This document outlines a step-by-step guide for aspiring novelists, emphasizing that while many have book ideas, few complete or publish them. Key points include defining the novel's theme, developing protagonists and key characters, creating a compelling log line, choosing a title, and establishing a writing schedule. The author shares personal insights and practical strategies to enhance the writing process.

2. How to write a novel:
A step-by-step planning
guide

4. Learning how to write a novel is democratic yet the
odds of completing a novel aren’t encouraging.
According to The New York Times, more than 80% of
Americans have a book idea in mind but less than 1%
start writing. Out of every 100 people who begin, only
three complete a book and of course, a very small
fraction among them will find a literary agent and get
published. So how do you beat the

5. odds? First off, I don’t believe you need a MFA or
an expensive writing course. Capturing your
thoughts in words is the most basic of human
expressions. After you’ve consulted these
resources to know some guiding rules, read how
to write a novel below and begin writing the
moment you are done. This has worked for me
each time despite having no formal writing training

6. 1. Crystallize your Theme The most memorable
novels deliver deep meaning in an entertaining
package. Crystallize your theme by knowing how
you’ll deliver both. This is what I noted for THE
SEEKER before beginning the novel, for instance:

7. Meaning: Finding the cause of human pain and
suffering. Entertainment: A rugged external
adventure through exotic locales—hidden Yoga
ashrams, the top of the Himalayas, surreal Indian
night markets etc.

8. For Catcher in the Rye, it might have been:
Meaning: Making sense of adolescence
Entertainment: Recently expelled from school, a
kid has a series of strange quintessentially New
York experiences.
Typically, these will be ideas that have occupied
your thoughts for years so once you define your
overall theme, your words will flow.

9. 2. Know your protagonist & key characters.
Put pen to paper on the following aspects of your
protagonist & a handful of key characters to fully
understand them: Desire: What do they want
badly? Make it concrete. Eg, “enlightenment” is
too broad but “learning Yogic practices in the
Himalayas” maybe a good jumping off point to
push deeper.

10. Back Story: Why do they want it so badly? What
experiences in childhood, in relationships and
career have shaped that overpowering desire?
Human complexity and contradictions: A
“kindly grandmother” is a type. “A kind but
insecure grandmother, afraid of her mortality and
hanging on to her busy family” is a fleshed out
character.

11. Trajectory of change: Stories captivate when a
character is transformed through the journey. Where
does your character start? How does he end up?
Harry Potter is a great example of this. We see him
get more and more comfortable in his skin as the
story progresses.

12. Physical: Finally, now that you know your
characters emotionally, give them defining
physical characteristics—a name that conveys
something; unique physical characteristics which
may or may not affect their emotional journey eg,
Harry Potter’s scar; speech and mannerism quirks
eg, Holden Caulfield with his “goddam” and
“phonies”; anything which gives a flesh-and-blood
sense of the character.

13. The above requires a fair amount of thinking and
will likely evolve tremendously through the course
of writing. But doing the exercise at the beginning
will make you see fissures within a character, his
or her conflicts with other characters, and thrust
the story forward with a propulsive force.

14. 3. Write your log line. The log line is the one
sentence summary of your novel. Knowing this will
give you tremendous clarity about your overall
story as well as the worthiness of it. A few
examples:

15. TWILIGHT A young girl falls in love with a vampire
who loves her but thirsts for her blood at the same
time. HUNGER GAMES In a dystopian future, a
young woman must fight for life in a death match
televised live.

16. BREAKING BAD A high school chemistry teacher
becomes a drug lord. THE SEEKER A Wall Street
banker becomes a Yogi in the Indian Himalayas.

17. As you can see above, an ideal log line has a
protagonist, a hint of their conflict and enough
curiosity value to make you crack open the pages
immediately. Keep refining yours—it will give
definition to your story. If you can’t crack a
compelling log line, perhaps it’s time to re-think
the story.

18. 4. Find your title This will likely change but forces
you to understand the dramatic focus of your
story.

19. 5. Set your schedule and begin writing! As I
noted in my creativity post, the trick for an
effective writing schedule is to reach a synthesis
between the opposing forces of being too rigid
and too flexible, working very hard and slacking
off and planning your writing vs. letting the story
evolve. Here is the schedule that works best for
me:

20. -Mon-Fri: I write for one hour after work three days
out of these five. -Sat & Sun: 4 hours each. If I
write more, my output suffers. If I write less, I don’t
get much accomplished. -Physical Factors: I love
writing in a neighborhood coffee shop and
disconnecting my Wi-Fi during this time,
remembering Jonathan Franzen’s sage advice:
“It’s doubtful that anyone with an Internet
connection at his workplace is writing good
fiction.”

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