How to Write a Good and Compelling Novel From Your Imagination to A Thriller: A Step-by-Step Practical Guide for Beginner Writers Creative Writing Masterclass

By Lornamarie

When you hold your first book in your hands, there is an overwhelming fulfillment that you will be unable to explain. You will not only be excited for what you have just done! but you will be most proud of yourself for achieving a great feat. Writing helps you to explore your creativity with great courage, skill, or strength. Starting and finishing your book requires determination and hard work. Your first novel helps you to let out the creativity inside yourself as it flows out like rivers of living water. Your creativity becomes unrestrained like a terrier and the more you write, the more you want to continue to write. And then you will find yourself repeating the process. Writing your first book helps you to discover how far you can go with your creativity and capability. The experience changes everything. Don’t worry if you’ve started a book that you abandoned some time ago for some reason, that is normal, but don’t let that discourage you from picking things up from where you last stopped. You will learn and unearth that there is so much more that you can do with that book you’ve started if only you are ready to convert or conceive your imagination into a thriller! The purpose of this book therefore is to help you to achieve your goal of writing a good novel by using a particular part of craft.
How to Write A Good and Compelling Novel (From Your Imagination to A Thriller) A Guide for Novelists and Writers – is a step-by-step practical guide for beginners, first-time novelists and indeed anyone who wishes to write a fiction and mystery thriller or courtroom dramas at professional level. A good novelist needs tactics to help drive home her craft creatively and humorously in an entertaining manner. How can you create dramatic and convincing characters that can keep your audience glued to your book? How can you make it difficult for readers to put your book down and make your book sell and sought after? Here is the answer, you have a role of research to play in it. To make it achievable, I have designed this book to include hands-on masterclass creative writing self-help exercises and examples to help you start writing your novel straightaway. The best way to keep you on track is to begin writing your story following the masterclass creative writing exercises you are engaged within this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9781446651971

Book preview

Acknowledgement and Dedication

I give glory, honour, adoration, and thanks to the almighty God, the all-knowing God, the repository of the seed of knowledge and in whom lies the mystery of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. I dedicate this book to the loving memory of my irreplaceable Dad – the Late Mr David Idowu Ademokun who died on 29th April 2023 at the age of 91.  May His kind and gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

As always, this book is also dedicated to my husband Tayo and the boys Ibitayo and Olugbenro. A big thank you to my wider family who have supported me at the time of the loss of my dad, to friends, readers, booksellers, libraries, and those who have spent time reviewing this book.  Thank you all very much.  I could not have done it without you all.

I am grateful to all the editors for their patience, support, and expert advice with dedication throughout this work and for making this Self-Help How to Book the best it can be.  A big thank you, to all those writers who have inspired me and impacted my life and my writing journey with their non-fiction books.

Lorna Betty Ibidun Marjorie Adekaiyaoja LL. B (Hons). BL. MCLIP. BIALL. (Nee Ademokun).

Lorna Adekaiyaoja is the Winner of the BNLF 2019 Award in recognition for Community Service

Lorna Ibidun Adekaiyaoja (nee Ademokun)

LL. B (Hons). BL. MCLIP. MBIALL

November 2023

THIS BOOK IN A NUTSHELL

Q: I know I have an interesting story that I want to write, my worry is whether other people are going to like it enough to want to buy it.  Will a book on how to write a novel like this be useful to me?

A: Yes. I wrote this book to help solve the worry and problem that you are having, I want you to be able to take the courage to start writing down your story today. My main aim in writing this book is to afford you the opportunity to access the creative writing masterclass that I have provided in this book to give you a step-by-step practical guide to use as a beginner.  The masterclass exercises will help you with how to creatively write.

Q: My story is almost a true-life story about me, can I write or convert my story into a novel?

A: Yes, you can. True life stories are a time-tested method that many great fiction writers have used to produce very iconic fictional stories in history.  You can craft your first novel by fictionalizing your own experiences. You will need to make it a new, resonant, real, interesting and believable narrative that your readers can connect with on a deep emotional level. You will need to tease emotion out of the reader.

Q: I have started writing a novel before, but I just could not finish it to the end because I lost my focus. I find it hard to sit down for a long period of time, can I still be a writer?

A: Yes, you can. I don’t see any reason why you cannot be a writer if you are determined to be one. Be resilient and never give up.  When I began the project of writing my first novel, at a point, I considered scrapping the whole project, but a little voice inside of me urged me to keep going. And I’m glad I did. You can do the same by starting to write your first novel and continuing to write until you finish. Don’t lose your focus. If you can sit down to watch a two-hour movie - eating popcorn and hot-dog in the cinema, then you can sit down for the entire period you require to write your own book.  The reason why I decided to write this book is to guide you through how you can make your dream of writing a novel come through.

