This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley is a guide designed for anyone interested in attempting the bold task of writing a novel in the span of one year. He claims that he will give you the tools to help you achieve this goal as long as you can provide the drive and motivation to follow through. It’s a wonderfully short read (my ebook is a whopping 62 pages, and Mosley even admits it’s less than 25,000 words!).
But wait. Who is this Walter Mosley anyway? And why should we be listening to him?
Walter Mosley is an acclaimed mystery author of over 50 books, best known for his Easy Rawlins mystery series. I had honestly never heard of him until I recently came across the short piece of nonfiction—mystery isn’t typically my go-to genre—but after learning that a few of his books were turned into films, I’m certainly intrigued (Devil in a Blue Dress and Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned are the titles if you’re interested).
Now, Mosley doesn’t guarantee that your novel will get published. Your novel needs to be good and also end up in front of the right person at the right time (if you’re going the traditional route and not self-publishing). He also says that your novel may be on the shorter side (50-60k words) and it will be a fine first novel even if it doesn’t achieve worldly success. Regardless, you will very likely experience personal satisfaction of having written a novel. “And from that point,” Mosley writes, “anything is possible!”
Here are 11 lessons I learned from reading This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley:
1. Write every day.
Wow. Where have we heard this before? I’ll tell you: the exact same thing came up in my post 12 Lessons: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. Well, if more than one author is suggesting it, then it must be pretty important. And it’s not difficult to see why. In order to get good at something, you have to put in the time to practice.
In addition, both Walter Mosley and Chris Fox (author of 5000 Words Per Hour) recommend choosing a time of day for writing and sticking with it. They also agree that you need access to your subconscious for good writing, and that in order to facilitate this connection, you need to keep the ideas simmering in your head even when you’re not actively thinking about your writing. And how do you manage this? By writing every day and then letting your subconscious do the rest when you’re not writing.
As for duration, Mosley recommends at least 90min. He also says that writing, rewriting, and rereading all count as “writing” in this way, so you don’t need to be actively writing during this time as long as you are working on some other critical part of writing.
2. Write without restraint.
quick aside
Great Scott! Where have we heard this before? Yup, Ray Bradbury again.
Bradbury meant that you should put the internal editor away, lock them up while you’re working on the first draft and don’t look back until the first draft is done. Later on in the book, Mosley also agrees with this sentiment, but is a bit more forgiving than Bradbury. Mosley says that you can make minor edits as needed, but leave the drastic changes for later (“mark them and move on”).
back to the subject at hand
Now Mosley actually means something a bit different. He means that in life we are restrained by what is socially acceptable, a phenomenon he calls “social restraint”. We may have inappropriate thoughts that we don’t vocalize for fear of being socially rejected (and also perhaps because we know they are wrong due to our sense of morality, though the former may often be a stronger force).
Mosley encourages us to loosen this restraint and let the reader in on what our characters are actually thinking, who they truly are. All people have dark sides that they hope will never see the light of day, so let the reader see this. After all, these are your characters’ thoughts and feelings, not your own. There’s no need to censor them unless you have good reason to. This will make your characters more complex and believable.
Like Bradbury, Mosley cautions against copying the masters. Don’t copy tones, phrases, form, and content of great books of the past. This will not make you a writer. You need to tell story that only you could tell, one that is uniquely yours. Sometimes this might mean using people you know as models for your characters. Maybe this will cause you to feel guilty. But just know that by the time the story is ready for publishing, your characters will have taken on lives of their own.
Speak truth and don’t sabotage yourself.
3. Don’t procrastinate.
“Writers-in-waiting” is what Mosley calls writers who avoid the work at hand. He also calls procrastination “writer’s greatest enemy”.
If you find thoughts such as “I’ll do it later” and “I have something else that is more pressing” invading your mind, stop. When it comes to writing, just carve out the time and do it. Eliminate distractions at all costs (like Chris Fox says in 5000 Words Per Hour).
Mosley says that writing is like a boat trip—you have to constantly make sure you’re going the right way and that you’re making progress. It’s different from train tracks or a highway. When you write, you are discovering your path. Make sure that you stay on the path.
research
Pay attention when you are doing research for your novel, for you might find that you are using research as a mode of procrastination. Questions about details and technicalities are valid, and you should have answers before publishing, but don’t dwell on them when there is other work to be done. Put a mark or a symbol and come back to it later. “Mark it and move on.”
Mosley does the research for his books toward the end of the last draft. This way he knows that the book is written and that his “creative energies will not be sapped by needless fretting.” Mosley notes that the perk of “writing what you know” is that you don’t have to do as much research. However, he does acknowledge that sometimes you may need to (or want to) do a ton of research at the start, and if that’s what must be done, do it. Do what you need to do so that you can sit down and write your story.
