What are Your Novel’s Goals?
October 22, 2008 by John Hewitt
Prepare for Success
One of the preparations that makes writing a novel easier, especially a novel that you have to complete in a month for Nanowrimo, is determining the goals for your novel. What do you want to have happen by the end of your story? As you assemble your characters and look at your plot, it helps to think about where you want it all to end up. What is the final moment of your story going to be? What are your characters going to learn or fail to learn? Will the novel end on a success or a failure? Is the story tragic, melodramatic, romantic or comic? What do you want your readers to come away from the story thinking?
Decide Where You Are Going
Take the time to review your goals as you start your process. How you expect your story to end? What do you expect to be the resolution for each major character? What are your emotional or thematic goals? Write all of these things down. This is the beginning of your story outline. Your goals may be different than the ones I have proposed. Your goals could be focused on character, theme, audience, style or a visualized resolution. The important step is to formalize those goals so that you know what you are working toward.
Beware of Dogs
Not every story gets written with an end goal in mind. It isn’t a requirement for a novel, but using this method keeps your intentions clear. If you know your destination, it is much easier to plan your way there. A novel that is written without any goals in mind at the beginning can succeed, but there are many pitfalls. It can be very easy to find yourself in a “shaggy dog” story in which the plot seems to lurch from one random event to the other.
Don’t Look Back
In many cases, if you don’t have goals in mind, they will become apparent about halfway through your novel and you will realize that you need to go back to the beginning and start to rewrite because the plot does not match your new direction. Characters that may have been important in the beginning could suddenly have no role in the conclusion because they weren’t created with that conclusion in mind.
Having end goals in mind, even if you don’t have a fully fleshed out outline/plot, will help keep you focused on what you want your characters to do and how they need to be shaped by the story. What you want to avoid, especially when on a deadline, is going back to rework what you have already written. You want to be able to see your draft all the way through to the end.
Related links
- How to Write a 50,000 Word Novel in a Month (0.786)
- Writing an Action Outline (0.751)
- There is no Right Way to Write a Novel (0.536)
- Deciding on a Narrative Voice (0.536)
- How Setting Influences Story (0.536)
Contact John Hewitt
Writing Content and Web Consulting
Email: hewitt@poewar.comPhone: (520) 261-6104
LinkedIn: poewar
Twitter: @poewar
Facebook: pwar2
Hmm, I’ve never really thought much about this before. I always find it tough to figure out where I want to end up. I usually have some sort of plot up until the climax, and then I kind of feel a little lost. It’s a bit of a problem, because if I’m not all excited about my climax, who else wil be? Maybe having a goal for my novel will help solve that problem.
Hey Humans;
I was kind of hoping that my novel would become an epic tale and not a form of combustable fuel, and I think this article will help me. My favorite suggestion was not to look back, because it reminded me of something which happened to me a couple years ago. I was returning with one of my friends from our mine, when he suddenly starting running and screaming “don’t look back!”. Of course, being a Dwarf, Ilooked back. I’ve never been more surprised to see a dragon in my life. Anyway, how I managed to escape by sacrificing my friend is besides the point: this council applies very well to writing. If you look back at what you previously wrote, you may be shocked by how many horrible mistakes much worse than dragons are lurking in your beloved manuscript. That’s my experience, anyway.
@ Key
I think this is a fairly common approach. Many people aren’t sure where they are going when they start their novel. I have written two bad novels that really didn’t know where they were going, so I am hoping that having a clear plan will make this one go a little better.
@ DD
When confronted with a Dragon, I usually opt to hurt its feelings. A depressed dragon is all but harmless.
@ John,
Hey Human;
I’m very surprised to hear you say that. An elf told me that once, but everyone knows that elves have no idea what they’re talking about and, if they do, they lie about it… you’re not an elf, are you? With a name like John I don’t think so, so I thank you for the advice. Next time I see a Dragon, I’ll try it out. I’ll read it one of my stories and, according to what you say, it will collapse into a miserable weeping heap.
@ DD
I am rarely mistaken for an Elf. I am far more likey to be mistaken for a half-orc, but in the end I am only Human.
@ John,
Hey Human;
I’m surprised that you owned to being mistaken at times for a half-orc; you must know how popular that species is with us dwarves. Consider yourself lucky to be a human… you get all sorts of advantages, such as dental insurance.
@ DD
I have more honesty than fear in me.
@ John
A very common human trait, I hear. Apparently humans also have more curiosity than fear as well. True?
@ DD
You should write a fantasy novel about your adventures with mines, dragons, etc. Oops, did I say fantasy? Sorry, I meant autobiographical!
I usually don’t figure out where the stories going to end up until about 50 or so pages in. Luckily for me, it usually doesn’t take much, if any, retconing to make the story work with the new goal in mind.
What really stinks is when you change your mind again around page 200 and have to make sure it’s not too radical a change.
The “shaggy dog” story works well for comedy. Terry Pratchett’s done it a few times — the Luggage can be considered a shaggy dog.
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