrative description of what happens in that scene. This simply means write a more detailed description of everything that happens in that scene, in order.

Sketch out the conflict and note down any specifically cool description or dialogue that hits you.

Randy calls this the ‘prototype first draft’ which is a great way to put it. It’s not quite the first draft, because it’s not written in prose. But it’s got all the major beats, in the right order.

Once this is done, you might want to print it out, and then you can note any new ideas you have in the margins.

Time required: About a month

End result: A “prototype” first draft that has done all the legwork of the first draft

Step 10: Write your first draft.

You’ve done a lot of prep work up to this point, and here’s where you’ll see it all pay off. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll be able to write your first draft, and with a much higher quality, if you’ve done all the steps up until now.

When you know exactly where the story is going, it’s easy to write several thousand words per day. This means it’s possible to get a first draft of 50,000 words completed in one month.

You know your characters, you know your story, you’ve made revisions and filled in the gaps where necessary. Your story will fly from your fingers!

And the best part is that because you know you’ve got the high level structural stuff solid, you can focus all your creative juices on the minutiae of choosing the most perfect words and sentences and creating atmosphere, drama and tension as appropriate.

Time required: One month

End result: Your finished first draft. Celebrate!

What Are the Benefits of Using the Snowflake Method?

There are some excellent reasons why the Snowflake Method is so popular.

1. It gives new writers with lots of ideas a place to start.

One of the problems new writers often have is that they are bursting with ideas, but have no idea how to organise them into a coherent novel. The Snowflake Method offers a logical method for taking all those ideas, wrangling them into a smooth flowing order.

3. It makes the entire novel writing process more manageable.

The idea of writing a whole novel is so daunting people sometimes become paralyzed by the pressure and never even start.

This method breaks it down into manageable steps. It balances focus on plot and character, so you don’t fall down the trap of having one and not the other.

Side note: most of these same benefits also apply to the Novel Factory Novel Writing Roadmap , since the Roadmap uses the same ‘build outwards’ principle as the Snowflake Method foundation.

4. It makes finishing your novel faster and easier.

Having a repeatable method saves time because you don’t waste hours scratching your head wondering what to work on next. You also don’t spend time working on things you don’t need.

And the way it builds from the centre of the story outwards, rather than from the beginning of the story to the end, means you are less likely to create contradictions and random plot holes that need to be filled in later.

Ready to Use the Snowflake Method to Write Your Novel?

There are many methods you can use to get a story out of your head and into a well-written, finished first draft.

If you’ve been struggling, or if you’re currently writing your first novel, why not give the Snowflake Method a try?

It’s easy to follow, easy to understand, and you don’t need to study writing craft for years before you can put pen to paper.

For a more detailed explanation of each step, you might check out the Novel Factory Roadmap . It works on a similar principle to the Snowflake Method, but also includes steps for how to structure goals and conflict, and covers redrafting and editing, too.

So check out the roadmap today, and see how quickly and easily you can finish your novel.

Unlock your writing potential

If you liked this article by the Novel Factory, then why not try the Novel Factory app for writers?

It includes:

• Plot Templates
• Character Questionnaires
• Writing Guides
• Drag & Drop Plotting Tools
• World Building resources
• Much, much more

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Home / Book Writing / The Snowflake Method: 10 Steps to Outline a Story

The Snowflake Method: 10 Steps to Outline a Story

The snowflake method of writing is a way of designing a novel that is based on a fractal structure known as the Koch snowflake, made famous by Randy Ingermanson.

This planning process starts with a one sentence story summary that crystallizes into a perfect first draft with a three act structure .

The 10 steps to novel writing in this fashion are described in further detail in this article.

• What the snowflake method is
• What to do before you write
• The 10 step process to the snowflake method

Table of contents

• What is a Koch Snowflake?
• Brainstorm With Pen and Paper
• 1. Craft A One Sentence Summary
• The Classic Three Act Structure
• 3. Create Character Synopsis
• 4. Grow Your Story to A One Page Description
• 5. Review and Refine Your Character Descriptions
• 6. Create a Four Page Plot Outline
• 7. Create Full Fledged Character Charts
• 8. Breakdown All of Your Story Scenes
• 9. Sketch Out Your Novel Chapters
• 10. Write The Novel's First Draft
• Should You Use the Snowflake Method?

Side note: I recommend Plottr as my top plotting tool to fabricate stories using the Snowflake Method and many other Story Structures . If you purchase Plottr, I do get a small commission from that, but there is no extra cost and every bit goes to the coffee fund. More on Plottr later.

The Koch Snowflake is a fluid diagram of a visual fractal curve that helps us understand how one event can lead to another.

