There was a woman sitting at the roadside between two towns when a man approached. He stopped and asked the woman what the town ahead was like.

The woman asked, “What was the town you’ve just come from like?”

The man replied, “Oh, it was awful. Filthy and full of thieves and cheats.”

The woman nodded. “You’ll find the town ahead much the same.”

The man rolled his eyes and went on his way. 

A little later, another man came along the same road, coming from the same place and heading to the same place, and asked the same question. 

Again, the woman asked, “What was the town you’ve just come from like?”

This man replied, “Oh, it was a lovely place. The streets were clean and the people kind and 

generous.”

The woman nodded. “You’ll find the town ahead much the same.”

I love this story, because it makes the point that life is what we make of it. That’s not to deny that some

people encounter more hardships than others – there is a big difference between the life of a middle class teacher in Surrey and a refugee from Sudan. However, you often find that the people who have suffered the most are the ones with the most positive outlook, focusing on the joys of life, small and large. Whereas people who have experienced to real difficulty to speak of, whinge endlessly about their lot.

Having a positive outlook to life is a good in itself and should need no further justification. However, it can also be good for your writing.

By noticing little things in life that make us happy, we become more observant to detail and these details are often simple and sensual, relating to the five senses. If we deliberately notice sights, smells, sounds, tastes and things we can touch that bring us pleasure, then we can draw on that memory bank when it comes to our writing to draw people into our fictional worlds.

Try this exercise:

1.       Make five lists of things that make you happy, under the headings: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Add at least ten things to each list. Don’t be surprised if some lists are much harder than others.

For example

Sound

1.  The sound of birds singing in the garden
2. The sound of keys in the door as my partner arrives home from work
3. The sound of a breeze through the trees on a summer’s day
4. The sound of the dog panting after a good game of chase
5.  The sound of live piano music in an echoey old house
6. The sound of bacon sizzling in a pan
7. The combination of uplifting chords in my favourite song
8. The sound of a newborn baby crying for the first time
9. The sound of a powerful shower
10. The hum of a powerful car engine

Add your favourite sensations in the comments below!

Credit to The Five Minute Writer by Margaret Geraghty for the inspiration for this post – if you liked it, you should buy the book.


Have you tried The Novel Factory? Novel writing softwarewritten for writers, by writers.

The opening of a novel is probably the hardest part - I know it certainly is for me.

Why? Well, read on...

Too much pressure!

The opening lines and chapters of your book have the most pressure heaped on them to be outstanding. This is because if they're not, nobody is ever going to see the rest. Literary agents rarely want more than the first few chapters, and anecdotal evidence says they often won't read past the first few sentences if they're not immediately gripped. So the beginning of the novel absolutely has to be mind-blowing, or you've wasted the last six months, year, decade.

Not warmed up yet

A lot of people take a bit of time to warm up, to get into the flow of things so their prose comes naturally, and skips along at a good pace. Often, the first few pages of writing are clunky, or even rambling. Once the writer finds their mojo though, the words fly from their fingers and onto the page, snappy dialogue, gripping action, all the good stuff.

Wanting to set the scene with too much backstory

A lot of new writers feel that they need to firmly set the scene at the beginning of a book, to let their readers know what's going on and make sure they're aware of the important plot points, where the story is going and why the lead character is acting how they are. Unfortunately, this usually has the effect of making the introduction feel like tedious exposition, where readers would rather get straight into the action.

So what can you do about it?

Start before the start

By this, I mean once you've decided where your story is going to begin, actually start writing from a scene or two earlier than that. These scenes will be cut in the end, but you will write them with full commitment as if they were staying.

By doing this, you can help avoid two of the problems described above.

Firstly, it will give you a chance to warm up and get into the flow of things.

Secondly, you will do all the exposition and backstory that your readers don't need (because they will pick everything up from context anyway, as long as your story telling is good enough).

What about reducing pressure?

Ah, yes. We haven't come up with a solution to that one yet - if anybody has any ideas - please let us know!

 

So how do we make our settings come to life?

How well you can gather detail about your settings depends a lot on your constraints - time and money.

Ideally, you'll immerse yourself in each setting - including in each relevant time of day and season. 

