How To Approach Your First Novel

Having just finished my first novel I thought I would share some lessons I have learned about the mechanics of ‘how’ to approach writing your book.
In summary:
1. Pin down your story and target market upfront
2. Build up your plot in bite size chunks
3. Review and improve your plot as you progress
4. Carry a notebook and collate the good stuff regularly
5. Maintain a brief Plot Plan and Character Map
6. Find creative time away from your computer
7. Work out each chapter visually just before writing it
8. Review chapters right away for grammar
9. Update your Plot Plan with what you have actually written
10. Be flexible and iterative as well as structured
11. Expect to review and edit several times over
12. Find and listen to demanding ‘cold readers’
13. Don’t rely on spell check alone
14. It’s a marathon not a sprint so stay fresh
15. Believe in yourself and set realistic expectations
16. Find help to create an e-book and a cover
17. Know your market, talk to your market
18. Enjoy the process of writing and finishing your book
1. Pin down your story and target market upfront
A key point worth considering is this – you can always amend your story structure and plot later if you think of a better idea. All the structure does is give you a reference point.
I believe the target market and competition are vital factors to consider upfront. My reasoning being that your book will need to compete in a marketplace already saturated with other good works. So you need to pin down what your readership will be and how to please or appeal to them to improve your chances of success.
2. Build up your plot in bite size chunks
I found it helpful to start by writing up a brief three-act story structure. I described this as bullet notes.
a) What pulls your protagonist into the story arc – Act One
b) What series of challenges they face – Act Two
c) What is their moment of greatest challenge or lowest point – end of Act Two
d) How is this resolved – Act Three
Following this I took an A3 sheet of card and wrote bubbles for each interaction. It took several days and plenty of questions and answers. In this way I evolved the plot until I was happy it was strong enough.
Knowing your market and your style of book is I believe essential. Clearly the genre will dictate the patterns expected by your future readers.
3. Review and improve your plot as you progress
Review the plot from the perspective of each of the main protagonists
a) What are the missions and internal drives (motives) of the main characters?
b) Why do they do the actions drafted? Do those actions contribute to the characters’ missions and expected outcomes?
c) Is the plot plausible? Would the characters be able / likely to achieve their plot lines?
d) Does the plot contain enough surprises and twists? What are they? Are they too obvious? Are there any better twists I can think of?
e) So what? How does the story make the reader care? Is it dramatic enough in the genre context? Does the hero ‘pull’ you in?
f) What’s original about the story? How will it stand out?
g) Is there a relevant back-story needed for the key characters and have I sketched it out enough for my own future reference?
4. Carry a notebook and collate the good stuff regularly
Everywhere I go I take a notebook. When I have time somewhere I consider an aspect of the story or a character or back-plot and bullet some ideas. I then collate the good stuff into a larger ‘home book’ or directly into the Plot Plan. Surprisingly even some of the more outlandish ideas can become relevant in context and can inspire new directions for the story.
I found two key questions to be the most powerful generators of ideas:
a) What if?
For example: What if a character falls in a lake, gets really lost or replaced etc?
b) What are the most unexpected things that could happen next?
For example a character is travelling towards a goal. A) They miss their ride B) they fall ill C) they lose their directions D) they arrive and it’s the wrong place E) they arrive and someone unexpected is there etc.
5. Maintain a brief Plot Plan and Character Map
I found using an Excel table to map out each chapter title: summary, word count and ‘purpose’ to be a priceless activity, because I simply could not carry it all around in my head. I called this my Plot Plan.
Character Maps – I created a simple reference table with the main things I cared about and I reviewed it every couple of chapters. I included Name, Role, Age, Motives, Goals, Notes, Where described (Chapter) I took the view that knowing ‘Karen was the grandmother aged 80 who hated Jim and wanted to unite the family because of fearing loss of reputation with her peers and was old school’ was enough to begin with. I added more later.