A Guide to Producing a Novel

Not just writing one.

Writing a novel is committing 100,000 words to fascinating characters, lively dialogue, and an intriguing plot, all in a setting painted with powerfully descriptive phrases capable of holding a reader’s attention for seven to ten hours. How hard can that be?

Lost in the discussion of  the story arc, story structure, plotting, three acts, opening lines, beginnings, middles, ends, showing versus telling, active versus passive voice, conflict and crisis, world building, emotion in words, outlining techniques and options, building characters and character development, protagonists and antagonists, exposition, narrative, dialogue, points of view, scenes and settings, pacing and balance, word usage, idioms and cliches, metaphors and similes, symbolism, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and the discipline of writing is the parallel universe of the mechanics of writing and what to do with your writing after the writing.

You’ve written a great story…

• The next step is to polish your manuscript into an enjoyable read. Will it be laborious to plow through? Of all the emotions evoked by your writing, exhaustion should not be one of them.
  
• Get solid feedback from qualified Beta readers and accept their feedback: the Beta reader contract and interview.
• Format the manuscript for publication. Are you self publishing? All the metrics are made available.