January 30, 2023
How to Start Writing a Novel: Tips and Examples
Beginner as well as more advanced fiction writers often struggle with a seemingly simple question: How do you start writing a novel?
Just to be clear, I’m not referring to the textual part – that is, narrative strategies beginning a novel; its first few paragraphs. If you’re looking for that, here are 17 ways to begin a novel.
Instead, in this post I will show you tips and examples on how to start writing a novel in the sense of how to set up the foundations. In other words, in this post I will share with you the bare minimum you need to know before you even think of typing the first word.
As I often say, many people – and that includes authors – believe that a writer just “comes up with stuff” out of nothing. That’s simply not true. Writing a novel involves a subconsciously long, complex process beginning with experiences, memories, and imagination. These come before you decide to write a book.
But suppose you already have these set; you have had experiences that have fueled your imagination.
What next?
Let’s find out!
How to Start Writing a Novel: Three Steps
Before we begin, a word on methodology: The text below contains questions that you should ask yourself, thus making sure you have all the fundamentals in place. As you will notice, these questions are grouped into three steps, moving from the simpler to the more complex aspects of your narrative.
If you struggle answering any of the questions, I strongly advise you to ponder on the matter before you continue.
To help you, I’ve provided example answers to give you an idea/direction.
Step 1
- What is the genre of your novel?
- It’s basically detective fiction, somewhat leaning toward the police procedural category, but with accessible literary fiction elements.
- Who is the protagonist and what do they try to achieve?
- John Doe is a police investigator trying to solve the murder of a local businessman, at the same time struggling to cope with the collapse of his marriage.
- Who is the antagonist and how/why do they try to stop the protagonist?
- The Mystery Man contacts John Doe almost daily, claiming he is the murderer. At first John Doe dismisses him, but as more evidence surfaces, John Doe begins to have doubts. Is the Mystery Man bringing him closer to or farther away from the solution?
- In 3-4 sentences, describe what the novel is about:
- John Doe tries to solve the murder of a businessman. The Mystery Man frequently contacts John Doe, claiming to be the killer. The situation becomes even more perplexing once John Doe suspects there is a prior connection between the Mystery Man and John Doe’s estranged wife.
Step 2
- List 3 items that provide narrative tension:
- The inability of John Doe to know how much of what the Mystery Man tells him he can trust.
- John Doe’s frail emotional state, due to his personal problems.
- John Doe’s discovery that there is a connection between his estranged wife and the case.
- List 3 fundamental concepts of the novel:
- Trust and loyalty.
- Control and loss of.
- Knowledge and lack of.
- In maximum 3-4 sentences, describe how the novel will end:
- John Doe solves the crime, discovering the real killer was a business associate of the victim. The Mystery Man is another investigator who has had a long-term affair with John Doe’s estranged wife.
Step 3
- List 3 fundamental instances of affect you want to inspire in your readers:
- Helplessness; inability to control one’s life.
- Rage; having a hard time to control one’s feelings;
- Determination; pressing on despite misgivings.
- How do the concepts you mentioned before show in the characters of your novel?
- John Doe is too reliant on trust “on paper” – one should trust his colleagues and his wife, he thinks. But seeing everything falling apart, he begins to lose control of his feelings, thoughts, and actions. The Mystery Man expertly takes advantage of John Doe’s shortcomings, by fulfilling the latter’s need to rely on something known, something he can trust to be true.
- Have you identified the points of divergence in your novel?
- The murder occurs and John Doe is called to the scene of the crime.
- After some fruitless days of investigation, the Mystery Man contacts John Doe.
- Though the evidence offered by the Mystery Man seem to match the facts, his motivation remains a mystery and the case stalls, causing friction between John Doe and his colleagues. Meanwhile, his estranged wife sends him divorce papers. It’s a downward spiral.
- With the case still unsolved and his marriage having fallen apart, John Doe takes a few days off to visit his home town and see his father. The trip helps him resolve some of his inner struggle, enough to begin to see a bigger reality emerging.
- John Doe discovers the missing clues, solves the case, and finds the identity of the Mystery Man.
- Are you comfortable with the worldbuilding aspects of the story?
- The overall setting of the town – suburban, upper middle-class, chic – promotes themes like appearance vs substance, words vs facts, make-believe vs reality.
Learning How to Start Writing a Novel Is About the Fundamentals
The questions above might seem basic. That is, you might think “well, duh, how could I start writing a novel without knowing all this?”
Though this is a fair assumption, you’d be surprised to hear how many people simply write by the seat of their pants, giving credence to the “coming up with stuff” notion. Even if you’re not a pantser, it helps a lot to put all your thoughts in writing, actually “being forced” to talk about it.
Ultimately, the clearer and more precise answers you have for these basic aspects, the easier it will be to write a coherent story.
Note: If you’d like a program to save and visualize all the information above, why don’t you take a look at Conceptualizer, my story planning app? Like all my apps, it’s free and ad-free.
6 Comments
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My gosh! That’s one hell of a novel idea! I know, it’s actually quite the beaten path, but it felt so thrilling to read it! I want that novel in my office by 9 PM.
Jokes aside, such questions are truly the fundamentals. A novel will be built on top of the answers, based on them, starting and expanding from them. That’s some of the most invaluable straight to the point concrete writing tips I’ve ever read. Maybe I would add one question about style: choice of words (diction), sentence structure (syntax), and paragraph structure (pacing). Not detailed to the bone, but just broad strokes to guide in a revision phase. Maybe even a list of 3 to 5 influences would be great, too.
Good ideas, especially the one about influences. The truth is, we’re always influenced by other works and authors (or other things even; experiences, memories…), so trying to concretize that and put it in words will certainly facilitate the process.
IF I ever finish LIMBO!
I’ve bookmarked the page and your questions, some of which are worded differently from what I usually do – such as points of divergence.
I buried a lot of good stuff in the mystery series which was my first love – I think the concepts and the characters are worth saving; the writing is last-century, and much won’t be salvageable. But Thea? I’d hate to lose Thea permanently. We’ll see. Getting to the end of today is the concern right now. I may switch to writing Thea in First Person pov to jolt loose the creative juices. Doing PC in multiple third has been perfect, but I’d like to try other options, and Thea’s the only one I care about in Confined Energy Kills.
Starting from complete scratch would be fun, too – but I’m focused on one trilogy for now. And so not a pantser except within the confines of a set-piece scene.
The more I travel into the past of my writing the less I like what I see, but it might make for a funny exercise to try and force some old elements into new places. Like, take the characters of some old, failed project, and make something with them.
One thing I enjoy practising is to take old characters from failed projects and make them undo themselves in interior monologues or first-person narrations. They start doubting their existences, having failed memories, and suddenly they vanish into mere sequences of words. ‘Tis fascinating!
Fascinating idea indeed. Perhaps I should try it too at some point, writing such a short story. It would likely be cathartic, at least.