Q: I cannot make up my mind on which book genre to write on, will this book help me to do so? I really like three major genres; how can I choose the genre that will sell?

A: It is common for a writer to like many genres; all you need to decide on is to choose a genre that you have passion for so that you can freely flow in your writing proficiently and with ease.  In my own case, I like reading adventure books and mystery legal thrillers. Likewise, someone with a scientific educational background may be better at writing science fiction.  You can even consider becoming a children’s book author or political fiction writer.  The list of genres available to choose from is endless.

Q: How can I find a publisher for my book?

A: This book did not only give you a practical guide to spur you on to begin to write your novel but also covered the technicalities of getting your book published, like publishing options, and how to promote and market your book, I discussed how you can go about editing and the tips and tools that writers use to help them deliver their ideas to a prospective audience. This book covered what you need to know about copyright, plagiarism, and data protection.

Q: Do I have to be someone talented, with special connections, and a lot of money to be a writer?

A: No, you can be a writer if you can gather your thoughts into words, put them on paper, and shape them into something that can help other people. You will need to be focused, consistent, determined, steady, resilient, and persistent. Anyone can write a book, and that is: if you are determined to give it what it takes. The best way to share your story with others is to write a book.  Your story might change the world.

Q: Did you discuss how to write crime fiction genre and murder mystery thriller in this book?

A: Yes, I did. In Chapter 7, I discussed how you can create an edge-of-your-seat murder mystery thriller! And some typical basic elements that will make a mystery thriller stand out. I also cited extracts from The Lawyer’s Dilemma (2020), The Plea on Oath (2019) and Conscience of Justice (2022).

Q: Do I need to learn how to touch type to help me to write?

A:  Yes, you do.  Your being able to touch type will enable you to produce more words faster from your computer keyboard. There are many typing drills online that you can use to develop your typing speed. There are so many free practice letter drills online that you can use to practice developing your typing skills.

I hope you will enjoy using this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks, again, for buying this book.

Preface

This book is aimed at providing a step-by-step practical guide for beginners and indeed anyone who is interested in writing a novel, mystery thriller, legal fiction, and courtroom dramas. I express gratitude to my precursors on this line.

I have in this book covered essential tips on what to look out for before and during the writing of a compelling and riveting mystery thriller and indeed any fiction novel. There are pointers and reminders about the kind of things you will need to do or bear in mind when writing a legal thriller and how you can satisfy your readers’ expectations while entertaining them at the same time.  There are tactics that can be used to drive home your craft creatively and humorously. How can you create dramatic and convincing characters that can keep your audience glued to your book? How can you make it difficult for readers to put your book down and make your book sell and sought after? Here is the answer, you have a role of research to play in it. To make it achievable, I have designed this book to included hands-on masterclass creative writing self-help exercises and examples to help you start writing your novel straightaway.  The best way to keep you on track is to begin writing your story following the masterclass creative writing exercises you are engaged with in this book. It will help you to convert your idea into a gripping thriller as you learn how to begin by writing it down. You learn and practice how to plot your story in a formidable way without blemish or imperfection. This book will teach you how to create dramatic characters and compelling plots that are twist-laden, epic, immersive with epic and suspense.  My aim and objective for writing this book is to get you started with hatch or birth your idea of a story and for you to bring it into reality. I would like you to be able to convert what is in your imagination into thriller! In fact, this book is for anyone who wants to write to their full potential, whether it is a novel or a short story or crime fiction thriller, now is the time to start from somewhere and the opportunity to do so can start from you reading this book.  This is the book for you. I have cited examples from the books that I have written myself and so I am drawing examples from extensive experience to guide you through the stages of practical craft of writing and editing and the publishing process too. What you need to guard against and what you need to look out for are all in this book.

A lot of hard work is required for projecting and mapping out a good mystery novel, it is therefore necessary for a writer to put certain things in place to achieve a positive outcome and ultimately become a great practitioner of your craft with your unique qualities carrying you along all the way from the beginning right through to the end.

You will find this book helpful in identifying the kind of legal fiction novel or short story that you’ll like to write.  I have used some examples of how I arrived at some scenes in the crime fiction thrillers that I have written myself and as a legal fiction writer, I understand the challenges and brainstorming that you may encounter when you set out to begin your project. I have focussed on peculiar aspect of crime-fiction writing and you will benefit from this book even if you are writing a fiction thriller or a novel generally. Anyone requiring knowledge on how to write a good novel, will benefit from reading this book.  I have endeavoured to give all the information necessary in as brief and practical a manner as possible. 