However, this may not be practical (particularly if you're writing a steam punk novel), in which case your imagination will have to pick up the slack.

If you can go to the locations you're going to use as settings, then go - take copious amounts of photographs (which can easily be saved and kept track of with The Novel Factory Novel Software) make reams of notes about everything you can see, smell, taste, feel, hear. Take samples of sand, pebbles, dried leaves - whatever you can. Try to look at the place through the eyes of your characters - what would they notice? What would they ignore?

However, if you can't go there - you'll need to research - and lucky you, you live in the era of the Internet. Get online and find pictures, even videos - of places and buildings that are as close as possible to what you envisioned. Study the pictures and you're guaranteed to find more delicious detail in real life (or some artist's imagination) than you could have come up with on your own.

A quick exercise to prove this if you're so inclined:

Take ten minutes now and write a description of a sweet shop, without doing any research online - no cheating! You know one of those old ones where all the sweets are in jars. Go on, go right ahead and do that.

Done? Now go and spent ten minutes searching for images of these old style sweet shops. Keep the pictures somewhere handy. Now, constantly referring to the pictures, spend another ten minutes on a second description of the sweetshop.

Compare.

And if you like - post your results in the comments.

 

Draw maps and plans

It's hard to overstate how important it is to have floor plans detailing each of the places your characters visit.

Seeing exactly which rooms are adjoining; where the doors and windows are, where they lead and what can be seen through them; what furniture is where - really anchors your characters, rather than giving the impression they're drifting around the space. Having this information will add realistic detail to your story as you will see what in the environment the character can interact with, where they bump into each other and things, how they enter and leave.

 

List the senses

It's time to get analytic about the abstract. Prosaic though it may seem, go through each of your settings and make a list for all of the senses.

• What can you (or better, your point of view character) see?
• What can you smell?
• What can you taste?
• What can you feel?
• What can you hear?

Just make a list. You probably won't use everything on the list. You may use hardly any of it. But when you're writing your scene, you'll have this box of colours, ready to dip into without having to break your flow.

Next - advanced plotting - consistency and clarity

It's time to take a closer look at settings.

It's important to remember that settings aren't simply a stage for your puppets to walk about on - each setting is an opportunity to:

• build mood and atmosphere
• develop character
• foreshadow plot points

 

Building mood and atmosphere with settings

The house could gleam brightly with a fresh coat of whitewash; have aging, peeling, lead-heavy paint; or give the impression of a gaping skull with sightless windows as eyes and a door forever closing its mute mouth. The sea could roll heavily, recline in reflective tranquillity or froth with lively white horses.

If you're trying to build a sombre mood, make sure the park isn't filled with cheery colours, just because that's what was there the last time you went to the park. Make sure every word of description supports whatever mood or atmosphere you are trying to build in that scene.

 

Developing character with settings

How do your characters respond to their surroundings? This can give the reader a lot of information about your character without you having to say it outright.

For example, one character stuck overnight in a forest will build a bivouac, take a few slugs of whiskey and settle down with their heavy boots up on a stump. Another character might collapse into a weeping huddle, hysterically swatting at the creepy crawlies.

Of course it can be much more subtle than that - as much as what they notice and don't notice, what they touch, how they move around the area.

 

Foreshadowing plot points with settings

Every element of the settings you describe should be relevant, and have a justification for its inclusion.

For example, if you're describing someone's bedroom, not only should every item accurately reflect their character (see above), but it should also be relevant to this particular story. If they're going to reach for that bag of marbles to knock out the intruder in chapter 9, it'll be that much more satisfying if you mentioned them in passing in chapter 2.

The photographs in your characters house and room are an excellent opportunity to expose their character and history - just try not to get too heavy handed about it.

Read more about developing settings here.

The next article will explain how we can make our settings come to life.

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Four

The Short Synopsis

By now you should have a basic premise, a strong story arc and some information about your characters. If you haven't, check out the previous steps.

• The Novel Formula Overview
• The Novel Formula Step One
• The Novel Formula Step Two
• The Novel Formula Step Three

Next we're going to write a short synopsis of the story. Re-read your premise to make sure it's solid in your mind, then take your skeleton and expand it into a full page with each sentence turning into a paragraph.

