WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WRITE A GOOD NOVEL?

Dear Friends,

 This is a speech I gave recently at a book launch in Wanstead London.

 It's the launch for a book titled 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN. I have decided to put this speech on here because there are useful tips in it that will help aspiring authors, and those who are writing veterans but want to improve their craft.

 Enjoy it:

                                   'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN

I'll like to start by congratulating the Author of the book we have been  here to launch- Mr 'Dele Akinrin on the successful publishing of 'V' The Olympic man.

As an author of two books, I know and understand the challenge and also the excitement involved in the process of turning what was once an idea into a tangible finished product.

I also thank Mr Akinrin for the opportunity to review his book which is a novel.

  WHAT MAKES A GOOD NOVEL?

Any writer worth her keyboard will tell you there is no single, carved-in-stone Right Way to write a novel. If you want to create a book worthy of being published , you need to study the craft  and the market, then choose the techniques that make the most sense to you.

Discover your own right way.

But here are some tips:

1) START YOUR NOVEL WITH A SURPRISING HOOK

In the book 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN, the author starts the first five pages with opening lines that surprises, intrigues, startles and makes the reader want to know more.

The protagonist in 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN is presented as a dark character, who is full of conflict and has an enormous problem to solve. It makes the book compelling.

2) DON'T OVERLOAD THE BEGINNING WITH BACKGROUND

Don't meander around setting up your story. Don't tell us everything about the main characters history at a go.

A reader is only interested in knowing background after he already has sufficient information about the protagonist

In 'V' The Olympic man this mistake is not made.

3) GIVE YOUR CHARACTERS STRONG GOALS

Your characters must have motivation for what they do. Specific, detailed motivation. When writing a novel, 'the personal pot of gold' of the protagonist must be obvious.

Victor, the protagonist in 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN has clear goals.

4) GIVE YOUR CHARACTERS WEAKNESSES AND FLAWS

A good novel is a story of transformation. You're showing your readers how your characters grow and change, how they overcome (or are overcome by) their problems and flaws. The protagonist in Mr Dele Akinrin's new novel has problems and flaws right from the beginning. He is a diamond in the rough at the beginning. It's later on we see glints of his true heroism. He seems to tumble throughout the book until he truly shines as the book goes on.

5) CREATE POWERFUL CONFLICTS.

Conflict is what keeps a reader turning pages, it's what keeps a reader wondering, "What's going to happen next?

In 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN, there is conflict, real plot, coincidences and misunderstandings. It makes the book worth reading.

6) GIVE EMOTIONAL IMPACT.

What readers want most is to feel the novel they are reading.

Readers want to laugh, cry, hope and worry when they read a novel. In Mr Dele Akinrin's book 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN, there are lots of emotional scenes that will cause goose bumps for the reader.

7) STRIVE FOR MORE DIALOGUE THAN NARRATIVE

Novels that show scenes with action and dialogue creates vivid characters and a fast pace. Novels where the characters words are written compared to narrated is preferable. In 'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN' the author has done a good job creating dialogue not just narrating. To read it is to know it.

8) POLISH YOUR WRITING SKILLS

Passive voice, run-on sentences, grammatical errors/spelling mistakes can affect the sales of a book and a writers writing profession.

'V' THE OLYMPIC MAN, is a well edited and written work with a moral lesson in it.

THE MAKING OF A DREAM.

A quote I once came across reads 'A man with a vision is a mad man until His vision comes to pass'.
People who have a vision in their hearts, people who have a dream have a certain restlessness about them to see their visions or dreams come to pass. Your vision and your dream is the same thing. It's a mental picture and strong desire outlined within you of what you want to achieve and manifest.
We are not created to live purposeless lives, we have been built and designed to fulfil and manifest our dreams. We all have dreams, its what propels us to make the decisions we make and take the steps we take.
There are good dreams/visions as their are bad ones. Your dream is not your purpose but your dream must be linked to your life's purpose. Your purpose is what God has in mind concerning you, Gods dream for you. Your dream must reflect part of, or all of God's purposes for you.
Like everything thats alive, dreams have a stage and process to them. They are listed below:

1) CONCEPTION STAGE- This is the stage where the dream has just come into your heart. The idea has just 'dropped' into you when you perhaps least expected it or when you were going about your daily activities. It dropped into you like seeds are dropped into soil, it happens largely by inspiration.

