Don't Just Write A Novel! Learn how to Outline and Write A Best Seller

1. Introduction: Four of the main reasons that manuscripts are not published. They are denied is because they're scene transitions down, add up. The story is underdeveloped, the backstory is missing, or it lacks a true plot, one that's understandable. Hi, I'm Vanessa. So Neil, Welcome to my class. Don't just write a novel, right? A bestseller. Writing can be exhilarating, especially if the aspiration is to become a published author to publish your book. The challenge, however, is that 80% of the manuscripts that are submitted to publishing houses for publications aren't denied. Understand that it's not always that the story isn't that great. There are other elements that just did not meet the mark. As a former senior creative manager for a publishing company. I can tell you that the thousands of manuscripts that I've read, there was always an element, sometimes more that cap the story regardless of the genre from being good or even great. This course, we're going to look at all of the elements involved in being not only a writer, but creating a novel that's worthy of publication. We're going to look at character development and dialogue. We're gonna look at Saint transitions and discuss background story. We're going to look at the environment and the history behind not only the characters, but at the time and place of the story. We're going to look at building the manuscript. Not from the author's perspective, but from a publisher's perspective. I have over 15 years experience as a senior creative manager for a publishing company. And I'm also a published author myself. I feel like the experience that I have to share on both levels provide anyone with the tools that they need to reach their goal of publication. And this is whether a publishing company picks up the manuscript for publication. Or if you decide to self-publish. Either way, in the end, the goal is to have a manuscript that is worthy of publication. If you're ready, I'm ready. Let's get to it. 2. Creative Writing: The creative writing process. What exactly is the creative writing process? The creative writing process is different for every writer. This is the process that is used start the development of the story. It starts with an idea. You have an idea as a writer. This sounds like it would be a good story. The process is starting to answer the questions of what the story is going to be about. For instance, who is the story going to be about? What type story isn't going to be? Where's the story going to be located? What's the interests and the story? This is part of the creative writing process. This is where you are your most free the process of writing a story. Because this is where you start to think about who the story is going to cater to, and how you want the reader to feel. What is it that you want to convey? You write a story because you have something to say. In your having something to say, of course, you have a point of view. What is your point of view? The creative writing process actually starts the process of writing. It. It begins well before you take pen to paper or take fingers to your computer. There's a few things to consider when trying to develop that part of the process. When you're looking at what type of novel you want to write. We're not talking about the genre. Of course, the genre is important. With the genre is going to start well before you start. To write the story, you'll know this is going to be science fiction, fiction is going to be romantic drama, mystery. You'll know that. You'll state that from the very beginning. But the other elements to consider, uh, things like, is it going to be a story that is fiction, that has fictional characters, but real places? Or is it going to be a story that has real people that are in a fictional location? Is it going to have real people? Real location, real events, real scenes, and real dialogue, but a fictional story. That's something to consider. Those the three elements that you need to determine from the onset. Let's go over that again. Fictional events, but real people. Real events, but fictional people. Or really Vince, real people. But the plot, the scenes, the background, all of that is fiction. Those are the things to consider when you start to creative writing process. This is the process that you get to prior to starting to write your first words. 3. Background: I can't tell you how many times I have had a discussion with an author about their background, their setting. Here's the thing. The setting is, your time and place, whereas the stories set, what time period? Is it? Current day, meaning 2021 or 20202021. Was it during COVID times? Is it 1980s, 1960s, 1970s nostalgia? Is it pre-war? Which war? Is it post-war? Again? Which war is it? Ancient Egypt? Is it the Renaissance? These all time periods, there's many more. A story can be written in any time period. But it's important to have a setting. You have to write your story in a setting of some sort. Now, it's imperative to understand this, that mastering this, getting this part right. The setting is huge when writing a story because It's not just that one element, it's not Jess. Okay. The story takes place in Duluth, Minnesota. It doesn't stop there. What time period? In Duluth, Minnesota? The story started in the Harlem Renaissance. When, when was the Harlem Renaissance? What were the years? And there's some other aspects that you have to adhere to when it comes to the setting, the time, and the place. And I'm going to keep saying it that way. The setting, the time, and the place, because it's important. Here are the elements that needs to be not only considered adhered to strongly, one. When you're looking at the characters. The characters