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For those who like to hear stories, they won't miss reading novels, yes?
(Cough)... Actually, the first story that Lazy heard was through watching 2D animation cartoons from Japan, "Anime." I was still an elementary school student at that time. After feeling satisfied enough watching those anime, Lazy turned his attention to reading manga comics. Finally, Lazy arrived at his current favorite hobby, which is reading novels. At that time I finally realized that some of the anime and manga I read were adaptations of those novels.
At that time I was still in middle or high school; to be more specific, I forgot... The novels I like come from three Asian countries. Not only from Japan, there are also other Asian novels, such as from Korea and China. ‘My House of Horrors’ from ‘I Can Fix Air Conditioners', the publisher is Qidian; you can read the English version at Webnovel. ‘The New Gate’ from ‘Kazanami Shinogi,’ the publisher is AlphaPolis and Syosetu. Next, this one is quite popular, 'Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint' from Sing-Syong (싱숑), published by Munpia and Naver; the English version can be found on Webnovel and Yan Press… and so on.
Ok, back to the topic, 'What is a novel?', to be honest, my graduation major is not literature but art. So to know more basics about 'what is a novel?' I keep collecting information from various sources. I want to know 'what is a novel?', and at the same time I have dreamed of making a novel that can be adapted into a comic or webtoon, but right now I'm still quite confused. So writing this definition of a novel helps me understand more clearly 'what a novel is'.
What is a novel?
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Let's start from the first one, namely the word 'Novel': the word 'novel' comes from the word 'novella' from Italian, the plural form of 'Novellus' which is shortened to 'Novus'. It means "new," "news," or "short story about something new."
Fiction can be true or made up, but it is ultimately presented as something made up. A novel is a “fictional prose narrative," categorized as a genre of fictional literature; the narrative is book-length, has around 20,000 words or more, and usually depicts characters and actions with a certain degree of realism about the life story of a person and his/her surroundings.
Regardless of whether the novel contains real events, for example, Chinese novels mostly take information from the real world for the settings in their novels. When I tried to find information in the novel whether it was true or false, it was true but only a small part; the rest has been distorted by the author to fit into the story plot, so in the end it was all just made up.
In short, a novel is a long-written story about imaginary people and events.
Very good, so the main ingredient for writing a novel is the ability to “imagine”; the bigger your brain hole, the greater your ability to make things up, pfft~
What about 'content' in the novel?
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But you wouldn't think that having a wild imagination would make you good enough to write a novel, would you? The answer is "No."
I also have a very wild imagination, until, in the end, I made up something to create a unique universe that only existed in my imagination. There are lots of different races with their own characteristics. Their abilities are even more unreasonable compared to ordinary humans or animals... Bah bah bah, (cough) don't talk about my made-up background story; let's continue the discussion... Hmm, what did we talk about before?
Oh, right, after having 'imagination', we begin to understand the intrinsic structure of the novel, which is a kind of collection of elements that exist in the novel.
Such as theme and message, characters and characterization, setting, plot and flow, point of view, and language style.
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Theme and message
‘Theme’ is the 'big idea' that the author wants to convey to their readers. In other words, critical beliefs such as about life, views, opinions, criticism, and others that the author wants to convey through writing novels, dramas, short stories, poems, or other literary works. These beliefs, or ideas, transcend cultural boundaries.
'Theme' is very close to the message in the story; besides, the message provides a 'theme' to be a benchmark in the story.
Therefore, you must determine the 'Novel Theme' first, because it will follow you throughout your journey of writing a novel. All elements in the novel are directly related to the 'theme'; such as the setting, characters, plot, and genre of the novel, they cannot be separated from the 'theme'.
As you can see, famous works can produce a variety of 'quote' sentences that readers can remember. These 'quotes' are born from the initial theme of your story. For example, you can see in the 'Quote Collection' that I have collected from various novels that I have read.
Characters and characterization
Come on, you read novels because you want to know about the story of a certain character, right? Yes, I think so too.
Characters are the main actors in a story. The most important one, of course, is the 'protagonist'. In addition to the protagonists, there are also supporting characters, cannon fodder characters, and others. From the characters you describe their nature, traits, style, movements, and behavior, which can be called characterization.
There are various forms, positions, backgrounds, and characteristics of characters. You should consider it carefully, especially if it is linked to the story plot. The decisions, situations, and events that occur in the story are due to the characters. Therefore, there is a kind of sentence that says, "the plot exists because of the characters." It can't go beyond that, otherwise a situation called 'out of character (OOC)' will occur.
Out of character or known as OOC, the author has already determined the actions of a character according to their characterization, they do what the author expects, and knows what kind of person they are. If their actions do not match their setting, they do not do what you expect, the reader calls them OOC.
Just like this, one day in a certain plot, the author made a betrayal scene, a certain character has a setting full of justice, sharp with various oddities, and hates traitors, for that he should realize something and be angry at the traitorous character. But no, because the plot asks him to be blind or unaware of the betrayal of that particular character. For the sake of the next scene about hunting down the traitor. Although the traitorous character is just a small actor who is not so important. It can be annoying to the reader because it is very OOC.
Setting
Plot and flow
If other elements make a novel look full, then the 'plot and flow' is the main dish in the novel that makes the novel look interesting to the reader.