This fractal has an image of a large equilateral triangle. Additional identical triangles are then added to the inner third of each of the triangle's sides. This process continues in perpetuity, eventually creating an elaborate, six-sided snowflake shape.

The snowflake is not only self-referential in all ways, but it also repeats, and mirrors itself in any direction. It is finite in form, but infinite in meaning; exactly how to write a novel.

This geometric visual is used to help you create a blueprint of your novel that is balanced, tight, and that always refers back to your original theme.

Every novel starts with one big central idea. The big idea then duplicates itself to create a succession of “offspring” ideas, including ones about structure, character and plot.

The snowflake method helps you to stay on track while fleshing out the basic structure of your book. This saves hours of rewriting, should your story stray off course.

Before You Start The Writing Process

Before you start writing, do a little brainstorming. All you need for this is your brain, a pen and a notebook.

Most people come into readiness for a project with a flurry of ideas in their head, for what the novel should be about. Take a couple of hours and write out every idea for a main character, scenario or plot point that comes to mind.

This helps get your ideas out of your mind and down on paper so that you can remember them. This is the raw creative material that you will draw from to create your full blown novel using the snowflake method.

Don't worry about the order of the ideas or anything else. Just get it all down, in point form, so you can peruse them later as you are creating your first draft.

This is not a first step, but a process that is ongoing every day as your brain is triggered to come up with more ideas while designing your novel outline.

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“Thinking with your hands” is crucial to the writing life, which is why it is important to dispense with your computer keys, until you are ready to craft your one sentence summary.

According to an interesting article in Psychology Today , there is a connection between our brain and our hands called embodied cognition. The feel of the pen in our hand allows the free flow of ideas from the human brain to the paper, enhancing memory and creativity during a brainstorming session.

While brainstorming your mind will organically take you from a point of free association to detailed description, there is no need to worry about organizing your novel just yet. You are going to use the snowflake method to do that.

The Snowflake Method Ten Step Process

Here is how to use the Snowflake method to design your novel.

Write a succinct one sentence description of the entire novel that is about 10 to 15 words long. It should also have just one subject and one predicate with no qualifiers.

The one sentence is a brief summary that includes:

• A main character's dilemma, choice, conflict or goal
• What's at stake for the character
• The action or challenge that faces the protagonist
• A reference to the setting or historical period (optional)

Here are ways to write a one sentence along with examples as how they would apply to Rosemary's Baby (1967) by Ira Levin

Structure 1

Here are two examples of first sentence structure when the story is driven by a character conflict between a protagonist and antagonist.

A (protagonist) must ( do an action) to (protagonist's goal)

Example: A pregnant woman must escape a satanic cult to keep her baby.

A (protagonist) must stop an (antagonist) from (antagonist's goal.)

Example: A pregnant woman must stop a satanic cult from taking her baby.

Structure 2

This type of single sentence structure works as a thematic or situational approach to storytelling.

A (protagonist) tries to (protagonist's goal) but (this happens instead.)

Example: A woman tries to conceive a baby with her husband but is impregnated by Satan instead.

Structure 3

This type of single sentence summary is more complex, referring to what is at risk if the conflict or problem is not resolved.

A (protagonist) with a (problem) tries to (protagonist's goal), but the (stakes) may (possibility of an ending.)

Example: A woman carrying the devil's child tries to escape a satanic cult, but the price of freedom may be her life.

Getting the one sentence summary right is crucial to the snowflake method as it is the seed idea that sows the development of the rest of the book. It is the original fractal triangle that assists with generating more detail for your novel.

2. Write A One Paragraph Summary

Expand the single sentence summary idea to a single paragraph that describes the entire story. When writing this single paragraph, think of your novel as having a plot with a simple three act structure and three crisis plot points.

Writing your summary paragraph is easy, if you follow the classic three act structure.

• The first crisis plot point happens at the midpoint of Act 1.
• The second crisis plot point happens at the midpoint of Act 2.
• The third crisis is at the end of Act 2
• Act 3 is the resolution of all crisis in the first three acts

Your book is now a developing fractal snowflake. The easiest way to write this part of the “snowflake” is to think of it as five sentences.

The first sentence is devoted to the background and set up of the plot. The following three sentences describe each crisis. A final sentence concludes the whole story.

This step requires writing one paragraph of character descriptions for each of the main characters and minor characters in the novel.

Each paragraph in your character sheet should include one sentence summaries that describe :

• Character names and appearance
• The character's motivation
• The character's goal
• The character's conflict or challenge
• How the character's epiphany moves the plot forward
• How the character's existence lends forward momentum to the plot

Writing a character chart out like this can help you decide on important characters and which character's storyline makes it to the first draft.