have to be aligned with the time and place, the setting. So understand that the setting of a story must be really history, but it has to be authentic, really history and authentic. Also the characters can be fiction, but they have to act in realistic ways. They can't act in ways that are foreign or unidentifiable to the reader. Also, the plot can be real or it can be fictional, but it has to be identifiable to the reader. The plot has to make sense. Understand also that the dialogue has to reflect the time and a place. For instance, CNN. We all know that CNN is a news network, correct? If you're in 19 twenties, period, as you're setting, CNN is not going to be relevant because CNN did not exist at that time. Also, the dialogue for your characters have to match. For instance, in 1970, it was easy and common. Watch a movie where someone said jive Turkey as calling someone a jive Turkey. That was straight up 1970s, 1970s. The peace sign was just a part of history for 1970s. But in 19 twenties, you wouldn't hear someone call someone else, AGI Turkey. The dialogue has to match the setting. The characters have to match the setting, even when it comes to how the, how the characters dress, attire of the characters, all of that has to match. So for instance, in 1970s, bell bottoms were a big thing. Men and women of all ages and nationalities in the United States were bell-bottom. If you were to describe a character wearing bell bottoms in 1910 era, that would be a disconnect. Who, who was wearing bell bottoms in 1910? These are the things that have to add up. Remember, in my introduction, I said a lot of times it's the connection. The author does not make the connection. These are areas the same. Background development is one of the areas that they just don't they just are a disconnect, they don't add up. You have to look at it from a standpoint of this, a holistic story, from beginning to end. Even what conflict? Let's look at conflict in our story. The conflict has to match the time period. For instance, during Wild, Wild West era, they were having duels. Pull out a gun, walk, a few steps, turnaround, shoot. And whoever got hit and die, that was the winner. Well, you don't have duels in 2021. Well, if you do, they're illegal. But you don't have duels in 2021. It needs to match the time period. Everything with the scene setting affects the characters throughout the story. And the characters if they are not correctly aligned with the scene, the settings, the time periods affects your readers. 4. Protagonist: Let's give it up for the main character. The question I get a lot. As a publisher is, should the main character be written first? That's part of the creative process of the writer. There's no right or wrong answer to that. What I will say is this, that the main character is just that this is the center of your story. You want to make sure that when you start the story, the process of actually writing the story that you do have the main character in mind. You don't have to have the main character totally, totally detailed and thought out, but you do have to know what part the main character's going to play in their own story. That's important. I would say that developing a shell of the main character is not wrong. But you have to have something when you start because there was an idea. Now all the nuances involved that can come a little later, whether or not she's going to have a yellow dress or a pink dress or wear pants or pants, suits or hills or sneakers all the time. You can get to that later. But understanding who the character is and what role they're playing as the main character. Yes, I find that to be essential in beginning very creative writing process. Components of this character when creating the main character. Components of this character include who they are in the story. What makes them worthy of having their own story? What makes them worthy of being the main character? What is it about them? What is it that you want the reader to feel or understand about this character? What role do they play in elevating the story? Why are they there? Do they have faults? They should, with all characters, all characters should have a balance. They should be vulnerable and have faults, as well as being gifted or wonderful or everyone loves them. Just to stand out personality. A good character has balanced. And that's from the main character all the way to the list of the characters in the book. When creating and developing this character, you have to look at their standing. What makes them, them, what makes them stand out? Because remember, they're not the supporting cast, they are the main character. What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their fault? What are the vulnerabilities? What makes their story interesting? What is it that readers are going to sympathize with, empathize with what are they going to like and dislike. These are the things when you're developing the main character that you should think about. Do they have swagger? Are they shy? They're very vocal. They've not vocal. Do they speak? Do they have some type of deficiency? Are they any fish it? What makes them, them? Not all main characters have to be a superhero. Use the word Superhero loosely. They don't have to be that upstanding, strong character. You can build them that way, but they don't have to be, the main character, has to have a story. There's a reason why they are the main character. Now, are you taking them from a weak person to a strong person? Or are you taking them from a strong person that's being humbled? You giving them a story where they're having a live lesson or a Damascus Road awareness. What is it about the character that you want the reader to follow along with? Do you want the reader to fall in love