The writing of a novel in the present age is something of a grand achievement, aspired to by students, professional writers, and amateurs alike. Starting a novel may occur on whimsy, or it may be the subject of deeper considerations. There are varying levels of follow-through. For many, the endeavor is aspirational more than practical. (The novel writing pipeline ends up in very few published authors.) The work itself is difficult enough, much less being able to make a living from the endeavor. The odds are low for self-supporting novel writing success. This slideshow addresses some early questions that arise in novel writing.

1. How to Start Writing
a Novel

2. Overview
• The writing of a novel in the present age is something of a grand
achievement, aspired to by students, professional writers, and
amateurs alike. Starting a novel may occur on whimsy, or it may
be the subject of deeper considerations. There are varying levels
of follow-through. For many, the endeavor is aspirational more
than practical. (The novel writing pipeline ends up in very few
published authors.) The work itself is difficult enough, much less
being able to make a living from the endeavor. The odds are low
for self-supporting novel writing success. This slideshow
addresses some early questions that arise in novel writing.
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3. The Inspiration
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4. Why a Novel?
• A novel is a literary form that enables the following:
• Intensified engagement and experience with an imagined world and
characters over expanded time
• Text length
• Topical complexity
• Reading challenges
• Societal-level conversations
• Novels as a series
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5. Inspirations to Novel Writing
• People all have their own reasons for pursuing novel writing.
• They may have access to an experience or a story or a person or a
topic that they may want to pursue in depth.
• They may have a world that they envision that they want to create
for the page. This is a world they want to immerse in.
• They may have a sense of compulsion to write and share.
• They may use the novel format in a cathartic way to address
particular issues. Perhaps the novel may help in acquiring certain
answers to questions, solutions to particular problems or issues.
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6. Ready or Not?
• Some would-be novelists take a “cold start” and just start writing.
These are dubbed “pantsers” or those who sort of fly by the seat of
their pants.
• Others go through various planning, outlining, notetaking,
character development, and other efforts before they start. These
are “planners” who may know the ending before they begin the
writing. They need a “map” to pursue. [The plan has to offer a
sense of control and discipline and direction. However, it has to
offer sufficient flexibility and looseness as well. Creative works
evolve.]
• Both types of novelists need an “engine” to drive the narrative.
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7. Resourcing the Endeavor
• Novelists externalize ideas with pen and paper, novel writing
technologies, basic word processing tools, audio recorders, and
other methods or mix of methods.
• There are resources needed for the work, but the main investment
is time.
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8. Comfort for the Writing
• Some novelists have dedicated workspaces. There may be home
offices, or off-site writing offices.
• Some prefer an environment with music.
• In most cases, writers need some level of solitude to create their
work.
• Discomfort ensures that there cannot be dedicated time spent on
the writing. What “comfort” is varies for individuals.
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9. With a Contract or Not?
• Novelists are infamous for experiencing false starts. They may
have a variety of incomplete writing stubs that fail to evolve into a
full manuscript. Some engage in endless notetaking. Some read
endlessly without doing much towards their own novels.
• Some pursue literary agents and book contracts before they write.
That gets the cart before the horse. An aspiring novelist needs to
prove their vision and talent before any agent or book publisher or
editor will take them on.
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10. The Novel Setup
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11. The Novel Setup: From the Author Angle
• A novel is about “endurance” in terms of themes and plots. There
has to be an “engine” driving the writing, so it does not lose steam
or momentum. There has to be a clear direction of travel, so the
novel does not get lost.
• A novel may be seen as a series of scenes and (mostly human)
actions within those scenes.
• A novel has to be paced accurately, for readability, and for fit to
the created world.
• The plot has to advance, to progress. The transitions have to make
sense.
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12. The Novel Setup: From the Author Angle (cont.)
• The main character(s) need to have sufficient depth and interest
to maintain, over one or multiple novels (series).
• A novel has to work within the form but can be creative and
challenging of the form’s constraints.