Keep in mind your characters and make sure what you're plotting for them to do sounds like something they would actually do.

Evolving your story in this way offers two major benefits:

• You avoid writing a rambling first draft with countless pointless scenes that end up needing to be cut
• When you get to writing your first draft you won't spend half the time tapping your lip with your pen, wondering what should happen next

The story should really start to take shape at this point, and writing the short synopsis should be a great deal of fun - let your imagination loose.

Click here for the next step in the Novel Formula!

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Two

The Skeleton - aka. The Universal Storyline

Now we've got a basic premise, which means we've got the beginnings of a story. It's time to give it a few more bones, and see how it starts to take shape.

Luckily, we don't have to grope around in the dark, guessing at what elements we should include and in what order, to create a gripping and satisfactory story with a good beginning, middle and end. That's because there's already an established series of stages that the vast majority of all decent stories go through - The Universal Storyline

It's based on the Hero's Journey and the Monomyth, but adjusted to be more universal to all genres, rather than focused more on 'adventure'.

It goes something like this:

Overview of The Universal Storyline

Act 1

• Introduction to the protagonist's world
• Call to action
• Crossing the threshold

Act 2

• Mentor teaches the lead
• First challenge
• Temptation
• Dark moment

Act 3

• Final conflict
• Return home

This set of stages can be interpreted in a million different ways to create every story from The Lord of the Rings to The Da Vinci Code to Harry Potter.

Next time you're watching a movie or reading a book, look out for the stages and try to identify the ways in which the author has portrayed them.



Detail of the Universal Storyline

In order to create your own stages, you'll need to know a little bit more about each one, so here are brief summaries of each:

Act 1

• Introduction to the hero's world

You set the scene, introduce your character and their normal life, just in time for them to...

• Call to action

... be torn from it! Actually it's better if they're not torn, but have to commit to the decision themselves. In any case, the challenge is put forward. You can start building sympathy for your character by ensuring their decision is something the reader can identify with and / or respect.

• Crossing the threshold

In order to ensure your protagonist has the pressure on and therefore your readers are hooked into wondering how they'll ever get out of this mess, they should cross some kind of threshold that makes it difficult to get back to normal life. It could be a physical journey across land, the removal of allies, self inflicted isolation or becoming wanted but on the run.

Act 2

• Mentor teaches the hero

Readers want to see a character develop into someone who can overcome the odds. Everybody needs help sometimes.

• First challenge

Time to put your protagonist under pressure. It may be that they have a first encounter with the villain, or for a slower build, it could be the villain's cronies.

• Temptation

I can resist everything except temptation, said someone pithy. Add depth to your lead by giving them a challenge they have to find the strength of character to overcome.

• Dark moment

As you near the climax of your book, circumstances start piling up. Push your lead to the limits to the point they are questioning everything they know, and very nearly slip to the dark side. The closer they get to failing, the more nailbiting it will be. But in the end they pull through, which brings them to...

Act 3

• Final battle

The final battle! This is the climax of your story and you must pull out all the stops to make it great. We'll work on this in great detail later, looking at what makes a satisfying ending, so for now you should just have a loose idea of whether your hero succeeds or fails.

• Return home

Once your climax is completed all there is to do is tie up loose ends, will your lead live happily ever after? Do they return home or stay in their new place? Who is with them at the end?


Now, if you're excited about being given the secret formula to writing an engaging and satisfying story, go ahead and write a single sentence for each of the steps.

If you need a bit more help with this stage, click here for examples of the hero's journey in popular fiction.

Once you're ready - click here to go to the third step in the first novel writing guide.

...

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step One

The Backbone Sentence - aka. The Premise

Note: You may wish to read the Novel Formula Introduction if you haven't already.

This sentence is a bit like the question on an essay exam paper - you should keep referring back to it to make sure you're not wandering off the point. It will help keep you anchored and moving forward at the same time, helping to avoid meandering, wasteful scenes and chapters (and time!).

It will also help you work out if you actually have a story idea to begin with - or only a kernel. And if it turns out you do only have a kernel, it will help you turn it into something you can work with.