with them? Do you want the reader to fall out of love with them? What is it that you want with this main character? Think about when you are reading a book, what is one of the things that you love about a character? I know when I'm reading a book, one of the things that I like is I like characters that are well balanced and they show both sides. So I do love a character. I do mean a main character that gets angry, but can laugh a lot. Those are the two types of characteristics I love and the main character. I want my characters, the main characters to be dressed up and down. I want them to be able to be in most settings and not shy away from a setting that they're not familiar with. So for instance, if they are a little shy but they can communicate well with others and they don't mind being a part of large crowds. Basically. What makes them worthy of being the main character, what their backstory, what makes them relevant, what their faults are. All of these are questions that need to be answered when developing your main character. One piece of advice I can give you that I've seen from reading manuscripts is that the character, lot of time is written to where there's an imbalance in their personality and their characteristics. They're so strong to, it's almost like if feels like they're strong, this is strangling the story. Or they're so weak that it feels like this is just a hopeless story. Anytime you have a character, mind, you, we are talking about the main character that is not balanced in some type of way, meaning that they're not too much of any one thing. You have more room to play when building the character, you have somewhere to go with them. If they're strong, you can make them stronger. If they are weak, you can make them stronger. But if they are already extremely strong, making them even more strong, it's only going to hamper the progression of the character. Lastly, the one thing you do not want to do when it comes to writing your main character is make them so general that another character can overshadow them. Remember, every character has its own story, its own personality, its own characteristics. If you don't find the right balance with a main character, another character, even though that character is not a main character, it is a supporting character. Can and will overshadow them. 5. Antagonist: I have to admit that writing the character of the villain, the antagonist, is my favorite part of novel writing. I know, I know of all the characters who either villain. Well, here is my take on it. A lot of people seem to think that the villain has to be evil. And they have to, it's almost like they have horns coming out of their head. And they read and they, they're just ugly. And they're just about destruction. And that's really not it at all. The antagonists, which is also the villain, is just the thorn in the side to the main character. So this is the person that creates the issues, the challenges, the problems for the main character. But it doesn't necessarily have to be maniacal. It could be subtle. Actually be suite is just the person, the story that's creating the challenges for the main character. Like the main character, developing the villain. Since you all liked the word feeling is very similar. You want to develop their place in the story. Why is this character relevant? What is the conflict? What is the problem between the villain and the main character? What is it that they do? Who are they? Why are they existed? What is their relevance? What is their personality? We go back to the same. What character development in what are the vulnerabilities? What is the backstory? There is a presence. What is their presence and why? It's no different then the main character, and it's definitely no different than the other supporting characters, is just that this character has the second leading role in the story. For whoever the main character is. This is who the antagonist is, the opposite end of the story. Again, they can be sweet and humble and they can be loving and warm and caring. But they have that one thing, that one thing that's antagonistic to the main character. It could be something as simple as the way they communicate. The way they communicate with everyone else. And then how they communicate with the main character, how it makes the main character field. So for instance, let's say you have a main character. That's really sweet. Humble is a female where we sweet, humble and very quiet, timid, shy. Then the antagonist is very boisterous and loud and uses expletives to speak and very degrading into meaning. Let's say main character works for the villain. Now, not so much that this person that's the villain is any other way but me, right there mean to the protagonist, which is the main character. But they're nice to everyone else. All the other employees, they're nice suits, all the friends and I used to do when it comes to the main character, their mean. So these are the types of things you have to look at when it comes to the villain. The antagonist is just a challenger for the main character. And you write their story in a way that helps to read it, to understand why they're the way they are. Their backstory is going to make the reader understand that, okay, There's a history here of something. What is it? Now, when you write the story though, when you're developing this antagonist, you're giving it balance. You're making sure that the reader hates them and loves them at the same time. Matter of fact, if you're really wanting to be good, you can make the reader hate them, love them, and then laugh at it all. At the same time. Meaning the story may not be comedy. But you can see that this person who is the antagonist has issues. Right? So that's what you're playing in on your