102 Ways to Write a Novel

Once you have decided what your novel is about, you have decided your subject. But you still need to decide your theme – to decide what your book is going to say. An example that Alex Quick gives is that ‘war’ may be the subject of a novel whilst ‘war is the engine of history’ may be its theme.

This whole question of subject and theme is one of the 102 ways of writing a novel (to borrow its title) that Mr Quick explores in his new book. These ‘ways of writing’ are largely ways of thinking, ways you can approach the writing of your novel.  Other ‘ways’ include giving your characters hidden depths, deploying your minor characters, the relationship between character and plot, approaching that important first sentence, and many more (up to 102!).

These are all considerations you should spend time thinking about before you even start your novel, and this new book shows you how to bring creativity to all of them.