Writing generally requires a lot of discipline, consistency and dedication of your time, your energy, and your intellectual capability.  It is a big responsibility, and you will require to dedicate and commit some of your time daily to writing the genre of your choice. Most authors write in the early hours of the morning when I think the brain and mind has had some rest through sleep and they are therefore fresh first thing in the morning. The choice of what time of the day you chose to write is entirely up to you. There is a lot of thinking things through that is required and you need mental agility, an imaginative and creative mind to insight your discovery and revelation.

Have your own Study location, set up - by this I mean you need a table and chair, your laptop or desk top PC with anti-screen glare to protect your eyes. You will also need a bookcase to store books you've read generally. Just seeing a line of books that you've read sitting on your bookshelf is a motivation for you to write. An English dictionary should be on your bookshelf as well as Thesaurus Book. A good writer should be a good reader at least in the genre of your choice. For example, I will expect a crime fiction author to have read at least two to five crime fiction books. Have the books you have read either on your bookshelf or in your kindle store. Doing this will motivate you to want to write.

In Chapter 15, I shared some tips with you on using book writing Software that I think will help you with your writing project.  You can write in Google Docs, this will enable you to access your writing anywhere, I learnt that it’s all backed-up automatically.  You can write off-line using your Chromebook which is a simpler word processor than Word for Windows this will shield you from getting distracted by multiple fonts and functions.  Give your file a name and cultivate the habit of saving up your work each time you add information to your file.  You can then download your work into a Word document so that your editor can use Word’s Track-Changes feature to edit your work.  If you are a Windows user, you can access Vellum through MacInCloud, which is an excellent way by which you can pay by the hour to have access to a virtual Mac. You can do the typesetting yourself. You might also consider using Software program developed specifically for writers, such as Scrivener, WriteWay or Power Writer. I will take you through how to go about organising yourself as we progress through the chapters of this book. 

Sometimes your thought flow may be disjointed and not all your thoughts will come through at once, so write down your discoveries and revelation as they come to your mind.  Some creative ideas will drop into your imaginative mind in trickles some while you are away from your study desk and some when you've gone for a walk.  Some ideas will flash on your mind maybe when you are on a train journey or perhaps while you are doing house chores. It maybe something you've witnessed happened in your presence that will help your creativity and imagination come to fusion. Every writer is different and will have their own originality. You have got to search for and find the hero inside yourself. I believe that everyone has it, but it may be hidden in your daily routine, until you dig deep to find it, and the choice and decision is yours to bring it out for the world to see. Think about it, when you light a candle in a dark room, you do not put it under a table, otherwise the room will remain dark, you will have to put the candle on top of the table to light up the room, same thing with your creative imagination, you will have to  nurture it and write it down, then get it published for the world to read, then market and promote your novel enough for your audience to benefit from your creativity.

One thing I would like to share with you is that true life stories that you find interesting may help you to develop a creative story you are trying to hatch. Some authors have completely made their fictional stories with the help of events that they have seen happened. Writing is a journey, and you cannot hundred percent predict where you are going or where you are going to end up at the onset of your journey. That is why you will see yourself importing suspense, twist and turns. Using monologue, dialogue, and soliloquy etc.

What message are you trying to share or pass across to your readers? How are you going to deliver it through drama and entertainment with your creativity and craft? These are some of the questions that you will have to ponder on.

The purpose and aim of my writing this book therefore is to provide you with a step-by-step guide through your journey of writing your mystery thriller novel using your inherent and innate talent of creativity and imagination.

What is the driving force or the motivating factor behind your writing your story? What are the trigger factors?

Most fiction writer are also film lovers. Watching a well edited film in your genre helps you to build on the sequence of your idea. It will bring your ideas to reality. Just write down your thoughts and how to create your plot, scenes, discoveries, and revelations in your own story. Nurture that idea by writing it down – what I mean is you should transfer the idea from your head onto a paper using your pen, alternatively you can type it all up as it comes, so that you won’t lose it. 

Before you start the first chapter of this book, I have included Practise exercises that will help you start writing your novel straight-away.  As you read through the chapters of this book, you will find out that I have included hands-on exercises to help you start writing your novel straightaway.  The best way to keep you on track is to begin writing your story following the exercises you are engaged with in this book.  Further below is a list of the practise exercises included in the chapters of this book. 

In Chapter 1 of this book, I gave examples of what your readers are looking out for and what gets them to continue to turn the pages. Suspense, the pace, the mystery, twists, and turns as well as your humour and that unique style of passing all of these across helps you to entertain and inform readers in a pleasurable manner.