playing in on the fact that this person may be someone that you can point to and say, Oh, I know somebody like that. That's what you want in a good antagonist. When you're developing that surgery. You want to weave in all of those elements. You want to make sure that the reader knows this is just not some person, a random person with an issue. Why did they have an issue? What is their story? For every story, there's a backstory, and for every backstory, there's a history of a backstory. And so that's what you want to do with the villain. You want to make the building human. You want the main villain have emotional factor. And you want to make the villain lovable and heritable at the same time, or in their case, heritable and lovable at the same time, you want to be able to sympathize with them, your reader should be able to say, oh, Okay, I understand why they are, but they are soulmate. That's what you want. You want balance. You want to make them interesting. 6. Character Development: Character development, the building of the characters. Character development is one of the most fun parts of writing for me. I know, just speaking from a lot of authors, that character development is one of the most freeing places outside of the creative process, novel writing. This is where you get to identify who the characters are going to be in your novel. Then you give them life. You start with who a character is. So for instance, you can start with something like female. Male. You have a female character or a male character. Then you determine who is this character and what is their role in this story. From that point, you can start thinking about things like their personality, their style, their characteristics. What makes them a vital part of the story? I always like to start by giving my characters names. Once I give them a name, then I give them a personality, their persona. Whether they're going to be an atypical character or maybe they're going to be very fun and lively and very colorful. Then I give them style. What kind of style do they have? Are they business suit all the time? Or are they bow host that maybe they're a gene's girl with vans or Chuck Taylors. Maybe just maybe there are book cut girls. Do they have kinky hair? Is their hair long? Do they like simple, elegant type jewelry? Maybe they sound a little country, or maybe they sound a little rock and roll. Maybe they sound like they're from New England. And they say things like car. Maybe they have a New Yorkers dialect. This is where you get to determine what that character is, who they are, why they're important to the story, where they are in proximity to the story. When they're going to appear comes later. And how they're going to appear comes later. But how they present themselves. These are all the questions that you can answer from the onset while you're building their character. It's kind of like a Barbie doll set. For those of you that can remember the Barbie doll said remember you would take the paper Barbie doll and then you would put different clothes on it. You can put different hairstyles on it, different shoes, different accessories. This is where you get to build that character. The male and the female have the same elements. Hair, eyes, skin, clothing, style, swagger. They have the same elements. It is just how you choose to portray them. For instance, can you imagine a character? Maybe he's male character. Maybe he's six foot two. And he has Carmel brown skin. And his hair is shoudl in curly black. And he has hazel green eyes. He has a smile that lights up a room. But he has a mole, right on his left chin. His nose is small for a man, but he has large ears. Not as large as Dumbo, but large for his small head. I've just described a character. Now he has a laugh that's robust, but his voice is kind of squeaky. When he, when he speaks, it squeaks a little. Kind of like he has a squeaky voice like a child. And he also has a little lists. You can describe all this. I just described a character. Can you visualize the character as you are developing the character? Can you visualize them? Tip that I have when developing my characters. One of the things I do is, what would I like this character to look like if he was in a movie or a TV show. That gives them life when you can visualize them. Not just a character on paper, when you can actually truly visualize them. You have developed a character. And visualizing your character in this way. You make sure that you don't miss any elements. For instance, the emperor has no clothes. You've created the character, but he is a shell of a character. He has no clothing or she has no Accessories. No one has a skin color. They're just characters on a paper. This is what you want to avoid. Visualizing your character, helps you to scan to make sure that all the elements of that character are completed while you're writing. The reader is able to visualize what they look like for your intents and purposes. If you can visualize your character and develop them thoroughly, your reader will be able to visualize your character and enjoy them thoroughly. 