Start writing fiction

Get Started With the Idea for Your Story

The course begins with lessons to help you create the space and time for your writing, and prepare your mindset for creative thinking. To write a book you need to attach emotional significance to the story. Sounds obvious? A great story happens when you combine the universal with the personal and raise the stakes. A bestselling author knows how to tap into their own experience, and then up the tension for a gripping read. We’ll share with you the key features of a bestseller, where ideas (really) come from and what makes a book a classic.

1. Let’s begin

Discover the ingredients for a great story.

2. Your space, your time, your mind

Organize your life to find the space and time you need to write and discover the fast track to creative thinking in fiction. You will have the subject of your story and a broad idea of the first half and second half by the end of the lesson.

3. What makes a Classic?

The biggest bestselling books of all time, the Classics, generally very well-regarded and well-reviewed have been cross-over books, appealing to readers of many different backgrounds and ages. We’ll look at the three elements you need for a classic story and get you started.

4. Where do ideas come from?

The formula for a big idea and how to create high-concept fiction. Learn what single element of a plot drives a page-turning story.

5. Creative thinking

Dig into the richest sources of inspiration for an author according to a global bestselling writer and get started creating material.

Storytelling Structure

Move beyond the conventional three-act structure to discover the great story structure that lies beneath long-form storytelling and discover how big stories come from very small seeds. We’ll guide you where to find the source for your story. Clue? It’s behind you! You’ll combine your unique life experience with the best-loved forms of storytelling and begin to create the structure for your story.

6. The great story structure

Discover the five-part structure behind the Classics and use it as a tool to develop your plot.

7. The small story

How the best-loved stories of childhood can shape and inspire the long-form novel, why you have everything you need inside of you and where to find it.

8. Books based on myths and fairy tales

The sourdough starters for so many famous books.

9. A story as unique as you

Which parts of you and your life to bring to your story.

10. A working model

See the great story structure at work in a famous short tale.

11. The long shadow of the little story

Where your idea begins to gather flesh and finding your theme as an author.

12. Further reading

Inspiration from the latest bestsellers that follow the model. 

13. Making ideas happen

Taking your idea to the novel form with our Once Upon a Time tool.

14. Fairy story ideas for very adult novels

A bestselling author explains how fairy tale archetypes help her create psychological thrillers.

Starting to Plan a Story

We’ll give you the who, the why and the what in these lessons to help you find the hero, locate the narrative, and scope out the arc of the story. You’ll be looking for the hero’s problem, blindspot or flaw and we’ll be adding the antagonist for conflict. You’ll discover how every part of who you are can serve your story. No wonder so many writers describe the course as deeply therapeutic.

15. Why

Why we write. Using the flaws and failings of humankind, and your very own, to create memorable characters. If you’re writing adult fiction, one of your own flaws or failings can be given to your main character. If you’re writing for children, you will want to give the poor soul a ‘cosmic’ flaw, i.e. a cruel twist of fate.

16. Who

Stories start with who wants what. Someone special (fortunate or unfortunate) or a specialist (someone with unique talents, powers or expertise) wants something they should not have. If you are writing for adults, you can add dramatic irony to this by amending the statement above to; wants something they in particular should not have. 

17. What

What your main character wants (and what happens if they lose it) can drive the narrative of your story. When you know who or what’s truly important to your character, the next question for your story development is what should happen if they should lose it or them? Add a benevolent force to your story idea to guide you through to an ending.

Creating the Story World

We’ll explore the deeper archetypal elements of great stories that writers mine for page-turning books. You’ll browse a rich buffet of possibilities to feed your plot as you begin to compose and outline your novel. Writer’s block? A thing of the past with these ideas at your fingertips.

18. Wonder.

Our forgotten desires and the ingredients for creating wonderment in fiction.

19. The numinous

How the main character’s yearning expands the world of a story.

20. The feeling

Your hero in their leadership role and their ability to experience heightened states of emotion.

21. The recipe with two ingredients

The double act for the creation of ‘delightful horror’ in fiction.

