How do I begin to write a novel?

reposting this from /b/
help me /book/, you are my only hope

Last night in the shower I had an idea for a science fiction novel with religious overtones. I can fill you in on the details of my idea later, but that's not really important. My question is: what are the online resources or books that a noob at writing should look at?

I know I am fairly decent at writing academic essays, but writing fiction is an entirely different story. As a young teen I tried "writing" one or two novels, but failed miserably, especially on the dialogue. How can I improve myself, /book/?

inb4 Elements of Style

>>1
reposting this from /b/
That was your first mistake...

First you have to accept that the publishing industry is run by Jews and their Jew agents and they will only look at books that meet their Jew criteria of Jew values with a high return on Jew investment using their Jew network of Jew printers, Jew advertisers and Jew distributors funded by Jew investment from Jew banks.  You can self publish, but you'll sell less than one tenth of what you normally would using the Jew publishing network.  Dan Brown wouldn't be a runaway bestseller if he self published or published through print on demand or through e-books, since his books wouldn't get to be in front of every Barnes & Noble without coordinated Jew ads creating manufactured popularity by multiplying sales on the evening Jews and Jewspapers.  Or you could write a book and hope it does well based on the quality of writing.  Good luck.

>>2
haha this place is even more worthless than /b/ don't even try to deny it

>>4
Go away, kid.

>>5
haha enjoy your puerile conversations about entry-level novels and pseudo-literature faggot

>>6

Well said.

Enjoy not understanding the word "puerile", too, >>5.

First thing you want to do is outline your idea. Write a short summary of each chapter and how they lead to the next one. Outlining ahead of time will prevent one from writing themselves into a corner, while allowing one to revise ideas where necessary.

Next, when beginning your project, keep in mind that you need to hook the reader in within the first page. Rule of thumb for many readers is that if they can't get interested within the first page, it isn't worth their time. One method is beginning your book with conflict. Doesn't have to be the core conflict of your story, but conflict usually hooks readers in.

That's all I got for now.

First map out the entire story and figure out all the details.
Then just write, you can always revise later. Don't think about how good it is or if it's like any of your favorite authors just write. You don't necessarily need a lot of dialogue, but if you feel it's needed for your story practice your dialogue with some other stuff.

Just pound down loads of spirits and fucking type it out

Talking to yourself might help with dialogue. Just act out scenes that happen in the book, and you might end up getting more natural dialogue.

I use Celtx to develop characters, locations, plot(s), etc.

It's oriented around the development of motion graphics, animation and screenplay, but I find that it's a good resource to catalogue the elements of the story.  Everyone has their own way of working, and I prefer to establish what's going on before I begin writing.  It usually saves time, and means you don't chop things you've already written quite so much.

Once that's done, I'll have to agree with both >>9 and >>10.  Just hammer it out: speed-write.  I prefer a few beers over spirits, but whatever suits you.  Your first draft will be shit regardless.  That's what editing is for.

As for dialogue, talking to yourself might help.  Develop MPD.  One method I used to develop dialogue was to write a few short scripts; one or two scenes based on things from stories on the news to the evening banter at the pub.  Since script is driven (almost) entirely by dialogue, you'll learn how weave some interesting conversations with a little practice.  That would be my suggestion.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

tl;dr:
1. Write teen angst, sexual exploration and abolish all establish conventions within your genre.
2. Flog it under a title such as, say, 'Twilight'.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!

The main rule to writing a novel, or anything, is writing something you'd love to read, not writing somehting you'd write to write. Ask yourself: what's the coolest mother fucking shit EVER? And THAT's what your novel should be, and nothing else.

You may be thinking you've got an idea people are going to praise you for, or think you're so clever, but BE WISE, nobody cares about your ideas, everyone has a million ideas of their own. In art, ideas per se are worthless, because they're either old as humankind and true, or strange, fake and useless; and only actual execution matters.

I actually wrote a lengthy post about stuff you gotta do before you write a novel, and about how you obivously aren't ready to write a novel, but then I thought, scratch that. The only thing that matters about writing is reading really much and having a want to express.