4. Choose a narrative voice that will best suit your novel.
what is a narrative voice?
In essence, it is the first thing a reader encounters when they read your novel. It’s the words which provide information, images, and emotions simultaneously. Quite simply, it’s the voice which tells the story. When you read, do you hear an internal voice reading the words aloud in your head? If you do, you can think of this as a representation of narrative voice.
what is the difference between narrative voice and point-of-view (POV)?
POV indicates who is telling the story. Narrative voice establishes who is telling the story (POV) and how the story is told (plot structure, character development, themes, etc.).
Mosley also makes the observation that, in dialogue, there’s more than one voice: first, the character, who does the talking; and second, the narrator, who tells us what the character said and how they said it (conveys their emotional state, in other words).
There are many forms of narrative voice, but here are the major ones:
first-person narrative
First-person narrative puts the reader in close proximity to the narrator, who uses the pronoun “I”. Learning about the narrator helps the reader to understand the story. First-person is the most familiar voice for most readers because it is the same one they use to tell their own stories (what happened today, what you did last weekend, etc.). It is a powerful narrative form as the reader is set up to feel as though they know the character personally, but it is also difficult because you must make the character interesting enough that the reader will be willing to listen to them for several hundred pages.
It is important that the character’s narration is engaging and evokes strong feelings so that the reader empathizes with their experiences. The reader should form an emotional bond with the character so that they will want to learn what happens in their story.
However, not every piece of information needs to come directly from the first-person narrator. Information can also be shared via dialogue with other characters, media (such as news publications, snippets the character hears on TV, etc.), letters, and even dreams. These are just a few of the various ways one can break up the narrative in the first-person.
Mosley says, “Everything flows through consciousness of this narrator, so be true to that voice.” What he means is don’t change the character’s personality to fit the story. The character should be limited by their physical location, education, life experiences, emotional state, and the like. Most characters aren’t mindreaders.
You can also think of first-person narration like a filter. Mosley explains, “If you need to convey specific information, the character must either think it, say it, read it, remember it, or hear someone else talking about it.”
second-person narrative
This form of narration uses the pronoun “you” as if you are speaking directly to the reader, making them a character in your novel. Mosley doesn’t say much on this topic, other than that it is not recommended unless you’re going for a particular effect.
third-person narrative
Third-person narration is natural for telling stories about things that happened to people other than ourselves. In this case, the narrative voice is “not a full person.” It’s a disembodied entity that is simply relaying events, or as Mosley describes, some “small, emotionless, but intelligent creature sitting on the shoulder of the character who is experiencing the story.” The world is often revealed from a more neutral perspective, though this isn’t always the case. According to Mosley, this narrative form is recommended for the first-time novelist because it is the most flexible and durable.
Classically, the third-person narrator perceives events from the perspective of a character and may occasionally have glimpses of what this character might be thinking or feeling. This narrative mode is less intimate with the nuances of the character than first-person and makes it more difficult to bring out emotional depth of characters. However, it enables the reader to more easily suspend their disbelief, and you have the flexibility to jump from one character’s shoulder to another (though you should have a good reason for jumping around and avoid doing so within a single scene as a general rule).
Mosley cautions that you should avoid giving the narrative voice a personality, which might confuse the reader. An opinionated narrator may cause the reader to feel that they are being told how to feel about and see the world, rather than experiencing the story for themself.
the omniscient narrator
Third-person omniscient narration is both the most powerful and most difficult form of narration (it also happens to be my favourite for both reading and writing). The basic idea is that the narrator knows more than the characters. “This voice spends most of its time disguised as a third-person narrator,” Mosley writes, “but appears in its full force often enough to let us know that there is more to it.” It sounds simple enough, but there are some challenges associated with the omniscient narrator.
You must be confident that you can maintain dramatic tension. You want to keep the reader guessing, so even though your omniscient narrator may know all, don’t let them give away too much of the story before it really gets going. First- and third-person narration have their limits built into them, whereas you have to learn to limit yourself when using the omniscient narrator. As Mosley puts it, “You have to be a consummate storyteller with extraordinary self-control to tell a story in this way.”
Stephen King uses the omniscient narrator in his Dark Tower series. For instance, without giving too much away…
In the fifth book in the series, Eddie tells Roland what the Wolves actually are. However, all the reader gets is a description akin to “Eddie told Roland what the Wolves actually are.” We know the Wolves are not wolves, but the characters and the narrator still know something that the reader doesn’t. Not only that, but King does this repeatedly with the same bit of information (Stephen King, you sly dog you). This made it unbelievably difficult to put the book down because I needed to know what the heck these Wolves were. Everyone knew except for me!
