So you have had this idea floating around in your head for years, and you want to write it. It’s a story, fiction, and you think it may be a novel. It has gotten to the point where it is almost bothering you. You need to write it. So you turn on the computer, make a cup of coffee, open a new Word doc, and the wind blows right out of your sails. You can barely get a sentence out.

I have written three novels, and am ready to break ground on the fourth. I know that feeling of looking at the screen and not knowing what to do. I will explain to you step-by-step how to get your novel written and begin the publishing process. But before I begin, one piece of advice. Do not discuss your idea or novel with anyone until you have finished the first draft. Why? Have you ever had something funny or very interesting happen to you? The first time you tell the story, people are rolling over laughing because you have some much energy as you tell the story.

The 5th time you tell it, the laughs or reactions are not as good, because you have lost energy in the story; the story is no longer completely yours. Every time you tell a story you lose some of it. The great thing about writing a novel is that if the topic is something that weighs on you, when you finish, the weight will leave, that cloud will pass. You need all the energy of your story to get that first draft done, once it is done, you can talk about the story all you want.

First, the basics. What is a novel? Without going into too much detail here, let’s just say that any piece of fiction over 50,000 words. I recommend using this as the minimum because you will find some contests and literary agents who consider that the minimum. So, considering that the minimum you want is 50,000 words, I would shoot for 60,000 so you have plenty of room to trim in the editing stage. Remember, a page is about 400 words (depends on fonts and page size etc)

Your plan. First, create the story in your head, than outline the chapters. I would do a paragraph or two for each chapter. Make a list of each character that appears in each chapter, we will use this later. Make sure the chapters are driving both the story line and the character development. Remember, any story is made up of three things. 1. Exposition: this where you introduce the characters and setup the story. Conflict: Something goes wrong, there is tension. Climax: The high point of the story, maximum tension. Resolution: This is where you tie up the loose ends and make everything nice, or not so nice, but you leave everything resolved.

This is the classic structure. You are an iconoclast? Great, just keep in mind that this is the structure people expect. Remember the famous line from Hitchcock, you can’t show the public the bomb under the table than explode the bomb, they will feel betrayed.

Many people have difficulty understanding this structure, and it is absolutely crucial you have this clear for you book. I will use the film Rocky as an example. Very simple structure and most people have seen it.

Exposition: We see Rocky fighting in cheap clubs, working as a hoodlum, basically living the life a loser. Adrian is introduced, manager, neighborhood etc. No tension, just showing you around.

First Plot Point: Apollo Creed’s opponent cancels big fight for July 4th 1976, so Apollo decides to fight and unknown in Philadelphia, in honor of the bicentennial, and randomly picks Rocky. The tension begins. Rocky is now up against the world champ. He is completely outmatched. He begins to train, but can’t. He fights with his manager, who rejected him, he feels like a bum. How will Rocky confront the great Apollo?

Second Plot Point: Rocky climbs the stairs in Philadelphia, and raises his hands, the music plays, the tension is over, he has won the battle, he has conquered the “bum” inside himself which is the true battle he is fighting. From this point on the film winds down through the fight, which he loses honorably, and all are happy.

Keep in mind your novel needs tension. So as you write the chapter outline, pay attention to where you are in the overall structure of the story.

Write a few paragraphs about each character in the novel. More about the main characters. What do they look like? Where do they live, work, and drink? Where were they born, what did their parents do? What where they in high school (geek, jock, druggy etc.) Review of love life, college, work, dark secrets, and vices (we all have vices and secrets fantasies, know them for each character). Have an idea how long you want the novel to be; this may change or be adjusted, but start out with an estimate, i.e., number of chapters, average pages per chapter.

So before you sit down to begin chapter 1, page 1, you should have an overall outline of the story describing what happens during exposition, conflict, where the climax is, and finally how you resolve everything. You have a description of all the characters that will appear in the novel and you have a description of what happens in each chapter. One note here. Characters come alive, you create them in clay, but as you write, they take on a life of their own, let them, this is good. If they rebel against your structure and begin to go down another path, follow them, change your structure. Don’t be rigid with the characters, the more alive they appear to you, the better your novel will be.

