Developing Your Manuscript - Part 4

Carmen Hendrix
Dec 6, 2017
3 min read

Congratulations! You've made it part 4. How do you feel? Welcome to the fourth part of the Developing Your Manuscript series. I hope you continue to find this information helpful, and don't forget to to ask questions in the comments section below.

Let's recap the steps we have reviewed so far:

Be sure to go back and read the previous posts as they give details on how to accomplish these steps.

Step 1: Decide what tense you want to write your novel in, and stick with it

Step 2: Pick a genre.

Step 3: Pick a character.

Step 4: Create an outline and give yourself a "soft deadline."

Step 5: Start from the ending and don't worry about the format.

Step 6: Give yourself a hard deadline.

Step 7: Set up a time to write each day.

Step 8: Write your first and last sentence for the chapter

Bonus: Do yourself a favor and pay attention to your tense while you are writing these sentences.

Now that we have covered all the necessary bases, let's get on with it, shall we?

Step 9: Fill in between the lines.

In the last post, you were asked to write your first and last sentences of each chapter. Now that you are writing the "meat" of your story, read between the lines. If you introduce a character, ask yourself if your reader knows enough about the character for them to be memorable. Did you introduce and element and explain it fully? For example, you decide to introduce a friend of your protagonist. Should you? Do they have significance to the story? If so, why? Are they going to be an important factor through the entire story line? This determines how much time you should dedicate to the character.

Make sure that you write out what you are seeing in your head. If your character is walking down a narrow driveway. What do you see? Are there trees? Shrubbery? What do you see in front of the character? Is there open space? A gate? Is there a car? What color is the car? Making sure that you type what you see in your head helps you fill in the important questions your readers will ask you. This leads me to the next step.

Step 10: Pay attention to details and be consistent. Have you explained every element you introduced?

Give each of your characters a unique voice and make sure you're being consistent. If you started the chapter with the hot and muggy weather, and then it is suddenly a wintery storm, you have a major flaw in your story line. Unless you explain the sudden change in weather, make sure it remains hot and muggy. When describing your character, if you describe your character as having an olive skin complexion, they can't have a caramel complexion later in the book. Paying attention to details is very important when writing a compelling novel.

A novel has an average of 70-80,000 words. That gives you a lot of words to give details so your readers can see, smell, hear, and feel what your characters see, smell, hear, and feel.

Finally, Make sure that your lines interconnect. Remember, each sentence has a purpose in the story you tell. Make it memorable. Make it count!

That's it for this week's writing tips. Tune in next Wednesday for more. How well did you do with NaNoWriMo? Remember, you don't have to wait until November to write your novel. I look forward to seeing you next week!

carmLkisses,

Carmen L. Hendrix

Carmen Hendrix is the author of the short story collection When Honeysuckles Fall and the novel Eight Moments. To read some of her short stories, visit her blog here. She will be pleased to make your acquaintance. You can also catch her several times weekly on the Honey Pot Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast channel that best suits you here.