Monday 20/02.2012

Tips on writing a novel...
These are a few tips I have learned from trail and error and hard research.

1.  Do research you need to know your plot, characters from beginning to end. You need to describe them well, let the reader grow with them.
2. First paragraph The first sentence, even the first word makes the reader want to read on more. 'It was a sunny day and the grass was green' isn't going to cut it. the first few pages are what publishers are actually going to read. 
3. Something original No body really wants to read another book about vampires sparkling in the sunlight, but that doesn't mean you can't use the idea of vampires. Yes there are a lot of books out there about vampires but what Stephenie Meyer did was evolve on the idea giving them different strengths and weakness'. If you can come up with something other than a woman trying to loose five stones whilst looking for a job then you have got something interesting.
4. Your writing style many people say that you either have it or you don't have it. That's not true, Indeed people may write extremely graphic like 'His nose exploded with blood, it was pouring out of his face like water from a tap' whereas other people would simply say 'he had a nose bleed' and that's fine but you can't go around saying 'he said it was great and I agreed, I slept all night and dreamt about unicorns, I woke up and went to school'
5. Don't go over board with the English language. saying he said is fine but using words that the reader may not know or understand could make them feel uncomfortable. 
6. Don't talk like you are explaining to the reader what is happening. One of the greatest things about reading a book is getting lost in it, getting into a whole new world.If you let the reader know he's reading then you've lost that element. e.g "So Mark can you explain that again for me.' 
7. Choose how you write it carefully. I prefer to write from someone's point of view, where you can get deep down into their feelings and like the reader fall in love with the character, the only problem with using this technique is that you can't know what other characters are thinking and feeling unless they are mind readers, and another technique is switching from character to character which doesn't let the reader grow with them throughout the book, and then the last one I can think of is watching them from afar telling everyone how each person is feeling. 
8. When you have actually finished your first draft Don't think that it's all fine, you need to read over it and change things around, sometimes people can finish a book and come up with a better plot and change it, writing a book takes time. :)