Ten Inside Secrets for Novel Writing Success

admin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:08:23 +0000

Agents and editors must be able to categorize your novel, so make sure you know what genre it fits into: romance, literary, mainstream, horror . . . ?
Today’s novels are more like movies than ever: your story must have a compelling “high-concept” hook. Work hard to make sure your story idea is dramatic and original.
Your story’s lead must be a sympathetic character. To achieve this end, build in four key characteristics: courage, virtue, likability, competence.
Your lead’s opposition must be as convinced of the rightness of his goal as your lead is of his. Moreover, your opposition needn’t necessarily be a bad or evil person.
Agents and editors may reject your novel simply because it’s the wrong length for its genre. Target the right word length for your manuscript.
To round out your lead and give your story complexity, give your lead a subplot—a smaller goal to pursue as she pursues the main story goal.
Readers love surprises. Build in three crucial ones at the correct points in your story: at the one-quarter mark, in the middle, and at the three-quarter mark.
When plotting the end of your story, resolve your least important story lines first, then your lead’s story line, and last of all the romantic story line if you have one.
Every section of your novel must have a designated section character from whose viewpoint that section is written. Use viewpoint writing for all of your novel’s sections.
Virtually all of your novel should be written in action mode, in which you show events just as they occur. Use summary mode only to: connect sections, report mundane events, telescope time in which no important story action occurs, focus on emotion rather than action.

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Ten Inside Secrets for Novel Writing Success