What Drives A Great Novel?

We’ve all done it. Read a book and thought, “That was brilliant.”

And do you know what it usually is that makes a book great?

It’s a great character.

Novels are character driven.

This is because whatever is happening in a story is based around a main character and several other characters too.

Even in movies that seem to be action driven, there is always a character’s personal life to care about. Even in Batman there is Bruce Wayne and in Spiderman everyone wants to know what is happening to Peter Parker.

And it’s the same with a novel.

Readers don’t even have to like your characters but they do have to care what happens to them.

That’s why it’s important for you to know your characters intimately before you put them in your next novel. You need to write out a complete bio for each of them including their life history, their looks, their fears, their goals, their age, their families, their likes and dislikes, and everything else about them so that they seem real.

Then make sure that everything that happens in your novel affects them in some way.

Then readers will finish your book and think, “That was brilliant.”

And then they’ll be eager to read your next book.

Read more about writing a novel at How To Write A Novel When You Don’t Know How Or Where to Start.

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See my latest romance novel at mybook.to/TWIC

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Start Writing Your Book Today
http://ruthiswriting.com/links/writequickly.html

From Blank Page to Manuscript

Writing fiction is fun. But sometimes it can be hard to know what to write about and where to find ideas.

So what you need is to have a workflow for this kind of writing.

You need to have a way of coming up with story ideas or knowing where to find them.

Next, you need to know how to take your idea and turn it into a novel.

I work by taking just one idea and expanding it by asking questions about where it will happen, why it will happen and who it will happen to.

Then I get my chapter ideas and figure out how one will flow into the other so that they all end with a hook to keep the reader turning the pages.

But I usually start with just one idea and I write it on my blank page.

Then I let the creative juices in my marvellous monkey mind get to work and before I know it, I’m filling page after page with settings, plot lines and characters.

And I’ve written about it in my latest article, How To Write A Novel When You Don’t Know How Or Where to Start

http://ruthiswriting.com/books/WB.html

Want to Write a Story? Get Lost!

When it comes to writing a novel, it’s important to get lost in your story.

What I mean by this is that it’s important to write consistently. Daily.

The only way to write a good story is to completely immerse yourself in it as you write so that you can ‘feel’ it and the story flows.

And the way to do this is to write every day.

If you don’t, you’ll have to re-read what you’ve previously written and you’ll forget whether or not you’ve mentioned things before or if one of your characters knows something already or whether you still need to write about how they find out.

But if you write your story consistently and write daily, you’ll stay in the flow of what’s happening and feel like you’re actually living your story which will make great writing.

And great writing makes easy reading.

So when you write your next story, immerse yourself in it daily and really get lost in it.

You can see my latest romance novel at mybook.to/TWIC.


http://ruthiswriting.com/links/writequickly.html

How to Start Writing a Novel Quickly

I recently publsihed my latest novel, Two Weeks In Corfu, and it feels like a great achievement.

And today I've been busy catching up on some freelance work before I dive into my next book.

And it occured to me how many people ask me about how to start writing a book, especially a novel, which most people believe is already in them and just waiting to burst out (yeah, yeah, we all hear about that all the time).

But for the serious writer, beginning a novel can seem daunting.

Yet the reality is simple.

You just start with one idea.

That's it.

Just one short sentence is all you need, like, "Aliens land on earth and want to set up their own colonies."

Then from there, you simply expand that one idea and flesh it out until it becomes your next best seller.

You see, the mistake most people make when they think about starting to write a novel, they think they have to know the whole plot line at once.

But that's not true.

You just start with an one idea and flesh out the whole story from there, piece by piece till you have your whole outline.

And you don't even have to know how it will all happen.

You only have to know what will happen.

And as you work, it all comes together effortlessly.

So to begin with, all you have to do is begin.


http://ruthiswriting.com/links/writequickly.html

Green Smoothie Writing Kickstart

It's a New Year and a time for new starts and kickstarts.

So this year I've embarked on a 21 Day Kickstart Diet run by my favourite doctor, Neal Barnard.

This diet is supposed to get you eating healthy and feeling great.

Today is day 3 and breakfast was a green smoothie.

At first, I was disappointed because I couldn't imagine a drink being an adequate breakfast (or tasting very nice).

But because I'm determined to see this diet through to the end, I decided to stick to the smoothie and not replace it with the toasted sandwich that I was thinking about.

And to my complete surprise, the green smoothie was not only filling but it tasted really great.

And it got me thinking about writing and how it's easy to think that one type of writing isn't going to be fun or interesting to do, so it's easier to stick to what you know.

But as the saying goes, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting.

So if you're not writing enough, or not earning enough money from your writing, then you probably need to start doing something different.

And just like the green breakfast smoothie, it might not be as bad as you think, and might actually be great.

When I was just starting out with my writing, and I was floundering a bit with wondering what to write, where to send it, and how to make money from it, I came across the Quick Cash Writing course.

I followed it through to the end, even doing to writing projects that I didn't think I was going to enjoy at all.

And by the end of it (which took about 3 months) I'd not only earned a substantial amount of money from my writing, but I'd also learned what type of writing I enjoyed doing, and what I didn't enjoy, which left me better informed as to which direction to head with my writing career.

So if you're in the same boat that I used to be in, and you don't know which way to head with your writing, or worse, you have no idea what you should be doing, go ahead and download the Quick Cash Writing course, and see how much you can achieve (and earn) in just 3 short months.

https://ruthiswriting.com/links/quickcash.html

Why I've Been So Slack At Writing

It's now January 2019.

Last year (and the year before that if I'm completely honest) I didn't do much writing at all. At least not compared to how much I usually do.

There were multiple reasons including being continually harassed and threatened with legal action for months on end by Loren Piel, my father being ill for a year and then passing away, the deaths of two other family members, my daughter and her fiance moving and needing our help with setting up their first house, dealing with builders and the huge renovations being done at our house that has been going on for the last 2 years (that only finished less than two weeks ago and we're really not satisfied with their work so they'll have to come back) and my husband taking early retirement two years ago which completely threw my daily/weekly routine into chaos for a while as he settled into his new life at home and as we both tried to deal with builders, electricians, painters, plumbers, architects, engineers and building certifiers.

So, all in all, it's been pretty chaotic around here.

Oh, and another thing, we have a family that has come to rent our apartment/granny-flat downstairs for a couple of months, so we have been preparing that too as it had no furniture or kitchen equipment or anything so we've had to go and buy and organise that at the same time, including making curtains because the windows are odd sizes so we couldn't buy them off-the-shelf.

Anyhoo...as you can imagine, it's all been taking a toll on my time and attention.

Although, through it all, I did manage to publish my latest romance novel, Two Weeks In Corfu, which is now available online and can also be ordered through any bookshop/library because it is sold and distributed by Ingram, which is one of the world's biggest book distribution companies.

But now I feel like I'm finally back in the driver's seat of my time and attention.

And I've been looking at my website stats and it seems that even though I cancelled my email account last year and haven't been sending out any email updates or offers, the number of my website visitors has increased, which is really surprising - and pleasing.

So I've been busy making plans for what I'm going to be working on this year and my plans include several new books that will be available in paperback as well as being ebooks.

Plus I'll be updating my websites regularly and having many more great offers to help you write more and earn more.

I may even restart my email updates to really revamp my writing and publishing efforts.

So watch this space.

And if you don't have plans for this year yet and you don't know how to earn more money from your writing, start with my all-time favourite, Quick Cash Writing, that gets you writing and earning money straight away. I started with this writing course myself.


https://ruthiswriting.com/links/quickcash.html