Now the hard part. Writing is not easy, and I have never met anyone who said that it was. So I follow these rules when I am writing a novel, and I have completed three, so this method does work. You must write every day, you must write a minimum of 1,000 words a day, and you must write at the same time, same place every day. Now obviously things happen etc., but I would try and be as strict with this as possible, because it is the best way to make sure that you have a first draft completed in a few months, depending on how long you want the novel to be. Coffee helps. Try and get into the characters, feel them, become them as they speak. First few paragraphs can be painful, but just keep banging out copy, get it out there on the page. You will find that writing is like working out, you hate it, but you will feel so good afterwards.

Now a quick word on types of writers. Let’s just say there are two types of writers, those that write quickly, and spend a lot of time editing and revising, and those that write slowly, the perfectionists. I really think it is a personality thing, so you will have to figure that out for yourself, but really try and knock out the 1,000 words. If you are very much a perfectionist, maybe do 800 a day. But I wouldn’t do less than that.

I always read what I wrote the day before first, do some revising on it, almost as a warm up, to get me into the story. I like to write with music, but, for example, I can’t read with music. Everyone has their quirks. One thing that works for me was a piece of advice Hemingway gave. He said to always leave off at a good point, when you feel you have some rhythm, because this makes it easier to get back into the next day.

Keep writing, once you have twenty or thirty thousand words under your belt, you will feel very good, like you can get the book written. And one fine day you will come the end, type those last few words and you will feel very strange. I can’t say so more about it.

Now, immediately, next day, start with the revision. Try and knock out a chapter a day, no more. You must be very attentive with the first revision, as soon as you get tired you will miss things. Some things will need major re-writes, some things will seem just plain boring and bad, and other parts will seem surprisingly good. If it feels wrong, it is wrong. If you have slightest hesitation about something, re-write it, fix it. Don’t leave it to you feel good about it.

This will take a couple of weeks. Do it one more time than don’t look at the novel for at least three months. After three months, I usually wait a six, but that is up to you, do two more revisions. Now you need someone else’s eyeballs because you know this story way to well. This is where a good copy edit is well worth the money. Someone you don’t know who is a professional writer. They will charge around a $ .01 a word, but it is well worth it. If you can’t afford it, join a reading group; just be very careful who you let read your work. The first time you let someone read what you have written can be very traumatic, make sure you have similar tastes, same genre and know how to make a constructive critique. When you critique their work, be constructive, if something doesn’t work, gently let them know and offer a solution, if it works, tell them it works.

After you are confident that the novel is clean, no mistakes, no fuzzy areas in the plot, consistent etc. you can think about publishing. You can do it yourself on CreateSpace from Amazon, and for the cost of one book, about 10$ , you will have your novel on Amazon. If you want to try and publish it through traditional channels, there is a book, Jeff Herman’s Guide to Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents. It is an excellent place to start. You will write a query letter, make a lot of Self Adressed Stamped Envelopes (SASE) and send a lot of emails. But the most important thing is that you have written your novel. And nothing can take that feeling away from you.

I can help you with ghost writing or copywriting. See the Professional Services Link on the right navigation bar of my blog for more details. CACTUS LAND BLOG

Writing Urdu popular fiction is not an easy thing to do. Of course, the writing of popular fiction sometimes becomes harder than the writing of the literature. This is because the writer of the popular fiction has to touch the hearts of the masses rather than some of the literary minds out of thousands. This is especially true for the Urdu literature and the Urdu popular fiction.

Farhat Ishtiaq is one of the very much-esteemed names of the Urdu popular fiction. In fact, she is one of the most seasoned writers, Urdu popular fiction has seen. Farhat Ishtiaq is not one of the writers who write endlessly and are too prolific to be true. She is one of the very few Urdu popular fiction writers who actually spend time on each novel.

