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Step 1
Kill the bad guy. We all want to read about interesting characters. Each character must have something happen to him or her, especially main characters such as the protagonist and antagonist. In order for us to become involved with them, they must have something at stake and go through a change in the novel. We want emotion and situations we can relate to, but as a reader, we don't need to be told how the characters feel. We want to deduce it from what the writer tells us.
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Step 2
Make the setting engage our five senses: taste, hear, sense, feel or see what's happening. We want details about the world that the characters live in. The setting could be an office, the Arctic, a beach in the Bahamas or a horse show in Kentucky. It doesn't matter if it's glamorous or exciting. The right details make the setting come alive and make us feel like we're there.
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Step 3
Show us the action. For some people, this is the easiest part to come up with. In many cases, plot is where the action happens, and readers want to discover who, what, how, where and when. How much action writers and readers like probably depends on what genre they like to read, such as suspense, romance, memoir, mystery or fantasy.
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Step 4
Let us into your world. This piece is tricky, but crucial to your novel. Point of view can make or break a novel based on which character is narrating. It's much more interesting to read a romance from the point of view of the man chasing the woman than from the maid who works in the castle the woman lives in ... or is it? Each perspective brings something different. Neither is right or wrong; one may just be better suited to tell the story than the other. The key is to find the best narrator for the story, and let them tell it for you.
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Step 5
Speak your truth. Who said what, and when and how they say it, is important. We don't need to know who says what for every line of dialogue, but we do want to know how they feel and what's motivating them. It's good to be able to have a balance of setting and dialogue, as well as the other pieces that are needed for a novel.
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Step 6
Tell us a story. What is this novel about? We need a compelling storyline to keep us engaged and wanting to continue reading or writing the tenth draft. The story line is the one piece that brings the pieces into a cohesive format. We all have a compelling idea or situation that often makes us want to write a novel. Some writers use a true event as a starting point and create the rest of the story.
