by Jordan St. Claire

Created on: September 19, 2009

Usually is it a Novel into a Screenplay. Here's how great novels are written. The screenplay just helps. Writing a novel fromk a screenplay isn't difficult if you follow some basic steps. Writing well doesn't hurt. Some of the best novels of the last twenty-five years were not blockbuster signings for the likes of even Stephen King. He did know how to write exceptional tales. Your tome has to be flawless as far as spelling and grammar, and it has to engage the reader with characters people love, hate, neutral or love to hate. Knowing grammar well is enough to break the rules too. Read great novels and mark nice lines, descriptions, dialogue and structure. Just the easy parts. Get books on writing. Write shorts and have fellow writers give you honest critiques. Post them on your blog and ask people to rate you. It is also a great way to launch your career by catching a editor's eye. Always dream big. You're an artist so your dreams are immune to anyone's stupid opinion. And, always look at what sells so you know what kind of genre you should be in unless you are someone like Stephen King or Edith Wharton. Dream big. Always. Set aside two hours a day to create.

Your novel has to be something familiar and something different. If you don't understand that, the first paragraph is what you should do before doing anything. Note taking excepted. The first step is knowing what you novel is about and how it ends. Create your characters by using a profile. It should contain anything you need to know about that character like full name, life experience, heritage, education, habits. Just about anything a real person that becomes them. Creating your characters this way gives you depth without thinking about it. You basically are forced to develop characters that you can use in writing the novel later.

The Outline is your next step in creating your great novel that you hope will make you rich and distinguished. Might get to do television ads and be a mainstay on talk shows. Dream big. Always. Never back down. Your outline can be detailed or simple just chapters ideas. You already created your characters, their names, everything about them. You know what they are going to do. Outlines just give you direction. Nonetheless, if you receive inspiration, deviate. Add another chapter. Those little creative voices talk softly so listen to them. People like long books anyway if you make it worth their effort. You always have to think about the audience. Is it cool? Is this good? Would I read it? Be honest.

The last step is writing the novel. All that work you did is now kicking in. You've done the work so the writing part should be easy. Simple. Not a problem. Creative changes are about the only thing you do now. Always just write it through to the end. Editing is later. George Lucas once said, "Write the story then fix the edit." Stream of consciousness is what it is called. Some writers do up to one hundred edits and so will you do edits. But, no novel to edit is time wasted. Editing while writing just wastes your creative juices anyway. Grammar? If you know the rules, you can break the rules. All the great ones do. If you are brave, self-publish on Amazon or other places. Self-publishing has turned some writers into big time novelist. J.K. Rowling created one billion dollars in a library writing about some kid named Potter and spells and potions. So can you. You might not have to edit much either. After all, that's what editors are paid to do. Writing a good novel and rewriting is great. It is work not play. If you follow these tips, you'll find an editor just as easy as I did. Get published too. Good luck on your journey.

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