22. Mysterium tremendum

Using techniques like foreboding to get ahead of the inciting incident to grow the size of the story.

23. Fascinans

Why bestselling fiction requires more than an improvement of fortunes.

24. The crucial transformation

Finding the genre of fiction you’re meant to write.

25. A cozy start

Immersive storytelling skills for high-stakes stories.

26. The Harry Potter spell

What made the all-time bestselling series a multi-million global phenomenon.

27. The portal

Using a powerful device that takes us from the known world to the story world in all genres of fiction.

28. The garden

How the setting of your story offers startlingly different possibilities for each individual character’s development.

29. The homely guide

The qualities readers require from the character guiding them through the story.

30. The surreal

Creating an original break-out fiction premise.

31. The familiar

Using aspects of your life to begin world-building your story.

32. The cast

Creating life-like originals as people not characters in fiction.

33. Temptation

The irresistible force that drives pain-free plotting.

34. The battle

How conflict between two opposing forces is the grand design behind your theme.

35. Deeper magic: time

Strategies for telling your story a different way, with additional pace.

36. Deeper magic: space

Covering the narrative terrain at speed for reader engagement.

37. Treasure

The secret quest of every work of fiction in which author, hero and reader share the spoils, and when and where to hide it in your story.

The Conflict that Drives Drama

The value system that drives storytelling has two poles represented by the hero and the villain. It’s our shared values that have ensured stories entertain and enlighten readers through time. Stories connect our lives. We live and breathe stories and so do your characters. A character’s past, and sense of their own purpose and story, should drive the development of the plot. Remember! Your reader craves character development over the timeline of your story and your hero’s moral growth. It takes a villain to drive that change, and to bring the required conflict to force their choices and create the light and shade of drama. Deliver proper justice via your narrative arc for a deeply satisfying reader experience.

38. The villain

In books for children, the villain is external. But in books for adults, the villain may be within or closer to home. Learn how the ‘charisma’ of the villain lends strong messaging to your story and how they deliver certain truths to the reader, albeit less palatable than those conveyed by the hero.

39. The hero

The hero resists. In a Classic, the hero is an ordinary person placed in testing circumstances or on an extraordinary adventure. Learn the six identifying signs of a hero and how to test and demonstrate their strengths.

40. Decency

Both reader and author have expectations of each other and the world of literature lives by a code of decency which is not the same as the legal system of our times, and it reaches back hundreds of years. Understand how to use the justice system of storytelling to give your readers a highly satisfying story.

A Story Readers Will Love

For a bold story beautifully told, you need to engage your readers in your hero’s plight. Seek to entertain rather than to educate. We’ll show you how the best-loved authors befriended their readers in prose along with storytelling techniques to help you earn the reader’s trust. Remember, a novelist has questions – you don’t need the answers. The relationship with your reader is one of mutual exploration. We’ll show you how to write with unaffected and appealing honesty.

41. Hello you, it’s me

Bring to mind the reader you are writing for to help you find a natural voice with which to tell your story.

42. Little god

The writing of your book in any genre is not a matter of life and death for one person; it’s more important than that. It’s about meaning, and what we live for. The stakes must be as high as you can make them and apply to others, not just the story’s hero. Like the author, the reader is called upon to use the power of their imagination with amazing results guaranteed. Learn how to bring your reader into your world.

43. The older reader

The older reader adds to the power of imagination another superpower – empathy. Learn to create empathy using the writer’s most important prose tool: observation.

Why and How We Write

Understand what moves a bestselling author to write their book and how the great stories originate from the ‘wounds’ of apparently successful writers, as a way to right the wrongs and create a better world. You’ll gain the confidence to bring your whole self to the page and create those major scenes that resonate with readers long after they were written.

44. The authors as individuals

It’s important for you to see the authors as real people, not works of fiction, so that you can understand that their works were not ‘given things’, born whole and glistening and intact. They were worked upon. Often over years and occasionally in collaboration. Walk in the footsteps of some literary giants.

