Guest Post by Bethany Ramos: How to Choose a Topic for Your Novel

If you want to know my secret, I think of random ideas for my next books when I am sleeping at night. You know, that time of night when you are barely awake and you think that your brain is hardly functioning… That’s when I get my best ideas.

Whenever you get a good idea for a book, make sure to write it down because you will probably forget it! And then when you are ready to create your next work, you can go to your handy list and see which idea strikes your fancy. Or perhaps you may want to combine several ideas together to make a stronger plot.

The bottom line is that you have to do what works for you when it comes to brainstorming for your next novel. But if you are at a loss, here are a few ideas to get you started:

1.    Make a list of topics that interest you. The odds are that if you would love to read a novel on a certain topic, then it may have an interested audience. Make a long list of topics that interest you, whether they are family, travel, shopping, or even pottery.

You need to write about something that you are passionate about, that you have knowledge about, and that will keep you as the author interested. Trust me - a reader can quickly tell if an author gets bored when writing their novel.

2.    Now do your research. Okay, just because you are passionate about archaeology doesn’t mean that the rest of the world will want to read a fiction novel about an archaeological dig. Or maybe they will…

You need to research the market and determine if other similar books have been successful in your genre. If they haven’t, it doesn’t mean that you need to chuck your idea just yet. You can still weave in your interests and passions into the novel in a way that will make it unique, as long as the plot remains interesting to the reader.

3.    Write about what you know. If you have absolutely no clue where to begin, write a novel that reflects your personal life, whether it is about going to college, working in a day care center, or working at Starbucks as a barista.

Even though it may seem boring to you, if you have a great knowledge about a topic and are passionate about it, you can make it interesting for your reader.

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