This is a continuation of part 1 of how to write a novel. Read the first part here.
Write for Your Reader
Writing fiction, you have to kind of guess what your reader wants from your book. You have the plot for your book in mind, you have the characters thought out, and you know where you want the story to go, but what about your target audience? Your reader is going to get just a piece of the story when they buy your book. They will get a snippet of what story you are telling. This is enough to encourage them to read it.
Can your book make them want to sit up all night turning the pages or does it fall short when they open chapter one? If the cover of the book is more thrilling than the story inside, you have let down that reader and they will not recommend it to others. Each of your books will be different.
Each of them will appeal to a unique group of readers. Before you go to print, make sure you know what your reader is going to want from the book you are writing. Will your reader expect a love story? Have you provided it? Will they need a love triangle to take place before the innocent woman devotes herself to the charming scoundrel?
Tie Up All Lose Ends
For a reader, there is nothing worse than reading half way through a book only to realize that now half the characters have miraculously disappeared without further mention or that you have taken a story line and dropped it without notice. It leaves the reader frustrated.
If a character is noteworthy, but not an important part of the story, mention them in passing or write them away when their usefulness is past. Do not just expect the reader to forget them. If you are telling several stories in one which will ultimately lead up to a conclusion of all combined stories in one, make sure you let the reader know as one part of the story is solved. However, this must be done in such a way that the reader does not say, “Well, that’s how that ended and now the next half of the book will be boring”.
Remind them that there are other things that they must learn before the end of the book.
Write the Story Naturally
A lot of authors mess a book up by writing the end of it before they work at the beginning and the middle. It is okay to know that you want it to end in a certain way, but you should not plan it out too quickly. Write the beginning of your story, develop it, and then write the middle of your story.
Let the story flow naturally and tell itself. Let the words and the way it feels to you dictate where it will finally end. You can still encourage your story to end in a certain way, but do not expect it to go exactly where you imagined when you began. If you simply let it flow in a natural way, the sequence of events will make more sense to your reader and they will not feel that it was rushed toward the end.
This will keep the story true to itself and your readers will appreciate the effort.
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