Another example is where King uses something I like to call “heavy foreshadowing.” There’s probably another term for it. It’s where, usually near the end of a chapter, he will make a comment like “and this is the last time Character A and Character B spoke” or “and this was the last time Character C was seen alive.” These aren’t examples from King himself of course, but I share them to illustrate a point. Clearly in these instances the narrator knows what is going to happen in the story and he is dropping rather obvious hints to the reader. The trick is that the narrator leaves enough unsaid that the reader is still interested to know precisely how these outcomes arise.
One last example which fits here is Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Both King and Snicket (but especially Snicket) seem to break from the story and occasionally go off on their own tangents before returning to the story. Both use heavy foreshadowing, giving not-so-subtle hints as to what will befall the characters several chapters in advance—things none of the characters could possibly know at that point.
your own voice
A 4th narrative form would be your own voice, but according to Mosley, you should never use it, though he doesn’t really elaborate further than that—kind of ominous, really.
5. Show, don’t tell.
If you’ve ever looked up writing advice (which if you’ve found yourself here, I’m sure you have!), this one crops up everywhere, and for good reason.
Mosley indicates that the highest possible praise for any fiction writer is, “The words came right up off the page.” The reader felt that they were actually experiencing the atmosphere created by the writer. When I read a particularly good book (such as Wizard and Glass, King’s 4th instalment in The Dark Tower series), it’s as if the scenes play out like a movie in my mind. Sometimes they are so startlingly vivid it’s as if I’m standing right in front of the scene as it plays out. This doesn’t happen with every book, but every now and again I find myself truly engaged with the setting and I can see the story taking shape before my very (mind’s) eyes.
If you have aphantasia (the inability to create mental images in your mind or see things with your mind’s eye), I see you! Of course I am saddened that you are not able to experience this, but I believe that you still have it in you to create this experience for your readers should you choose to do so!
So how does one go about designing this sort of experience for a reader? Use the senses, of course! Use emotions, but without simply stating the emotion. Show that someone is happy, sad, or angry based on what they do and say, and what they look like (such as their facial expressions and body language). Also make a point to use language that is active and metaphorical. Show events and characters in action. Create vivid images and real dialogue rather than just telling the reader what is happening. The novel is more experiential than it is informational.
Mosley says that it is often better to use images and physical descriptions, along with dialogue, rather than mere informative language to present people, places, things, and events in your novel. For example, to be told a character is violent is too general; the reader is left to come up with their own ideas of the character based on their personal experience with violence and what that might look like. Instead, you can express that a character is violent based on what they say and do, without even using the word “violent”, and this could paint a far more vivid picture of what is going on.
Mosley explains that “the clearest difference between telling and showing is the difference between a purely informational statement and one that attempts to add a human aspect to its repertoire and, in doing so, includes the reader either emotionally or physically.” Emotions inform our responses to the physical world, and our language reflects those responses.
the pedestrian in fiction
By “pedestrian” Mosley means mundane, everyday human details. We make the experiences of our characters ordinary to help the reader relate to the character. This sets up the reader’s acceptance of more extraordinary events that may unfold.
“If your audience believes in the daily humdrum physical and emotional experiences of your characters,” Mosley writes, “then your readers will believe in those characters’ reality and thus can be taken further.”
metaphors & similes
If you’ve been following my blog for a little while (hi you!), then you know that I have a passion for metaphors and similes! I am always highlighting exceptional metaphors and similes in books I am reading.
Metaphors state that Thing A is Thing B, whereas similes state Thing A is like Thing B. Personally I also extend the simile definition to cover cases such as Thing A resembles Thing B, as well as other linking words that serve the purpose of comparison, since they function similar to “like” or “as”. The effect is essentially the same.
Once you plant a metaphor in your reader’s mind, it will stay with them for several pages. This is excellent because it helps free the reader’s imagination, but it also means that you should take it easy on other metaphors for those pages. Try not to mix metaphors as this can be confusing for the reader (Thing A is Thing B, but it’s not also Thing C and Thing D, because that would be confusing). When a full-blown metaphor is too strong, use a simile.
