How To Write A Novel

 

Writing is an art. It is a hobby. A skill. A talent. It is also a career.

Learning how to write is easy once you get enough experience in doing so. People might think writing is hard, takes a lot of brainwork, only intelligent people can write books, etc. No, it isn't. Anybody can write if they try. 

THE BASICS

To write a book, the first thing is to have a strong skills of the language in which you want to write. 

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a vast ocean through which you can swim on and on and it just keeps going since there are a million words out there which simply one dictionary cannot hold. You can keep improving, though. To do this, you need to read more, practice writing, and explore more dense books in that language. There are things known as "figures of speech" which add more beauty to your writing (I will delve deeper into English figures of speech in a bit).

Sentence Formation

Words form phrases. Phrases form sentences. Sentences form paragraphs. Paragraphs form essays. Essays form pages. Pages form a book.

Hence, you should not just stop your practice at vocabulary and figures of speech. You must strengthen your grammar and sentence formation. 

This is just an introduction to what you need to keep improving on to make your writing better. Now, let us know more in detail about how to beautify your writing.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR WRITING MORE INTERESTING AND APPEALING TO YOUR READERS

Figures of Speech

Sentence 1: The forest was scary. I did not have a clue on where I had to go. It was already midnight, and I couldn't see anything.

Sentence 2: The forest seemed to be bearing down on me like a monster. The shadows of the trees wound around in a snake-like manner. Owls hooted above my head and ravens swooped down, their cries reverberating around me. I turned around frantically, looking for a way out in the dead of the night. The darkness pressed on my eyes and did not let my vision work. 

Which write-up was better?

Of course, the second one.

The first writing simply stated everything in a bland manner (The forest was scary). On the contrary, the second one described and painted a vivid image of the scene to the reader (The shadows of the trees wound around in a snake-like manner).

The second paragraph used more figures of speech. There were similes ("like a monster", "snake-like manner"), onomatopoeia [sound imagery] ("Owls hooted", "their cries reverberating around me"), personification ("The darkness pressed on my eyes and did not let my vision work").

Let us look into these in detail.

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things, that are completely different, using the words like, as, etc.

For example:

• He ran as fast as a cheetah.
• That t-shirt is as red as a rose.
• The neighbor's dog eats like a hungry lion.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech that states that one thing is the other. 

For example:

• He is the Pythagoras of the class.
• She is the Taylor Swift of our family.
• You are the new William Shakespeare.

Personification

Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.

For example:

• The old chair groaned whenever people sat on it.
• My legs are crying for rest.
• The sun smiled down at them from the sky.

Anthropomorphism

Whew, long word! Break it down: Anthro-po-morph-ism. It is almost the same as personification, except this specifically refers to animals. Anthropomorphism is the term used to refer to the personification of an animal.

For example, in movies such as The Lion King, the animals are given human traits, such as speaking.

Onomatopoeia

Another long word, eh? It is pronounced as ono-mato-pia. Onomatopoeia is the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named. 

For example:

• hoot
• cry
• squeal
• scream
• sizzle
• grumble
• moan
• groan
• mumble
• mutter
• bang
• slam
• rustle

...and so on.

There are many genres like self-help, non-fiction, fantasy, fiction, etc. There's nothing wrong with experimenting and ruling out ones which you don't like or writing many at once. I initially started writing stories for children (when I was a child myself, in Grade 2) about animals going on an adventure and another story where two siblings find a spaceship in their backyard and go off to fight aliens. Then after growing up a little, I started writing a novel series about a group of friends who have magical powers and a villain who knows sorcery. I haven't completed the series yet, and I also realized that I'm not so fond of writing fiction! Because I end up thinking about my book everywhere I go, I didn't feel like I was living in the present and that I was simply lost in a world that doesn't exist. And I'm a person who LOVES living in the present. Writing fiction is not letting me do so and I also don't like the idea of breaking my head over something that doesn't exist. See? I transformed from beginning with fiction to now not finding fiction as something I want to write very often. It's not that I'm shutting doors on fiction, maybe I'll write it once in a while, but I won't make it a main genre. In fact, to me writing is a hobby. And now I enjoy writing more about things that help people, like how I'm writing this blog to help people learn certain skills/ or to just spread knowledge. As I child I wanted to become a fiction writer, but now I realized that it's not fiction that I enjoy the most and writing is just a hobby.

Similarly, you will surely come across different realizations while writing. Now I think is the time to tell you all a little life lesson.

Not just while writing, but I feel that, generally in life, you get realizations as you keep learning and doing things. Something that you loved to do when you were a child may not feel as fun when you are a teenager. 

But there is always one passion that sticks with you, and you will definitely figure it out as you explore.

I know this one point is off topic from writing, but I felt strongly that I had to include this thought to give you all a little lesson :)

HAPPY WRITING!!! 😉