The main rule to writing a novel, or anything, is writing something you'd love to read, not writing something you'd love to write.

Make dialogue just how you would normally speak. Most people don't use massive words or go off on abstract rants and don't care about grammar too much. That will make your characters believable and really help make them individuals. Try and think about what motivates them, fill them out, write a sheet on their history, but don't feel you need to include it in the story.

If you can make the characters interesting, self-empowered, unique, and imaginative, the story should flow from them..

Agreed on the "write for you, fuck the world, fuck approval" aspect.  If you have a story to tell, tell it. 

Now as for telling the story, sit your ass down and type until your wrists fall off.  Then save, print, and do it all over again.  You are going to have to revise many, MANY times before you get anything close to a presentable manuscript, and then you are going to have to revise twice as much as you already did in order to appease the bloodthirsty gods of editing.  Expect to have to write the same "story" three or four times over, from scratch.  When you're editing is when you need to consider your audience.  Not when you're writing.

All this talk about characters being "alive" is good, but it's not the only way to tell a story.  When you write up a story or an outline, you can either start with a compelling character, or a compelling event.  In the first case, the characters do something interesting, while in the second, something interesting happens to random dudes.  In EITHER case, one naturally fleshes out the other.  Gary Stu is a badass warrior who's accidentally killed a holy prophet; the rest of the story is him covering up his mistake or trying to atone for it.  OR Gary Stu's mom has suddenly died from a previously undetected congenital defect, and it's likely that he has it too; the rest of the story is finding out how someone like him would react to this news and what he'd do to "fix" it.

Lastly.  When you write, go someplace specifically for writing (cafe, school, library, whatever), put on some headphones, turn off the internets and your cell phone, and just write until you feel you need to stop.  Then leave that place-- it's for writing and writing ONLY.  Distractions are the worst thing ever.

tl;dr do what you want, there's no wrong way to write.

This is my first time coming o this board and I am amazed that this thread has been here for weeks.

Also, I find it hard to write based around what I want to read because as a writer, I want to read something I admire for the writing.

>>17
Just write what you want to write then, get some practise in.

>>17
as a writer, I want to read something I admire for the writing
You shouldn't be reading as a writer. You should always be reading as a reader, or else poor bastard, you.

As for writing what you want to write instead of what you want to read, I'll let you in on a secret. This is the sole reason for "writer's block" happening. "Writer's block" doesn't even exist, it's just because writer is interested in _finishing_ the product and not in the _finished product_, so he instinctually wants to stop working already, because it's his natural goal.

I repeat.
1. Writing what you want to write is wanting to FINISH THE PRODUCT, essentially. This naturally leads to the stupidly termed "writer's block".
2. Writing what you want to read is being INTERESTED IN THE END PRODUCT ITSELF, which is the only psychologically natural way to fully realise your potential without any subconscious roadblocks like "I can't [read, don't want to] write".

>>19
I would have put that the other way round.

>>20
You probably didn't understand me, then. I'll explain it in another, even easier way.


Bad: wanting to have written something.
(Do this, get plagued by "writers block", be dull, whine why nobody likes you even though your book is times better than Twilight.)

Good: wanting something to have been written.
(Do this, and even if you aren't particularly good, you'll sell and have fans, because you were sincere. Be good enough and become a Classic.)

There's no one path to becoming a writer. One of the most practical pieces of advice is to write what you know. Put it in a way that is accessable & understandable to your target audience. Accept that you will never think your writing is "done" or "perfect". Like the Nike ad said, "Just do it."

I am in the starting process of a sci-fi novel as well, I'm taking the bottom up approach and have amassed around 20 pages of historical notes character bios etc etc. totally seperate from my actual story. An important note I think is that you need to tie all the "omg cool laser" moments (you know what I'm talking about, the killer scenes) together with an easy to follow rope of events which are also engaing. Sit down write when you get tired grab a drink come back and look over your stuff resist the urge to scrap major sections look to adapt them to fit together. Thats my initial stage so far. Good luck and think of how proud you'll be if you finish and people like your story.