The purpose of this book, therefore, is to guide and show you, using step by step techniques on how to craft your story and ultimately set you up for breakthrough and success from the beginning of your writing journey. Writing a successful mystery thriller is doable and it can be likened to setting out on a journey and you can assume that you are on the driver's seat driving your car to an unknown destination at the onset of your journey. This book will help you to start thinking of how to hook your readers from the very first line of the first chapter of your crime fiction thriller novel by setting out screenplay, plot, twist, turns and making your story deep, rich, compelling, and riveting. The techniques I have shared in this book will help your basic writing of a novel and will help you in writing a crime fiction genre and other genres alike.  You will learn how to draft your skeletal plan which you intend to follow for building your plot and how to change when you've imported your twist and turns. The main point you should be mindful of is not to drift too far away from your purpose, theme, goal, and objective for your storyline.

And most importantly, reading a book like this one will guide you through your writing journey on a Step-by-Step basis to make your mystery thriller the best it can be. Like I already said, I have included in most chapters, hands-on exercises to help you start writing your novel straightaway. This step-by-step practical guide will spur you on to begin crafting your characters as you read through the chapters. One of the reasons why I have decided to write this book is to make you go through the steps you need to take to begin writing your fiction novel.

I have tried to keep it short and simple covering topics that are relevant – Again, in Chapter 1, I discussed how to begin writing your introductory and opening chapter.  This chapter also covered the craft of choosing your characters and establishing your setting. I touched on how to make the crime scene happen and how you can work your story backwards.  You will have to make it your own and give it your own unique style with a personal mixture of your own ideas, your own voice, your views, and that of your audience - the public and your readers. You will need to have your reader’s expectations as well as their projected interpretations at the back of your mind when you are creating your plots and scenes.  There are many ways of using your imagination to create events and character in your mystery thriller. It is important for you to work out what you think is best for you as you establish your settings. 

In Chapters 5, I discussed various narrative voice. And in Chapter 6, I discussed the importance of crafting and how you should go about writing where the crime took place, the time, and location where it happened in your story settings.

In Chapter 7, I discussed how to decide and describe your protagonist and how to determine what the protagonist in the scene believe in and why? We looked at the goal of the protagonist in the scene and his expectations of what is going to happen. I covered how you should make clear who your antagonist or villain is and to make clear to your readers, where the crime scene is? Who carried out the detective work? What are their names?  Can you describe them? I highlighted the role of humour and suspense and the part that they can play in a mystery novel.  Doing your research is paramount. Staying on track is important. 

In Chapter 8 and 9, I covered how you can construct your novel by using creating scene cards strategy, the more specific your scene cards and scenes are the better and clearer is your story will be.  I showed you examples and samples of scene cards that I personally used while constructing some of my mystery crime fiction thrillers to help you understand the strategy.  In Chapter 10, I explored how you can go about creating Headings and Chapters for your book.  I took you through how to create a Table of Content for your book and linking your table of content to the book chapters through page numbers. I have included a sample table of content from one of my books to help you with grasping how it is done and how I went about doing it in my own book.  In Chapter 11, I took you through the rudiments of creating The Crime scene for crime fiction mystery novels.  Chapter 12 covered Detective work and those involved in classic mystery novels.  In Chapter 13, I explained the role of Suspense in a novel and how it can keep your readers glued to your story.

In Chapter 14, I covered explaining court processes and what you need to know about using Courtroom setting in your legal thriller and how you can make things dramatically interesting to readers and your audience.  How to put press interviews across to your readers as well as your voice and your message.  How to articulate court argument, controversies, and cross examinations. 

In Chapter 16, I took you through the definition of editing, formatting, and proofreading and how best to go about doing the three for your manuscript.  I discussed how you can create the right environment to write your novel.  We touched on how you can write your checklist to follow when writing your novel and how you can start the first draft of your novel. In Chapter 18, I explained what you need to know about the difference between Flash fiction, short stories, Novelettes, Novellas and Novels.

In Chapter 22, I extensively discussed how best to get your novel published and most importantly promoting and putting a marketing plan strategy in place and how to implement your marketing plan to help you reach your target audience in your genre. I have no doubt that you will find the marketing information and tips that I have offered in this chapter useful and should get you started on the path of how best to promote your book and reach more readers. Once you start off with a mindset to promote and market your book, one thing will then lead you to another as you head towards your way to success.  A marketing plan is an effective way to get your book into the hands of your target audience because at the end of the day, if you really think about the reality of it, your target audience are the audience that you wrote your book for.  As an author, it is your responsibility to be proactive in gaining new readership and selling more books.  This responsibility should continue to happen before, during and even way after your book has been published. Marketing your book will ensure that your book reaches the right readers and those you can help the most.  As you promote your book, you promote your author’s name, and you grow your platform made of fans who appreciate the work that you do through your writing. It is a tested fact that your book marketing plan will make or break your book’s success, and that is the reason why you should invest both time and money on marketing your book with a book marketing plan strategy put in place. 