Farhat is the kind of person who would produce a novel after years.

There is not a single novel of Farhat, which was not immensely appreciated by the Urdu readers. The novels of Farhat Ishtiaq are very emotional and intense. They always reflect true and maddening love. However, the best thing about her novels is that her leading characters are never unfair or unethical no matter how badly they might be in love.

The following are the two very popular Urdu novels by Farhat Ishtiaq, which are also available online. So now, the readers can read them online without any cost except for the cost of the internet connection.

1. Mata e Jan Hai Tu

Mata e Jan Hai Tu is one of the most beautiful romantic social reform Urdu novels by Farhat Ishtiaq. It is about Sania and Ibad, two students of the Engineering in the University of Columbia, USA.

Ibad has done his bachelors from NED University Karachi. He is originally a patriotic Pakistani national. Sania is Born and bred in the USA and knows nothing about Pakistan. She is doing bachelors from the University of Columbia and has no affiliation to Pakistan. The novel takes a turn when it shows Sania in Pakistan. The reader is bewildered initially that why Sania is in Pakistan. Where is Ibad? What happened to the love between Sania and Ibad? Will they ever meet? Will they marry each other? This is an extremely emotional Urdu novel by Farhat Ishtiaq.

2. Ham Safar

Ham Safar is one of the most interesting Urdu novels by Farhat Ishtiaq, the internet users can find online. This novel is about the relationships. The focus is the relationship of husband and wife. The secondary focus is the relationship of the parents with their children. This novel also shows how toxic the relationship of mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law can get. The responsibilities of two people in love change drastically when they become husband and wife. For a happy married life, nothing is as necessary as the confidence and trust between two spouses. Without it, the marriage can fall apart, no matter how much love is there, this novel also shows how the children can bring positive changes in the relationship of two spouses.

Once of the reasons why writing poetry like this is so hard is because it is hard to get a handle on what you are feeling anyway. You probably have a kaleidoscope of emotions and it can be very hard to sort them in any type of logical form. However, if you want a good poem to come from it, you need to find a way to organize your thoughts, even if only for a bit. It will usually help you feel better about your situation anyway.

Begin once again, with writing your feelings down in list or chart form. You might want to create a chart that shows your different feelings and emotions and them stem from them and elaborate more on how it makes you feel. Don’t just tell; show. Make notes of how your body feels physically. All of this will help you sort through your feelings and form your poem.

You may want to construct a “poem tree” before writing your actual poem.

This is a way to chart out and have an actual physical appearance of what your poem will look like and then you can tweak it later as you work on your actual drafts of your poem.

For example, take the topic you want to write on and put it at the top. For example, “losing Sara” and then make a few lines down to the next points you want to include. For example, how did it feel to lose her? Who was she? Why did you lose her? All of these questions may not be directly answered in your poem but they help you set the mood for writing it so they are very important.

You need to plan out the purpose or point of your poem. Typically poems will have some type of punch line or revelation in it. You need to plot out what this will be and how you will use it in your poem. How will you choose to reveal it? Will you add it at the end when it is unexpected? Will you blurt it out in the beginning and then explain? There are many different approaches you can take.

The point is to have that “purpose” or point of the poem and be able to identify it and define it. You want someone to read your poem and think “Wow!” not “So what?”

Read, read, read…

To write great poetry, you are also going to need to read good poetry. You should read as much as you can. This helps you to understand the poem as well as learn to accurately create your own. How can you expect to write really great poetry when you don’t understand poetry that you read?

You can learn so much about poems just from reading as many as you can. You might want to just skim over them first. Then you can read them and really think about your first impression. How does the poem make you feel? What emotions does it bring up in you? These are all really important things to note about the poem that you are reading.

