The Work of a Novelist

Have you ever wondered how a novelist does it? How do they keep their thoughts and stories straight? Some novels have so many threads that it seems nearly impossible to keep track of each and every character. Remembering what they look like, what kind of clothes they prefer, what language they speak, and even smaller things like whether they want cream in their coffee or not! How do they do that? Well in this article we are going to look at some of the ways novelists work.

In order to create a great story there must be the idea. Many times a novel will start with just a simple idea like, "A book about aliens invading the planet would be cool." From there the idea evolves little by little. Many times the novelist will have a notebook, or computer program, or something that they use to jot down ideas. As the story develops it may change from, "Aliens invading the planet." To "Aliens invading the planet in bean shaped ships, but are stopped by a giant bean eating rat who mistakes the alien ships for food, thus saving the planet."

From there specific characters are created. Everything from the hero who happens to be a giant rat, to the villain. A lot of questions must be asked. What does the rat look like? Is he just a normal rat but really big? Is his fur grey, brown, or another color? What do the aliens look like and what are their called? There are multitudes of questions to be asked and each of them should be answered and recorded. Afterwards the history of the characters may be written to give a deeper feel to the story. Eventually there is a fully developed story with major characters in place. Let's look at how a novelist keeps track of all the different threads and characters.

There is far more work that goes into writing a novel than the reader knows most of the time. Novelists usually write dozens if not hundreds of pages that never enter the book you buy. Those pages contain the descriptions of each character, location, and plot. Any time a detail about the story is in doubt these are used as references. This is how the giant rat doesn't change from grey to blue without explanation halfway through the story.