A few years ago, JPC Allen Writes had a theme for the entire year, “The Journey of a Book”. For 2026, I’m doing a variation of that on how to write a novel. I’m working on my fourth novel and I’ve discovered it takes me about a year from when I write the first words until I hand it off to my editor. So I will cover the basic and not-so-basic concepts involved in novel writing. I also want to ask readers what novel writing tips do you want? Articles on pacing? Or creating believable character flaws? What about how to find settings that advance the plot? Please let me know it the comments what would help you to finish a novel this year.
What Novel Writing Tips Do You Want?
I still haven’t written a novel, so anything and everything will be helpful. Until then, I’ll remain a short-story author.
I love writing short stories. Wish I had more time for them
I feel the same about writing novels. A writer friend of mine suggested I should write each chapter as a short story. My problem is I rarely know how to come up with a good ending once I have a good collection of chapters. Short stories don’t require us to tie up all the loose threads at their ends.
I think endings are much, much harder than beginnings. I’m blessed with a mind that usually comes up with my climax first, and then I write to the story to meet up with that climax, which will be tweaked once I reach it.
I could use something about balancing scenes so the story stays character-based rather than plot-based, but while still having an interesting plot.
I think I know wha you mean, but could you give me more details?
Hmm, I think my debut novel was too heavy on the plot and didn’t have enough interesting characters, but I don’t want to go so far the other direction that the characters are super relatable but the plot is a bore. So maybe just ideas on how to find the perfect balance of lovable characters in an interesting plot.
Okay. This gives me food for thought. I can discuss this under characters or plot. Thank you!