You would like to write a book but don't know how to go about it? Or you have already started writing but can't seem to get out of it? In this article, I'll take you step-by-step through the process.
Step 1: Define your topic
This is the most important step and is self-evident, without which you will get nowhere. It's all very well to want to write, but you have to know what you want to write about. You don't find the subject, it finds you. This is a nice phrase to tell you that the subject of your book must be obvious to you. If you write about a subject that is not really close to your heart, you may give up quickly. The process of writing a novel is complex and requires effort and hard work. You don't (unless you're a genius in your field) write a three hundred page book in one sitting, on automatic. It's a long-term job that requires passion and perseverance to sustain itself. Hence the importance of a subject that transports you. It's about THAT subject that you want to write.
For our article, let's take the example of a man who discovers a new family. That will be our topic, the one we are excited about, the one we want to write about.
Is it good? Do you have your novel topic too? Let's go to the next step.
Step 2: Choose the type of novel you will write
It's not that complicated, it's just a matter of defining whether you are going to write a detective story, a tragedy, a children's story or an adult book, a cheesy story, etc.
Step 3: Refine/flesh out your topic
This may seem like a contradiction in terms, but these two actions are part of the same process. Using our example, it is important to refine our topic in the sense that we cannot talk about every man who discovers a family. There are too many situations (real or imaginary) that could arise. It is necessary to specify the age of the man in question, whether he already has a family, whether his reaction will be elation or dismay, etc. By flesh out, I mean: give your story as many characteristics as possible, develop it: what will make it different from another story on the same subject? How complex will it be? What side issues will you need to address? For example, to answer this last question, the meeting of previously unknown siblings often involves the double life of one of the parents. Infidelity or lying are therefore secondary topics that deserve to be addressed.
Step 4: Write a summary of your novel
Example: Max, thirty years old, only son, without children and unable to commit himself, discovers, on his father's deathbed, that the latter had a double life. He learns that he has three sisters, all mothers of large families. A businessman who earns a very good living, an inveterate partygoer, an egocentric who doesn't particularly like children, he will nevertheless quickly become the favorite uncle of a happy tribe.
To write your summary, imagine that you had to sell your story to a publishing house or to potential readers. How would you summarize your novel so that it would make them want to read it?
Step 5: List and describe your characters
In this step, we describe Max from top to bottom, his appearance, his character, his background, his anxieties, his one long-gone love affair, his strained relationship with his father. If it's three pages long, so much the better. The idea is to familiarize yourself with Max and have something to refer back to when you can't remember if you made him blond or brown, nearsighted or astigmatic. Writing a book takes a long time, and unless you are describing a real character, you may forget some of his characteristics. It is therefore useful to have them at hand.
You will do the same for all your main and secondary characters.
It is obviously not useful to describe in more than three words a character who will only appear once in the story: the waiter who hands Max the bill, for example.
Step 6: List and describe your situations
When you thought about your topic and how to approach it, you probably thought you would talk about this or that situation. Didn't you? Then take this moment to do so. Let's go back to our example: if we are dealing with the topic of discovering a new family, we already have a situation that we will have to describe, in fact it is the most important one. It is the discovery itself. So we have to think about the emotions we want to convey, the context, the circumstances: how and where it will happen. We will also need to describe the moment when Max learns the extraordinary news from his dying father. We may also want to describe the moment when a woman broke his heart. Writing these things down will help us in the next step to know where and when we will tell them.
Step 7: Establish the framework of your story
The idea here is to start structuring your novel. Describe in a few sentences what you will be talking about in each chapter. You don't have to write a novel (ha ha), just write down the topic(s) to be covered and the characters that will be involved.
For example, we might say that in chapter one we begin the story with a flashback, that we describe a powerful moment in Max's childhood, perhaps an argument he overheard between his parents, something that makes him think he was unwanted and that influences his current behavior. In chapter 2, we note that we will describe him, his life, his job, his relationships. Chapter 3: he is at his father's bedside and learns that he has three half-sisters. Chapter 4... You get the idea.
Step 8: Develop your synopsis
Don't be impatient, it's not time to start your novel yet. At this point, it's time to get as detailed as possible and develop your synopsis. This means that you no longer just write two sentences per chapter, but tell everything that is going to happen in it. If you already have ideas for dialogue, write them down. This step, although tedious, is very important for the following reasons:
It allows you to clarify your thoughts: it is a first confrontation with reality. You write the outline of your story, give your characters characteristics, describe the places and situations. It is no longer in your head. Does it still work for you, once your thoughts have been put into words on paper/screen? Was it what you imagined? Or do you need to refine/flesh out some things? Maybe you need more time to think it through again, maybe you need to go through the previous steps again.
It allows new ideas to emerge: when you start writing, something "magical" happens that you can't control. It's as if, at some point, the characters come to life in spite of us, that we no longer control them. You thought you were telling a story about Max having three half-sisters, but as your story develops, you realize that it would be appropriate to add a half-brother. As the situations and dialogues unfold, new ideas emerge and you would like him to be confronted with a man who looks like him and yet lives a very different life from him.
It allows you to avoid and detect inconsistencies: it happens regularly, if you start writing without going through this stage, that you discover inconsistencies during the proofreading. If it's only a shade of hair, it's quickly corrected, but if you contradict yourself on facts that you've largely described, it's dramatic. I have had to rewrite an entire chapter because of this. I might as well tell you that it's really discouraging! When you're writing a three hundred page novel, you don't have time to reread the previous chapters every time you get a chance to write (which, depending on your schedule and/or your family, may not be as regular as you'd like). What you've written before is so quickly forgotten. With this step, you will only have to reread some parts of your synopsis before you start writing the rest of your text. It also allows you to identify any inconsistencies before you start writing the novel, thus avoiding future setbacks. It is much easier to correct your synopsis errors than those in your novel. Time saving and efficient!
Step 9: Have your synopsis read
This is not mandatory, but feedback at this stage can be especially helpful. Ask friends or family for feedback, or access the services of a professional beta reader. An outside look at your story, its subject matter, and its characters may lead you to rework your structure or style and change some aspects of your story. New ideas may emerge again thanks to different opinions. Some thoughts may also help you clarify your thinking.
Step 10: Start your novel
You are ready to write your novel. Remember: passion and perseverance are the keys to the success of your project!
Don't panic: it is quite normal, even if you have already written half of your novel, to have doubts, to want to change certain aspects of it, to dislike a certain character trait, to want to talk about another situation instead of this one. The writing of a novel is in constant motion: you have ideas, you write them down, that leads to other ideas that you write down, etc. I personally take the time to edit my storyline to make sure I stay consistent whenever I make a change in my story.
Would you like to know more about any of these steps? Or do you think there are some missing? Do you have some valuable tips of your own? Send me your questions and comments to contact@larelectrice.fr
Good writing to all of you!
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