Later, when you have learned more about the structure of poetry, you might also analyze it further. You can recognize the lines and stanzas as well as other mechanics of the poem. You might make notes directly by the poem on certain aspects of it as well as what you like or don’t like.

Be sure you mark things you don’t understand. These are all great ways of getting a better understanding for poetry.

It can also be very inspiring and motivating to read other poetry. You should take some time to make some lists of poems and poets that you find inspiring. You might also make some lists of those that you don’t really like. These lists will help you as you move on into other chapters.

The will to learn…

Now before we move on to the first lesson, we are going to cover one more issue. You may have heard that poets are born and not made, that they are born with this magical gift of words and self-expression. Well, this is somewhat true but not entirely. Anything can be taught if the person is willing to learn.

This means that even if you were not born with the greatest natural talent for poetry, you can still learn to write a great love poem.

You may not be the next John Donne or William Shakespeare but you can still write fantastic, original, inspiring love poems that will impress that special someone in your life. Anyone can learn to write great love poetry. That’s right – even you!

So you obviously want to learn to write poetry since you are reading this book. Since you took the time to get this book and read over the contents, you are obviously serious about your commitment to writing great love poetry, so how do you begin?

Many people will agree that it is the actual beginning, actually sitting down to write that is most difficult for many people. Have you ever felt like there was something there inside you that you really wanted to say? Is there something you want to tell people or feelings you want to express? Do you feel like you have something just bubbling over and ready to spew out but you just don’t know how to begin to get those words on paper?

This is such a common problem for people. They know that they want to write a poem or that they have something to say, a story to share, etc but they just do not know how they can begin it.

Do you ever feel like the things you want to say are just stuck there, bottled up inside and you just can’t get out what it is you want to express? This can be one of the most frustrating things for inspiring poets.

What you need to learn is how to actually write. How do you take what you have in your head and make it actually come out onto paper as something solid you can work with and edit, etc? Basically, you need to look at it correctly. This might mean changing your thought processes a little bit.

With the passage of time, the Urdu novel has evolved, just as the society. The contemporary Urdu novels usually revolve around the following themes and topics.

1.
Women rights

The Indian subcontinent has always been a male dominated society. There hasn”t been any time or era when this region has seen female dominance or equality. So naturally the women rights are the theme of many novels.

Some courageous writers write about the rights of the widows too. This is because the widows are maltreated in this society most of the times. The remarrying is also not encouraged and thus the widows end up without having someone to protect them.

2.
Feudal culture

Feudal culture is now a tragic problem of Pakistan. It is a shame for Pakistan that India and Bangladesh eradicated their feudal lords long ago. As a result their middle class is in their parliaments now and they are developing at a very fast pace. So the Pakistani Urdu novelists write about the feudal culture too.

3.
Impact of religion on life

Many Urdu writers feel closely associated to religion and as a result their novels have a strong religious dose. They write about the social problems that arise only because the religion is ousted from the life of any average man or woman. Some novels are believed to be great religious masterpieces.

4.
Family

The family, especially the joint-family system is very strong in the Indian subcontinent. So the stories of many writers revolve around large families. The novels have a lot of characters, all belonging to a single family. The writers try to inculcate family values and try to encourage cousin marriages.

5.
Current Affairs and political situation

The current political situation of Pakistan is abysmal. So the sensitive writers” minds are bound to get affected by it. As a result they write novels addressing different current and political issues. For example the bipolar society of today and the suicide bombing are two hot topics for novels.

6.
Life in bureaucracy and armed forces

The Urdu writers tend to get too influenced from the bureaucracy and armed forces. As a result their stories often revolve around the bureaucrats and the people from the armed forces. Usually the armed forces personnel are shown too good, too caring and too patriotic. However it is a sad fact that the novels about the people from bureaucracy and the armed forces often paint a wrong picture of these two important institutions of the country.

It is a sad fact that the Urdu novels lack the romance, technological advancements, tourism and science fiction as their subject, although they are highly required in these times. May be our society is still not ready for it. However the topics, themes and stories of the contemporary Urdu novels indicate profusely that we are a third world country.

