How to Write a Short Novel?

Writing a full length novel takes a long time and some experience. This article teachers you how to write a short novel in a systematic process which you can do for money or for fun.

Steps

Choose your genre. Crime, Horror, Romance...you decide. If you don't know, just start writing.
Create the main cast. Think of one to three main characters who are interesting. Write a Character Breakdown (describing the looks, personality and history of each major character). Make your characters as interesting and as colourful as possible!
Plan your short novel. An outline of plot points can be as detailed as you want. Some deviation may happen, but that can keep the feel of the book more organic, but be careful of getting too far off.
Choose a place and a time for the setting (say New York 1929). Make it as interesting and attention grabbing as you can!
Develop the plot. Think of a really good and original storyline for the characters to be involved in. Remember, don't go over the top with the storyline! The simple ones are usually the best. There are four parts of a story: setup, conflict, climax and resolution.
- Your set up shouldn't be very long; just long enough to introduce the characters and the situation.
- The conflict is then what the character has to deal with and solve.
- All this leads to the climax of the story where the situations reach a head.
- The resolution ties up loose ends and sends the story out.
Write. Remember a book should have a minimum of one hundred pages, but more would be preferable. Remember, you do not have a deadline so take your time! If it goes over 250 pages, go to "How to Write a fiction novel".
Keep writing and then, once finished, put it away for a few weeks, a month even. Come back to it and then rewrite, rewrite and then rewrite some more. First draft will always have mistakes. No published work ever gets out without extensive editing!
Once you've edited and finalized your short novel, find a publisher to show your short novel to. Consider an electronic publisher for your short novel. Many of the the online publishers have digests or anthologies that are well suited to shorter works.

Tips

Writing is fooling the mind into thinking it's there, thus you must make your writing "sensual," or, in other words, giving the readers a sense of place through the six senses: smell, touch, taste, sight, sound and impression.
Family and friends can be obliging reviewers. But they may sometimes also be too polite to point out the truth about your writing. Try to get an objective opinion.
Every time you sit down to continue writing your story, it can be good to read through and edit the previous round's work first. This helps to refresh your mind and build up proper continuity and flow in your story.
Check out Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month. This annual event get together writers who try to create the first draft of their novel with a 50,000 word count within a month. It can be done! Don't be neat, and edit in December!

Warnings

Do not obsess over an editor's comments if your work is rejected. If you have made a serious submission, take serious comments to heart and use it to improve your work. Some editors can be harsh..
If writing's a chore, don't do it. You should enjoy it, and if you don't enjoy it you're most likely not talented either.

Article adapted from wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Write a Short Novel. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.