What makes a good novel?

[TheLordOfChaos201]

Here's an opportunity for you to tell us what you feel makes a good novel. you could mention any single quality, or you could list the sum of all your greatest conclusions.

I will make a poll later based off you insights

this is also a place where you can offer writers advice from your experience for those who are just starting out in the game. what advice would you give to yourself if you could revisit a past version of you when you first started writing?

pointers so far:

1)
an imminent threat and sense of urgency. there must be a reason for your characters journey, or a cause for them to keep on trying

2)
Prophecy. the reader must feel that there is a reason why this particular character is the centre of the story. they are the chosen on, 'they who will decide the fate of all existence'

3)
An adversary. adversaries both challenge and belittle the main character. preventing them from relaxing and becoming weak, as will as stoping them from becoming all powerful. in a sense the adversary is the threat of death. don't work hard enough and you die work too hard and I'll becoming for you next

4)
Struggle. nothing should be gained easily. your character should only achieve through great difficulty or else what is the point of their successes if they did earn them.

5)
expectations. what is expected of your character and what happened when they fail to achieve these expectations, and what if what is expected of them ist great at all? hoe does your character react.

6)
Goal. where is your story expected to go, what do your character think will happen or plan to do next? how do these plans unfold in reality?

7)
always out immediate comfort at arms length. their earns sympathy from your readers and makes that awkward hugging scene suddenly a long time coming.

8)
never ignore the obvious. by acknowledging the obvious you win both sides of the audience. those that disapprove and those that approve

9)
Reaction is far more important than explanation. when conveying emotion, how other character react to the emotion is far more important then explaining the emotion tears and so on

 

[Chaosy]

These days I more or less have two requirements.

1. I only read fantasy books
2. Cannot be too cliché

I cannot enjoy a book where everyone lived happily ever after without any drawback. I suppose you can say I like "Dark Fantasy"

 

[The_Silent]

Good characters that the reader can empathize with. The story has no emotional impact if the reader does not care for the character it happens to.

Don't make main characters perfect, nobody is perfect, it makes them inhuman and hard to empathize with. Furthermore, a good story makes the character progress emotionally, if somebody is perfect, the story is already over in that regard.

For the same reason, making the villian perfect, or perceived to be perfect, makes them easy to hate, and makes the challenges the hero has to go through seem more challenging. Then again, this might lead to a flat villain, which is not a good thing either. Sympathetic villains is ín.

 

[Gottfried]

Read some "top" books... like ASIOAF, Lords of the Rings (Unfortunately I do not know any novel, except the ones, which I learned in school). Watch tv-series and films too. For example after some top (according to IMDB) series and films, I gained some skill to write a story.

 

[Celaquil]

Genius, plain and simple.

And that is about as simple, or complex, as it gets.

Obviously I could go on and on about all the factors in detail of what makes a good novel, which in turn depends completely on the genre
you are trying to capture. But they all boil down to that same old word: Genius. Because if you're not a wizard in most ways, the novel
won't be good. It needs to be engaging, enthralling and enticing. How you capture an audience and hold their attention in any art is...
Well, it varies completely from person to person and from artist to artist.

Now, if we shift the question from "what makes a good novel" to "what are you looking for in a novel", then the answer changes at once:

I look for believable characters and stories, I look for good writing and I look for creativity. I want the writer to give me something that I have
never been given before. I like playful writers, people who challenge convention. Which is why my current reading project, The Discworld by
Terry Pratchet, is extremely enticing to me. He's extremely unique in his way of writing and his absolutely ridiculous world-building.

And while I love stories like LoTR and ASOIAF to death, I've come to realise that such tall tales can easily fall into either becoming too much
of a history book or too much of a lexicon, which in parts I think both those stories happen to do. That's not a critique, it's just something
I've realised I don't particularly love. Smaller stories about smaller narratives with more focus on character development and interaction
is much more to my liking. Hence why I still hold The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch as my all time favourite books, and the series
on a whole as one of my all time favourite book series.

