How To Write a Novel: From Idea To Book

From Idea To BookBy Joanna Penn
Listen with Sir Michael Caine™ and 1,000+ voices
Length6h 8m

About this audiobook

Writing a novel will change your life. It might not be in the way that you expect, but when you hold your book in your hand and say, “I made this,” something will shift. The process of getting to that point will light a spark in your creative soul and help you discover unexpected aspects of yourself. It will be one of the things you are most proud of in your life. This book will help you get there. I’m Joanna (J.F.) Penn, award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 18 novels and novellas with nearly a million books sold in over one hundred countries. This book will help you write your first novel, or improve your creative process so you can write more books and reach more readers. It covers mindset, ideas and research, aspects of craft, how to write a first draft, and work through an editing process to a finished book.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 4.4 (376)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenreSelf-Help, Education and Learning
Length6 hrs 8 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateAug 11, 2022
LanguageEnglish

Table of contents

1Title Page
2Introduction
3I. First Principles
41.1 Why are you writing a novel?
51.2 What has stopped you from completing a novel before?
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61.3 Principles to keep in mind as you create
7II. Ideas, Research, Plotting, and Discovery Writing
82.1 How to find and capture ideas
92.2 How to research your novel and when to stop
102.3 Outlining (or plotting)
112.4 Discovery writing (or pantsing)
122.5 What are you writing? Genre
132.6 What are you writing? Short story, novella, or novel
142.7 What are you writing? Stand-alone, series, or serial
15III. Aspects of a Novel
163.1 Story structure
173.2 Scenes and chapters
183.3 Character: Who is the story about?
193.4 Point of view
203.5 Dialogue
213.6 Plot: What happens in the story?
223.7 Conflict
233.8 Openings and endings
243.9 Setting and world-building: Where does the story happen?
253.10 Author voice
263.11 Theme
273.12 Book or story title
283.13 Language versus story and tools versus art
29IV. Writing the First Draft
304.1 Attitude to the first draft
314.2 How to write the first draft
324.3 Dictate your book
334.4 Write fast, cycle through, or write slow
344.5 Writer’s block
354.6 Writing tools and software
364.7 When is the first draft finished?
37V. The Editing Process
385.1 Overview of the editing process
395.2 Self-editing
405.3 How to find and work with a professional editor
415.4 Beta readers, specialist readers, and sensitivity readers
425.5 Editing tools and software
435.6 Lessons learned from editing my first novel after more than a decade
445.7 When is the book finished?
45Conclusion
46Need more help?
47About Joanna Penn

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