What Makes A Good Novel: The Difference Between A Bestseller, A Good Novel, And A Bad One
It can be difficult to understand what makes a novel good. A lot of it depends on personal taste, but there are some broad truths when it comes to the best ways to write a novel from the get-go. It’s not always easy to tell what works and what doesn’t, especially if you’re new to reading novels in general. Fortunately, once you get your head around the different elements that make up a good novel, it becomes much easier to spot them in future offerings as well. That being said, every book is different and not everything will appeal to everyone. That’s why we’ve done our best to outline the key differences between a good novel and one that isn’t quite as useful. Keep reading if you want some insight into why writing notes with your character helps give your story more heart instead of just making light of serious topics like suicide or imprisonment.
What Makes A Good Novel? First things first, if you’re looking for a formulaic guide to the best way to write a novel, you’re going to be disappointed. The best novels are the ones that come from an honest place, one that’s brave and raw, but also incredibly genuine and relatable to the people who read them. It can be easy to get caught up in the desire to write something great and forget that the most important thing is to write something useful. Writing a novel that’s just okay might sound like it would be a cakewalk, but once you’re in the thick of it, you’ll quickly discover how much of an uphill battle it really is.
The Importance Of An inciting event The inciting event is the single event that sets everything that follows into motion. It’s the moment in the novel when the story actually begins, and all the rest of the pages come to life from there. If the inciting event you write for your novel feels contrived, or that the world would need to be ‘’recreated’’ just so your characters could get involved, then it’s a red flag. An inciting event that feels organic and real will show your readers why your characters are placed in the world and what their goals are. It’ll help set up the conflict, the action that follows, and the stakes for the reader.
Writing With Heart: Show, Don’t Tell Writing with heart doesn’t just mean writing in an emotional way, it’s actually more about making sure that you’re showing your readers what’s happening at all times, rather than telling them. Hands down, showing is the best way to write a novel. It’s what makes fiction so much more captivating than non-fiction, and it’s one of the most important writing skills to develop. Showing is what makes a novel truly thrilling, and what really makes it stand out from all the others. It’s what will get your readers hooked on what’s happening, and what makes them fall in love with your characters.
Character Development: Show, Don’t Tell Note-taking is an incredibly important part of the writing process, but it’s also a skill that a lot of writers forget about. The reason for this is simple, however: it takes a lot of effort. Character development is perhaps one of the most important aspects of any novel. It’s the reason why readers will keep turning the pages, and why they’ll continue to come back to your work in the future. Characters must be developed from the very beginning, not just at the end of the book, and you must always remember to keep them as real as possible. Some of the best fiction is written about people that are far from perfect.
The Importance Of Developing Your Protagonist No matter how good a writer you are, you’ll never be able to write a novel if your protagonist is one-dimensional. It might sound like a silly thing to mention, but it’s a skill that you’ll find hard to notice until you actually start to practice it. The protagonist is the main character. Your protagonist is what drives the story and is the one that readers will come to love. The more complex they are, the more relatable they will be to your readers.
Final Words: Why You Should Always Have A Conclusion The end of your novel should always have a clear and definitive conclusion. This is the part where your novel comes to a close, and you’re responsible for making it clear how the story ends. There are many ways to do this. You can write a happy ending, or you can show how things turn out for your protagonist in a positive way. Whatever you decide to do, you’ll need to make it clear and definitive at the end of your novel. Keep in mind that you don’t need to write an actual conclusion, just a clear one. This could be something as simple as: “The novel ends here.”
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