7. Back Story: Pertinent characters should have a backstory. These are supporting characters. However, all supporting characters have a backstory. Now the backstory for supporting characters, it does not have to have a lengthy backstory. They don't have to have a full history like the main character or the villain. But they should have a backstory or supporting story. Something surrounding them other than this is who they are and this is what they do. They have relevance to a story just like anyone else. What the relevance is is up to you and how thoroughly stated should be aligned with the story. So for instance, a best friend, a best friend has a backstory that is the best friend of the antagonists or the protagonists. How far back do they go? What are some of the recollections for that relationship? You have a romance or girlfriend and boyfriend, they break up and meet back maybe 20 years later. What happened in that 20 years? Something happened. There was a story there. These are the types of things that when you're building the supporting characters, you provide a space for their history, their backstory. Remember, characters are relevant to the story. Supporting characters are even more relevant to the story because they have a backstory and the history. So for instance, if you have a scene where your character is jumping or Uber, Uber driver doesn't have to have a backstory. If a character he just needs to have a description. It was an Uber driver and it was a male. If you give him dialogue, what type of dialogue are you giving him? What was his race and nationality? Did he have a Caribbean accent? Did he have a boss and Irish accent? These are the types of things that you would give to a character. That's it. When it comes to pass in character, a supporting character that's just passing along. However, if you had a character that a sibling of one of the main characters or a sibling of another character, you would give them some type of backstory, some type of history, something that you can recollect, and it doesn't have to be stated all at one time. Remember, you're writing a novel so it could be in recollection, but they should have something. Now remember, when it comes to the length of the story, the main character, the protagonist, should have a full story, and that story should be stated throughout the novel. Antagonist should have a full story, and that story should be stated throughout the novel. The supporting cast, depending on the role that the supporting characters have, depending on their role as a supporting cast member in the story, will determine how much of a backstory relation, half. If it's just something like an Uber driver, very minimum. You can even decide whether or not they're going to have dialogue. And it might be one or two lines. Where are you headed? I'm taking you to the airport. Can you tell me where airline and that's it. Or if it's someone closer to one of the main characters like a sibling, a best friend, and ex-husband and ex-wife, ex girlfriend, someone that's also bringing something to the story, something significant than their backstory and their history will be a lot more. I like to think of this way. The main character should have 100% of a fully developed story. The antagonists should have 95% of a fully developed story. Because remember, they're the thorn in the side of the main character. The supporting cast. These characters should have developed story based on the level and the proximity to them and the main characters. For instance, the main character has a best friend. That best friend is a significant part of the story. They should have at least 50% of a developed story. Or you can have a sibling. And a sibling has maybe a quarter of significance in the story. There history is going to decrease. Measure. Remember, all characters should have balance. They should have vulnerability and relevance. 8. Dialouge: I love you. He said, I love you too. She said, Oh my gosh, I'm going to miss you. He said, I'm going to miss you too. She said, Oh my gosh, we have to hang up now it's late. He said, You hang up first. Know, you hang up First. She said, Let's do it together on 3123. Click. All of this was dialogue. Now as cheesy as it sounds. Yes, it is dialogue. Then all it can be written in many ways. But understand that when you're writing a novel, dialogue has to be written. Not like a movie where you can just be silent. Because without the words, without the dialogues with do you have nothing. When creating dialogue. You have to start with your characters. What is it that you want your characters to sound like? How is it that you want them to speak? What is it that you want them to say? What is their point of view? When you're creating a dialogue, you're creating their dialogue based on that. You're creating their dialogue based on them having something to say and moving the scene along for the reader. Now, if you write your dialogue in a way that you know each character that's speaking. For instance, like in the example, he said, and she said, I can tell you that that can get a little bit arduous for the reader. Dialogue should be written in a way that is easy for the readers to follow. But it's also progressing. The story. The dialogue should be clear and it should be succinct and understandable. And it also should be, it should be written in a way that you can tell that they're still in the scene. The settings that you state it for the story. The dialogue can be calm and smooth. And when you write your scene, you're going to write the dialogue in that manner. She whispered using words like she whispered or she mumbled, or seeds very lowly stated. Or if you're trying to show that this was a hostile engagement between two characters. You would say he shouted, he was flaring his, his arms. While he yelled to the top of his lungs. You have to describe the dialogue in order for the reader to understand how to interpret the content of the text. It's not enough to say. He said, I will fire you if you don't come in tomorrow. The reader is not going to understand that context. If you don't state in the dialogue, he loudly yelled at the top of his lungs. I will fire you if you don't come in tomorrow. And then you would stay. As he slammed his door and sat down in his chair loudly. The dialogue has to be described as well as the scene. In writing your dialogue, you have to keep in mind that the reader is reading and interpreting