How to Finish a Novel

I personally know dozens of writers who had their first novels published. Most of these novels had one of the following:

A strong premise that clearly challenged an aspect of society or the human condition in a way that was easy for most readers to understand.
Forced readers to ask questions about their own lives
Allowed readers to explore some part of humanity from the safety of their own home example how would I act in a divorce, can you change my mind on the death penalty are the worship of the divine and religion polar or synonyms is the cost of power and wealth really worth it etc.

These are not hard to include in a novel. There is no secret to getting published. All you need to do is finish your novel. Statistics show that 93% of everyone who starts a novel will never finish it. Only 5% of the finished novels will only be submitted once. This means that you have very little competition.

Outlines Help You Finish a Novel

Outlines are just guides. They are blueprints that will help you measure the quality of a novel idea. One of the best reasons for writing outlines, and keeping a journal, is to see if you get bored with the idea before finished.

I've heard writers say they don't outline because they loose interest in the idea before they finish. This is a dead give away that the idea is not good enough for a full length novel. A novel takes a lot of work. In most cases, it takes at least six rewrites and edits before it is ready to be published.

I know several authors who have written novels that sold well. They never lost interest in their ideas. I know for writers who sold every novel they ever wrote. All of these outline to some extent.

I like to outline because it lets me find and fix my mistakes before I start writing the novel.

An outline can be written on index cards. You writer your ideas onto the cards and then you can re-arrange them, improve them, fix problems, and make the story stronger - then I can write the whole story in about 2 weeks.

I can write a whole novel in a month, or about 200 hours, when I use an outline

Avoiding Mistakes

One of the biggest mistakes is believing that every idea is worthy of a full size novel. That is why many new writes have a filing cabinet full of unpublished manuscripts.

Avoiding Rejection Letters

One of the main reasons why writers outline and preplan is to avoid rejection letters. Professional writers often write a novel every three months. They don't have time to write a novel that won't sell.

Are You a Real Writer?

The publishing industry has a voracious appetite. More than 26 billion dollars worth of books are sold every year. And, most authors only write one book then quit. However, publishers are desperately seeking writers who want to create full time careers.

This means that you can get your novel published. All you need to do is spend a few hours and develop your story idea into a full length novel size - and finish it.