• A novel cannot break the illusions of the created world…and the
created characters. Readers pick up on contradictions. They pick
up on errors. With iterations of writing, revision, and editing,
errors may be introduced and often left in the text.
• The novel has to work for spinoff multimedia, including film,
including audio text, including foreign publishing rights…and other
forms.
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13. The Novel Setup: From the Author Angle (cont.)
• A novel needs some cognitive scaffolding to enable the sporadic
reading (the picking up a book and reading parts at a time).
Human perception, memory, and learning all have their limits.
• A novel will be read by computing machines, too. It has to pass
muster there, too, with the myriad ways that computers may
analyze human-created text.
• The drama in a novel is important, involving the opening scene, set
pieces, tension builds, climaxes, and resolutions / denouements.
• A novel has to pass muster in terms of “factuality” when science
and history and personages are represented…in a sense.
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14. The Novel Setup: From the Author Angle (cont.)
• Novelists have to maintain reader interest throughout the work.
They have to keep readers reading, in an engaged and attentive
way. They have to maintain suspense. [Novelists do not want
readers to skip right to the end to see what happens and to be
satisfied with the knowledge of the ending. They have to be able to
ensure interest in the middle sections, too.]
• Fiction is used as a cover to address issues that may be too
sensitive to address as nonfiction. Controversies or potential
ones need to be handled with finesse.
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15. The Novel Setup: Author Ambitions
• Aspiring novelists may want to be read as a popular author in their
lifetime. They may want to contribute to popular fiction for the
contemporaneous meanwhile.
• Others may aspire to work that transcends time, beyond the
present. They may want something more high-minded and literary.
Perhaps they want a tour de force that works across cultures,
languages, peoples, and generations. Perhaps they want to
contribute work that is high-impact and memorable. Perhaps that
want to change the world. Perhaps they aspire to a legacy (in an
attention-constrained environment).
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16. About Getting the Details Right
• Novelists need to work various aspects of the writing in a way that
does not hit false notes.
• Their naming protocols (for people, places, programs, entities,
organizations, and such) have to be of-a-piece.
• Geographical considerations need to work as locations (places
and spaces), climates and weather, cultures, and ecologies.
• Personalities need to be recognizable and aligned.
• Character interactions need to be designed and executed
thoughtfully.
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17. About Getting the Details Right(cont.)
• Character dialogues need to fit the characters and the context and
the social milieu.
• Infused and imbued values need to resonate.
• Humor needs to be infused.
• How will chapters be set up? Chapter numbering? Chapter
naming? Both? Neither?
• Will visuals play a role in the novel’s writing? Will it be
“multimodal” writing?
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18. The Novel Setup: Summary Views
• A novel “setup” may be understood in the rearview as well.
• The 5Ws and 1H (who, what, when, where, why, and how)
• The characters, settings, time periods, and plotlines (plots and subplots)
• The emotional territory and emotional beats of the novel
• The jacket “blurb” bridge to the novel
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19. Structuring
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20. Structuring a Novel
• A novel is often read sequentially. Or it is organized with some
twisty time…or in the order of particular decisions made by
particular characters.
• A novel may be seen as organized by other organizing ideas…like
emotional beats.
• Regardless, a novel has a structure. It has segments (chapters).
• It has actions occurring in different scenes.
• One way in to writing a novel is to understand something of the
desired organization (and how the novel is read based on that
organization).
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21. The Factuality of
Nonfiction
Representations
in the Novel
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22. “Nonfiction”Representations in a Novel
• Some novels draw from nonfiction information.
• Some are “ripped from the headlines.”
• Some are written in the “historical fiction” or “historical romance”
sub-genres.
• General novels refer to historical events, historical and real
contemporaneous personages, real technologies, real
organizations, real companies, real law enforcement, real
governments, and so on.
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23. “Nonfiction”Representations in a Novel (cont.)
• Nonfictional information is used for plausibility. It is used for filler.
It is used to scaffold ideas. It is used to evoke time periods. It is
used as shorthand.
