My best writing tips

The initial phase of novel writing is considerably more straightforward than you might anticipate. It is not necessary to construct a comprehensive plot outline at this stage. A personal approach involves using headphones to immerse myself in music that aligns with the story’s genre or atmosphere, and subsequently documenting any thoughts that arise. These may include chapter planning, key words, quotations, monologues, or character descriptions. As a perfectionist, I’m always inclined to refine a chapter to completion before progressing to subsequent key points.

However, this refinement process is more appropriately addressed at a later stage, following the initial assembly of narrative elements. A novel can be conceptualized as a large-scale composition, with its constituent parts already in existence. The author’s task is to arrange these elements in a coherent order to reveal the complete narrative.

It is important to note that achieving the optimal arrangement may require multiple attempts, which is an inherent aspect of the writing process. This process may yield several viable narrative structures, each eliciting different emotional responses and creative outputs.

The subsequent step involves determining the intended emotional impact, genre, and overall narrative structure that best aligns with the author’s objectives. The challenging aspect of this process, in my experience, is establishing coherent connections between the assembled narrative elements. This has been a persistent difficulty for me over an extended period, particularly in terms of creating a fluid narrative that maintains reader engagement and chronological clarity.

The use of purple prose, which is inherent to the subgenre I write, was found to be more effective in establishing connections between paragraphs and chapters. This approach may offer an alternative method for structuring one’s narrative if previous attempts have proven unsuccessful.

Purple prose refers to excessively ornate prose text that may impede narrative flow by drawing unwarranted attention to its own elaborate style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the underlying prose content.

Now that you know a little bit more about getting to write your novel, you can figure out what best works for you. Don’t hesitate to write down some words in the vibes you’ve seeking to describe, and go from there. That usually works like a charm to start off with good bases.

Feel free to ask any questions, should you need more defined details about writing your novel. I’ll be happy to help!

PS: Never doubt yourself. Your voice matters as much as anyone else’s. We’re all writers. Published or not.