So, let's get started...

Every story should contain all five of the major story elements, which are:

• Character
• Situation
• Objective
• Opponent
• Disaster

Let's take a quick look at each of these story elements:

(If you're totally sure you already know what all of these things are, you can skip forward to Creating Your Premise - but you'd better be sure...)

The Major Story Elements

Character

Many people believe that every story is an attempt to understand the human condition. That counts for stories with animals as their leads too. Whether that's strictly true or not, your story isn't going to get anywhere without characters. If you're George RR Martin you can have 30 leads, each with fully fleshed out histories, characteristics and idiosyncrasies, but for now let's just stick with a single lead character. That doesn't mean there won't be more later, but it's early days. Pick one, and note the following about them:

• Name
• Age
• Nationality (this can be fictional)
• Profession

Character examples: John the Plumber (36, American), King Edvard Bearheart (52, English), Candy Collins (19, French, wannabe actress), Patches the Guinea Pig (2, Brazilian, pet)

Situation

This includes setting and external forces. Is your story set in a futuristic factory or a giant-bee infested rainforest? Or perhaps everything happens in a restrictive manor-house in the British countryside. What kind of world does your lead live in? Note the following (don't get too hung up on what each thing means - interpret it however you wish):

• Date
• Place

Situation examples: New York in 2050, Medieval England, Hollywood (current day), A terrible pet shop (current day)

Objective

Your lead must have an objective. People in real life don't always have clear objectives, but many people in real life would make boring stories. Good fictional leads always have desires and goals. What's yours'? Is it to become rich and famous? To save a family member? Perhaps they need to win that critical contract or want to wed Johnny Depp? Figure out what your character's story objective is - here are a few prompts to help:

• Selfish
• Benevolent
• Money
• Love
• Principle

Objective examples: save earth and the people from alien attack, bring peace to warring lands, become a star, find a good home

Opponent

Conflict. Imprint the word conflict on your brain. If you want to write a page-turner that's going to fly off the shelves, then your story must be jam-packed with conflict. Conflict builds tension, excitement interest. A lack of conflict is a big fat bore. There may be multiple opponents; note down at least one. Here are some examples of types of opponents:

• Person / people
• Organisation
• Force of nature

Opponent examples: aliens, ambitious, greedy Lords, disapproving family, the pet store owner

Disaster

You want your readers to care, right? You want them to be gripped, eyes racing across the sentences to find out if the lead makes it? What you need is a potential disaster hanging over their heads. This must be something unspeakably awful (relatively speaking is fine) that will happen if they don't avert disaster. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to your lead?

• Loss of something
• Threat to family
• Threat to the human race

Disaster examples: being made a scapegoat by the government and thrown in jail, declared incompetent by younger brother and deposed, has a disfiguring accident, gets lost in the city street.

Creating your premise

Hopefully now you will have some idea of each of the major elements of your story. Now we're going to bind them together into a single sentence which summarises the premise of your story.

(Remember that word and use it when telling people about your story in order to feel clever)

You're bright, so you'll have noticed that our examples knit together nicely to create four story backbones. Observe:

When aliens attack New York in the year 2050, can John the plumber save the human race before the traitorous government manage to turn him into a scapegoat for the whole disaster?

Deep in medieval England, can King Edvard Bearheart bring peace to warring, greedy Lords, while his jealous younger brother is plotting to have him declared incompetent and overthrown?

The bright lights of Hollywood find Candy Collins seeking her way to stardom, but will she be defeated by her meddling disapproving family and a disastrous accident that threatens to leave her disfigured?

Trapped in a horrible petshop, Patches the Guinea Pig plots his escape, but the pet store owner isn't going to let him go easily - and how will he find a good home when he ends up lost on the city streets?

Note that each of these is a question, and that each roughly follows this pattern:

Situation > Character > Goal > Opponent > Disaster

Now write your backbone sentence using your major story elements and this format.

Ready for Step Two? Click here!

...

Overview:

The Novel Formula is a creative writing method designed to bring together established fiction-writing theory, useful practical advice and all the major story elements, in order to help new writers learn their craft at the same time as completing their first novel.

