Chapter Five: Setting The Book

It's very important to understand the intricacies that goes into writing a book. Settling the plot, the storyline, the chapters, the characters, the mood, the development of story and characters are very crucial in a book, so in this chapter, we will talk about what actually goes in writing a book. 

Once you've decided the story of your book, you need to decide the number of chapters you want to wrap up the book into. The book shouldn't be too fast not it should be too slow paced to bore the readers unnecessarily. You can also decide by number of pages too. 

Let's say you want to write 30-33 chapters, or you decided to write 240 pages around in a book. You have a story in your mind, but that story only is an idea, now how to stretch that little idea into a lovely long and beautiful novel? 

That's where the bifurcation comes in. For example, you decided that you wanted to write 250 pages in your book. Now divide your book into three parts- The first 60-70 pages will be the beginning of your book, the middle of the book is a bit lengthy many times due to sub plots and therefore can be stretched till 100 pages, and the climax again could be of 60-70 pages. 

Even if you go by number of chapters, the first ten chapters could be the beginning, the last ten can be the climax and the rest of the chapters can be the middle of your book. 

Characters in the book:

Not just the story, the characters of your book have to be extremely strong. Agastya, Amaya and Rehan, the three lead characters of my very first book, "The Unending Maze" were deeply loved by the readers. Characters makes the heart of the book, you just don't create fictional characters, you live them. You live the story with them, you cry when they cry and feel the pain, you laugh when you laugh and enjoy the happiness, that how you bring characters to life. A book is different than a movie, here the readers cannot see the actors acting as per the story and that's why it totally depends upon the writer's skills to make the characters come alive. The more real the characters will feel, the more connection the readers will feel with their emotions in the story. 

You also have to decide who will be your protagonist in the story: a man or a woman, or an individual of any other gender preferences, as you would've to weave the character and story in that mindset. 

If you're a male writer writing for a woman's character, don't write like a man, write like a woman. Same way, write as a man even if you're a woman if you're writing for a male character. 

Writers don't just create stories and characters, they live them. 

It's necessary to for the plot and the characters of the novel to swiftly and subtly grow with the pace of the book. They should not remain stagnant throughout. Now what does growth means? It's simple, as in real life, most people grow with the passage of time either positively or negatively. The very same way, the characters in your book has to grow in shades. The positive ones can get dark and the dark ones can turn the heroes. Remember Professor Snape in Harry Potter? That's character development in a subtle way. 

Likewise, the plot has to grow too. The story cannot remain at the same point. You cannot be stuck on the same scene for ten pages in a book, that's too slow. You have to move forward in a straight line and not go around in circles to confuse them. 

In my second novel "The Incurable Cure", I wrote in time frames in a complex way, as half of the story works in past. The biggest challenge to me in that novel was to ensure that the thousands of readers do not end up confusing themselves in the timeframes, the story had to grow in a clear way. That's what you should define too. How can you work on your story plot and character development in the most natural, interesting and unique way. 

Plot and characters, their journey and their moods are all the spices which gives a flavor to your book and makes the reader crave for more. As a writer, it's upon your skill how well you can fulfill your reader's cravings.