The flow is the series of storylines in a novel, from the opening to the end of the story. Meanwhile, the plot is the events, scenes, and situations that are expected or unexpected that occur in the story, usually called a plot twist. The two combined can produce interesting and unexpected chemical reactions in the novel. Especially the plot, it can give problems to the characters and also trigger the conflicts in the novel.
There are many ways to design a plot or compose the flow of a story. I can't tell you the exact details because it's true that there are many ways to create plots and flows. Different authors design them with different situations and sequences, but at least I'll give you the general basis of plots and flows.
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- Exposition = The beginning of the story, [Rough explanation of the conflict, character introductions, and story setting].
- Raising Action = Here the problem comes to the character, let's see what our character will do?
- Climax = Here the conflict suddenly erupts, there are choices that must be determined by our character. Hehehe, this is where the surprise comes~
- Falling Action = Tsk, conflict is no longer a problem for our character, he has found a way to resolve it. What a pity! (Cough)... It's time to take action!
- Resolution = The ending of the story, [the protagonist feels happy or the bad actor goes to jail or dies(?) whatever].
That's for the basic plot that is already generally known. For the rest, keep reading novels or you can visit my pinterest, I created a special folder for story writing tips there.
Point of View
Point of view: from opinions and ways of thinking that come from a person's views. In fictional literature, especially novels, point of view is the way storytellers tell their stories. Depending on how close a storyteller is to their story, it is known that there are three types of point of view.
The first person point of view has the pronouns "I" and "We", the storyteller tells the story in a style like they are writing a diary. The pronouns spoken as the protagonist, namely "I", "We", "Me", or "Us" only have the limits of opinions and thoughts of one person or a particular protagonist. What they tell comes from what they see, hear, and feel personally.
The second person point of view is "You". This one is quite similar to a critic and a suggestive, which is a person who can express his opinions about the behavior, habits, shortcomings, advantages, and other stories of the person they are talking to and is sometimes used by psychologists, because the storyteller has a target to tell. This perspective can convince readers and make them feel empathy, because the substitute words are "You" and "Yours", readers will feel involved after hearing the story.
And finally the third person point of view is "He" and "She", the perspective that is most often used and is the mainstream in telling stories. The focus is on the story, the opinions and thoughts of the storyteller are insignificant in the story.
Because this perspective is so well known, those who have seen it say it is very easy and interesting to use, and at the same time difficult to use.
Compared with the “first person point of view” which relies only on experience and the “second person point of view” which relies only on objective and subjective observation, the “third person point of view” really uses all those things but also uses complicated technical work, it tells a story using a variety of reactive materials.
All elements in the novel must be considered carefully, especially in the processing of the plot and flow, then the information on the setting and characters must be detailed enough, clear, and reasonable, aka there must be an explanation even if it is made up. Because in the third person point of view you will literally create a world from scratch. You see that a "world" has its own laws and regulations, right?
You don't just tell about experiences and feelings from the first point of view and you also can't just judge and describe someone's condition from the second point of view.
So the third person point of view can be called “the omniscient point of view”.
Because it is an omniscient point of view, what is explained in the story must be fair and even, not only to the protagonist, but to any characters, locations, and situations in there. There must be a reason, there must be a cause, and there must be an effect.
The thoughts of supporting characters, or cannon fodder, and even pedestrians need to be explained even if only for a few paragraphs. Conditions in the surrounding environment, then some made-up theories, and also knowledge that cannot be distinguished between right and wrong, all of that can also be narrated in a novel.
It's like writing a biography or history but with imagined facts and made-up situations.
The author tells the history of "He" or "She". The story of "He" or "She" can be expressed freely but also in more detail.
Due to the many considerations, for experienced writers these things are not a hassle and even help them express themselves without limitations. As for me? Hahaha, I feel so tired, zzz…
But that is just the basic understanding of the third person point of view, actually not only that, this point of view also has several derivative versions. Such as 'limited third person', 'omniscient third person', or 'objective third person'. I'm so tired of talking about it, so we can skip that later.
(I'll add to it later if I have the intention to continue explaining it... Ooh my laziness has relapsed again~)
Language Style
Wuwuwu, finally near the end of the article~
Language style, aka writing style; formal, informal, and non-formal, you understand them, right?
For fictional literature, especially novels, of course, informal language is used, or sometimes even non-formal language can appear occasionally. Back to the discussion about the theme of the story, how to present the big idea depends on how you narrate it. In addition, a series of matching words and the use of the right atmosphere can give the reader a first impression of what you are telling. Is your story lighthearted, humorous, sad, passionate, or scary? That's where the use of language style is needed.
For example, one day a certain writer decided to create a novel with a horror and comedy theme. Your first impression of the novel, if there is the word "horror" is definitely scary, right? And mysterious? Judging from watching a horror movie in terms of sound effects and then the opening to the middle of watching the movie, you have imagined various kinds of surprises and jump scare points that will be narrated by the author of the novel. But it would be doubtful if it was added with the comedy genre.
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Reference:
Wikipedia, Britannica, Medium—Written by Kitiara Pascoe, Ruangguru, Study.com : Themes, Study.com : Third Person Point of View, Collins Dictionary, Walden University, Cambridge Dictionary, etc.