The Formula works on the principle that good fiction novels which sell want are gripping, satisfying, and contain believable, interesting characters.

The Novel Formula uses a carefully structured step-by-step approach to build all the critical elements in a practical, relational way - allowing the characters, plot, situation, opponents and disaster to influence each other and evolve together as the novel is planned, drafted and edited.

The Formula assumes minimum prior knowledge, so if you're already familiar with many of the principles of creative writing, you may wish to skip some of the theory.

Each step contains an achievable task which builds on the last, and includes introductions and explanations of the common features of fiction writing which sells, and examples for clarification.
These are the fifteen steps:

1. The backbone - aka. The Premise
2. The skeleton - aka. The Universal Storyline
3. Character Introductions
4. Short Synopsis
5. Character Viewpoints
6. Extended Synopsis
7. Full Character Profiles
8. Head Scenes and Tail Scenes
9. Settings
10. Advanced Plotting
11. Scene Blocking
12. Draft One
13. Weather, Time, Senses
14. Draft Two
15. Final Draft

If you've followed all the steps and adhered to most of the theory, at the end of the steps, you should have a manuscript in excellent shape - ready to submit to literary agents!


Click here to go to Step One

...

A good first line does not a good novel make, but a bad opening could kill a great novel before it's had a chance.

So what makes a good first line?

There are a few key points:

Change - if this is a day like any other, why are you writing about it? All stories are about change, so if you want to get your reader hooked right away, get straight into it!

Question - you need your reader wanting more. If you can make your first line raise questions that they cannot live without knowing the answer to, you can be pretty sure they'll keep reading. Of course, what constitutes a gripping question will vary depending on your readership. A computer geek is unlikely to care if the question is the heroine wondering how she'll ever find love - equally, a romance buff cares little why the Republic of Somewhere Alien is about to implode.

Surprise - for extra flavour and style, if you can surprise your reader in so few words, with something unexpected or out of the ordinary, they will want to read on to explain the mystery.

Some examples of awesome opening lines:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
George Orwell, 1984

Mira was hiding in the ladies' room.
Fay Weldon, The Women's Room


My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones


We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
 

Think about which of the key points above each of these meet. It's a great exercise to randomly pick books off your shelf and read their first lines.

Like writing? Like software? check out the features of the Novel Factory.

Block Busting

Ideas for getting those juices flowing and getting over that ominous blank page...

Take a walk - much more effective than you might think. It's not simply about a time out. Fresh air invigorates your brain and the muscle movement releases chemicals into the bloodstream. Also, new visual stimulus will get your synapses crackling.
Freewriting - for ten minutes write non-stop, anything at all. Even if it's just the same word over and over and over again. Misspellings, sense, we care not for these things!
Work on some notes instead - less pressure, fun, and a good chance it will kick start some prose writing.
Listen to some music - engage another part of your brain to get the blood flowing.
Make a pointless rule and write to it - such as: you can't use the letter e more than once per sentence or each sentence must have an even number of words. Limits create focus and change your perspective.
Read the papers - great for ideas that nobody will ever believe are true.

Write a rant - who really got up your nose this week? What would you say to them if you could? Get those juices flowing, let the emotion pour out onto the paper.
Explain your dilemma to a teddy bear - if you can't think how to proceed, explain your problem to a soft toy. The process of formulating the problem out loud is often enough to let you see the solution.
Create a strict schedule - with short periods dedicated to writing. Stick to it. That means when it says to stop as well, even if you're in a flow.
Don't obsess when you're drafting - are you in a draft stage and worrying about word and sentence level? What on earth for? Haven't you heard of editing? Just get it down any old how and the polishing will come later.
The 20/5 technique - get yourself an egg timer, set it for twenty minutes, put it on the table and get as much done as you can in that time. When it goes off, your fingers must leave the keyword (or paper and quill or whatever). Set it for five minutes and do something else for that time.Relieve yourself, stare out the window, play with the puppy, learn a few words of Spanish, whatever. Then repeat.
Set a small, achievable goal - finishing the novel is not going to cut it. Finishing the paragraph, the page, or at most the first draft of the chapter, is a fine catalyst.
Use a photo - describe all the details of the photo.

