A great novel is a combination of a lot of things.
First, there is tension. Without tension, no one would keep reading your book. Well, some would—those who fell in love with your characters during the first pages.
Speaking of these, a novel needs compelling characters. Yes, even a villain can be compelling. And there is plenty of proof out there—be it in the form of novels or movies. I guess most people have, at least once, experienced some kind of sympathy for a villain.
But these characters can’t exist in a void. In other words, they need locations—a setting where they can act. These locations need details. You get the picture.
When you put all of the above together, you’ll probably get an idea for a scene. Sadly, a novel needs more than just a few scenes. It takes quite some time to fill what—250? 300? 520?—pages of blank paper with a promising story. So time is another factor. When is the best time to write that novel? Well, let’s even take a step back and ask: When is the best time to start planning that novel?
Flashbacks anybody?
It’s during that process, during the planning, that you may ask yourself whether your novel will jump back and forth in time. Are there any flashbacks? Either to highlight your protagonist’s feelings or to better explain where a certain fact is coming from. You already guessed it, right? You may need to create a timeline.
We could go on like this all day. In fact, the above is just the tip of the iceberg. Rest assured: We’ll elaborate on every single topic—and much more—over the course of the upcoming weeks and months. So yes, this is both a teaser as well as an announcement.
Oh, and by the way: We’ve got an app to help you with all of that. Everything, except answering the question of when you will find the perfect time to plan and the perfect time to write your novel. But sure, we’ll discuss that in a dedicated blog post as well.
That’s it for today – stay tuned for the next one!
