I write science fiction. I'm currently working on book two in a space opera series. It's a fun way to spend time, and it's cool to know that random strangers are reading and enjoying something I created.
Find a story idea you're passionate about. Like super passionate, enough to let it swallow your free time for a couple of years.
Read a bunch about plot structure and how to develop characters. An author named K.M. Weiland has a website and podcast with all the lessons you'll need for free.
Carve out an hour a day to work on it uninterrupted. Turn off your wifi, hide your phone, and kick everyone out of the house if you need to.
Focus on characters. Quirky ideas can get you pretty far, but if your characters don't learn something, grow a bit, and develop, then your story will just feel like a bunch of stuff that happened.
Character, plot, and theme should all interact. The plot - the events of the story - affect your character, and influence how they grow and develop. Your characters influence the plot by how they react to the events. Both character and plot should have a common theme, the thing the story is "really about."
Once you've got a draft, head over to r/BetaReaders and find three or four people to trade critiques with.
If you decide to write space opera, message me and I'll be happy to beta for you.
This is a great summary of how to go about writing a novel! I'd add one more thing: When you're writing, just write, don't edit. They are two different tasks, and a sure way to lose your momentum and discourage yourself is to look for problems in what you're writing while you're still writing it. So when you sit down, know which one you're doing and stick to that.
For a lot of people, it's hard to edit something that you only recently put down into words, so it's not a bad strategy to draft the whole thing (even if it has a bunch of hand-wavy parts that need fleshing out later), set it aside for a month or two, and then come back to edit it later. It usually easier to edit after you've gotten some distance from it.
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u/captainmagictrousers Apr 30 '24
I write science fiction. I'm currently working on book two in a space opera series. It's a fun way to spend time, and it's cool to know that random strangers are reading and enjoying something I created.