Starting your first novel is a huge undertaking, and can be discouraging from many points of view. First of all is the incredible concept of writing three hundred or more pages – not a typical school essay, that. Then there are all of those naysayers out there saying how difficult it is to get a first novel published, and how all writers know the first novel is simply a test and meant to be thrown out.
Do not be discouraged! While your first novel may not turn into the next worldwide fandom (who knows, it might), there is no reason your first book should be unsuccessful, and I don’t think any book that could possibly speak to a reader should be ‘thrown out’ because it is difficult to get it published.
A lot of authors have no formal writing training beyond high school, and may only have books they have read for reference. That is great! But there are a lot of things new writers can do to set their first story up for success.
1. Read your chosen genre
Seems obvious, but some writers (especially commercial writers trying to make a living from the most popular genres) seek to write in genres they are not very familiar with. That’s fine! But reading some well-received examples of the kind of book you want to write will immensely help your own writing.
In terms of fantasy, I think this is particularly important. Worldbuilding is something you must read to understand, and seeing how authors handle different magic systems is so important if you want to build your own.
Both good and bad books can be super helpful to inform your writing. I have read a lot of great fantasy, and I have started a lot of fantasy that was not my cup of tea. Even books I cannot bring myself to finish teach me so much about what not to do. Any time I read one of these books, I sit back and analyze what turned me off. Was it the writing style, flat or annoying characters, confusing plot, too much showing and not enough telling? Sometimes I stop reading a book simply because it is too generic, and I want something new and interesting.
I’ve heard of some people who hate to read the genre they are writing in once they are writing their book. They either constantly compare themselves to the authors they are reading and despair of their inferiority, or they fear they will copy what they are reading subconsciously. Both of these reasons are silly! Every writer is different, and you should not set yourself up to be any of your idolized authors. Authors should not be competitors. Readers will read and read and then read some more. As for copying, it is ok to, even encouraged, to get ideas from fantasy you read. The more you read, the more you will see similar concepts coming up in books. As long as you are not blatantly using all the same concepts as another book, you needn’t fear copying.
2. Learn about writing
If you have a degree in writing – great! You already have a background to inform your techniques. If, however, you are like the many of us with degrees in science, or math, or politics, or something else completely unrelated, do not despair! There are books for that. There are books for everything. That’s why we love them.
One of the best things I did before starting my first novel was reading books about writing books. Spending just a little time learning how to build tension, develop characters, write effective dialogue, and progress plots will have no end of positive influence on your writing. My personal favorite book that I read was Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. This book delves into concepts for both fiction and non-fiction, but contains examples and advice that translate well to any genre, including fantasy. Another popular book, which I have read and did enjoy, is On Writing by Stephen King.
I will say that there is a somewhat limited application of most ‘writing books’ to fantasy writing. While most advice I have read in these books can certainly apply to fantasy, there is just more to fantasy than other genres that you need to learn.
There are lots of great books, blog posts, websites, and YouTube lectures out there to help with this. BY FAR the best lecture series I have watched is the 12-part lecture series by Brandon Sanderson. It is a free 12 hours of instruction on fantasy writing, from building a plot to navigating the world of literary agents and publishers. I highly recommend it.
3. Determine your goal for your book
Now we’re getting a little more abstract. So you know the genre you love and want to write. You have read great (and not so great) examples of the kind of book you want to write, and you have educated yourself on the nuances of writing effectively. The next thing you need to ask yourself, is why do you want to write this book?
My favorite quote regarding this is “write the book you want to read.” That is absolutely why I started writing. I wanted more elves. There were never any books centered on elves. They were always this mysterious race on the outskirts of stories that were more often than not incomprehensible to the main characters. I wanted an entire story of an elven society. So I wrote it. I also wanted a story that was not bathed in gore and sex, one that was not medieval, and one with themes that would make people think – something distinctly lacking in some of the fantasy I was reading at the time.
So, these are the things you need to think about. What do you want people to feel when they read your book? What messages do you want to impart on them? Or do you simply want to write an entertaining story that makes people feel good (no problem with this whatsoever!)? Consider your ideal audience. Consider if you want to do this to try to earn a living or simply for the accomplishment of completing a book.
All of these questions and decisions will affect the kind of story you write, and should be thought about before starting anything.
4. Decide on a point of view
The perspective from which a story is told significantly impacts the story. Patrick Rothfuss wrote The Name of the Wind from the first person direct story-telling of a poet, so it is a book of flowery language and single-sided accounts. George R.R. Martin wrote A Game of Thrones from the third-person limited perspective of tons of characters, giving a broad view of all things happening in the world and the story with straight-forward language and heavy emphasis on plot and relationships. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings in third person omniscience, giving a more objective view of the story, with less connection to the individual characters and more emphasis on the story as a whole.
The point of view is the lens through which the reader sees a story, and impacts how much you the author are able to reveal to the reader, and how. I find most people tend to gravitate toward a particular POV (for me it’s 3rd person limited), but it can be fun to experiment with different perspectives to see which will tell your story the best.
5. Start to plan your story
Now is when you can start building up your setting, your premise, your characters, and your plot. Of course, you can (and probably should) be doing all of these things while you study writing techniques, develop your goals, and determine point of views, but I think there is something to be said for taking the time to do steps 1-4 before or during your planning stages rather than jumping straight into writing.
Every story evolves in a different way. You may decide to build a world first, then think of what kind of characters may inhabit that world, or what kind of themes you can highlight given your unique setting. You may have a character in mind, and build a story and then a world around him or her. You may have a plot that has been nagging at you for months, and you just need characters and a setting in which to put it. The order of these things do not matter, and they often happen all at once, intertwining.
6. JUST DO IT
My final piece of advice is to take all of this advice within reason. You should not spend years studying writing before you write your first paragraph, nor try to read twenty-five books in your genre before you try to emulate it (unless, of course, you already have!). All of these are great tools to improve your first novel, but at some point, you just have to take the knowledge you have gained and the ideas you have, and write.
No one will ever read your first draft (if you don’t want them to), so don’t be afraid of not getting everything right the first time. You can always go back and apply new skills in your second draft, or third. Just write! Shovel that sand so you can make castles later!
These tips are especially important for first-novels, but they are by no means first-novel-specific! You should always be reading your genre, learning more about writing via books, blogs, and workshops, and questioning your goals for your stories. What are your favorite writing resources?
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