6. Ensure your characters transform or “develop” throughout your novel.
In real life, people change. I’m certainly not the same person I was 5 years ago, and I’m sure you aren’t either. In some ways, I’m not even the same person I was at the start of 2021. All stories are about transformation.
character arc
A character’s transformation over the course of a story is called a character arc. It is informed by how the character, typically the protagonist, interacts with other characters and their environment. One purpose of the novel is to map out the events in the protagonist’s life that cause them to change. Dynamic characters are more believable than static ones. One of the most important things that you will do this year is create complex, authentic characters that begin at one point in their lives and advance (or devolve) into another.
Successful novels hook readers on the protagonist’s predicament and familiarize them with the character’s limitations and flaws which must be resolved in order to overcome challenges in their path. Protagonists and other characters need to have motivations for their actions.
character traits
Every character, not just the protagonist, must have something uniquely human about them. Each character must have a definite nature that engages the reader’s attention. A character is made up of many attributes: their appearance, including how they walk and how they present themselves to the world; and their personality, including their philosophy, their likes and dislikes, etc.
As with metaphor, avoid giving a character too many traits. Identify features that help define the character—make them memorable and, to some degree, predictable. Reveal shallow traits but also express deep feelings which will allow the reader to anticipate their transition.
Make sure they have flaws, too—no Mary Sues. The mistakes we make in life are what make us interesting. As such, the errors your characters make, more than any other thing, will maintain your reader’s interest in them.
7. Decide if you are an intuitive writer or a structure writer.
the intuitive writer
The intuitive writer may write largely without an outline and they come to discover the journey along with their protagonist. They don’t necessarily know where the story is going. At the extreme, they sit down with barely a premise in their mind and sally forth into the unknown. According to Mosley, the intuitive writer must discover the subject of their story by the act of writing itself. The more the they write, the clearer the story becomes.
the structure writer
In contrast, the structure writer does a bit more preparation in advance of sitting down to write their story. They outline, do research, and generally have a good sense of where their story is headed before they start. The protagonist’s journey is typically predetermined, though the extent to which this is true may vary. According to Mosley, for the structure writer, the act of writing is just finding the right way to tell the story.
a false dichotomy
Both approaches are equally valid, but I like to think of this dichotomy as more of a spectrum: you get writers who do absolutely no preparation before they sit down to write, but you also get writers who have a sense of where the story is going, and they may even have the end in mind, but are a bit clueless as to how the story will reach that end; on the flip side, you get writers who plot every detail in advance right down to particular pieces of dialogue, but you also get writers who have only a vague idea of the plot points they want to hit and are content to improvise a bit along the way. Mosley agrees that most writers are not entirely intuitive or structured; most of us have both in our approach to fiction.
There are also different terms for intuitive writers and structure writers. Science fiction and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson calls these discovery writers and architect writers respectively. NaNoWriMo lovingly dubs these Pansters and Planners respectively (and you’re a Plantser if you’re a bit of both!).
If you haven’t figured it out yet, try both approaches and see what works best for you. And if you don’t want to put a label on it, you don’t have to. It doesn’t even matter if you change your approach halfway through writing your book. As Mosley writes, “It is the novel that matters, not the literary religion of the writer.”
8. Hold back, then reveal.
In his MasterClass, Dan Brown says that you should make promises to your reader and keep them over the course of your novel. It is essential that you follow through on these promises and do not leave your reader hanging. Ray Bradbury says much the same thing. Hold back essential information to keep the reader engaged, only going for the reveal when the time is right. For example, as noted under the omniscient narrator, the narrator may choose tell the reader what will happen, but now how.
We want the reader to care about our characters and their problems. We use language, characters, and descriptions to pique the reader’s interest. Engagement is attained by mastering plot. Keep them wondering what happens next. We want the reader to think “I need to know. I have to turn the page.” Mosley says, “By holding back essential information, we arouse the reader’s curiosity and keep them reading; this is the function of plot… Plot is the structure of revelation—that is to say, it is the method and timing with which you impart important details of the story so that the reader will know just enough to engaged while still wanting to know more.”If story is a person and their physical attributes, plot is their skeleton giving them the ability to move. Story is what you experience when you read, while plot is working in the background.
Plot also gives you the potential for the element of surprise. Mosley explains it best: “You give the reader all the constituent parts of the tale, and then you add these facts together, coming up with an obvious but wholly surprising piece of knowledge or event… The best way to understand this potential strength of surprise in plot is to look at the structure of most jokes. In a joke you are given a great deal of storyline information up front, but by the end that information comes together in an altogether unexpected way… The plot in many stories often works the same way. We are waylaid by bright lights and whistles while the real story is unfolding under our noses. When we see the truth of the situation, we are both surprised and delighted—that is, if the method of revelation seems natural and unforced. If the reader feels that they have been tricked, the structure of the plot will backfire, and your reader will turn away, unsatisfied.”
