From the desk

Articles for people writing a novel

Practical pieces by Stewart Ferris — length, habit, characters, chapters, and the questions writers actually send. Read them beside the course, or instead of waiting until you feel ready.

1. 01LengthHow many words is a novel?Fifty thousand is the floor, not the target. Most novels that find a reader sit between seventy and a hundred and fifty thousand words.
2. 02HabitHow to prepare for a first draftA hundred thousand words is too large to contemplate. A few hundred words a day is not. The novel is finished by the habit, not by heroism.
3. 03The shelfCommercial fiction and literary fictionThe labels are unfortunate. One implies the book is not literature. The other implies it does not sell. Neither claim survives contact with a bookshop.
4. 04The world on the pageDescriptionYou are painting a canvas in the reader’s mind. Give them enough to believe the place, and not so much that the story sits down.
5. 05A reader’s questionIs local detail too parochial?A novel needs a place. That place does not have to be New York, Paris or London. Readers like being taken somewhere they have not stood.
6. 06People, not labelsCharactersA name and a description produce flat writing. A character needs a life that was already underway before your chapter began.
7. 07NamingUnusual character namesA dull name is a small failure of nerve. A name can carry personality, a joke, or a prophecy — and it can make a person memorable after the book is shut.
8. 08A reader’s questionCan a character share my name?Your own name is yours to lend. Other people’s names are a legal and moral problem, and changing the spelling is not always enough.
9. 09CliffhangersChapters and plot structureA chapter that tidies every loose end is often a dull chapter. Leave the decision unmade, and the reader will turn the page for you.
10. 10Length, againHow long should a chapter be?A chapter is as long as a piece of string, and if you want to be published you should ignore that romantic fact.
11. 11A reader’s questionCan I put my own life in the novel?The greater problem is usually the opposite: a novel that never touches anything the writer has actually felt.
12. 12PlottingTo plan or not to planYou can plant a thread before you know how it pays off. A later pass through the book is where the new idea learns its job.
13. 13A reader’s questionWhat if you can’t think of an ending?Some writers join the dots of a plan. Others follow characters who insist on arriving somewhere the outline did not mention.
14. 14A reader’s questionWhat if you don’t feel clever enough?Wanting the result and refusing the practice is not a writing problem. It is a choosing problem. The novel remains available to anyone who will rewrite.
15. 15A reader’s questionFirst person or third person?First person can feel effortless and then trap the plot. Third person is harder to write cleanly and freer once you can do it.
16. 16CraftShow, don’t tellTelling is a label. Showing is evidence. Editors notice the difference before they notice your plot.
17. 17SpeechDialoguePeople rarely say what they mean, and they almost never speak in essays. If you can cover the name, you should still know who is talking.
18. 18OpeningsThe first pageA reader decides in a page whether to trust you. Start when something is already at stake, and make a promise you can keep.
19. 19PressureConflictIf everyone in the scene wants the same thing, you have written a meeting. Novels run on wants that cannot all be satisfied.
20. 20The other storySubplotsA subplot is not a distraction you bolt on. It is a second pressure that makes the main story mean more, and a place to hide while a cliffhanger breathes.
21. 21What the book is secretly aboutThemeTheme is not a message pinned to the last page. It is the question the story keeps asking while the plot pretends to be about something else.
22. 22SpeedPacePace is not typing faster. It is the rate at which the reader’s questions are answered, and the nerve to withhold an answer for a chapter.
23. 23The pastBackstoryThe reader does not need the childhood before they care about the adult. Feed the past in pieces, and only when the present demands it.
24. 24FactsResearchResearch is how you earn the reader’s trust. It is also how you postpone the writing. Learn enough to be specific, then stop.
25. 25The name of the bookTitlesA title is a promise in a shop window. It should be rememberable, sayable, and not already doing someone else’s job.
26. 26The document nobody enjoysThe synopsisA synopsis is the whole story, including the ending, told plainly. It is not a blurb, and it is not the place to be mysterious.
27. 27RevisionThe second draftThe first draft proves the book can exist. The second draft is where you find out whether it should.
28. 28StuckWriter’s blockThe block is often a decision you are refusing to make. Lower the stakes of the next sentence until a decision becomes possible.
29. 29The tradeWhat an agent is reading forAn agent is not your enemy and not your tutor. They are looking for a book they can describe in a sentence and defend for a year.
30. 30ContractThe promise of a genreGenre is not a cage. It is the agreement you make with a reader who picked your book up because of what it appeared to be.
31. 31SurpriseHow to plant a twistA twist should feel inevitable the second time through and invisible the first. If it needs a new fact on the last page, it is a trick.
32. 32TurnsScene and sequelA scene is a fight for a want. A sequel is the breath afterwards, in which someone decides what the fight meant. Novels need both.