The novel is an indicator of the development of a language. The Urdu novel started very late when compared to the poetry of the Urdu language. Nevertheless, the trend of novel writing in the Urdu language picked up pace very quickly.

With the passage of time, the Urdu novel has evolved, just as the society. The contemporary Urdu novels usually revolve around the following themes and topics.

1. Women rights

The Indian subcontinent has always been a male dominated society. There hasn’t been any time or era when this region has seen female dominance or equality. So naturally the women rights are the theme of many novels.

Some courageous writers write about the rights of the widows too. This is because the widows are maltreated in this society most of the times. The remarrying is also not encouraged and thus the widows end up without having someone to protect them.

2. Feudal culture

Feudal culture is now a tragic problem of Pakistan.

It is a shame for Pakistan that India and Bangladesh eradicated their feudal lords long ago. As a result their middle class is in their parliaments now and they are developing at a very fast pace. So the Pakistani Urdu novelists write about the feudal culture too.

3. Impact of religion on life

Many Urdu writers feel closely associated to religion and as a result their novels have a strong religious dose. They write about the social problems that arise only because the religion is ousted from the life of any average man or woman.

Some novels are believed to be great religious masterpieces.

4. Family

The family, especially the joint-family system is very strong in the Indian subcontinent. So the stories of many writers revolve around large families. The novels have a lot of characters, all belonging to a single family. The writers try to inculcate family values and try to encourage cousin marriages.

5. Current Affairs and political situation

The current political situation of Pakistan is abysmal. So the sensitive writers’ minds are bound to get affected by it. As a result they write novels addressing different current and political issues. For example the bipolar society of today and the suicide bombing are two hot topics for novels.

6. Life in bureaucracy and armed forces

The Urdu writers tend to get too influenced from the bureaucracy and armed forces. As a result their stories often revolve around the bureaucrats and the people from the armed forces. Usually the armed forces personnel are shown too good, too caring and too patriotic. However it is a sad fact that the novels about the people from bureaucracy and the armed forces often paint a wrong picture of these two important institutions of the country.

It is a sad fact that the Urdu novels lack the romance, technological advancements, tourism and science fiction as their subject, although they are highly required in these times. May be our society is still not ready for it. However the topics, themes and stories of the contemporary Urdu novels indicate profusely that we are a third world country.

Any one of us is capable of writing a book, when we have finished that book will it be good enough to send off to a publisher and get snapped up, printed, into the shops and onto the best sellers list. Yes it may be good enough but it probably won’t take the dream path mentioned above.

It is far easier to write a book than get it published, the hardest thing to do is actually getting a publisher to read your book let alone consider it for publishing. They get so many peoples work sent to them that they probably only read a small fraction of them, so to get yours read is one hell of a task. If you have written a book and sent it to plenty of publishers without success, it does not mean that your book is no good.

This goes for any type of book, not just a novel, the same goes for poems and song lyrics. This is the one main reason that puts people off, when it comes to writing a book and understandably so.

But don’t let this put you off, if you want to write a book or poem then go ahead and do it, you can still make it available for the world.

The way to do this is by setting up your own blog. If you have your own blog you can publish what ever you want on it, from poems and stories to your opinion on everyday topics in the news as they happen. You don’t have to wait around for months for a publisher to decide whether they are even going to look at your work. Now that it the obvious advantage but there is a disadvantage as well and that is that you are publishing your work for free.

That said, if you can’t get your work past a publisher then you won’t get paid for it any way and nobody will ever get to read it. On the other hand if you publish your own work on your own blog, you never know you may get such a lot of readers over time that you catch the eye of a publisher any way and you may get approached to get your work published.

