: I am teaching myself how to write a novel -- where can I find support and resources? I want to have training in how to write fiction (particularly science fiction). I know that I can take

We could all just say, "well, sit down and write."
Learn to Multiply Two Numbers
However, that feels a bit like telling someone to simply learn how to multiply two numbers by sitting down and staring at numbers until they've determined they've multiplied them right.
The student of this kind of multiplication could simply say,

"Yes, 5 times 3 is 53 and 3 times 5 is 35. I'm sure I've got this."

Of course, the student is entirely wrong.
Writing Creatively Cannot Be Measured
That's what the novices tell you. You cannot measure creative writing because you cannot define good writing.
Redefine Writing Success
Okay, let's then re-define what you are attempting to do.
Having a target allows us to measure what we're doing.
Let's say that successful writing as we are defining it here is either:

Writing well enough that a publisher will buy it
Writing well enough that you can convince 100 people to read the entire thing

A bunch of people will probably say,

"Those terms of measurement are bogus! Good writing may not be bought by a publisher and great writing may not convince 100 people to read it."

I know.

But, do you want to learn?

If you do, we need one of those two targets.
I'm going to assume that you've picked one.
Here Is the Training You Requested
Here are the steps you can take:

to write an entire book
make your writing an order of magnitude better

Steps

Find a book you like.
Read only the first page.
Determine the over all feel of the page (shocking, happy, discovery, action, etc) What sense do you get from reading the page?
Count the words in each sentence and write them above each sentence in the book.
Find every verb in that first page and underline each one.
Find every noun on the page and circle it.
Find each adjective and put a light squiggly line through it. Read the sentence again without the adjective and see if the sentence works.
Find each adverb and see if you can create a stronger verb to be used in place of the adverb and verb you find. For example if you find angrily picked up replace it with grabbed.
Finally, and most importantly, take a shot at writing something that sounds quite similar to the original authors. This allows you to see what great writing might sound like. I call this shadow-writing. All the great artists in the pasts (Da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc.) copied the masters before them to learn. You must do the same.

Here's My Example
Here's my example using one of my all-time favorite novel beginnings, The Partner, by John Grisham. I've shortened up the example as to not take too long.

Sample Analysis

Finally you do your shadow-writing.
Shadow-Writing Example

He discovered it before anyone else in the sleepy town of Philsbruck,
Minnesota had even opened their eyes for the day. He discovered it
buried under a wagon, behind Tom's house in a large field where he and
Tom had ridden motorcycles, when they were younger and still friends.

Mine isn't exactly the same, but it is similar. There is some repetition. There is some mystery about what he found and who he is. You see, you begin to learn by doing this kind of deep analysis. You learn and then you transform this into your own writing.
These are specific things you can do that will make your writing an order of magnitude better.
Finally The Test
The test is:

Can you convince 100 people to read your book now?
Can you convince a publisher to buy it?

If not then you find out why and you re-write with that target in mind.
You can do this. But, you do have to be interested in working at writing.

---

(0)

An excellent boiled-down guide is: THIS YEAR YOU WRITE YOUR NOVEL by Walter Mosley. As a first time novelist wannabe, I found it very helpful.

---

(0)

Repeating what I've said elsewhere. Writing Excuses is a podcast that specializes in Sci-Fi/Fantasy. They have a master course, that I mentioned earlier (season 10) on how to write a novel. It's free. It's my only recommend, but it won't be enough.

Writing a novel is "easy". You just have to have a sufficient piece of writing that's long enough. Writing a good novel is something that takes years of practice. You can get that practice in many ways. Analyzing the work of other masters. Having someone teach you the basics. Engaging in discussions with your peers.

You've asked specifically for things that "teach" you how to write a novel. Well, here it is: Sit down and write every day until you have enough words to constitute a novel. If your end goal is to have a novel; you will have to do this at some point. Writing is one of those things you learn more by doing.

Certainly, pick up one or two books. Certainly, read a few blogs. Certainly, attend a writing class. All of these things will give you perspective, but at some point you just have to sit down and write. When you finally do that, you can take your work to a local writing group and they'll help you figure out where you need to improve.

---

(0)

Read, analyse what you read; write, analyse what you wrote.

The greatest training I had for writing was my 'modern language and literature' degree. While studying literature, I learnt the effects that different techniques produce and then I simply wrote until those methods became second nature. You don't even have to learn the technical terms (although I had to and it's useful when discussing them with other people), simply developing the intuition for what works and doesn't work.

Try to find a guide for close reading geared towards literary texts. Make sure you've got a guide for the whole book and for excerpts (including characters; setting, both space and time; stylistic device; dialogue vs narration; everything). Then read a book. Go back and analyse it in general following the guide. Next choose some short excerpts (the beginning, description of a place or character, a dramatic scene, etc) then analyse them carefully. Don't just identify personifications, metaphors and hypallages but find out what effect they cause. If the author had chosen to do something different, how would that detract from the effect.

Also, plot out all the main events in the book and analyse how they're sequenced. See how that sequence creates (or not) tension. Why? Identify the events that pertain to the main plot and to the subplots. Ask yourself how shuffling a few events in the sequence would change the pace and the tension build.

I suggest you start with modern books, as classics of previous periods were written with different rules (e.g. in the second half of the 19th century, lavish descriptions were the thing to do). Work with one or two famous contemporary literary books then move on to the genre you wish to write on. Choose a good book and do the same. Eventually you can try to look at a bad book and actively search for what went wrong. Think how it could be improved, story and writing wise.

If you want to study dramatic scenes in particular (or the beginning, place description, etc), identify 2-4 such scenes in the same book and compare them. Then choose different books (by different authors), choose 2-4 such scenes and compare them. Alwasy ask 'what effect does this choice cause?'. Very often, you don't have bad techniques but techniques that were used in the wrong place or for the wrong effect.

On the other hand, if you want to study how, say, the weather, plays into the story, identify all the references to the weather (but don't do this on a whole novel or you'll never see the end of it; stick to a chapter or a scene).

In the mean time, keep writing. An interesting exercise my high school teacher had us do was pick a picture and describe it or use it as the starting point for a short story. Another was rewriting a scene from the POV of a different character. You can practice with writing short stories or just scenes, which is great for developing specific techniques.

One thing you should do is write different versions of the same scenes, descriptions, whatever. Then compare the different texts and see the different effects. For example, my high school teacher gave us photos of people from magazines then had us describe the same person in different ways: one paragraph of general description; a set of paragraphs of detailed description worthy of the 19th century; description of the person's actions (could be invented) with minimalist insertion of the two most striking physical features; description by a fashion-obsessed person (focus on clothes and hairstyle); and so on. She would also make us do similar stuff for describing places, weather, or describe a person's personality through her possessions, bedroom or actions.

The objective was to widen our horizons: there is no one way of doing things, you must choose the one that creates the right feel for the story or scene you're writing.

---

(0)