Tuesday's Inspiration - What's a Good Novel #MFRWauthor #BooksWeLove

When I was reading an old essay by  Ira Wolfert I had to read the first line twice. Though I've never read anything the man wrote, he certainly knew how to grab attention. He's also a Pulitzer prize winner. Here's the line.

"Although many have succeeded, no one has ever tried to write a bad novel." Think about it. Now we've all read bad novels but the authors thought they had something to say. The saying may have been flawed. The characters could have been one dimensional. The characters could be operating in a vacuum with no setting defined. What every the reason, the author didn't start out to write what we didn't want to read.

Mr. Wolfert goes on to mention several things that make a novel a good one. People read for many reasons so a good novel must satisfy the reason a reader wants to read a particular book. A novel must be an experience. The words must be written by someone with a powerful imagination that draws a reader into the story. The characters must appear human, even if they're not. I once read a science fiction story where one of the characters was totally not human but the story kept me reading word after word. The setting should make the reader feel as if they are there or would like to be there.

So when you sit down to write your novel, remember you want to make this a good novel and use your imagination to draw the readers and make them recognize some part of the character is inside themselves. Or the setting is what they know,