Take each line of your one paragraph summary and flesh it out to be a full one-page summary. All but the last paragraph should end in a crisis. The final paragraph reveals how the story ends.

This provides a one page synopsis of your main story. You should now have the skeleton of a novel in place.

Refer back to your character notes and make sure they still fit into your story idea. It is very common at this point to change characters or even discard them if their perspectives or motivations do not quite fit into your four page synopsis.

Take each paragraph that you have written for your one page paragraph and expand each into a full page.

Any plot holes or character inconsistencies should be obvious at this stage. It is better to notice these flaws now, rather than when you are halfway through writing a novel.

Once you have refined your list of characters, you can submit it and a polished four page synopsis to a publisher. This is how to get an advance to start writing a first novel.

Create quick reference charts that fully detail the backstory for each character from your full paragraph descriptions. Include a detailed description of how main characters may have reacted to each other in the past.

Think of them as imaginary friends that you are going to spend a lot of time with while you get your story ideas down on paper.

This step requires you to either use an excel sheet or story cards to create a visual outline of your story ideas. The story cards that you create and arrange come from your four page outline.

Title each card or Excel field and arrange each in the order you think they should go to optimize the building to each crisis point in your three acts.

Once you know where each crisis and act goes you can write paragraphs for each scene card. First draft paragraphs do not have to be perfectly thought out detailed descriptions. They can be jotted down thoughts, bits of dialogue or location ideas.

The source for this material can come from the pen-on-paper brainstorming sessions that you did before writing one sentence summaries.

By this point, using the snowflake method will have shaped the major character in your novel. You will be so familiar with the story and the major characters that you will be able to quickly write out the first draft.

There is no doubt that the snowflake method works when it comes to developing a main character and writing that first draft in record time!

To devise a novel using the snowflake method, simply follow the ten steps to writing a good story above. Know that it is quite common to have to rewrite all of the scenes quite a few times, before you get it right.

The great thing about using the snowflake method for fiction writing is that it allows you to speed up the writing process. Once you make a change to your one sentence summary or paragraph story summary, the fractal nature of the snowflake method helps all the scenes fall organically into place.

If you want to use the Snowflake Method, I highly recommend Plottr as a way of helping you structure your story .

Plottr has templates for dozens of different storytelling techniques. It uses helpful prompts and guides to help you outline each scene in your story, each character that you need to build, etc.

It is also my choice for the best outlining software . 

Is the one sentence summary the same thing as a tagline?

A tag line is similar to a sentence summary, except that a tagline is the one-liner you would see on a movie poster. A great example of a tagline is the one for the movie Alien (1979): “In Space, Nobody Can Hear You Scream!”

Can a one paragraph summary be used as the back cover copy for a book?

A novel's back cover copy is meant to persuade a reader to buy it. By contrast, a summary paragraph is a blueprint created by the snowflake method that guides you to write a character's storyline.

What is a character epiphany?

A character epiphany is a dramatic device that is used in fiction writing to drive the plot forward.

The term describes a character that has a great revelation, either provoking a crisis point in any of the first three acts or resolving the main character conflict at the end of the novel.

Jason Hamilton

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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Writing Psychologically-Realistic Characters in Fiction

A psychiatrist-novelist reveals her writing methods..

Posted May 16, 2024 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

• As readers, we usually want fictional characters to be both unique and psychologically realistic.
• Psychiatrist-novelists have a well of clinical experience teaching them how people feel, behave, and grow.
• Novelists have sometimes-unconscious reasons for choosing certain themes and characters to write about.

Good novelists create characters who are complex. unique, and have relatable human needs and feelings. Joyce Carol Oates is one of our best contemporary novelists, and has created a host of memorable characters. including a hippie, an imagined Marilyn Monroe, and a teenage boy. When she and I met and exchanged novels, she said: “You’re a psychiatrist and a novelist. What a great combination!”

There certainly are superb novelists who are also psychiatrists. Dr. Daniel Mason, for example, is both an inpatient psychiatrist and one of our finest contemporary writers of fiction. However, non- psychiatric physicians have also written psychologically rich characters. Dr. Abraham Verghese, for example, specializes in internal medicine. And many of the greatest novelists of all time who created complex characters: Dickens, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky were neither psychiatrists nor physicians.

So how, then, are psychiatrist novelists “a great combination"?

The advantages of being a psychiatrist-novelist

Humans are fascinated by other people and their behaviors. From earliest childhood , we listen to and read stories to show how people face challenging situations. We psychiatrists have an added advantage. In our clinical work, we are privileged to hear the most private thoughts and feelings of many people: their fears, the different ways they have tried to protect themselves in difficult and often traumatizing relationships and situations. We also see how they change and grow. When creating fictional characters, we have access to this well of knowledge to write imaginary but psychologically realistic people.

