I WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL, BUT HOW DO I GET STARTED?
This is probably the most common request that we get in.
And it's never easy because different people have different methods of working.
However, the tip that most people find helpful is this:
Sit down and think about what you want to write. You must get a clear idea of the story line before you begin writing.
Now write down the major events in the order that they will happen, for example:
Main character will be unhappy in marriage.
He will start going to therapist.
He will divorce wife.
He will begin relationship with therapist.
And so on.
Now, obviously this is just a short example (and quite cliché), but you can see how those events have been put into a timeline. Each event in the timeline will be a chapter. The first one will have to be shorter (and possibly funnier) than the others because there's not much action to keep the reader hooked.
Your timeline is like a map to the plot, so it needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end.
The beginning sets the scene, it gets the ball rolling. In our example above, the beginning would show us how unhappy the main character is with his marriage and why. It would most likely show how his wife treats him and how he treats her, if they have any children and if so how many and what ages, how they communicate or don't communicate as the case may be. It's really an introduction to the character and his/her life. It allows us to understand why the character does what he/she does in the chapters that will follow.
The middle is often called 'the complication'. It's when things start to really get shaken up and problems occur for your characters. For example, for Romeo and Juliet, 'the complication' begins when Romeo is exiled from the City for murder. (Granted, there are a lot of complications for those two!) The middle is the set-up for the end. It's where all the clues are hidden in a crime thriller.
The end is often called the resolution. It's when all the loose ends come together in a crime novel and when the criminal is eventually caught (or perhaps not), or when the something happens to make the lovers reconcile in a romantic novel.
Once you have a timeline prepared, start writing the first chapter. There you go, you're now writing a novel. You are now, a writer. Good Luck.
