A good remedy and inspiration for this is to watch people, events, and your surroundings in general. Take a notebook with you everywhere you go.

Here are ideas of some things to keep track of in your notebook:

- random lines of dialogue
- a color or shape of something
- hairstyle for a character
- clothing or accessory for a character
- sound or music that you hear
- a description of an event or scene
- anything that pops into you head, whether it’s related to what you’re physically seeing at that moment or not

Have fun with this, and take in the world around you. It’s the small, authentic details that make a good book.

When starting a new novel, brainstorm a list of names before you start writing. Take the book’s setting into account with ethnicity and meanings of names, and also gender, society or pop culture, and personality of each character.

Here are some things to avoid when choosing names:

1. Don’t use the names of real people, especially celebrities or family/friends, unless you have their permission, of course.

2. Don’t use the same name twice in one book. Kind of obvious, I know, but I have seen it done.

3. Avoid long names, or names with more than one pronunciation. This just confuses the reader.

4. Don’t use names that start with the same letter. Crystal, Carlos, Candy, Caleb, etc can be confusing and annoying.

5. Avoid names that overuse alliteration (first and last names beginning with the same letter), like Zak Zingo, Bob Brown, Ruby Roth, etc

Here’s some ways to get in the mood to write:

1. Read a book or chapter that has a similar mood or feel to it that you want in the scene you’re writing. Play out the plot in your head and imagine the voices of the characters, the smell of the scenery, etc. This will trick your mind into keeping that feeling while you then go to write your scene.
2. Listen to music that gives the mood you want. This is a big one for most writers. And unlike the first point here, you can do this while you write. Have some classical music or songs with lyrics that apply to your writing while you write!

1. Wait 2 weeks or more and then read it all the way through, as fast as possible (like a reader who can’t put it down)

2. As you read, take note of any plot issues or logistics that don’t make sense, but don’t correct them. Also, leave alone bad grammar or misspelled words. These will just distract you.

3. Brainstorm new ideas for fixing the plot problems and put those into your novel.

4. Read it all the way through again, and this time correct any grammar or spelling errors you might have seen.

Doing only the first step itself will help you a lot in discovering the scope, tone and general emotions of your writing. If you do nothing else for revision, read it through after being away from it for an extended period of time, and take an objective look at your own work.

Third person close is almost the same as first person, only using he and she instead of I and me. You only see into one person’s thoughts and only know what they know.

Third person omniscient is like playing God. You can see into everyone’s thoughts at any time. This takes an expert amount of skill to pull of successfully, because the transitions into character’s heads need to be at just the right time for the right amount of time in your book to not confuse the heck out of readers.

Finally, third person multiple is like third person close, but each scene or chapter is from a different character’s perspective. You only know the thoughts of one character while they’re narrating their part of the story, and in the next chapter you only know the thoughts of the second character, etc. This “head hopping” can be annoying and also takes quite a strong writer to pull off efficiently.

The conclusion must be logical. You’ve likely heard before that everything up until the climax needs to tie into the climax, but also the last part of the book needs to logically follow the climax. A twist ending is perfectly fine if you do it right, but nothing new or unrealistic should be here.

Your job in this exercise is to make the blind person “see” the color. Afterwards, you won’t think of the color you chose the same way ever again.

In certain contexts a homonym (a word that sounds the same as another word, but is spelled differently, like right and write) may be overlooked by your spell checker, because it’s spelled correctly on its own, but may be the wrong usage for that individual word.

It’s a good idea to print out your manuscript and go over it with a pen. For those who always write on a computer, this is essential, because words can look entirely different on paper than on a screen. For those who write on paper already, type up your novel and take advantage of technology.

Also, have other people look it over. Not just your mom or sister, but someone who may spell better than you, or a professor or teacher. They’ll catch things you missed, having never read your novel before. Familiarity with your own work to the extent that you miss (sometimes huge) things that are wrong with it is a handicap writers can’t avoid.

With books, it’s the last impression that you need to worry about the most: what will readers tell others about your novel after finishing it? The ending, as a direct result of the climax, needs to be satisfying, whether it ends happily or not.

Make the reader feel something very strongly – joy, pity, fear,relief – and you’re set. Word of mouth is one of the most important ways to market, and it all depends on the reader’s impressions when they finish your novel.

You check your watch: it’s only 6 o’clock. Your husband said he wouldn’t be home until after 8 pm. You already start feeling bored; two hours to waste alone in a strange hotel until he comes back with some answers.

Pro’s:

-well, other than pursuing this as a literary art form, there are no pro’s

Con’s:

-very difficult to manage

-puts off most readers being told what to do and who they are

-almost impossible for long fiction or novels

While there are many books written in second person like cook books or self-help, almost no fiction uses this point of view style, for good reasons. It has been done, but second person gives even master writers a run for their money.