• Novels are fictional, but when they refer to the real, how much
effort do they have to put in to get the facts right? The dynamics
right? [After all, readers range from the ill-informed to the well-
informed. Some read novels as if they were nonfictional in some
aspects. Readers are responsible for their own learning and for
what actions they take with their own learning, ultimately.]
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24. Aspiring Novelist Knowledge at the Start
• An aspiring novelist begins the work with some knowledge.
• In their writing, they surface more of what they know (but may not
have had that knowledge top-of-mind).
• They also all have to do research to fill in the gaps of knowledge.
• They represent the information they have selectively.
• Many access experts to clarify information. [Novelists will make
gaffes about factual information. They may also fall into illogic.
Some works have groaners included.]
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25. Debriefing with Prefaces and Afterwords
Prefaces, Introductions
• Novelists may preface a novel
with fact-based notes. They
help prime the readers to
approach the novel with a
particular framework or lens or
sensibility.
Afterwords, Conclusions
• Novelists may include
informative afterwords or
conclusions, in which they
explain what parts of the novel
were imaginary and what real.
Some include reading lists for
readers to follow up on
additional learning, if they are
so interested.
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26. Identifying Target
Readers
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27. Is There a Readership Out There?
• A book prospectus or query letter has to address the target
readership for a particular book.
• If there is no readership, then any book is a loss leader (money
loser)…and publishers cannot survive if they take these on
unthinkingly.
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28. What Attracts Readers?
• Readers opt-in to the novels that appeal to them, based on topics,
created worlds, author voices, themes, artistry, and other
aspects.
• They gravitate towards novels depicted in movies and television
shows and other media.
• They respond to marketing outreaches.
• They read what is assigned in their studies.
• They discover works through book reviews.
• They discover works through serendipity.
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29. Aesthetics and Style
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30. A Unique Author Hand
• Even if an author tries to emulate another, most beginning authors
write in their own author hand. There are inherent differentiators
among the works of authors if they are attuned to their own
worldview and ideas.
• Accessing the subconscious and unconscious though is hard
work for an author. Developing a writerly sensibility includes
challenges.
• An author hand is informed by language learning, by reading, by
personality, and other elements.
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31. A Unique Author Hand (cont.)
• A writer reveals much based on all the dimensions of language
(linguistic analysis, psychometrics, topic selection, character
portrayals, plot, dialogue, detail selection, and other aspects).
• A writer has tendencies and excesses. They may overwrite or
underwrite. They may have literary blindspots. They may take on
assumptions that are unique to them. While revisions may
address some excesses, they do not address all in many cases.
Various author tendencies may be strengths and weaknesses,
simultaneously.
• An author hand attracts some readers (and likely repels others).
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32. Making the
Financial Case
What financial case?
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33. A Financial Overview
• It is said that the average amount of royalties per published novel
in the U.S. ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 over the lifetime of the
book.
• Advances are not that common for novelists. Publishers will not
offer advances for unknown writers.
• Some half a million novels are published in the U.S. annually,
through formal channels and informal ones.
• There is a large amount of self-publishing or “vanity” publishing.
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34. Doing the Accounting
• Given the averages, and given the odds, novelists will have to have
other ways of earning survival money.
• They may not have dedicated time to write. Rather, it may be
catch-as-catch-can re: time.
• They may write for the “psychic reward” vs. any return on
investment (ROI) in a monetary sense.
• In some cases, some published writers may take tax write offs for
expenditures. That is if they keep receipts and document their
expenditures satisfactorily.
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35. Continuing Work to Get and Stay Relevant
After Publication
• A published novel is a drop in the ocean of published works
available to the broad public.
• The work continues even after publication.
• Novelists use marketing via websites, social media, public
readings, shared videos, and other ways to court and maintain a
readership.
• Novelists have an interest in staying in print. They have an interest
in staying relevant through the various generations and sub-
populations of readers. [Readers can be fickle. They can be easy
to offend. They may not tend towards loyalty towards an author.]
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36. Communications
and Contact
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37. Communications and Contact
• Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew
• haijes@gmail.com
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