The challenges

When it comes down to the writing, though, physicians have a disadvantage. We're trained to write clinical case histories in a rigid format: presenting problem, history of present illness, past medical history, family history, and so on. This is totally unlike the process fiction authors must master to write characters that come alive on the page. We physicians must put aside that ingrained pattern of straightforward reporting if we are to write good fiction.

One psychiatrist-novelist’s process of writing

Is our process of writing fiction different from that of other novelists? What follows is my own method. I tend to think it is not; readers here may hazard their own guess.

Finding a topic gripping to the novelist

A novelist will spend countless hours in his/her imagination , even more writing sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, then even more rewriting. Because of this heavy expenditure of energy and time, we must find a topic that fascinates us so much we are willing (or needing) to invest the months and years necessary to write about it.

In my case, the idea for my novel of psychological suspense, The End of Miracles , came directly from my clinical work as a psychiatrist. Over a period of a few months, I was asked to see three women, each with an extended false pregnancy , a condition technically named pseudocyesis.

In addition to my clinical interest in evaluating and treating them, and my scientific interest in studying their hormone levels, I also thought: wouldn’t it be fascinating to write a novel in which, at some point, the main character develops pseudocyesis?

Why was this topic so appealing? Only during the course of writing did the realization of the likely roots of my fascination become apparent.

Having an overarching goal

I'd long harbored a creative need to write a novel. I also wanted to add an engrossing book to the world of literature in return for the pleasure I’ve received from reading fiction since my childhood. As a psychiatrist, I set myself additional goals . I wanted to show psychiatrists as they really are, not as the devious or incompetent stereotypes so often portrayed in books or films. I wanted to show that people who develop a serious mental illness are not that different from the rest of us.

Creating the characters

One method I used was to become an actor. I'd pretend to be a particular character and then "listen to" their inner monologue and dialogue. Probably the easiest chapters to write were about the psychiatrist in the novel. I simply imagined myself in my own office, sitting across from the main character, Margo, and having a therapeutic session with her.

Writing the psychological roots of behaviors

It was very important to me to make Margo’s thoughts and actions grow out of her psychology. Once I'd written enough to know her feelings and behaviors in the present, I added to prior chapters instances of thoughts and experiences that were roots of the current ones.

In the process of writing this way, I discovered a possible clue as to why I was so attracted to the theme of a false pregnancy. A memory came to mind: 5-year-old me seeing my mother very pregnant, seeing babies in fancy carriages, seeing women nursing their babies. Likely I wanted a baby then, too—yet never got to have one. But these women who’d developed false pregnancies with distended abdomens had found a solution to that problem! Why hadn’t I thought of that? Well, now I had.

Writing suspensefully

I’ve read many thrillers, and now used the techniques I’d observed in them to create tension and a page-turning experience for my own readers. In the most suspenseful sections, I kept chapter lengths short and hinted in their last sentences that something crucial was about to happen,

Sending the book out into the world

Publication was a joy mixed with an unexpected momentary sense of loss. In a way, it resembled what it’s like when a baby is born: for many months, you’ve had a private, intimate relationship, and then it ends. Similarly, when my novel was published, there was a brief sadness about sending it out into the world to make new relationships with its readers.

The audiobook re-creation

When we read a book, we're not actually reading the same book as its other readers. We filter what we see on the page through our own experiences and understanding of the world. With an audiobook, the narrator voices the story and the characters through their own response to the text.

For The End of Miracle 's Audible audiobook, I listened to many of their narrators read aloud sections of other books and of my own before choosing the one whose voice resonated best with the story. I would be entrusting this person to be a kind of co-creator with me. It’s been gratifying to read comments of those who’ve both read and listened, writing they very much liked the print version and loved the audiobook. Then, I am reassured that I made the right choice.

The effect on one listener, though, was unexpected and humorous. My teenage grandson wrote on his Facebook page: “After reading the novel I listened to the audiobook and it was a relief to hear the phrase ‘egg showered in sperm’ in someone else’s voice instead of my grandmother’s.”

Starkman, M. (2016) The End of Miracles: A Novel, She Writes Press.

Monica Starkman, MD is a professor of psychiatry emerita at the University of Michigan. Her novel The End of Miracles is a suspenseful story about a woman who unravels psychologically after harrowing infertility and a tragic miscarriage, the shocking choices she makes, and the psychiatrists and close ones who try to save her.

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Anna Noyes on Writing the Book That Keeps Her Awake

“i want narrative propelled by questions, not by the need to provide each answer.”.

