10 Tips to Write a Novel

You most probably have lots of ideas before even starting to write. Perhaps important scenes, some events or characters… You also certainly know more or less in which chronological order they appear; it’s unlikely that you have in mind every detail necessary to make the adventure smooth and complete, but you do know that this specific event happens before that meeting, which itself takes place before that revelation, and so on (even if you can’t put a date or time unit on each element).

The first thing to do is thus to list all your ideas and sort them according to their chronological order, starting with what comes first in the reading order. Then, as you move on in the writing process, other ideas will appear, and from the moment you cannot write them down right away but you do know where they will fit in the story, you should add them to your chronology. You are thus making sure not to forget anything, on top of having a better overview of your story as a whole.

In my case, as explained above, I found a lot of inspiration in music, movies, mangas, books and Japanese anime. Most of the content I created at that time could not be included in the story right away: I’m talking about sentences, ideas to develop, events, scenes and so on that would happen much later compared to what I was writing. So I added everything to my chronology as soon as I could determine their place, and I’ve used the exact same method for ideas that came up while writing and had to be mentioned later on.

It was a very basic chronology: no dates, only a list of elements sorted by order of appearance and written down at the end of the volume I was working on. Once one of the elements had been included in the main text, I erased it from the list.

Do note that the first element of the list could well be quite far in the scenario compared to what I was writing at the moment. And I remember ending up at some point with 2 or 3 pages full of things to add to the story!

A concrete example: in the 1st volume, the hero Glaide finds himself talking with a weapon dealer who explains the characteristics of his wares. During the conversation, several pieces of information are incorrect or incomplete, on top of the questions the protagonist asks that his contact cannot answer. So to make sure I would answer those questions eventually and also correct what was wrong, I added a couple of lines in my chronology that looked something like: “Glaide learns that this info is incorrect and remembers his dialogue with the merchant”.

By writing these at the right place chronologically, I made sure I wouldn’t forget anything without having to constantly remember it. I just didn’t have to think about it until this element became 1st in the list of things to add.

So prepare a file where you will list all your ideas in chronological order, where you can add things when necessary and that you will keep up-to-date by erasing what has been implemented. This will give you a better image of your story as a whole, ensure you don’t forget anything even if your scenario is complex, and thus free your mind. You’ll know everything that must be written is listed and will come in due time.