Crucial Writing Tips for Newbie Novelists
Whether you are an aspiring writer or someone who has already published a couple of best-sellers, you are probably curious about how you can improve your writing skills – as there is always room for improvement.
It is important to mention here that the first drafts of writing are usually the worst. While it might take you a couple of years to write your first novel, it might as well take a few more years to write a good one – even a best-seller.
The thing is that new, aspiring, and untested writers don’t know yet how to write a good book. As a matter of fact, most writers have to write several books before they get the hang of it.
By this point, you might be wondering how you can shorten your learning journey and write better manuscripts that might turn into best-selling novels one day.
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If you are an entrepreneur, you might as well start your writing journey with the help of one of the best ghostwriters, such as Vancouver ghostwriters. This will not only help you save time but also help you get your message across the page and make them reach your target audience.
However, if you are not an entrepreneur or someone living a very busy life, you might want to take the cudgels into your own hands, roll up your sleeves, and start writing today. The more you write, the better you will eventually get.
The following tips will help you become an exceptional writer – no matter where you are on your writer’s journey.
1. Acknowledge that You Can Improve
The first step to becoming a good writer is acknowledging that there is plenty of room for improvement and that your writing isn’t perfect. A tell-tale sign of a new writer is that they wholeheartedly believe that their writing is perfect.
Many aspiring authors make the mistake of believing that their first draft or first become has all that it takes to become a New York Times best-selling book. And for obvious reasons, this is never the case.
As we mentioned before – the initial drafts are not your final drafts. Usually, the first draft is telling yourself the story you want to tell people. Initially, you are the first reader of your own draft.
That said, as a newbie author, you must remain open-minded to the fact that you might have a great plot, concept, theme, or character cast – still, you will have to polish your book countless times. Also, you will have to go through your drafts at least a hundred times before you proceed to publish the manuscript.
2. Research a Lot!
You might have heard before that all good writers are also avid readers. This aspect also indicates that you will have to do your homework and research a lot before you start writing.
Understandably, a newbie author won’t be able to figure out how to write a book of their respective genre on their own. Therefore, you will have to do in-depth research on your own about how to write a good book.
There are a couple of things you can do regarding this – for instance, study books of your favorite authors or the books of the genre that you are interested in. By studying your favorite authors, you will find a way to understand their style, which you can later use for your own writing.
By studying other authors’ books, you will also find out more about plot structure, character description, dialogue, conflict, and so on. Always remember that writing a good book is so much more than grammar.
3. Start with an Outline
Yes, outlining your book is crucial – while this isn’t mandatory, it still provides you with a roadmap and direction throughout your writing journey.
You will have to look at your manuscript from a plotter’s perspective. A plotter is someone who plans out the entire story before they start writing it. On the contrary, the gardener is someone who doesn’t plan their storyline before writing it – they tend to discover things along the way.
In contrast to the plotter, the gardener doesn’t plan the story in advance, which is why they usually skip the outline altogether.
It is important to mention here that there is no right or wrong way to write; however, a gardener has a lot of work to do in the editing process as they didn’t plan their writing process. Therefore, it is recommended to plan out the plot structure of your manuscript before you start writing it.
4. Receive Outside Feedback
As a newbie author, you might want to work with an outside critique, such as beta readers. Usually, you can ask critique partners – who are also writers, to provide you with valuable feedback on your manuscript. You might think about swapping chapters or the entire manuscript with the critique partners.
On the other hand, beta readers are usually not writers. They are readers who read your manuscript and provide general feedback.
It is important to mention here that the job of a beta reader is only to provide general feedback, which has nothing to do with the in-depth feedback provided to you by a copy-editor or the final gatekeeper of your manuscript – the professional proofreader.
You get the point – the beta reader will be your first outside reader who will tell you what worked and what needs to be changed. They might tell you useful stuff about when and why they stopped writing – they might have been bored, or there might be some confusion going on that needs to be changed.
By receiving outside feedback, you will clearly understand where you are standing with your manuscript, whether you need to make changes, and if yes, where.
You get the point – outside feedback is of the utmost importance, especially if we want to improve our writing skills as newbie authors.
As writers, we will read and re-read our draft a thousand times, which is why our brain already knows what is coming next. It would be best if you always had a fresh pair of eyes to go through your manuscript and tell you about potential plot holes.