 

[MasterTrainer]

To answer the question, I would first define what a novel is, in my opinion:
A series of events narrated by either an omniscient third-party or by the characters themselves (shifting perspectives like what G.R.R.M. does with A Song of Ice and Fire), creating intricate dynamic relationships as events progress, resulting in a captivating imaginative mental sequence that is equal to or even better than that of a movie. A novel is an grand dish made by putting together its prime ingredients (characters, settings, etc.), designed differently in a mental kitchen unique to each author.

A good novel then, is one that follows the mentioned premise, but can also reflect realistic scenarios, that over the course of the story, can connect to its reader, to a personal level, without seeming like a self-help book or a diary entry. A good novel follows the adheres to the premise, but plays with the prose and technique, and is able to challenge the conventions set before it.

 

[hyperstar]

Doesn't matter with the size or length.
Mean that storyline is in balance, keeps thrills go on by. That's a novel matters with content wise only

Characters, up to yours.

 

[The_Messenger]

Writing a novel is pretty much a recipe you, as a writer, need to follow. To make a good novel you need to have realistic characters, description, lore, background and decent action pacing.

Some books (like Tom Clancy's modern spy novels or his books in general) start with the near end of the story to give you an idea of how high the stakes are or to just nail down your attention. A lot of people kick off their stories with a "surprise it's the end of the world" event when the said main protagonist was trying to get some groceries or was walking down the street. So its basically a trick to hook the reader right from the start.

Make your characters as real as possible. That means they can feel fear, be greedy or even turn on you for various reasons. Avoid those boyscout protagonists where they would do anything for their friends or comrades (that's why Superman kept dying but people kept pulling him out of the grave). People are flawed, always. Not even Mahatma Ganhdi was without flaws. If the reader isn't emotionally invested in the characters or their background; the character then becomes just bland and the reader will quickly lose interest and drop the story.
The main character doesn't always have to hog the spotlight because... you know... obviously he/she can do this "thing" that needs to be done and no one else can possibly be able to do it or succeed. Some supporting or secondary characters have often stolen the story or outranked the main character in popularity because they were able to either impress the reader through their morality, way of thinking or acting in certain situations, character or their background that enabled the reader to form an emotional bridge (like humble begginings, a difficult childhood, lost someone dear).

The story doesn't always have to kick off strong, it needs a decent and planned pacing. Not too slow (as to avoid boring the reader), not too fast (don't just throw out every possible plot twist or threat to the world at once) and try to avoid as much as possible cliches. The slightest hint will automatically telegraph some readers a key plot moment (for example), making the story and events predictable. Try to avoid that moment where a reader might get that gut feeling about "he'll betray me" and two pages later that exactly what goes on.

Detailed description is key and a must do. The reader can't form an image or picture the unfolding events if the story is flat. Like for example "The guys arrive at the village", you need to specify the time, weather, what they see or feel. In some cases add a barter between characters, some can be chatty on a long trip, its dumb to believe that no one said a word to anyone else on a day long road trip. Characters can feel the weather, hear sounds, make minor movements that hint their disposition or next move. But be careful, too much description will flood the story and bore the reader. You don't need a full page to describe the weather, only a few well picked words and constructive sentences.

You are allowed to kill characters both secondary, supportive or even the main character. To successfuly do that, the reader must be emotionally atached to the character. No one will care if a flat character dies out. But don't randomly kill off a character, it needs to be both realistic and meaningful to the story. Otherwise you can kill a character that you see no further use for in the grand scale. If you don't trigger an event that will kill the character it will just die out on its own either by being forgotten or just goes into the "character graveyard" when the story moves forward. If its difficult for you as a writer to kill a character then it should be the same for a reader that is emotionally invested (if you did your job right).

The ending of the story doesn't always have to be happy. We all know by now how the Resident Evil end. With a bright blue sky, sunny and quiet day or just ride off into the sunset after what should have been a week in hell (those endings always anoyed me). There are consequences in a world and even if you do everything you can (right choices, save everyone, restore the world to perfection), some things just aren't meant to be. Relationships can decline in due time, efforts can be undone and some acts or choices just delayed the inevitable or brought just about enough time for a better outcome. Its not always a bad thing to end in tragedy or get a "dark hero" ending. As long as there is no bad end where "evil now rules the world, the end" a reader should be satasfied with it.

