Disclaimer: I am an unpublished author who is sharing her own personal tips on noveling. They're only my subjective opinion, so if you have alternate suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
Noveling 101 is a project to help aspiring novelists avoid common pitfalls in revision. I started it after revamping my novel. It was incredibly frustrating to churn out sixty chapters, only to turn back and realize I had to edit said sixty chapters of tosh into high-quality writing.
That's when I realized: hey, every other aspiring novelist out there has to suffer like that too. But if I shared my past mistakes and suggestions on how to avoid them, maybe I can minimize their pain a little. I put the idea out to see if anyone was interested, received some positive feedback, wrote a brief outline, and voila! Grudge who grudge it, Noveling 101 is here!
See here for all the Noveling 101 posts I've made, and the Tumblr page for truncated posts. The best way to get updated on new Noveling 101 posts is by following either this blog by email or the linked Tumblr page.
Below is a list of existing or planned posts, arranged in chronological order of usage. If you are particularly interested in a planned post, feel free to let me know through any of the ways here and I'll write it earlier!
Planning/Preparation
- Don't Lose Interest
- Formulating the Plot
- Connecting Plot Points
- Establishing the Setting
- Developing the Characters
- Chipping away
- On NaNoWriMo
- Evaluation: on the Synopsis
- Continuity: Facts, Backstory, etc.
- Continuity: Characterization
- Planning the Revision
- One Bite at a Time
- On Critique Partners
The big stuff
- Evaluation: Main plot
- Evaluation: Sub-plots
- Evaluation: Finding the Fluff
- Kill the Darlings
- Fall Back in Love
The little stuff
- On Dialogue Tags
- On Adverbs (and other descriptors)
- On Tenses and Verbs
- Misc. Filler Words
- On Editminion
- Characterization
- Continuity
- Rhythm