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s  Craft of Writing  newsletter— sign up here .

In  The Art of Subtext , Charles Baxter writes, “A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and the unseen.”

In 2017, I sold my debut novel on the basis of a sample, pitching a historical, multi-generational family saga. It sounded very novel-like. I celebrated. Then, almost immediately, things veered. I kept picturing the television adaptation—starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Meryl Streep. But I couldn’t make the story mine. I wrote spurred by an imaginary reader who I did not trust and who did not trust me.

This reader wanted lush, lovely sentences, grand ideas, sweeping plot, characters whose minds and motives were made heart-wrenchingly clear. She wanted abundance. I wanted to help. I liked her. I feared her. I typed as fast as I could, against mounting dread, until I had a 600-page draft. I culled it by 200, swiftly, helplessly, and turned it in.

It was dead wood.

With great effort, maybe it could have been a passable impression of a kind of novel I esteem, written for a reader I esteem, but who is not me.

I had to start over with the seed, my original sample, written in the dark. What I knew, without scrambling for dominion, was sparse. A handful of clues. I made flexible outlines chapter-by-chapter, generating no more than a few pages of text each week. My ambition shrank to the size of each paragraph. A novel had seemed too long—for writer and reader—to caretake each word. Now, I allowed the smallest gestures to matter. I read as I would the books I love most, not with my mind but with my body. My mind carried on in doubt. But in my chest, a deep, spacious center knew what it liked.

What emerged, increment by increment, was a story made for me.

And I want narrative propelled by questions, not by the need to provide each answer.

I want language with energy, over continuity, over beauty.

I want characters who are—as in life—complicated, half-glimpsed, harboring private truths. I think of Mary Oliver, discovering her partner of over thirty years was a “clear, dark, lovely whistler,” when she had never before heard her whistle. Let characters be like this: beloveds, and strangers. No matter how much time we’ve spent together, capable of surprise.

And, always, I want subtext. As Toni Morrison said, “What you don’t write frequently gives what you do write its power.”

My sentences would not come to life without room to breathe. The white space, the in-between, hums. Scientists say the universe itself has a background hum, the sound of gravitational waves.

My protagonist is raised on an island with a history of violence that carries from the past into her present. On the surface, there are things she cannot comprehend, but menace is understood by the body, and permeates her surroundings; her dreams and nightmares. Her subconscious knows what she cannot.

I had the creeping feeling this was a horror story, though it wouldn’t be shelved as such; the horror was insidious. Growing up a girl, in a place—like most—with its own violences, I was afraid long before I could name why.

The implicit requires my full presence. It is Shirley Jackson’s  The   Haunting of Hill House , when Eleanor lies in the dark gripping Theodora’s hand, only to find the room suddenly lit, Theodora in her separate bed.

“God God—whose hand was I holding?”

Ultimately, I had to write the kind of book that keeps me awake. And stories that ask the most of me make me feel most keenly alive. They hold space for ineffable darkness, and dearness. The sacred and wild. Breath.

My novel took me eight years. Years spent learning to trust myself, the reader, the mystery.

___________________________________

The Blue Maiden by Anna Noyes is available now via Grove Press. 

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The Compasses Inn, Wiltshire: ‘I could write a book here’ — review

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Tim Hayward

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Zeno’s arrow paradox states that if an object in motion is viewed at any instant, it is motionless and, therefore, as time is a series of instants, motion is impossible. “Of course,” you chuckle, “but like all of Zeno’s paradoxes it is patently absurd.” Well, I would counter, Zeno never drove back from Cornwall to Cambridge.

I’m usually around Tiverton, on the edge of Somerset, when I channel Hunter S Thompson’s need for hard drugs. I’ve driven for hours, and the realisation dawns that there are still uncountable hours to go, and my will to live departs like a flock of startled bats. So this time, I had a plan. I’d noticed on my list of places to try “The Compasses, Chicksgrove, Wiltshire” and I resolved to break there for the night, partake of something simple and then roar off into the morning refreshed.

I’ve never been to the Nadder Valley. And, frankly, why should I? I regard the countryside as a soft-play area for terminal romantics. The sort of people who are so distracted by its gentle shapes and colours that they ignore the risks of humiliation, injury and disease. There are animals, tractors, soil and Jeremy Clarkson. And I was still thinking this as I drove off the B-roads and through the peripheral demesne of Fonthill Abbey.

William Beckworth was a bounder, but his grandiose ideas wrought magnificence on his land. Every vista is considered, each sightline seemly and, as you pull into Chicksgrove, the engine wheezing its last vapours, there’s a honeyed stone garage where an attendant actually pumps your fuel. It’s absurd. It’s beautiful. It’s enough to change a man’s mind.

