Welcome to A Novel Approach. If this is your first issue, I encourage you to check out my back issues for more tips on how to write a novel. It's my fondest hope that I can help other writers do the best they can do.

If you have any specific aspects about novel writing you'd like me to address in future issues, please feel free to contact me and let me know what those are. Thank you for your interest, and here's to better writing!

Writing a First Novel Part 6 -
Plotting: Resolving It All

I encourage you to read those as well, by clicking on the back issues link above, then coming back to this issue to read. Don't worry. I'll still be here when you come back...

All set? Let's talk about how to tie up all those loose ends without making your reader yawn with boredom.

No Cheating

Ever read a novel that kept you glued to your comfy chair right to the climax... then just fizzled?

Yeah, me too. It's like the author got to the climax and was too tired to finish the book properly.

Don't YOU get caught skipping out on the job! If your novel's a heart-pounding, sweat-raising thriller, you better tie up all the loose ends tightly. Without taking three chapters to do so.

And without skipping any details that need to be in there. Resolve the conflict correctly or pay the consequences in disillusioned readers (who won't come back for more, believe me!).


I'm So Confused!

You've probably read novels where the ending isn't clear. Some call this artistic license.

I call it lazy writer.

We all know the syndrome. The hero maybe dies, or did he win? Or did he only disappear and the author's hoping for a sequel to boost his income?

Muddying the waters helps no one. Sure, it's alright to make your readers think (that is the idea in the written word), but not to scratch their heads and wonder what language you're writing in because you didn't make sense of the end.

The trouble with an ending that confuses the reader, or leaves her wondering who really won is, you haven't done your job. And when you don't do your job, you don't get paid. Right?

This is not the place to mislead the reader. This is the place to satisfy the reader that everything fell into place (or sometimes out of place, depending on the genre).

Finish that puzzle!


Okay, Now I'm Bored

Don't think that your resolution can take fifty pages, either. Yes, you need to resolve every conflict - major and minor - that you created, but it better all happen pretty quickly.

A good resolution is a tightly written, no extra words (or pages) resolution. For most books, this is likely three to five pages, no more. For some, it's only one.

If you've done the job right, most of the minor conflicts were taken care of before the climax. You can't leave it all to the end, or you will need fifty pages to tie it all together.

If you're stuck like that, go back and see where those lesser roadblocks can be dismantled. I promise they don't all need to wait to the end. (If they do, your conflicts are too intense. Pick one main one, two or three pretty tough ones as side stories, and everything else should be minor.)


And They All Plotted Happily Ever After

I hope this series on plotting has helped you get a grip on creating the story-line for your first (or next) novel. I will be offering a class specifically on plotting sometime soon (hopefully before the end of the year, if building our new house doesn't consume me).

If you haven't filled out my online writing class survey , (it's at the bottom of the page, so scroll down), I'd be delighted if you did. It helps me understand what you, my readers, need from me. Click the above link to go to the survey page, and let me know what areas of writing a fist novel (or second or third) you need most help with.

Happy writing!


More Tips on Plot

For more information about developing a plot, click on any of the links below for my other web pages about plotting.


Plot
Action
Book Themes
Developing a Plot
Drama
Novel Outline
Novel Structure

Okay, I'm taking a bit of license here, because I'd replace "minutes" with "novels" to make my point, but William Shakespeare (again) gave me the basis. Don't drag it out!

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end. ~William Shakespeare

My first online writing course is ready to go, and you get early dibs on one of the 20 seats available. I've already notified my Online Writing Course Survey respondents, and seats are going fast, so don't delay!

Simply click this link to download the Write Your Description Just Right full course description and get all the details and sign up. The price goes up August 20th, so don't wait. Sign up now!