2) DEVELOPMENT STAGE- This stage or season is where you know within you that your dream is growing, you know it because you can feel it within you, it's getting bigger on the inside. It's at this stage that the details of your dream get clearer and the steps to take to the fulfilment of your dream gets clearer. This stage is also a very vulnerable stage, because fear can increase  as  the  dream  gets  clearer  and this  can  be  overwhelming.
This stage of the dreams 'life' is when you find it easier to connect the dots. In this season, your dreams and ideas must be well protected and guarded from negative people, laziness, enemies, and thoughts of doubt and fear. It's not the time yet to broadcast your dream. It's the time to put your imagination to work and visualise that dream happening.

3) CONFESSION STAGE- This is the season in your dreams stage when you should use your mouth to declare and confess what you see within you and what you feel and know deep down inside. It's the confess it and have it stage, the decree it and see it stage. There is a power in our tongue that can be used for good or evil. Use it to manifest your dreams and fulfil worthy purposes.
At this stage start sharing your dream with those you feel and know can help you bring it to pass. People whose expertise, resources or encouragement you need.

4) ACTION STAGE- It's that time when you have to take some proactive steps towards the manifestation of your dream. It's the period the rubber needs to meet the road. It's that time when talk has become cheap, if you don't take committed steps and actions to the achievement of your dream. At this stage, you might have to write a business plan, see that bank manager, take a loan towards that business, go on a course, seek counsel or whatever it is you need to do to achieve your dream.

5) MANIFESTATION STAGE- This is it! You conceived it, it developed within you, you confessed it, you took steps by taking positive action. Now you're manifesting it. It's when you started that hospital, that business, wrote that book or married that longtime sweetheart of yours.
Enjoy it, revel in it, its the future you wanted. You didnt give up.

THE SWORD OF GOLIATH

The  story of  David  and  Goliath  has  always  been  a  captivating  story. It's  symbolic  in  many  ways  and  has  many  intrigues  to  it.
 It's  a  story  that's  symbolic  of  the  victory  of  light  over  darkness, good  over  evil  and  how  God  uses  the  seemingly  foolish  things  of   the  world  to  confound  the  wise,  the  base  things  to confound  the  mighty.
 Personally  I  like  that  story  because  I am  a  writer  and  I draw  inspiration  from  it  and  a  number  of  life  lessons.
 My  third  book  'SWORD OF GOLIATH'  has it's  inspiration  from  it. It  will be  out  by  year  ending  and  it  promises  to  be  a  fictional, historical  and action  adventure  treat! A  must  read  for  all you  lovers  of fiction  and  action. I will be  out  in  about 4 to 5 months  time. My  fourth  book 'KEEPERS  OF  THE  KEYS' will be  out  early  next  year, also  published  by  Author house publishers.
 You will be  able  to  get  copies  through http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/, http://www.amazon.com/, http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and a host of other online retailers.
I look forward to your views about it.
Olutosin Ogunkolade

The Serpent.

The serpent is an animal usually associated with negativity, satanism and evil. The serpent is a reptile that is often associated with fear when thought about.
 Even scripturally the serpent is often synonymous with the devil, after all the devil chose the image of the serpent when he wanted to tempt Eve, the first woman ever created.
 There is a side to the serpent very few people see or understand. The serpent is a wise animal. The Word acknowledges this - " be wise as serpents, harmless as doves". This is something positive we can glean and learn from the serpent.
 The serpent is a symbol of wisdom. That's why Pharaohs used to wear hats (a Pharaoh's crown) that have the image of serpents in front of them. Pharaoh's understood the importance of wisdom and promoted men who have such a quality. They surrounded themselves with psychics, astrologers, counselors and magicians, men they believed could give their reign some sort of superior advantage.
 Jesus is the wisdom of God, and He hung on a cross. He said " as the bronze serpent of Moses was lifted up, so will He be lifted up. I will not be wrong to say the bronze serpent is symbolically a representation of Jesus.
 "Everything the Lord has created is good" There is good in everything the Lord has created. There is good in the serpent if you choose to see it.

"MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE"

I remember when I was a kid many years ago I used to enjoy watching the Transformers cartoons. 

'Transformers' and 'Masters of the Universe' (He-Man) were my favorite cartoons.

 I liked the concept of cars, vehicles, and planes changing into two legged man like forms known as decepticons and autobots.
There was the starting song that goes ''Transformers more than meets the eye, transformers robots in disguise. Autobots still battle to destroy the evil forces of, of the decepticons''
It's a song I liked and used to look forward to hearing when my favorite cartoon starts.

 But looking back there is more meaning and truth in that song than I realized.
There is a truth in the song that good and evil battle, just the same way it is in real life, light and darkness oppose one another. 

The part that caught my attention more about that song is that statement "more than meets the eye"

That statement is deeper than I have time to explain in this article. 

Things are not always what it seems, and there is usually always more than meets the eye.

There is more to us as people, what we see on the outside is a facade of us, for there is a spirit within. Many of the challenges we face are not ordinary too, and have their roots in sources deeper than we think.
The world we live in is not all there is for there is a realm where all we see originates from. Within our outward countenances there are systems, so many different systems working within our bodies.
There is more than meets the eye to the food we eat. Irrespective of what your food looks like, its broken down and converted  into another form and within it are nutritional values that are beneficial for your body.
Our electronic devices and appliances are also composed of little components which are not seen but our covered up by its outer casing which we see just the same way the human body covers up the hormones, enzymes, chemical reactions, and organs within us.

It's time our perspective changes, its time we learn not to take issues at face value anymore.

IN PURSUIT OF PURPOSE.

The times we are in are times the individual need to know his/her purpose. We live in times when it's very easy to be disillusioned, times where even very established individuals are struggling and and established institutions have gone bankrupt.
It was just yesterday I heard on the news that employment is at an all time high, especially among the youths.
Over one million youths between the ages of 16 to 24 are unemployed in the Uk. And I put it to you that they do not feel needed, they very likely feel unappreciated and lack a sense of purpose. It's not a good thing to be jobless, particularly at that age where young people tend to be restless, when their creativity is at an all time high and they are eager to express it.
When young people feel a sense of purposelessness and idleness it can result in all sorts of vice, vandalism and chaos.
It's the responsibility of every government to see to it that there are programmes, jobs and plat forms in place for young people to express themselves and make a living.
But beyond the responsibility of the government, the youths also have a responsibility to see to it that they don't loose hope, that they conduct themselves properly and seek to make the most of the opportunity life presents to them.
Apart from the government and individual there is also the God factor. God has a plan for us all. He has a purpose for our existence for He is a God who does and creates all things for a reason. We (humans) are His creation and our existence is for a purpose.
That purpose is hidden in Him. It's found through prayer, meditation, self appraisals, being responsibly adventurous and making the most of life's opportunities.

Hope Beyond Hope!

To hope is a good thing.
Having hope is a sign that it's not over until it's over.

When an individuals hope is still intact it's a sign that that individuals challenges have not had the final word.
I'm a student of the Bible. I read it and respect it as God's Holy Word. Abraham was a character who 'hoped against hope'
There are times our hope is not enough.  There are those who have hoped, and died hoping. For dreams to manifest we have to do more than merely hope.
They say 'desperate situations deman desperate measures'. Abraham is an example of someone who was in a situation that was critical. It looked as if the odds were stacked against his dream. Merely hoping would not and could not deliver his dream to him. He needed a miracle. He had to go deeper!
Thank God he did. Abraham hoped against hope by trusting in God. To hope against hope is to hope beyond hope. It's a supernatural kind of hope that makes not ashamed. It's the kind of hope God has called us to. It's the kind of hope that manifests dreams and helps make people endure to the end. It's the kind of hope that comes from God, and we should have.
To hope against hope is to still be expectant against all odds that God will come through for you.
To hope against hope is to understand that God is seldom early, but He is never late.