Outside the village, you turn down a lane that’s narrower than a single track. You could probably get a thin horse down it if it breathed in. Halfway along, there’s a car park and a building with a discreet sign with a worryingly Masonic logo that tells you you’ve reached The Compasses. It’s a couple of squat stories high, whitewashed and built right into a notch in the valley wall. There are a few tiny, defensible windows, a low, wooden door and a sort of covered outdoor stairway for accessing the rooms or sword fighting.

I try not to believe the myths old pubs tell of themselves, but an A4 sheet in my room told me that The Compasses had originally been built so a stream ran through the bar. I would have been equally ready to believe it had been set up by a wandering band of hobbits. It certainly wasn’t designed for our century, or indeed anyone of human height.

There’s a decent wine list, a load of good beer, a log fire and a welcoming attitude to dogs. They settled me into a nook made of high-backed settles, lit with a candle, and laid out carefully unmatched old cutlery and a glass of wine. I wasn’t sure whether to order or roll a 20-sided dice and gird myself for orc-combat.

It was a massively comforting menu. Highly competent bar snacks for the tankard-of-ale brigade, celeriac soup with truffle oil and home-made bread, mackerel pâté, pickled cucumber, toast, but they had me at Wiltshire cider rarebit, with house pickles and chutney. Yeah, I know. If I had any class, I’d have ordered that after the dessert but I haven’t, and I didn’t and I’m glad, because the topping and bread baked onsite made such a felicitous combination of smooth, rich and dense that . . . [insert your own joke about city boys/estate agents, etc]. There was a decent white Burgundy which sat so happily with it that it felt right to proceed to the next stage of The Quest.

Am I alone in this? I worry about orzo . You know the stuff. Little pasta pieces shaped like tiny torpedoes or creepy, streamlined rice. There’s something about it. I find the slick logic of its design — so smoothly shaped that when lubed with sauce it effectively flows down the throat — well, just a little threatening. But chef Dave Winter, by this point distinguishing himself as a noteworthy talent, had included it in a fish stew. It’s counterintuitive, I know. All orzo, by UK law, is supposed to be served out of a Le Creuset with chicken and lemon, but this guy knows what he’s doing.

There were lumps of monkfish and some extremely creditable prawns and the broth was rich and clean, with just enough saffron and chilli. What was particularly lovely, and increasingly rare, was that this felt like a talented chef improvising rather than some overwrought “signature” dish. It wasn’t in any idiom — let’s face it, Mediterranean seafood classics have no place in The Shire, but it felt like he’d stood there, tasting his broth and thinking, yep, you know what this needs? Some saffron and some chilli. It’s not a bouillabaisse, it’s pure Nadder Valley, sui generis and bloody beautiful.

I had a raspberry-and-flapjack sundae to send me up the rickety stairs to bed in what felt like a smart hayloft and at about 3am I woke to the realisation that I was probably the only person in the building. A million hectares of darkness around me and utter quiet. Disconcerting but lovely. I could write a book here.

They sent me on my way in the morning with the sort of fried breakfast they write Norse poetry about. And I drove contented towards home.

I was immobile on the A303, looking left towards Stonehenge, when I suddenly understood the true nature of time. Zeno had it right. If it was possible for The Compasses at Chicksgrove to pause everything to stillness for a perfect instant, it seemed quite believable that motion was impossible and that I’d never get home. Weird thing is . . . I didn’t even mind.

The Compasses Inn

Lower Chicksgrove, Tisbury, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6NB; 01722 714318; [email protected]

Starters: £9.50

Mains: £15.50 — £24.50

Puddings: £8

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Francis ford coppola on movie industry: “streaming is what we use to call home video”, but major studios may become extinct – cannes, breaking news.

• Eran Creevy To Write & Direct ‘The King Of Sting’; Silver Reel Financing & Producing – Cannes Market

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Film and TV financier and production company Silver Reel ( The Wife , Loving Vincent ) has boarded to finance and produce The King of Sting which Eran Creevy is set to write and direct. The true-crime action-comedy is an adaptation of the 2010 novel,  The King of Sting: The Amazing True Story of a Modern American Outlaw , written by the real-life protagonist, Craig Glazer with Sal Manna.

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Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber will develop, finance and produce the feature. The company is in Cannes discussing the project with buyers. Florian Dargel, Alexander Jooss, Karol Griffiths, Gerd Schepers and Gero Bauknecht will executive produce.

Said Bluemhuber, “Eran Creevy is an exceptionally talented filmmaker who is the perfect fit for  The King of Sting . He instinctively connected to the source material and has a clear vision for adapting this novel into a fun, fast-paced action comedy that has already attracted the attention of major studios here in Cannes.”

