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How to Write a Novelby Stewart Ferris

Lesson 01 of 08

Foundations — ignite the idea and commit

Lock a novel-worthy idea, know why you will stay with it, and choose the lens the reader will live inside.

In this lesson

  • Write down why this book, now — the sentence that will carry you through a dull Tuesday
  • Test the idea: conflict, stakes, and a stranger’s reason to care
  • Choose a genre so you know the promise you are making
  • Pick point of view and tense, then write a page in that voice before you outline the rest

A novel is not an atmosphere. It is a decision you will have to keep making when the shine has gone. Start with why you are writing this particular book — not “to be a writer”, which is a lifestyle, but the itch this story scratches. Keep that sentence. You will need it in week nine.

Choose one idea. Not the cleverest; the one you can neglect other pleasures for. A novel-worthy idea has a person who wants something, a force that will not let them have it easily, and a change that will cost them. If you cannot say that in one sentence, you do not yet have a book. You have a mood.

Genre is not a cage. It is the contract with the reader. A mystery promises a question and an answer; a romance promises two people and a feeling that survives the last page; literary fiction promises a way of seeing. Read three recent novels in the shelf you want to sit on. Steal the architecture, never the wording.

Point of view and tense are craft choices, not personality tests. First person is intimate and blinkered. Third-person limited can move. Present tense can feel close; past tense can feel told. Write the same opening paragraph twice, in two combinations, and keep the one a stranger would not put down.

Open a companion studio

Tools by Stewart Ferris, on grok.me — for the part of the job this lesson names.

OpeningsThe First LineHow to write a first sentence that keeps a promise. Principles, tests, and a private reading of the line you are about to send into the world.Character namesNominaNames with meaning. Choose a grain — origin, temper, element, role — and receive given names and surnames whose etymologies fit the character you are writing.PlotThresholdA plot atlas for novelists and screenwriters. Map a story against Campbell, Vogler, Harmon, Murdock, Hudson and Snyder — the stations of the hero’s journey.StartingWrite AnywayWhen inspiration is absent. Exercises, prompts, and a quiet desk for getting words down without waiting to feel like a writer.

Exercises

  1. 01

    The why paragraph

    In one paragraph, write why this novel and not another. Put it where you will see it when you open the file.

  2. 02

    Three premises

    Freewrite three ideas for ten minutes each. Keep the one that still interests you after you have walked away. Expand it into a single-sentence premise: who wants what, and what stands in the way.

  3. 03

    Open two books

    Read the first chapter of two novels in your target genre. Note the promise each opening makes — and whether page thirty still honours it.

Common pitfall

Chasing a “marketable” idea you do not love. The market does not sit with you at 6 a.m. You do. Also: building a world for months before a character wants anything.

Milestone

A one-sentence premise, a chosen genre, and a sample page in your point of view and tense.