Writing a Fiction Book Starts With These Steps

When you are first start writing a fiction book, you can feel overwhelmed by all the details that must come together to make a great novel. There are so many pieces to the puzzle that you have to put together in just the right way: writing interesting characters, figuring out the plot, keeping track of multiple points of view, writing good dialog, and more.

How To Begin

With what I'm going to show you in this article, you will be able to begin writing your novel today. As with most things we do in life, it's the first step that's the hardest. Once you've completed the first step, you find yourself carried forward on the momentum of your well-conceived idea. You feel your enthusiasm building and you have a much better sense of where you're headed with your writing.

Step 1: What's Your Genre?

You have so many options when it comes to choosing what you'll write. It can be overwhelming to try and narrow things down at this initial stage. However, here's a simple rule that will make the decision a lot easier for you: you should write what you love to read. Here's why:

Because you're already familiar with what works in this genre and how the novels are structured. More importantly, you will love writing the kind of book you love to read. And that will result in ongoing enthusiasm for your project that will be reflected in better writing overall.

Step 2: Who Will Be the Main Character of Your Novel?

The next step is to decide on the basic details of you novel's Lead character. Give them a name and decide on their gender and age; that will be enough to help you begin imagining who they are. You want to conform to the expectation of the genre you're writing within; for example, for a children's book, you will want the main character to be a child.

Step 3: Here Comes the Crisis

Every engaging novel includes a major crisis that confronts the Main Character early on in the story. Evan Marshall, the literary agent and author, points out some key points you should consider in deciding on your crisis:

It should fit your genre

It should seriously disrupt your Lead's life

It should create interest in your novel and make you want to know more

Step 4: Setting the Overarching Goal

The crisis forces your Lead to figure out how to solve this crisis and bring their life back into order. As a result, they set their Story Goal that they will strive to achieve throughout the novel.

Marshall recommends that novelists adhere to the following four criteria to create a goal that is powerful enough to hook your readers into wanting to see how it all turns out. From his perspective, your Lead's goal should be about:

Seeking relief from something bad (i.e. pain, sadness, oppression) or seeking possession of something good (i.e. a lover, an object, a secret).

If they fail, there should be terrible consequences.

Your Lead's intentions must be admirable and positive so your readers will really like them.

The odds of success should be slim to none.

Follow these four simple steps and you will have established a solid foundation to build your novel upon. It will be fun to write and the resulting novel will be engaging for yourself, for potential publishers, and for your future readers.

More Ideas For Novel Writing:



The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing is a great system for writing a fiction book. It leads you step-by-step through the whole process of writing a novel from idea to submission. If you're interested in writing a great novel with the potential to become a best-seller, I think you will want to check it out. You can learn more about this system at: Marshall Plan Novel Writing. Check out this article for more about Fiction Novel Writing.



Laura M. McKennah is a professional writer who loves writing about novel writing and other creative topics. You can read more of her thoughts and suggestions about writing at writerssolutions.com. She's also blogging there on what it's like to actually use the Marshall Plan for Novel Writing software to develop a novel idea.