Plot Twists and Lessons: 5 Things I Learned Writing My First Novel

When I first started my website, I was hot and heavy on posting to this blog. Three entries in the first month alone! And then radio silence for over a year. During that silence, I was writing. Writing furiously to finish my first novel. Now that my novel is complete and sits with my Beta Readers, I wanted to come back to this blog and write about my experience.

I come away from the entire process of writing a novel with a great feeling of relief. A relief that I actually finished, because towards the end I did have greater and greater urges to quit. At times I felt like I had wasted almost two years on a useless endeavor. But no matter how the novel is received, I know now the experience was in no way fruitless. Even if the novel is beaten into the ground and defecated on by packs of stray dogs and cats (and humans if it makes its way to midtown Manhattan), the process has taught me a lot of things. Something of these things came to me while writing, others from websites, blogs, and podcasts I listened to.

On a side note, one podcast I highly recommend is “The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel” hosted by Jim Thayer. Jim has countless jewels of writing wisdom in every single one of his episodes. Thank you, Jim, for doing some wonderful work for us fledgling writers.

Here are five things I’ve learned:

1.      Write it Down: No matter how short or simple an idea is that comes to you, write it down. Even if it is only a single word that you are enamored by, write it down. I can’t remember how many times ideas came to me in the middle of something and I did not write them down. Maybe I was tired and didn’t want to get out of bed to get a pen (I now always keep a pen and pencil next to my bed for this purpose), or driving and didn’t want to crash while scribbling the thought down. Whatever the case, in retrospect, I should have woken myself up or pulled over to the side of the road. Good ideas should stop us in our tracks and force us to note them down. I lost so many ideas to the void, and I still kick myself for doing so.

We always have good intentions to safeguard our ideas, but sometimes the moment sidetracks us. A potentially wonderful idea slips through our fingers.

 If you like it, write it down. You will probably come back to it.

2.      Avoid Qualifiers: This is something that Jim Thayer spent an entire podcast episode on that I love. A lot of my earlier writing had way too many qualifiers that reduced the power of my writing. A qualifier is a word or phrase that modifies other words, often adjectives or adverbs, to add nuance, but usually only weakens the meaning of the modified word. Take for example: “The dog was very cute” with very being the qualify. The sentence is weaker than saying “The dog was adorable”. Use a more descriptive adjective rather than using a qualifier. It is more concise and more powerful in your writing.

3.      Make Character Names Unique:

As a reader I have found it hard to follow novels where the writer gives similar names to different characters. For example, take the names Bill + Will or Janice + Janit. They both sound very similar and that can make it hard to differentiate who is saying and doing what in a novel, especially when those characters are not the major protagonists.

I try to give characters names that start with different letters and sound very different. While they don’t need to be uncommon names, keeping them very different from each other is helpful.

Another pitfall I’ve experienced is a writer switching up their character’s names too many times in a novel. In real life a person has many names, their given first name, last name, abbreviated name, and loads of nicknames. In our lives, people refer to us with different names depending on who they are, what situation we are in, who else is around, etc.  Our boss will probably address us differently from how our significant other or child might address us. In a novel, it’s easier to follow characters if we continue to address them with the same name regardless of who is talking to them or referring to them.

4.      Limit Exposition:

One of my first beta readers made a comment that my novel started with a long section of exposition that frankly bored him. While it was pithy and great prose, it did not engage. Not engaging a reader in the opening chapter is a death knell to your novel. Exposition should be limited and should definitely not be part of your opening chapter (or even chapters). Exposition and other writing that is part of your back story should be limited wherever possible. Keeping the reader engaged from the start and limiting exposition to only when really necessary maintains momentum. Don’t lead the reader down a path that is too far from the main plot. You don’t want to strand them on an island with no way back to the main arc.

5.      Remember the Cliffhangers:

One of the most effective tools I’ve experienced as a reader is that of the cliffhanger. The section at the end of a chapter that implores you to read on. Writers tend to close each chapter with full resolution. It make sense, it feels right, to tidy everything up at the end. But that doesn’t maintain suspense, it doesn’t keep the reader engaged. If the chapter ends with resolution, where is the urge to read on to the next chapter?

End your current chapter with a question or a problem that isn’t answered or solved until the next section. Keep the train moving. Don’t let your readers off!