Creevy made his writing and directorial debut with 2008’s Shifty , receiving a nomination for a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut. His other credits include  Collide  and  Welcome to the Punch .

Silver Reel is also in Cannes with the finished family adventure  Robin and the Hoods  starring Naomie Harris and Gwendoline Christie. It will debut as a Sky Original in the UK and Ireland this summer. GFM Global Sales is shopping.

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Colm Tóibín's long-anticipated sequel to 'Brooklyn' is 'Long Island'

The writer Colm Tóibín says he never meant to write a sequel to his 2009 novel Brooklyn . But an image came to him years later, of his protagonist from that book suddenly finding out her husband has had an affair that resulted in a pregnancy — and so he followed the story in Long Island . In today's episode, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Tóibín about revisiting Eilis Lacey in her 40s and upending her domestic life. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

Author Interviews

Colm toibin vowed to never write a sequel. until 'long island'.

She left the CIA in frustration. Now her spy novel is racking up awards.

I.S. Berry scored rave reviews and awards for her literary debut, “The Peacock and the Sparrow,” a novel mined from her time at the CIA.

She felt each boom like an electric jolt as she was trying to sleep in her Alexandria, Va., apartment.

It was August 2006, and Ilana Berry was then a 30-year-old Central Intelligence Agency case officer. Outside, construction crews were beginning work on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, knocking down the old expanse to make way for a new six-lane roadway.

But each rumble threw Berry off the steady anchors of time and place, hurling her back to her last year stationed in war-rocked Baghdad. There, she had spent sleepless nights alone in a trailer as insurgent mortars and rockets screamed into the Green Zone, the central area of the Iraqi capital where the American military, diplomatic and intelligence staffs were housed.

“I remember waking up and having the worst panic attack of my life,” she recalled. “I called my parents to say that we are all under attack.”

To cope, Berry began tracking when the crews would do demolitions and set an alarm for herself to stay awake. She began writing, caging the emotional fallout of her time in Iraq into the tidy frames of sentences. That writing would kick off a sequence of events that would pit her against the agency’s bureaucracy and end in her resignation.

But it would also start her second act as a celebrated, award-winning novelist — one that would be eventually be invited back to the CIA.

Berry applied to join the CIA while attending law school at the University of Virginia, believing it would combine her interests in international relations and intelligence work with her sense of patriotic mission.

Raised outside D.C., she was a 1994 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. She spent time in the Balkans after graduating from Haverford College, an experience that led to a position as an intelligence analyst with the Defense Department. “I loved the work of intel, and I wanted to make it my career,” Berry said. “So the CIA is the place to go, right?”

After being accepted, she trained at Camp Peary near Williamsburg, Va., known as “The Farm.” Much of that training was about logistics — how to conduct surveillance, how to know if you are being surveilled. But the more in-depth psychological elements made Berry wonder if she was in the right place.

“Your whole training is basically how to find people’s vulnerabilities,” Berry said. “What are their motivations? Is it flattery or vanity or revenge, or do they hate their boss? That was never an easy fit for me.”

But Berry graduated with high marks and volunteered to be stationed in Iraq for a year-long assignment. She arrived in 2004 as doubts were beginning to stain America’s initial reasoning for toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime. Among the CIA team, there was a growing realization that there were no weapons of mass destruction in the country — the main justification for the U.S.-led coalition’s invasion.

Berry found that the CIA trailers didn’t have the armored protections or safety protocols in place like their military counterparts. But when she advised CIA headquarters about the danger, she was ignored, she said.

“We weren’t taking the precautions that we should have been,” Berry said. “And it was clear we knew we weren’t.”

One specific incident left Berry with doubts about the CIA’s mission. She got a tip from an Iraqi informant about a possible suspect involved in the 2003 truck bombing of the U.N. Baghdad headquarters that left 22 people dead, including the commissioner for human rights at the time. Berry’s tip led to the suspect being taken into custody, but he claimed he was not involved. Still, he was carted off to a detention facility. Berry later heard from other officers that they were unsure of his guilt, and she worries he may have been wrongfully pulled into the maze of America’s post-9/11 detention system.

In response to Berry’s allegations about her time in Iraq, a CIA agency spokesperson did not address specific complaints or allegations but said the agency “is absolutely committed to fostering a safe, respectful, and equitable workplace environment for all our employees, and we have taken significant steps to ensure that, including strengthening the Agency’s handling of issues when they arise.”

The living conditions. The murky mission. All that seemed to Berry to fuel rampant alcoholism at the CIA station. “Baghdad really screwed me up,” she said.