the motion. As you stated. The dialogue also needs to make sense. It should be very real dialogue, meaning that it needs to sound like a conversation that someone would actually have. This. Even if you have fictional characters, dialog needs to sound realistic. It has to read in a way that the reader can relate to it. If the reader can't relate to the dialogue, then what you have is a lot of pages full of words. And the dialogue has to be relevant to something. Whether it's lightened, banter in an elevator. Hi, how are you doing? I'm fine. How are you? Can you press the number eight for me? It's raining out there. Is it going to be this cold all day? Is it going to rain all week? That's light bands her, but it's dialogue. Or if it's heavily engaged conversation. I wanted a divorce. Well, we tried everything. I went to counseling with you. Why would you want a divorce? What else can I do? We've tried this before. It doesn't work. In that conversation, you know, who's speaking. You can name the character. You can state things about the character. For instance, he heard her say these words, but his ears obviously deceiving him because in his mind, he tried everything he could. He asked her again, are you sure this is what you want? She said Yes. I'm sure. Now you know who's speaking. You're not always going to be able to not name the character or not named the gender specific to the character. Because sometimes it isn't necessarily a lot of times, but you don't want to have a consistent flow of he said she said Jim said Cara said, ebony said, April said, you don't want to do that. Again. Remember, the dialogue can also be descriptive. You can describe the dialogue. Like I said in the example of the boss that was yelling at the top of his lungs, the description was centered around what he did. He was flaring his arms in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs, I will fire you if you don't come in tomorrow. And he slammed papers on the desk and he walked in his office and slam the door and just sat down in his seat. You're describing the scene and the dialogue is showing that there's a hostile environment. With the yelling. I will fire you if you don't come in tomorrow or if you do not come into work, dialogue, awesome. Needs to have emotion. It has to have a feel. Does it make you think? Does it make you cry? Doesn't make you emotional, doesn't make you laugh. These are things to consider when you are writing your dialog. My suggestion. So all authors is when writing dialogue, be thoughtful. Be thoughtful to the time and place. Be thoughtful to the characters, because characters live in your words. And so you want to make sure that your character is not saying anything that would be harmful or hurtful. Not only to the story, but period. Remember you're telling a story, but in telling his story, makes sure that your dialogue is thoughtful. Well-stated. 9. Scene Transition: Scene transition is the period between two consecutive scenes. Understand that when you're watching a movie or a television show, you can see the transition. You have a scene, then it cuts to the next scene. Or you have a scene, there's a commercial, then another scene, and then two commercials. These are transitions between seems. However, when you're writing scene, a little bit more intricate in writing. Because understand that what you're doing is you're trying to take the reader from one scene to another. You have to write it in such a way that they understand while they're reading, that they're transitioning from one scene to another. Now understand that scene transition is very important because if the scene transition is not written properly, you lose your reader, it becomes confusing. The story will become muddled. Now, how do you transition the same one writing? Okay, fair question. So when you're writing a scene and you're providing the background, you're providing. Describing things like what the area looks like. For instance, are they in a restaurant? Was the restaurant noisy? Is the restaurant crowded? Are there a lot of children in the restaurant playing, are talking. Is there someone trying to get the attention of their weight or the scene is they are in the restaurant. Okay. Now, in your writing, you're trying to get them to move from being in the restaurant to moving outside, to the valet to get their cars. How do you transition that? Because there is a movement. You have to describe the movement to get to the next scene. For instance, you're in a restaurant, you've set the scene of the restaurant. Now it's time for you to pay the check to the waitress. The waitress hands you your credit card back. You get up, you put on your coats because it's wintertime. Then you start to walk out the door. Once you get to the door and you had violated the keys. And then once your vehicle arrives, you get into the vehicle and you drive off. That's the scene. You've seen ends there. Now you're going into the next scene. You've ended that scene when your character drove off. Scene ends. Now, you can move into the next scene. Some people do this by starting a whole new chapter. But what if it's not ready for the next chapter? Here's where you start the next scene. Whereas the other character, what are they doing? Did the person that they were in the restaurant with Get in the car with them. They're the same incompletely. Or the other character also get their vehicle and then they drove away. Again. The scene changes, there's movement. And so what you have done is you provide it finality to that restaurant scene. Writing a scene transition is a lot different than seeing a, a scene transition in a movie. You have to thoroughly describe it for the reader. Question I get a lot is what characters should transition the scene? Any character can transition the scene if it's written directly, if it's written in a way that the reader can follow. Understand that Saint transition does not always mean that you start with the next chapter. All you're doing is moving the characters from one period to the next period. Even if it's within the same chapter and the same block of texts. Remember, St transition is moving from one period to another. 