45. Mother god or his master’s voice?

Consider the ins and outs of the treatment, or how you will tell your story by exploring the third-person versus the first-person treatment.

46. Idealism

Idealism validates the creation of a secondary world in literature which has its own valuable location in the hearts and minds of readers. Discover why Tolkien and Lewis became second homes for readers. Find your ideal, find your mythology! This is going to become important whatever novel you’re writing as it will shape your theme, and theme is the touchstone for every decision you will make in a novel. 

47. The impact of the classics

A look at the publishing sensations of the all-time classic bestselling books, and the rewards your writing can bring you sooner rather than later.

48. My hero

Who was the greatest of them all? Find your author-hero as the lighthouse to guide your writing career. 

49. On the shoulders of giants

All writers borrow from each other. Have no shame. Find out who stole from whom and why. Become the author you want to be.

50. The source

Revealed! The secret source of most of the famous classic books of all time.

51. The remnants

The mistakes to avoid in the story planning when developing your idea to the novel form.

The Working Plan for Your Story

Here’s where it all comes together with a simple but dazzling plan for the story you can’t wait to write. You’ll have all the ingredients to start writing a book, including a few surprises. Plus you will be invited to book in a session with one of our author writing coaches to talk through your idea.

52. The Five Fs at work

Structuring your ideas with the classic story structure.

53. Ready for take off!

Checking you have all the essentials for your story in your plan.

54. Planning for success

Your story building checklist assessment tool.

55. Last words. Your course certificate

Get a recognition of your achievement.

Yes. You’ll be itching to write within days of starting the course. (Just let anyone try stopping you!)

We believe a great story makes for easy writing, so we want to focus on your story from the start at The Novelry. So whether you’re doing the course to enrich your reading or writing, whether you’re planning to write a bestseller or write for family or friends, this course will help you write a bigger story, one that your readers will love. 

We have an onward journey for graduates of The Classic Course all mapped out. And we’re standing by to help you write your amazing novel with the next course, The Ninety Day Novel course. But for now, relax and let the magic do its work!

You’ll need a notebook, a pen and an internet connection for the online lessons. That’s it. Our online learning platform is easy to use, even for the less tech-savvy among us!

Writing a novel is not so much about the writing, or at least not in the way you think. Nobody ever stayed glued to a book for the complexity of its vocabulary.

Writing is about storytelling, and readers and publishers alike want great stories. And here’s a secret – storytelling can be learned. Hey, guess what, you might just be very good at it. Why not find out?

Writing is not a god-given gift or innate talent. It’s not something you are born with, or can or can’t do. It’s something you learn, because you want to learn it.

Sure, you’re going to need to read some books. And here’s another secret. Writers learn from other writers. Just like with any craft or trade, they take apprenticeships or courses and work with published writers.

The story doesn’t happen to you, you happen to the story.

You don’t need to be wise and have all the answers. Stories are about questions. One question after another. What happens next? Why did she do that? What will he do to escape? How come there’s no door to the house? Will they work out that guy’s a villain?

We’ll get you asking the right questions, in the right order, to invite your reader into your wonderful world.

This is a self-paced course served on our beautiful online platform by video and text which will relax you into beginning to write your story. It will certainly get you thinking. We suggest a lesson a day. Enjoy the lessons on any internet-connected device. Watch the video, read the text and use the ‘speak aloud’ feature to listen. You’ll need 30 minutes for each lesson and probably some thinking time to capture your thoughts and ideas as you start writing. This might be a good opportunity to start to set aside an hour a day just for you and your writing, and you’ll come to love this special time. One hour? You deserve it.

Our courses are suitable for people with visual or auditory impairment, dyslexia and for those with English as a second language. We offer an app which translates the course into 99 languages and offers a speak-aloud option too. Learn more here.

Yes, we are all for Happy Writing. You can review our terms and conditions here. If for any reason at all the course is not for you, you can get a full no-questions-asked refund within the first 7 days after purchase. Just email us and let us know.