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You Too Can Write a Novel

The You Too Can Write a Novel Workshop leaves writing technique to others and focuses on helping prospective novelists to get started, keep going, and finish a publishable novel.

The workshop offers six tips and this page will focus on one tip at a time. Let's get started.

Our technique suggests the most important part of writing is rewriting, so don't wait until you've outlined your plot or read books on scene structure and dialogue. Get started. Punch up your scenes and dialogue with your next draft.

Begin your novel on the day your main character's life is about to change forever. Then develop your plot with the end of the novel in mind. Allow the story and characters room to grow.

Write your novel with an end in mind, but give your characters room to grow.

Many novelist outline their plot before writing a word. Toby Heathcotte and I suggest beginning writers explore that technique when they become more experienced and focus on getting started.

Avoid backstory. Backstory is background information that is often more important to the writer than the reader. If you have backstory in chapter one, you might be slowing the pace of the story down. If it's there, however leave it, you're going to rewrite many times, so there will be plenty of opportunities to take it out.

Inciting incident. Your main character's life will change do to an exciting incident, a dramatic event that will change their life. Start with a bang, or an explosion; a real physical event, or an emotional explosion.

The famous director, M. Knight Shyamalan suggests that the first chapter in a novel, like the opening scene of a movie, should have sufficient momentum to propel your novel through to the end. A pretty tall objective, but as you begin, keep that test in mind.

The two most important words an author can write in any novel is Chapter One. To write a killer opening line, or a powerful first chapter with great momentum, the writer must get started.

I hope you'll stop by for future tips, and I hope you'll email me with any questions you might have.

Michael Murphy