The first and foremost thing is to decide the type; Fiction, non-Fiction, Sci-Fi, Historical, Thriller or Social novel. Once you have decided this, you need to decide the theme, plot of the novel, the characters that would be part of your novel. The setting of your novel is the most important part of writing a novel. You must know your world. Because the plot would be running around the place you have chosen. If you have planned to write a novel in a known city, then you must be aware of its geographical details, its culture, society, streets, famous places, historical importance, etc. When you are done with proper planning, your next job is to START writing your novel. The important thing to remember is to stick to your main theme and do not get carried away by the additional themes that may shift your attention from the main theme on which you are writing a novel.

Characters of your Novel

Here comes the most crucial part; developing the characters that would be part of your novel. You must not develop your main character and ignore everyone else. You must do justice to each and every character of your novel. There must not be more than two to three characters who play major part of the novel. The others can be looked after with modest details. You should have intimate knowledge of the two or three characters that capture center stage in each of the first two or three scenes.  

Dialog in your Novel

Dialog is the vital part while writing a novel. You have to decide which person it will be; first person or third person, so that the dialogs are written in that way. For example, �I was looking in the direction and suddenly a bullet came and hit me on the leg.� Or �He was looking in the direction and suddenly a bullet came and hit him on his leg.�  You will surely have some limitations when you choose to write a novel in first person. The limitations are that you can't know anything excepting what the main character knows, and, because the main character is narrating, it survives the novel. Third person is the best way to write a novel as you can explore each and every angle in the theme. You can put up every situation independent from the main character and can produce best result.

Time Management and Pacing

Writing a novel in few hours is not possible. It takes much time than expected. Do you know an average novel has between 90,000 and 150,000 words? Oh, that�s very time consuming. Yes. Writing a novel takes weeks, months and even years. To write a novel, you need time management of a very high category. You must divide your novel into small chapters so that you can manage them while working for a few hours daily; say 5 hours a day, 30 hours a week, 120 hours a month.  

Let�s see next few points next article: Write a novel � Part II
 

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