Read more detailed ideas for getting inspired to write that novel here.

1. Too many adverbs

Overuse of adverbs will scream amateur louder than anything else. Many creative writing tutors say any use at all is overuse.

In case you don't know, adverbs are words that modify a verb to describe the way the action is done. If you don't know what modify means, you should probably consider switching to photography.  Adverbs  often end in 'ly'.

Examples:

He said, knowingly.
She dropped the knife, meaningfully.

The problem with adverbs is that they are often redundant, re-stating something that is obvious from the dialogue or verb. And if it's not obvious in the dialogue or verb - why isn't it?
Adverbs are also a key indicator for weak verbs. You can think of the ly as a crutch.

For example:

He walked weakly to the door

Might be replaced by:

He stumbled to the door

Adverbs are often a marker of lazy description, and showing, not telling
(see next mistake).

Further reading:

http://www.users.qwest.net/~yarnspnr/writing/adverbs/adverbs.htm

2. Telling not showing

If you haven't heard this yet, brace yourself. You'll be sick of it within months. It's very common for new writers to try to explain things to their readers, as a kind of omnipotent narrator, rather than allowing the reader to experience everything themselves through the protagonist's senses.
For example, if you tell me that:

Martin Cousins was furious and so he went into the shed to calm down.

I'll be yawning before you get to the next sentence. So what? And anyway, so you say.
However, if you say that:

Martin slammed the back door and stormed down to the shed. He punched the wooden door aside and kicked it shut behind him. He waited in the darkness,  forcing himself to take a few slow, deep breaths as the dust settled. 

Here the point is made vividly and at no point did you need to be told Martin was angry. You can feel it. We can observe the cold, hard facts with our own eyes.
Further reading:

http://www.writing-world.com/basics/dawn02.shtml

3. Overly formal dialogue

The main problem with natural dialogue in fiction is that it's nothing like natural dialogue in real life. If an author did put genuinely genuine sounding dialogue into their work, readers would be bored silly, because normal speech is full of half finished sentences, interruption, meandering and assumed knowledge.

So fictional dialogue needs to be much more succinct, with clear direction and eloquence, but to still give the impression of being natural.

One tip to make speech sound less formal is to use fillers (well, umm, I guess), pauses, interruptions and contractions (do not = don't, I will = I'll).

Further reading:

http://www.sfwriter.com/ow08.htm

4. As you know, Bob

This is the common phenomena of writers using a character to explain a plot point to another character who already knows it.

To take an unlikely example - let's say knowing the ingredients of the common Screwdriver cocktail is critical to the story. The amateur writer might decide to have two barmen, one of whom says something along the lines of:

'Well, as you know Nick, a screwdriver is a mix of vodka and orange juice.'

Clearly,  Nick already knows it. Why is his colleague telling him something so obvious? This just doesn't ring true, and your characters are suddenly mannequins dancing to your plot rather than real people the reader cares about. It's just a sneaky way of telling (see above).

Characters should never say anything that the person they're talking to obviously knows already. This isn't to say a character can never explain a plot point, just make sure they are telling it to someone who genuinely wants and needs to know.

Further reading:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/09/seven-keys-to-writing-good-dialogue.html

5. Lack of Conflict

Put simply, if there's no conflict, there's no story, and by conflict, we don't mean violence. Take these two alternatives:

Boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Boys meets girl, girl despises boy, girl gets a terminal illness, boy searches the world for a cure to save girl and win her love.

If you could ask a single question about either of these premises, what would it be?

Would it be 'In number one, what precise way did they live happily ever after?' or would it be 'In number two, does the boy find a cure of not?'

Knock me down with a feather if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it's going to be the second, which means you're engaged and intrigued. That's because there's conflict.


Further reading:

http://menwithpens.ca/fiction-writing-conflicts-and-characters/
http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/conflict.html

6. Ego-writing

Lots of people decide to write based on actual experiences because  they realise that real life is stranger and infinitely more fascinating and complex than anything a single human mind could dream up. This is all well and good.