Her tour done but still living with the emotional aftershocks in Virginia, Berry kept writing. “My goal was never to publish my account of Baghdad,” she said. “It was to make sense of what happened.”

She had volunteered to go next to Afghanistan and was enrolled in Farsi-language classes. During that time, Berry volunteered to the agency that she had been writing about her experience.

According to agency regulation, all current and former CIA employees must submit any writing they plan on releasing to the CIA’s Publication Classification Review Board, which determines whether a potential book or screenplay or writing contains classified information. After the agency learned Berry was working on a memoir, she submitted the manuscript.

When her writing came back, it was covered in redactions that Berry felt made little sense. “They redacted my height and weight,” she said. “They redacted the color of the sky. These are clearly things that are not classified.”

Berry felt the pushback was all due to the unflattering light the account showed the agency. Her complaints in Iraq had already begun to hurt her prospects at the CIA. Her follow-up assignment in Afghanistan was pulled. She channeled her frustration into an appeal over her manuscript.

“I fought every single redaction, if for no other reason than to stick it to them that this was wrong,” she said.

Mark Zaid, a D.C. attorney who regularly represents CIA officers and helped Berry with her appeal, said he believes the board’s difficult responses were tied to the protective stance the agency assumed at the time. “There is a deep-seated paranoia and ignorance among security officers,” he said. “Their internal processes are geared for damage control, no matter whether there is damage or not.” Zaid later hired Berry into his law firm as an of counsel attorney.

In response to questions about Berry’s past conflicts with the review board, an agency spokesperson said the “CIA does not comment on details regarding specific prepublication reviews.” The spokesperson added that “the Board is open to authors’ requests to reconsider content they believe is unclassified.”

Eventually, the review board agreed with most of Berry’s appeal and removed most of the redactions from her manuscript.

By then, she had already resigned from agency, frustrated with the fight and her experiences in Iraq. She was married and a new mother. Though she had won the right to publish her account, she no longer wanted her own story — and the trauma and personal doubt she had put in writing — out there.

Write what you know

Despite her clash with agency, piling the mixed feelings about her time as a spy into a memoir reminded Berry how much she enjoyed writing. As she launched herself into a new career as an attorney and later followed her husband to Bahrain in 2012, Berry kept at it. Now it was fiction, but Berry found all her sentences echoed back to her time in Iraq.

The pages that would eventually become “The Peacock and the Sparrow,” a novel featuring a weary CIA officer caught in the turbines of Middle Eastern political change, include themes mined straight from Berry’s time at the agency. Its first lines plunge a reader into the morally ambiguous head space Berry learned in her training. “It was the ability to please that you learned as a spy: smoking a cigarette, offering compliments you didn’t mean, falling down drunk from having accepted too many vodkas,” Berry writes.

The novel’s CIA protagonist, Shane Collins, faces the same indifference from higher-ups that Berry said she saw in Iraq. She funneled the same problematic behavior she witnessed — the drinking, the war-zone infidelities — into her main character. The gnawing doubts about the guilt of the bombing suspect also popped up as a plot point.

Perhaps the most surprising element in her new work as a novelist was how easy it was to submit the manuscript to the review board. They demanded no significant redactions.

“Time had passed, and I had built up a good relationship with the board,” Berry said.

Berry’s debut novel, “The Peacock and the Sparrow,” was released by Atria Books in May 2023 under the pen name I.S. Berry. The book was feted by both the New Yorker and NPR on their annual lists of the best books of the year. This month, the novel also won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel by an American novelist, a significant industry award whose past recipients include Viet Thanh Nguyen and Tana French.

Even with that acclaim, Berry was still surprised when the CIA invited her to speak with Invisible Ink, a group of agency employees who are also writers.

“I was not exactly a poster child for the place,” Berry said. “But they assured me they valued authenticity over filtered plaudits, which were words I never thought I’d hear.”

Last September, Berry was sitting in her car in the ocean of parking spaces sprawling outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Even with her invitation, she felt “nervous as hell,” she said. “I did feel like it was a family reunion where I was estranged from my family.”

But Berry then met her agency contact, a member of Invisible Ink, who had asked her to come and speak. She was taken into a conference room where she spoke to about a dozen current agency staff members to discuss writing, publishing and working with the agency’s review board.

As she was leaving, Berry was asked to film a video about the career paths of officers after the agency. She agreed.

“This was such a formative part of my life,” she said. “They are people who have had that same singular experience as me.” Going back to the CIA, Berry said, “felt like I had rebuilt this broken bridge.”

In the meantime, she’s working away on a new novel. It’s another spy tale.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Berry visited Invisible Ink last February. It was last September. The article has been corrected.