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How to write a novel for beginners: what to skip and what to keep

A first novel needs a premise worth finishing, a character who wants something, enough plan to keep moving, and a draft you complete before you polish. Most other advice can wait. Here is what to keep, what to skip and what editors see go wrong most often.

Published Updated 1,626 words8 min read

TL;DR

Beginners do best by keeping five things: a premise with an angle, a protagonist with a goal and a flaw, a light plan, a first draft finished without editing as you go, and a revision with outside feedback. Skip perfecting the opening, policing word count while you draft, copying a bestseller and building more world than the story uses.

If this is your first novel, you can ignore most of the advice you will meet and keep five things: a premise with an angle, a main character who wants something and has a flaw, enough plan to keep moving, a first draft you finish before you polish, and a revision that uses other people's eyes. The rest, from the perfect opening line to the exact word count, can wait.

For the full craft of drafting in scenes, how to write a novel goes step by step. Before that, a beginner needs a filter: what to spend energy on, and what to let go.

What to keep

A premise that has an angle

Jericho Writers' editors read hundreds of manuscripts a year, and the first mistake on their list of fifteen is a terrible concept. Their examples are an "educational" young adult novel stuffed with climate science, an adult book built on the life history of the author's parrot, and a not-very-terrible mid-life crisis that ends with taking up baking. Their rating for how hard it is to fix: you cannot fix it, you start again. A related mistake is a manuscript with no discernible angle, one that ticks the boxes but has no concept that is immediately captivating. Their examples of the opposite are the premises of The Time Traveler's Wife and The Book Thief.

That is a lot to ask of a first idea, and Reedsy's guide takes the pressure off. Author Tom Bromley says to stop searching for one big idea and begin with smaller ones, then see how you can build them out. If there is potential for a novel, you will sense it.

A character who wants something and has a flaw

Bromley's second and third steps carry most of the story. Give characters relatable motivations based on near-universal desires, such as falling in love, fighting for survival or finding acceptance. Give them flaws and vulnerabilities so they have room to grow. He reduces it to three questions: what drives them, what are their flaws, and why should the reader care?

Then add conflict. He separates external conflict, with an antagonist or an oppressive system, from internal conflict, a struggle inside the person, and says the strongest plots intertwine both. See character development and the glossary entries on the protagonist and conflict.

A plan that weighs what you need

You do not need a 40-page outline, and you do not need none. Randy Ingermanson says there are a thousand methods and the best is the one that works for you. His own starts tiny: a one-sentence summary of the novel, then a paragraph that holds the setup, three disasters and an ending, in roughly five sentences. Jericho's version uses five headings, status quo, inciting incident, developments, climax and resolution. Plot outline examples shows both applied to published novels.

Bromley's practice is analog and effective: he studied novels he loved, summarised each on a sheet of paper with arrows and circles to see how the plot worked, then wrote his own chapter summaries on index cards and spread them out on the floor.

A draft you finish before you polish

Bromley's advice for the draft is to keep moving forward. It is tempting to rework what you have written instead of making daily progress, and that can stall you almost as much as not writing at all. He rewrote his opening scene countless times, only for the finished book to need a different kind of opening.

His second piece of advice is gentler. Your pace will vary through a draft, with times when words pour out and times when every sentence is torture. Do not wallow in the bad days and do not beat yourself up about them.

A revision with outside feedback

Jericho's last mistake is treating the first draft as finished: when you reach the final full stop, you are, if you are lucky, halfway done. Its editors say that many novels, even ones accepted by an agent, are reworked and re-edited more than once. Bromley's step eight is to self-edit, then find feedback. You might swap with other writers, use beta readers who read in your genre, or pay an editor. His rule is that if more than one person says the same thing, they are probably right. How to find beta readers and how to revise a novel cover each step.

What to skip, for now

Perfecting the opening

Your first scene will probably change, as Bromley's did. Write it well enough to get started and come back when you know how the story ends.

Worrying about word count while you draft

Writer's Digest's Brian Klems gives the advice that fits a beginner: do not impose word limits on yourself while you write. Let the story flow, then tighten it to a reasonable length once the draft is done, and save every scene you cut because it might become another story. The lengths agents expect are in how many words is a novel. Jericho's phrase for the later cut is "reduce length, maintain content": remove surplus words without removing story. Its editors say they have seen beginner manuscripts that needed to lose 30,000 words or more without losing content, and that if you have not cut at least 10,000 words by the time you edit, you have not really tried.

Copying a bestseller

Jericho's editors warn against writing for a different era. Agatha Christie, Mark Billingham and other big sellers wrote for the market as it was when they started, and dominate it. Unless you know the era very well and do something distinctively new, there is no reason for agents, editors or readers to favour a copy. Their advice is to write for the world as it is now.

Building more world than the story uses

Reedsy's guide says that in fantasy or science fiction you may need fairly elaborate worldbuilding before you start, and that even a novel set in a real place needs some. A writer on Writer's Digest's site advises researching widely while expecting to keep only about 10 percent. That is a reason to start with what the next scene needs and let the rest wait. Worldbuilding for novelists shows how.

A perfect routine

Bromley says to find a routine that works for you, such as morning or night, silence or music, daily or weekends, and to expect it to change during the draft. If it gets monotonous, shake it up.

A beginner's order of work

Reedsy's eight steps are a fair default sequence. They are not a law, and you can loop back:

  1. Choose a novel idea.
  2. Develop characters.
  3. Define the central conflict.
  4. Decide on the point of view.
  5. Build the world.
  6. Structure the story.
  7. Write the first draft.
  8. Revise and get feedback.

Bromley's suggestion for point of view is concrete: write a short section from both candidate viewpoints and see which fits. He says the same for settings. If it is a real place, visit it or research it, and if it is invented, make it distinct and draw a map. The glossary entry on point of view explains the options.

Frequently asked questions

How do I start writing a novel as a beginner?

Write one sentence about your story, then one paragraph with a setup, three disasters and an ending, and then start drafting. That is Ingermanson's first two steps. How to start writing a book covers the first month.

Do beginners need an outline?

Not a long one. Ingermanson says the best method is the one that works for you, and Jericho recommends starting with five headings.

What is the most common beginner mistake?

Jericho's editors rank a terrible concept as the most serious and the hardest to fix, and sending work out too soon. They say agents reject 999 in 1,000 manuscripts.

How long should my first novel be?

For adult fiction, sources quoted in average book word count place the usual range between about 70,000 and 100,000 words. Do not worry about it until the draft is done.

Should I edit while I write?

Bromley says no. Keep moving forward, and edit when the draft is finished.

Where Musael fits

A beginner who finishes becomes a writer with a method, not a writer with a story they have never been able to see whole. In Musael the plan board and the manuscript are one structure, so you can see your scenes, move them and write them in the same place. The manuscript editor has focus mode and writing goals for steady sessions, and versions keep earlier drafts so you can cut boldly and still go back.

Sources

craft

To revise a novel, rest the draft, read it as a reader without editing, then fix the book in passes: story first, then scenes, then consistency, then sentences. Each pass has one question, so you stop fixing commas in a chapter you may cut.

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