How to Write a Novel (My school project)

This is a how to from my english class, please review and tell if it is good enough to hand in.

Step 1: Think of an idea

Thinking of fresh ideas for novels is hard now and days so don’t be afraid to use some material from another storyline and add more of your ideas to it, just don’t copy it all then it is copyright.

Step 2: Planning, Planning and even more Planning

The only way to make a novel that works is to plan. Not what is going to happen in the first chapter but the first five chapters and then the next five chapters and so on. Planning is important because without it you wouldn’t have a basic structure for the novel and it wouldn’t work well without planning.

Step 3:  Think of a Setting

Settings are probably one of the easiest steps, setting can be on earth, in the past, in the future, you can even make up your own land or world. You just need the right amount of creativity to make it work with the rest of the story if you decide to make up a setting.

Step 4: Decide what point of view to use

There are two different types of point of views, first person and third person. It is a lot easier to do first person but if you want a story that shows from the outside then third person is a better choice.

Step 5: Create fictional characters

Now to the fun part creating the characters, the characters make the story come to life, rooting for the underdog, sneering at the bad guy and loving the young character that captures your heart. This step is the easiest and hardest part, you can base characters off people just change some things about them like, put a hat on them that they don’t own in real life. Another tip is to make them seem as human as possible so they can relate to the reader.

Step 6: Think of a plot

After the making of characters (and maybe settings) now it’s time to get the dirty work done, think of a plot that flows together and makes sense to the reader. Don’t over think it and put too much effort into making the ‘perfect plot’ because there isn’t one, the ‘perfect plot’ is different from every author, reader and publisher. Don’t over stress, in time it will come to you (why do you think it takes authors two to five years to write one because they have to think of a plot and then write it)

 

Step 7: First Draft!

Now to put everything together, the first draft is just putting everything together with its plot holes, annoying characters and grammar mistakes.  First draft is where writer’s block sets in, you may have the plot, characters and settings but things in the story may change and you may have to rethink the whole idea of the story (which means move back to step 1 all over again if worse gets to worse). Over all this is the hardest stage and by far the longest.

Step 8: Revising it

If you have past step 7 that means you have written the first draft (congrats), this means you have to edit now which means you have to be your own worse critic and re- read the whole story and edit all the grammar mistakes, moody characters and add more in then takes some more out to make it work. This is as hard of a step as step 7 because it is like writing it except you are editing every single detail and analyzing every single word a character says or thinks.

Step 9: You’re finish (Now go publish it)

I have good news and bad news, good news is you’re done, bad news is if you want to publish your story then good luck with that. Finishing a story is like crossing the finish line for an author, you start and all seems easy until half way through the race you get tired and things get harder but once you cross that finish line (meaning finishing the story) it feels like you have completed something with your life.