What is not well and good, is thinking that your life is interesting enough to be committed to paper and inflicted upon innocent readers. Unless your life has involved bringing down a massive corporation, starting a revolution, overcoming a debilitating disability to spectacular effect or saving a boatload of people - it's unlikely to be interesting enough to be worthy of novelisation.

The same kind of principle applies to peppering your work with your opinion.

As the great William Strunk, Jr. says:
'To air one's views gratuitously, is to imply that the demand for them is brisk.'

7. Procrastination

This is a big one. In fact, if you're reading this, there's a good chance you're procrastinating now.
Procrastination is a huge enemy to success, as you can hardly get to the exciting stage of having your novel rejected if you haven't even written it yet.

Ultimately, the only answer to procrastination is will power and inner strength - however, there are plenty of tips and tricks to help overcome it.

Two favourite 'reasons' and answers:

'I'm not inspired' - If you want to be a writer, it's your job to be inspired. If you have to sit around staring at the wall, waiting for the muse to belly dance in front of your nose, you'll starve long before your first draft is even begun.

'I don't know how to get started' - Make and follow a plan (such as the Snowflake method) which has small, achievable goals.

Further reading (not without irony):

http://the90daynovel.com/writing-your-first-novel-end-procrastination-now
http://www.creative-writing-now.com/writers-block.html

8. Meandering Plot

Stories need to go somewhere. Unless you're CS Lewis, you're unlikely to be able to get away with having your character randomly wandering around an abstract world, encountering characters that apparently have no relation to each other.

Your protagonist needs to have a goal, and while that can change over time, there needs to be some consistency. Your reader wants to root for your characters and feel clever if they guess what's coming. If you randomly change direction and the first five chapters describe a man trying to clear his wife's name when she's accused of murder, but then by chapter seven he's trekking through the rainforest and the story ends with him bringing down a terrorist plot, your readers are going to feel cheated. And headachy.

If you're having trouble getting started or want a digital tutor to guide you through your first novel - check click here.

Slow beginnings and how to avoid them.

First draft:

Johnny woke up early. It was a school day so he quickly dressed. He was just a normal kid; he lived in Dayton Ohio, went to high school and had a grade average that was, well, average. On the way down to breakfast he bumped into his little sister, Anne. They said good morning, like they always did, and went into the kitchen.

Ok. Here the story hasn't started yet. Nothing is happening. Obviously, this is an extreeeeeeemly boring example - you'd be surprised how often this kind of thing gets written.

Right - so, action? Right? Let's start at the action.

Second Draft:

The punch landed on Mike's face like a hammer. He swung wildly into the wall and fell to his knees. The blows kept raining down on him from all sides while he struggled to regain his feet. Covering his face with his arms he managed to pull himself up and get a foot under like a sprinter on the blocks. They were kicking him now; bashing boots into his shoulder and body. He tensed, waiting for his chance. Then, with a rush, he was off and running.

Ok, stuff is happening. But do we care? Not really. There's no context here. There's action, but no conflict. It's just a guy getting his ass kicked. I've seen stories that go on like this for three or four pages and I still had no idea what was going on (which is quite remarkable, as I wrote them myself).

If you've got a particularly strong writing voice you may be able to carry a reader's attention through one of these kinds of beginnings. For most of us though, it pays to make sure we start with some conflict.

Third Draft:

Vincent couldn't afford to be late for a third time this week; Mr Davis would kill him. He drove as fast as he dared, balancing the risk with the dread of losing his job. Going back to living in mother's basement just didn't appeal. The light was just turning red as he flew across the intersection of 12th and Main. He didn't spot the Police Prowler in the nearside lane until it pulled out into the road behind him.

Conflict requires establishing four things:

• · A character we can identify with
• · Something that character wants
• · Something that stops her getting it
• · The consequence of failure

Read your first paragraph. Have you got conflict? If not, why not?

Avoid slow beginnings by using the Novel Factory to kickstart your novel! Find out more about its glorious features here.

Don't be shy! Meeting with other people who also want to write can be inspiring and motivating. You can get useful advice, share woes and worries and get feedback on your prose, giving you fresh perspectives and new ideas.

 Most groups offer seminar type sessions and manuscript feedback sessions, and there's always tea and biscuits...

So find a writer's group in your area and sign up.