Got an idea for a novel but don ' t know whereabouts to start? Have some characters and a few basic plot outlines bouncing around in your head, and not sure how to get it all organized? Would you like to write a novel but are a little intimidated by the total process? Relax, it ' s charming easy once you know how. And adjacent you finish reading this article, you ' ll have a solid plan. All you ' ll need is a couple of hours a day, and overmuch of coffee and you ' ll be ready to go.
The first subject to do is to create all your main characters. Start off with a physical description, then an emotional description. List all of their strong points and weak points. Describe their background, where they came from, and their family history. Imagine them in several different scenarios, and see how they ' d react. Even interview them if you can, and imagine what their answers would be. This step should take about two weeks.
After that, you ' ve got to hash out the basic plot line. Break it down into small chunks, called steps. This are the smallest element within scene that can be described in one or two sentences. You can write these sequentially on a piece of paper, you can write each step on a flash card so you can rearrange them as you like, or you can use some available software that was designed specifically for this step. Give yourself a couple of weeks for this step.
Believe it or not, next comes the easiest part, the writing. Since you ' ve already figured out the character and the basic plot, you shouldn ' t have too much trouble actually writing everything out. Don ' t worry about mistakes, or even filling a page with gibberish. Just keep writing without stopping. If you ' ve done sufficient work building the characters and the plot, this part should actually be pretty easy. Give yourself a month to do this. If your book is a normal sized novel, you ' ll need to write two or three thousand words a day. Get your coffee pot fired up, and turn off the TV for a month.
Now it ' s time to go through your rough draft and edit it. You can do this yourself, or pay somebody else to do it. If you plan on doing it yourself, go through it at least twice. Once only to correct all the grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. Spend a week on this alone. The other three weeks, go through and rewrite and tweak the parts that you think aren ' t quite perfect yet.
And that ' s it. You ' re done. Two weeks to create the characters, two weeks to figure out the story line, a month to write it, and a month to rewrite it. Once you hand it over to your agent, you can get started on your next book.
