How do I go about writing a novel?

**collegegirl2010** · 03-08-2011 06:00 PM

I don't want to pursue a career in it, because my real talent is Fashion sketching. But I just want to try something for fun. I would describe myself as creative, because I love drawing, writing poems, and writing stories. I have one problem, I'm usually better at writing short stories, but I want to learn to write stories long enough to turn it into a novel. I have an idea of what I want to write about, but I don't know how to make a novel out of it. What do I do? What techniques would you prefer?

**Thomas Hepburn** · 03-11-2011 11:40 AM

If I were you, I would start "Once upon a time......." No seriously, I'm teasing you because you are a friend of mine. x

**WildChild** · 03-11-2011 07:55 PM

I'd say just keep writing. At some point the thought and the words should just flow.

I have a set of old books of short stories by R.Kipling, they are his early writing. The introduction is rather wordy, but one part says basically, well this Kipling kid writes a pretty good short story but it remains to be seen if he can write anything significant. Theses stories about India and the jungle are entertaining but ...

**Thomas Hepburn** · 03-12-2011 01:19 AM

Yes, I wonder whatever happened to Rudyard Kiplings career ?

**WildChild** · 03-12-2011 12:58 PM

You know those guys writing short stories about India are a dime a dozen.
The editor was so pompous, LOL. Just goes to show, you never know.

**stressed** · 03-12-2011 06:24 PM

Create sub-stories into your main story, develop the characters, add more descriptions.

**rcoreyus** · 03-13-2011 12:52 AM

I'd suggest starting with a short story. A novel is REALLY a lot of work, and you might get tiered of it before you finish. There are 2 different approaches: some people plot the entire thing out from the beginning, others let the plot evolve as they write. There are advantages and disadvantages to each:

**MarkT** · 05-01-2011 05:35 PM

Only one bit of advice as I have found erotic writings in romance novels... Keep the steamy parts around page 100 or so. That's where most of that is, I know because that's where I um.... um... read sometimes lol!!!!! That's the only part of the book I read. I scan the pages for, "moist inner thighs", or his "throbbing whatever". Okay, you get the general idea. Page 100 and it's got to be a best seller in the romance dept. Now, I'm all steamed up and no place to go with it

**owtte** · 05-16-2011 03:37 PM

I love writing. I've been trying to complete a novel that I'm proud to call mine for about 6 years, now =( but I'll never give up!
I always find that a great place to start is character profiling. It's so much fun -- you sit there, and just sort of build up your characters from scratch. You start learning all kinds of crazy things about them: their likes and dislikes, weird habits, favourite foods, political stances. They pretty much become their own persons by the end of it.
I then like going on to plan. I sketch out a vague timeline, then start on a more detailed timeline, and then pick out my favourite scene. That's always my starting point. That way, as I develop, I can keep returning to that scene as a reference. I always find that I have one scene that I loved writing and am happy to read. Whenever I start doubting my story or myself, I read that scene through and keep on at it.

Just give it a shot. It'll feel pretty natural, and it's so much fun when you get into it =) And you'll have to tell us how it goes!

By the way -- if you're looking to just crack one out without too much concern for style and such and just want to get it down on paper, I'd recommend these monthly writing things. The first one was NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. That's in November, but there are some for every month of the year, now, including Junowrimo and such. The aim is to write 50,000 words within a 30 day period. Google NaNoWriMo and you'll find what I'm talking about =)
There's also a site called 750 words. Essentially the challenge is to write 750 words every day. This one's gonna be my next challenge -- just need to finish my exams and then I'll be committing to it.