I remember getting my first rejection letter- I was seventeen years old at the time. It was for a volume of poetry - well, six poems written by me in longhand ! The letter said "we have to advise you, that in our opinion, there would be little demand for this work on the general market". I have written lots of articles and short stories but never a full length novel, partly because I did not have the resources or help at hand. Now that help is available and I want to tell you about it below.

What Does writing A Novel Involve?

Writing a novel is an act of self-annihilation as much as self-discovery- just like marriage! Writing a novel is not as difficult as you might think, and completing a novel is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world. Some writers say the hardest part of writing a novel is starting it. The problem is that writing a novel is hard but there is help at hand! Why struggle on your own ?

The Role Of Characters In Writing A Novel

The most important part of writing a novel is knowing your characters well and setting up your story in a way that keeps the reader intrigued the whole way through. They say that writing a novel is 10% telling the story and 90% editing. The most important thing in writing a novel is that the material can sustain your attention for the years it will take to finish the book.

Fiction can originate from "direct personal impression" to "the writer's resources of experience". Fiction seems to grow out of a convincing character so the author must have good characters and character development . Good fiction doesn't just happen, it is designed. Editors love character-based fiction and let’s face it, great fiction is character-driven. Fiction relies for effect on both empathy (understanding how it feels to be another person) and sympathy (a sense of emotional kinship and support for another person).

The time you invest in designing characters up front will pay off ten-fold when you start writing. Characters will assume different significance, some will fade into the background, some will leap into the spotlight. Characters play a key role throughout the entire novel and have to advance or regress throughout the course of the novel. You start hearing the voices of different characters. For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells:the character's name,a one-sentence summary of the character's storyline,the character's motivation.

When you read the opening of a gripping novel, you are immediately drawn into the story either by the main character’s drama, problem or some conflict. So much so, that you just have to read on. You will find so much more advice in the link below that you will soon be writing a novel.