Have you always wanted to write a novel but never really knew how to begin? The fact that you conceived the whole idea in your mind means you just might be the next bestselling novelist the world has yet to read. It may just take a little time, effort and a spark of inspiration to get you started. This is easier said than done. But as long as you have that passion for writing burning in there, you will probably get that novel written as long as you put your heart into it and are willing to get down and dirty with these basic novel-writing tips.

First, you need to know what you want to write about. You need a story. Try to imagine it in your mind. Think of any plot that you think might interest your readers. So take it slowly and try to craft a storyline that you think people will appreciate. As you do this, choose which genre you’re targeting – love, suspense, horror, science fiction.

You have to be decided on this one, otherwise, you just may end up confusing your readers and they may not have very good things to say when somebody asks them for a review.

As soon as you’ve decided on a plot, it’s time to create an outline of it. Some expert writers feel they don’t need to do this because they work better when the ideas just flow. It is wise to be safe for someone who may be starting. An outline is a breakdown of the events in your story which you can do by chapter. A vast majority of novelists believe the most important chapter is the first because this is where and how you present your characters and set the general mood of your novel. Others, though, making the first chapter’s outline is enough, but for those who want to make sure they’re on track with their story, an outline for every chapter works. The most crucial thing to do when outlining is to set specific goals for each chapter and to keep the focus.

You can now write your first draft with your plot clearly laid out in that outline. Don’t be disappointed when you feel you’ve done some things wrong here and there because even the most bankable author will not publish a first draft. That’s the reason why it’s called a draft – you’re supposed to go through it and fine-comb it until you achieve the tone and effect that you want.

Don’t forget to give yourself time before going back to your first draft and editing it. Sometimes, when writers are caught up with their passions as they write, they come up with something that may be too deep and complicated for an ordinary reader to understand. In other words, they sometimes end up writing something that doesn’t read too well. A good trick is to write the first draft, go back to it after a day or two, and read it again. By this time, you may encounter parts that you think you could write better. Try to come up with as many drafts as you deem necessary until you finally get it right. Again, it’s good to give yourself time before going back to a draft and editing it. This gives your mind a fresh perspective and you will tend to judge your writing with the best frame of mind.

If you think your book is ready for the world, it’s time to go online and research on how to get published. There are many websites dedicated to new writers and you can get in touch with them so you can start finding a publisher.

If you enjoy reading love stories, you’ll probably write a great romantic novel excerpts. You’ll be targeting a very wide audience with a romance novel excerpts so get those creative juice flowing and get on your way to being published.

Writing a novel can be a daunting task, but there are some things that may get you organized and started. I feel that, first and foremost — have a good story in your head or down on paper.
 
It’ll be easier on the finished end if there is a specific genre attached to your novel, and some are more popular than others, but as they all fluctuate according to what may be hot at the moment, just pick a genre and go with it. Thrillers are always good, or a drama with a twist, or Sci-Fi if you are into that.
 
As long as you have a beginning, middle and end to your story, you can start on the book and fill in the rest later. Novel manuscripts are typed double spaced, using Times New Roman 12 point type with an inch margin all around. They are in chapters which usually start with a chapter title, one third of the way down a page, and new chapters always begin on a fresh page. Chapter titles are listed on the first page of the book.
 
Manuscripts are submitted (unless submitted electronically), on 8.5×11 inch paper with black typeface only. Put two strong rubber bands around your manuscript as it is always sent in “looseleaf” style.

The cover page on top and a blank piece of paper on the back, completes the send. On the cover should be the word count, title, by (you) and then your contact info including address and phone number and email in the bottom. Don’t use any gigantic typefaces, colors, or pictures. Just the plain facts are all you need.
 
Some writers like to plot any piece they are working on out, using scene cards. These can be simple index cards with notes on them. Others like to write an outline first which can be very simple or quite detailed. Some like to just start out writing and go through it in a linear way. 
 
Whichever way is your style of writing, just getting the words down on paper (or in the computer) and the story completed, will give a great deal of satisfaction. And once you are happy with your first book, sit down at it again in a few days and edit, edit, edit and then, more editing!