Other topics covered in Chapters 17, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, and Chapter 22 include:

In Chapter 23, I shared my personal experience of what led me to write my first novel (The Plea on Oath) and how the book you are holding in your hands came into being-the analysis, overview, review, and significance of How to Write a good and compelling novel from your imagination to a thriller. I have also included 20 recommended writing checklists for a first-time novelist in chapter 23 and I hope this book will meet the need of aspiring novelists as a Self-help Creative Writing Masterclass.

Finally, the book is glazed at the end with a glossary of technical terms (Part A) which I have tried to keep as simple as possible and to make them easy to understand in clear English Language. Most of the technical terminologies have been developed as useful analytical and explanatory tools to make them clear and helpful for writers to use and  remember them.  The glossary of this book explained the meaning of some Part of speech in (Part B) and some Figure of speech in (Part C) of which I think writers should be familiar with. 

I hope this piece of work will be useful to those aspiring to write a novel or in fact anyone aiming to write generally, I hope that you will be able to take from each of the chapters what you think will be useful to you, in order to explore and to craft your own unique writing style when using your creativity and your peculiar voice to entertain and captivate your readers.

Happy reading and please do enjoy your writing journey!

I am grateful to the Chartered Institute of Libraries and Information Professionals (CILIP) United Kingdom for my admission to chartership and for all the training I have acquired to develop professionally.

I am grateful to BIALL—British and Irish Association of Law Librarians—for the priceless seed of knowledge by which I was well nurtured over the years through legal information management, in particular my professional membership in the Journal of the BIALL, Legal Information Management and Cambridge University Press.

Lorna Ibidun Adekaiyaoja (nee Ademokun)

LL. B (Hons). BL. MCLIP. MBIALL

November 2023

Chapter 1

The beginning - Introductory and Opening chapter – Characters and setting.

Holding your first book in your hands – convert and conceive your imagination into a thriller!

When you hold your first book in your hands, there is an overwhelming fulfilment that you will be unable to explain. You will not only be excited for what you have just done! but you will be most proud of yourself for achieving a great feat. Writing helps you to explore your creativity with great courage, skill, or strength.  Starting and finishing your book requires determination and hard work.  Your first novel helps you to let out the creativity inside yourself as it flows out like rivers of living water. Your creativity become unrestrained like a terrier and the more you write, the more you want to continue to write. And then you will find yourself repeating the process.  Don’t worry if you’ve started a book that you have abandoned for some reason, it is normal, but don’t let that discourage you from picking things up from where you last stopped. You can rehash your idea! You will learn and unearth that there is so much more that you can do with that book you’ve started if only you are ready to convert your imagination into a thriller! The purpose of this book, therefore, is to help you to achieve your goal of writing a good novel. Great books make the world go round. The aim of this book is to guide you through the craft of writing your novel on a step-by-step basis. 

Definition

What is a Novel?

A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically a novel is a work of prose fiction that tells a narrative over an extended length. It is written in prose and published as a book.

‘’The novel is one of the more common works of fiction that we encounter. A novel often involves multiple major characters, sub-plots, conflicts, points of view, and twists. Due to its considerable length, a novel is meant to be read over a period of days. The plot moves forward through many characters, actions, thoughts, time periods, and situations. The reader often feels that the story deviates and is affected by the involvement of different sub-stories and sub-plots, by the passage of time, or by the involvement of new important characters– this is considered the real beauty of a novel. ’’Article written by Syed Hunbbel Meer (July 20, 2022)- Accessed online on 27.03.2023 at: The Difference Between Short Stories, Novelettes, Novellas, and Novels - Owlcation. ¹

What is a story? 

The Oxford Dictionary of English define story as ‘’An account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.’’ The reality of a good story is that it is not only created for entertainment, but it transcends far beyond just entertaining readers.  Moral lessons are learnt from stories that we read.  Our knowledge is enhanced by the stories we read. A story has the power to change how we view the world. A well told story can remotely mould and shape up our view and perspective and our ideology on a specific matter.

An entertaining story therefore will enable readers to pay attention to many other things that we could learn from reading a novel. A good and well delivered storyline help us