10. Twist: Come on baby. Let's do the twist. The twist. Another element that is very freeing to write. A little challenging, be authentic. This section takes a lot of not only thought, but you've really have to craft it. This is really a creative measure to create a twist in the plot. That one wasn't predictable, too, is very believable. And three, leaves your reader speechless. How do you do that? There's a few ways. Let's look at it with what is the twist. Let us say you have a couple. The couple they are engaged. About seven o'clock at night. The fiance goes missing, with no explanation, just gone. Now, the female is getting worried that her fiance is cheating on her. She thinks he's being with another woman. What she finds out is that she is right. He is with another woman. He has taken dancing lessons because he wants to be thoroughly trained to dance on their wedding day. Little bit of a twist, right? She thought he was cheating. He is with another woman, but the woman he's with is his dancing teacher. Okay, fair enough. This a little bit of a twist. The dancing teacher was introduced to him by his fiance, the woman's best friend. She introduced him to the dancing teacher. That's okay. Right now. The fiance knows that he's out learning how to dance with this dancing teacher, that her best friend introduced them to. The whole time, that the fiance male was taking dancing lessons. He kept saying there's a familiarity with my dancing teacher. And every time he talked to her and they dance, he was saying, You look very familiar to me. You feel very familiar to me. Dance teacher doesn't say anything. Not a problem. We're dancing. Okay. Then it comes out that the dance teacher is the daughter of someone that the male fiance have a relationship with. You know, who know about it. The best friend of the female. Assets twist. Twist. Now he has a daughter that's going to rain on a parade. And then the person that knew about it was the best friend. And she was the one that put the whole thing in motion for those two to meet. As it stands out, to ruin the wedding that she knew it would because she asked the best friend is trying to talk out her best friend out of marrying this guy. That is a twist. How do you write a twist? I would say in a twisted manner. How do you write it with? When writing it with? You start with looking at the direction of the story of at least two of the characters. Then when you're looking at the direction of the story, then you throw something in there that takes it out of that element, m shifts into another element. So in this case, the example that I provided, you had the best friend and the female, the fiance and dance teacher. Well, the story, the projection of the story was you had the male wanting to learn how to dance. That's the direction of the story. He hires a dance instructor. That is a projection of the story. Then you have the best friend who offers up a dance teacher that she knows. Okay, so that's the projection of the story. He starts to take dance lessons. That's the projection of the story. However, now he's saying there's a familiar arity with you. Here's how the story starts to turn. That starts to twist. Then to find out that the familiarity is that this is his daughter. That's where the story continues to twist. Then to find out that the best friend of the Brian knew all along. That's the twist. So the projection of the story. And then what takes the story off of its projection? What moves it from going directionally? Moves it going to the left or to the right. That's how you create a twist and a story. The twist must be realistic, but realistic. But you still don't want it to be predictable. The best with are the ones that you just didn't see coming like a fastball. You didn't see it coming in blindsided. If it's written well enough, the reader will go back to see, wait a minute, how did I miss this? And so they'll start going back into the store to see, well, wait a minute, I missed something. What did I miss? That is how a good twist is written. 11. Ending: What is the best way to end the novel? I can ask the question, but can I really give you an answer? Yes, I actually kept. The best way to end the novel is by leaving the reader wanting more. The challenge for the writer is normally determining how they're going to end the novel. Meaning, is it going to be a romantic ending where the two parties got back together, kissed In, made up, or they got married and live happily ever after, and wandered off until the realms of the world? Or is it going to be suspenseful where you really just don't know what's going to happen into the exact last moment. Mucosa. I can't believe that it was them. Or is it going to be dramatic? I can't believe that it ended this way. The ending is always going to be determined by the author yourself. But how it ends is always the challenging question. I have my own thoughts about endings because sometimes endings are very predictable. And that's the part that really kind of turns me away from a manuscript when reading it for publication. If I can determine this is what's gonna happen at the end. To me, I find that boring. I said a little bit laborious really to read because you're not giving me anything to want for you. You're not giving me anything to ponder and linger. The best stories. In my opinion, the books that I've read that I absolutely