Novel in a YearHere is the fourth set of links to Louise Doughty’s columns on A Novel in a Year. The columns are available on The Daily Telegraph website, though they are deep in the archives, and have also been gathered together and published in a book, A Novel in a Year: From First Page to Last in 52 Weeks, available through Amazon.

Week 37 – Metaphors can be dangerous: use sparingly, or they blow up in your face

Week 38 – Be careful not to slow your story down with too much clumsy exposition

Week 39 – Dialogue can be tricky but it is a powerful tool for characterisation

Week 40 – For a novel, you need a plot – and that means events, change and conflict

Week 41 – Dialogue may be easy to write reams of, but make sure it adds to the plot

Week 42 – Guard against climaxitis with careful positioning of drama and consequence

Week 43 – Step back, then zoom in again with greater understanding

Week 44 – Choose your novel’s narrator with care: that is the voice the reader hears

Week 45 – You know that favourite bit of writing? Time to leave it out for the wolves

Week 46 – Ask a fellow writer for advice, not your nearest and dearest

Week 47 – Develop your own inner critic, and be grateful for advice

Week 48 – If you are stuck in the middle, be bold, leap forward and write the ending

Week 49 – An ending will come, and when it does it will be obvious

Week 50 – There comes a time when the donkey work must be done

Week 51 – Take a clear-eyed look at your year ahead as a writer

Week 52 – This was the year that we wrote

Pick up your copy of A Novel in a Year: From First Page to Last in 52 Weeks and visit Louise’s website to learn more about her novels.

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