9. Reading poetry and understanding how it functions will help your writing immensely.
Who else said this? None other than the man and the legend himself, Ray Bradbury.
I’m not a huge fan of poetry. I acknowledge that great poets have excellent command of language, but it’s still not something I will sit down to read. I would much rather dive into a short story or a novel. At the same time, I do find that poetry is a fantastic source of inspiration, and there is much to be learned about figurative language if you are receptive to what it has to offer.
I could be wrong about this, but I have an inkling that Mosley is a fan, a big fan: “Poetry is the fount of all writing. Without a deep understanding of poetry and its practices, any power the writing might have is greatly diminished. This truth I hold to be self-evident.”
Mosley says that language is music and content. Poets teach us how to transmit ideas economically, elegantly, and accurately. The poet must be a master of simile, metaphor, form, significance, and rhythm. Poets are constantly thinking “why did I use that word and how will that usage affect meaning later in the poem when that same word is used again, or a similar word.” In addition, poets are excellent editors. They know how to eradicate words that are extraneous, repetitious, or misleading, and how to rearrange their work until not one word is out of place.
And so I disdainfully concede that studying poetry has the potential to improve your writing.
10. Make every word count.
repetition
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch famously said “Murder your darlings.” Every word needs to matter. Cut out extraneous repetition of words and phrases. If you’re going to repeat a word or phrase, have a reason for it. Repetition is useful in that it can, in some instances, stress a particular idea or express urgency. But the key is to use it in moderation.
Mosley recommends the following procedure: If repeated word seems necessary, first consult a thesaurus and find a synonym that will do the same job. If no synonym has the particular flavour you want to convey, rewrite the sentence. If sentence can’t be rewritten, then fine, use repetition, but only this once.
details
Mosley explains, “Most writers tend to overwrite. They either fall in love with their use of language or want to make sure that the reader understands everything.” However, providing too much detail hinders the story’s progress and can make it feel slow. And, unfortunate as it may be, you can never say everything.
Does this character’s hair colour really matter? Does the reader really need to know that this house has a mailbox with a little bird painted on the side by the family’s second daughter who ran away from home to become the mayor’s mistress? Is the fact that this character walks with a limp critical to the story? It might be. And if it is, then certainly make mention of it.
Mosley writes “Details are endless, and they will overwhelm your story unless you master them. Even the most interesting acts cannot bear the weight of too much detail… The only details that should be put in any description are those that advance the story or our understanding of the character.” He explains that details should come into the novel via the experiences and emotional responses of your characters, and if you keep this in mind, you should have little trouble figuring out which words to keep and which to toss into oblivion.
Here is Mosley’s checklist for paring down the language of your novel. If the words in your sentences pass this test and you can make a compelling argument for why they should stay, then you’re on the right track.
- Investigate every sentence (EVERY sentence)
- Does it make sense?
- Does it convey the character properly?
- Does it generate the right mood?
- Is it too much?
- Does it get the narrative voice right?
“If you have brought your characters into the story in such a way that their emotions both color and define their world,” Mosely writes, “you will find that readers will go along with you—creating a much larger world as they do. It won’t be exactly the world you intended them to see, but it will be close enough—sometimes it will be better.”
11. Read your writing out loud.
I used to do this all the time for essays in high school and university, but I actually haven’t done it all that much for my blog posts. Today I start!
As mentioned in the poetry section, language is music. It has rhythm, and some rhythms sound better than others. Read out loud when revising to hear how the words come together in sentences. This will help you to see things you missed while reading silently, decide how you want characters to sound, fill in gaps in your descriptions, and detect overused words and incorrect phrases.
Perhaps you’ve experiences this: you’re reading and rereading your own writing for a while, and you start to anticipate the things you’ve already written. This causes you to not actually read the words but instead skim past them, which then leads to you overlooking mistakes. Additionally, because you know what you meant when you wrote those sentences, you may be blind to their flaws.
I have to admit I thought Mosley was a bit extreme when he says to actually record your whole book and play it back to yourself, but I was relieved that a bit later he says if you don’t want to record it, reading out loud is the next best thing.
conclusion
I’ll leave you with the last few sentences of the book:
That’s it—everything I know about novel writing in less than 25,000 words. The work is up to you. I’m sure that if you write every day and take these lessons to heart, you will write a novel that works. This process will transform you. It will give you confidence, pleasure, a deeper understanding of how you think and feel; it will make you into an artist and a fledgling craftsperson. Maybe it will do more.
As always, feel free to discuss in the comments below or reach out via the contact form. I’d love to hear from you!
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