 

[KeK.]

I read a lot of fantasy novels. My favorite ones are interesting throughout the text from start to finish. I've read books that have really great openers that transition into extremely dull sequences like traveling from point A to point B, boring subplots that are far less interesting than the main plot (or boring side character), and reuse certain phrases over and over again until I'm sick of seeing them. I get it, you really like that phrase/expression/figure of speech. The quintessential example of this crime is Wheel of Time.

Beyond that, cliches are the death of a novel unless the reader is criminally inexperienced with the tropes being used. No one really wants to read a rehash of something that's been done before.

Here's my best advice: the characters in a story must be balanced. That generally means the characters must suffer, struggle, and experience misery and conflict. This can be taken to an extreme, (some writers inject tons of violence, gore, rape, etc) but who would you rather read about? The handsome hero who effortlessly slays the dragon with the sword, winks at the princess and makes her instantly fall head over heels in love with him, and becomes king when the villagers all realize what a great guy he is? Or the guy who struggles and works for everything he gets, loses his eye in a fight, gets cheated out of the best things that ever happen to him, and still somehow manages to win in the end?

 

[TheLordOfChaos201]

I read a lot of fantasy novels. My favorite ones are interesting throughout the text from start to finish. I've read books that have really great openers that transition into extremely dull sequences like traveling from point A to point B, boring subplots that are far less interesting than the main plot (or boring side character), and reuse certain phrases over and over again until I'm sick of seeing them. I get it, you really like that phrase/expression/figure of speech. The quintessential example of this crime is Wheel of Time.

Beyond that, cliches are the death of a novel unless the reader is criminally inexperienced with the tropes being used. No one really wants to read a rehash of something that's been done before.

Here's my best advice: the characters in a story must be balanced. That generally means the characters must suffer, struggle, and experience misery and conflict. This can be taken to an extreme, (some writers inject tons of violence, gore, rape, etc) but who would you rather read about? The handsome hero who effortlessly slays the dragon with the sword, winks at the princess and makes her instantly fall head over heels in love with him, and becomes king when the villagers all realize what a great guy he is? Or the guy who struggles and works for everything he gets, loses his eye in a fight, gets cheated out of the best things that ever happen to him, and still somehow manages to win in the end?

I fully agree.

I learnt a few writing methods over the years and the one that works best for me is the fact that the characters in your story need to struggle. it needs to be a challenge otherwise what is the point? both the reader and the writer want to experience a feeling of great strife leading up to their ultimate accomplishment. you want to fear for the main characters, that there is a real chance they might fail or might die accomplishing their end goal. a sort of longing for them to succeed but yet knowing it's not going to happen without some lose and suffering.

on that same note your story absolutely needs to have a known end goal. your reader need to know at all times exactly what your main characters is aiming to achieve even the smaller goals. this gives your readers something to fight for and holds their attention better than slipping into a murky unknown storyline without any point in sight.

finally in my opinion your story needs to have an antagonist. the enemy of your main character doesn't even need to be a person, it just needs to prevent their dreams from coming true. your antagonist can even be your main characters mental or physical wellbeing. they could be born with a birth defect, or be confined to rules set to their race or creed of people. in a way an antagonist is a limit, which doesn't necessarily always need to be present but is absolutely necessary to break down your character when they become to confident and achieve too much. the antagonist prevents your character from being a Mary sue. perfect characters frustrate a reader because there is never anything your character can get wrong which makes every challenge and obstruction pointless in the face of your perfect god like character. an antagonist however disrupts this perfection by always being 1 foot taller than your character, that little bit better that the antagonist can knock your character to the floor and laugh at their attempts at fighting back.

prophesies are also a good tool, but not always necessary. if you introduce the story with a few hints and hunches from people saying your character is destined for great things... you might find your readers wonder just what are these great things...and are they necessarily good great things or bad?