How do Writers do that? Pre-Writing To Do List

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Azur Writing Series

Pre-Writing Your Novel Work To Do 

There are great books out there written by awesome creative people on how to outline a novel, hit the correct story beats in the right chapters, move time forward, plus set up the set and setting, and so on... 

But if you own just one novel that you love to read, you can figure out how to write by studying it, highlighting parts, taking notes, and really pulling it apart to see how it works. Novels are like watches. There are specific things you must have inside them for them to tick correctly and give you the right time. 

The trend in self-publishing is great. I am all for writers owning their creative stories and being paid fairly for them. But, if you are a writer and think writing a book is easy and you can publish anything without the proper outline or hitting the beats of a story at the right time, you are usually dead wrong. Every once in a while, a novel comes out breaking all the rules and becomes a huge hit. Those are rare, and in those rare cases, the author knew the rules she chose to break.

Watches are like novels, too. The watch is beautiful, and when worn, it commands a certain amount of respect. Oh yes, we all switched to cell phones and use that lighted number to tell our time now. It works, but there is a difference between the cold-lighted numbers of a digital timekeeping piece and the beauty of the hands pointing at engraved numbers under curved glass. Both tell time, but there is something about a real watch that will never be replaced.

The same goes for traditionally published works of fiction. There is a difference, and readers can tell pretty quickly if the self-published author took the time and spent the money to have the work professionally critiqued and edited. Readers can tell if the author knew the rules of good literature and chose to disobey them or if the author had no clue about the rules at all. Lack of knowledge screams from the page, even if you love your story and the characters are awesome. So, if you self-published and your book is not selling, the lack of using the rules could be the reason. 

Writing a novel is an awesome endeavor! It is like climbing a mountain. You must prepare weeks before you even get to base camp. I will share with you the top four things to do before you sit down to write, and how to read a novel not as a reader but as a writer.

Prepare before you climb that Novel!

Top 4 things to do weeks before you begin to write: 

1. Know what demographic you are writing for.
2. Learn the language of genre and know which genre you are writing.
3. Read great books that you love in that genre.
4. Pick one of those books that you enjoyed and could read over and over, and use it as your writing textbook.

Number 1: Demographic 

What is demographic? 

Demographic is a sort of classification of the age of the reader that will be buying your book. The demographics in children's books are typically PB, MG, and YA. 

What is PB, MG, & YA? 

PB is what the industry uses to describe a Picture Book. A picture book contains both words and illustrations, and both are essential to the book. In my opinion, and of many other writers, PBs are the most difficult to write. The author must contain a whole story within a few words. PBs are usually bought by adults for children who are learning how to read, write, and form sentences.

MG is a demographic that I write within and adore. MG is what the industry uses for Middle-Grade novels. Typical readers of this genre are between eight and thirteen, although these books are read by all ages, and many adults love reading them. I will use the MG book I highly recommend for my examples below: Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell.

YA is Young Adult, and the age group here is anywhere from 12 on up through twenty years old or older. The Hunger Games is a young adult novel. I, too, have a YA in the revision process. They tend to deal with more adult issues, darker stories, and more intense emotions. 

Number 2: Genre

After you figure out which main demographic your character fits into, and who will be reading your novel, it's time to pick out the genre. Genre is writing organized according to the topic, subject matter, style, and content.

The typical genres of children's literature are:

• Fantasy & Science Fiction (magic, new worlds, aliens, ghosts, dystopian, technology, supernatural and more)
• Realistic Fiction (real settings, real times, real places, believable events, believable characters, etc...)
• Historical Fiction (documentaries, bibliographies, historical mysteries, related to past events...)
• Non-Fiction (memoir, self-help, religion, spiritual practices, true stories, business, health, fitness, true crimes, etc...)
• Traditional Fiction (archetypical, stereotypes, myth, passed down by culture, tradition, fairytales...)
• Poetry (narrative, epic, lyric, prose, satirical...)

Number 3: Read books in your demographic & genre that you love! 

In order to become a great writer, you must first become a great reader. There is no skipping this part. And you must read great works. So, if, like me, you were once an assistant or slush pile reader for an agent, you have to counter slush writing with great works before you write anything. 

Garbage in = Garbage out. 

If you read nothing but magazine articles, newspapers, or social media, you will write like those writers. That type of writing is only produced for where it is and should not in be in a book (unless you are using it specifically). Book writing is different and should be. Books are an investment of time and money for the reader. They should receive the best from you, not memes, unresearched facts, boring sentences, or lackluster dialogue. 

Number 4: Novel as Textbook

This is the most exciting part of the before writing process. Pick a book that fits your genre and demographic and one that you could read over and over again and never tire of. For this, I chose my favorite MG book: Dovey Coe, by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Now, as this is a published work and I have no publication rights to it, what I show will be how I used it and not the contents inside. But I do highly recommend you buy and read this book! It's a super fast read with a character you will not forget. The demographic is MG and the genre is realistic fiction. 

My Process for using Dovey Coe as a Textbook:

• In the first read, I highlighted the main character's feelings. Anytime she felt something, I lit it up. This gave me an understanding of how to use feelings and emotions in a novel for this age group.
• On the second pass, I marked each page with a sticky note where there was mention of Time-Passing. How did this author give me a sense of time moving forward?
• On the third time through, I added notes in the margins on how my main character would react. Instead of reading how Dovey reacted, I put my main character in the same situation and listened to her reaction. Then I noted it in the margin. I will use these reactions of my character for my writing.
•  In the fourth read, I found the beats using Save the Cat Beat Sheet for Novels by Jessica Brody. I used sticky notes in a different color than the Time-Passing notes for the beats. 

(Next time, we will discuss the beats of a novel - or you can search my blog for Save the Cat posts)

• And in the fifth and final read, for my textbook purposes, I highlighted in a new color any dialogue that made me laugh out loud, cringe, or feel something. Then I asked my main character how she would say the same thing in her unique way. 

Using Dovey Coe, I learned how to write an MG novel. I learned how my character reacts to different situations. I learned how to move time without making time a big deal. I learned how to write feelings and emotions. I also learned beats and where they should be in a novel of this size. I learned a lot! Thank you, Frances! I am forever grateful for Dovey Coe. 

Anyone knows if you want to climb a mountain, you have to gather supplies and come prepared. It's the same for writing a novel. It's not easy. There are steps to take to ensure you survive the climb up and enjoy the climb down. If you take the time to read, learn, and dissect a favorite book, your chances of being traditionally published go up, and the chances that readers will want to spend money and time on your novel go up. But you must do the work. 

Like anything worthwhile in life, you must put 

time into the preparation phase. 

For writers, that's reading,

 dissecting, and practicing. 

**If you would like to go more in-depth with how to learn from a favorite novel, I do work privately with writers on zoom and in-person. Please reach out. I love helping other writers. 

Write~on

Angie Azur