love and have read over and over again have endings that made me want more. I wanted to know more about what happened after the pages and it after the end was stated, wasn't really over. Is it going to be a SQL? Is that character really? I'm not quite sure that that character is really dead. When you can have those type thoughts at the end of a novel. You've done a good job at writing the ending. Wherever the endings shouldn't be written in the beginning, the middle, or the end of the creative writing process is on the author. However, making sure that the ending is not something that we've read before, not something that the reader can predict, not something that sounds so egregious or outrageous that it throws the story off. Having an ending that says, well, I just put this together because I didn't know what else to say. All of these are story killers. You want your readers to look forward to your next work. You also want your readers to refer back to the book. Like I said, there's books that I have read several times. This because it's such a good story. And even though you know what's going to happen at the end, you're still reading that book as if you don't know, it was going to happen at the end as some magical time, something actually might change. That is good and writing, when you can write an ending that is not predictable and leaves the reader wanting more, you've written a good ending. Now how do you do that? That's the question. How do you write an ending that leaves your reader morning more? Or for one? What is it that you want them to feel? Do you want them to feel connected to the ending, connected to the character, connected to the story. Remember, I stated, when you're developing the character, you're developing them in a way that the reader can identify with them. They feel something about them. What is it that you want them to feel at the end? Do you want them remorseful? You want them to cry? Do you want them to have, and what type of emotion do you want them to laugh? Do you want them to be happy? Do you want them to cheer? What is it that you want from them? Think about that first, and then, what can you do? Meaning the activity of the characters to get the story in the place that you want it for the reader to have that emotion. Writing the ending is not at the ending. Writing the ending is during the writing of the story. The ending is just to progression. Is just the progression of the story. This is the crescendo. You're writing it to get to this 1. So another thing to do when writing the ending is to map it out, not only in your head, but map it out as a scene. When writing your ending. Write it in the way that you can visualize it. Map it on in your head. How do you see the ending going? And then add the other elements to it. Look at it as a moving picture. How do you see the ending going visually as if it's a motion picture just moving along. Then as you see it, you're starting to write it. Then you add the other elements into it. 12. Bonus: As a former publisher, 15 years, senior creative manager, and an author myself. There's some things I have picked up through the years that I would like to share as you are embarking upon writing your novel. One of the first things I would say is to add something that the reader can learn. Remember it's not just a story, it's a story about something. But I always love it when there's something that I did not know that after the reading the book, I now know it can be something as simple as the way a location fields or a restaurant or something that is mine provoking, something that's thoughtful. Just something that the reader can pick up and say, no. That's something that they learned while reading your book. Another is adding a piece of yourself into the story. When you add a piece of yourself into the story, it adds to the character and it may not be the main character. It can be any character, one of the supporting actors in your story. Just add a piece of yourself, whether it's the way you dress, the way you laugh, what makes you laugh? Your style, your flavor does something. Just a little piece. A, you know, is you maybe other people that read the book know you can say, sounds like you, but add a little piece of yourself into every story. Also, when trying to determine how to develop your characters. I like to think about who that character would be portrayed as by an actor or actress that I know at this particular point. So for instance, who would play the main character? Who were played their protagonists? What about the supporting characters? That helps to give the character's life? It helps you to visualize who you want the character to be. You don't necessarily want them to be the person you're thinking of. But it gives you more of an idea of the type and style of the character. One thing that I can say that I really like to see is when several characters create one person. For instance, you take several pieces of people that you know and add them into one character. They have the persona of all of the people that you add into this one character. So it could be the way your brother speaks, or the way your uncle dresses, or the way your mother cooks, or the way your mom drives. Like it could be just little pieces of people that you know, and you put all those pieces into one character. That's just a fun, fun way to develop just that one special character. These are just my tips. I know that you have some of your own look at your process and pull out the very things that you use to proceed in your process. And use those very things to help you. When it comes to writing your novel. The best advice I can give you is to start. If you have started, finish. Because a novel is not complete until you can actually write the words. The name.