This special “Ben Settle Show” podcast episode reveals my advice to an aspiring novelist on how to get started writing a novel, and some tricks for making it go smoothly.
Specifically, we rap about:
- An unusual way to use the number 7 to plot your novels (learned from the book “A Clockwork Orange”).
- The exact “templates” I use while structuring my stories.
- How my novel “Zombie Cop” was influenced by the TV show “24”. (And how to use your favorite TV shows to pace your novels in a way people like to read.)
- Dean Koontz’s secret to having your readers’ imaginations do most of the “heavy lifting” for you while writing your novels. (This one tip alone made it 10x’s easier to begin writing and finish my novels.)
- How to bang out your first draft—fast. (I learned this from studying comic book artists, and it took a lot of the pressure off.)
- The exact time you should to stop writing to create the best, most interesting stories. (This advice is just as important for writing emails, too.)
- The two best screen writers to study to learn dialogue. (All these guys’ movies and TV shows have great examples of how to write dialogue.)
- An easy and simple way to make almost any character (even dull and boring characters) more interesting.
- Two authors to study that are masters at writing in the first person. (If’n you want to write in the first person, of course.)
- Why one of my favorite novels has no real plot. (And the lessons you can learn from it for your own novels.)
- My favorite resources for learning how to write fiction.
- And so on, and so forth…
Even if you have no desire to write fiction, a lot of this can be used in your emails, ads, and other marketing pieces.
Ben Settle
