Elements of a Novel Part 2

Welcome back to our topic of discussion, Elements of a Novel. This segment will continue directly from the previous post. Once you've finished your theme, plot and characters, we'll move on.

The fourth part of writing a novel is the setting. The setting of a story is where your characters will be located. For example, it could be a castle, the Carribean sea, outer space, a concentration camp, etc. Most novels do not have a fixed setting. The setting changes as the story progresses. Therefore, it is always important to describe the setting where your main action takes place. Usually, one chapter will focus on one setting, or at most two. This is the step where it is imperative to follow the plot you planned out earlier, and decide on the settings that you will describe in your novel. The setting is the type of flour you use to put on your bread. Suffice to say the better quality of flour, the better quality of bread. This is how character development and setting development mix together to boost the plot further. Good setting description and elucidation will go a long way in making your story richer.

Now we get to the writing. The writing is the most tedious of all stages, for to write a proper length novel, it will take many months or even years. However, it is also by far the simplest stage. This part of writing includes only that, writing. Following your chosen theme, plot, character development styles and setting descriptions, you should be able to combine these four elements into a cohesive whole. This stage is the baking of your bread. The baking is by far the simplest, but it also takes a lot of time. If you bake your bread well, the end result will be a crunchy, tender, delicious serving of bread. If you burn it or underbake it, all the previous ingredients will have been wasted. Finally, go through the recipe again, and make small adjustments to the parts you think were not good enough, i.e. edit your finished work after proofreading.

I myself have learned a lot from writing this, it has been like a revision for me on how to write well. All forms of prose will benefit from using this formula, even short stories and essays. I also learned that it is important to integrate all four elements of the planning into one, to write a good piece of literature. I hope you found this post educational as well!