To write a novel you have to be a reader. But your reading style has to change once you know you want to tackle the awesome job of completing a novel. You have to learn how to read a novel like a writer.
Reading a novel for analysis
On Monday, I asked you to name your three favorite novels. Once you decide which ones are your favorites in the genre you want to write in, you need to sit down with that book and dissect it, study it, analyze it like you’re preparing for test that your class grade hinges on. How? Keep reading.
What do you love about your favorite novel?
On your computer, phone, or notepad, jot down what you love about your favorite novel. Is it the characters? The plot twists? The descriptions?
After writing down what you like about the novel, think about why you like those aspects. For example, I love the descriptions of the world the Time Traveller finds when he uses his invention to travel to the year 802,701 in The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. Why do I love those descriptions? Well, they’re described so well that I can see myself walking beside the Time Traveller, living the scene with him. He thinks he’s found humans on the wane, in the sunset of their evolution, and his description of the evening while he considers this theory complements his thoughts.
Now that I know why I love this description, I need to dig into it and analyze it. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest it to write or cut and paste the section you want to analyze and then highlight the words, sentences, and other elements that makes this part of the novel resonate with you.
Here’s a sentence from The Time Machine I think describes the evening vividly and sets the mood for the scene:
“The sun had already gone below the horizon and the west was flaming gold touched with some horizontal bars of purple and crimson. Below was the valley of the Thames, in which the river lay like a band of burnished steel.”
Color seems to be the key to creating a vivid description in this sentence. “Flaming gold”, “purple”, “crimson”, and “burnished steel.” What’s the lesson? When I want to describe something or set the mood of a scene, specific colors can do that work for me.
You can use this approach for any writing you admire to draw lessons you can apply to your own novel.
What novels have influence your writing and why?
Here are more tips on writing descriptions.
