HOW     TO    WRITE  A    NOVEL.

INTRODUCTION:

Four Methods:Writing HelpCreating a Fictional WorldDrafting the NovelRevising the Novel

A novel is a fictional work of narrative prose. Good novels illuminate reality even as they transcend it, allowing readers to find truth and humanity in worlds that are completely fabricated. No matter what type of novel you want to write — literary or commercial, romance or science fiction, a wartime epic or a family drama — you'll need boundless creative energy and a commitment to see you through drafting your novel, and the revision and editing process.

Method 1 of 3: Creating a Fictional World

1. 
   1
   Get inspired. Writing a novel is a creative process, and you never know when a good idea might come to you. Carry a notebook and a pen so you can jot down ideas wherever you go. You might feel inspired by something you hear on your morning commute, or while daydreaming in a coffee shop. You never know when you'll be inspired, so you should keep your eyes and ears open wherever you go.
   • Being a writer, you need constant inspiration. Sometimes, writers find it difficult to have ideas popping in their head. This problem comes across all writers, and the best way is to seek inspiration.
   • It doesn’t necessarily have to be a book, it can be a TV show, a movie or even travelling to an exhibition or art gallery. Inspiration comes in infinite forms!
   • Use your notebook to write fragments, paragraphs, or even sentences, that will become part of a more complete story.
   • Think about all of the stories you've been told — stories passed down from your great-grandmother, a story that fascinated you on the news, or even a ghost story from your childhood that has stuck with you.
   • Consider a moment from your childhood or past that stuck with you. It could be the mysterious death of a woman in your town, your old neighbor's obsession with pet ferrets, or a the trip you took to London that you can't stop thinking about. For example, the ice scene in One Hundred Years Of Solitude was based on the author's own boyhood experience.
   • People say that you should "write what you know." Others believe that you should "write about what you don't know about what you know." Think of something from your own life that has inspired, troubled, or intrigued you — how can you explore this topic more fully in a novel?
2. 
   2
   Consider your genre. Not every novel fits neatly into a certain category, but it's helpful to think about your intended genre and audience as you begin planning your work. Read all of the major works that fall into your chosen genre to get a good understanding of how to construct a novel according to the standards of your chosen genre. And if you haven't completely decided on one genre or are working in more than one genre, then it's no problem — it's more important to be aware of what tradition you're working in than to stick to one specific genre or category. Consider the following options:
   • Literary novels are intended to be works of art, complete with deep themes, symbolism, and complex literary devices. Read classic works by the great novelists and refer to helpful lists like The Guardian's "100 Greatest Novels of All Time".
   • Commercial novels are intended to entertain audiences and sell a lot of copies. They are divided into many genres, including science fiction, mysteries, thrillers, fantasies, romances, and historical fiction, among others. Many novels in these genres follow predictable formulas and are written in long series.
   • There is plenty of crossover between literary and commercial novels. Many writers of science fiction, fantasies, thrillers, and so on create novels just as complex and meaningful as writers of novels that are classically "literary". Just because a novel sells well does not mean it isn't a work of art.
   • Whatever genre you like or choose to focus on, you should read as many novels within that genre if you haven't already. This will give you a better sense of the tradition you'll be working in — and how you can add to or challenge that tradition.
3. 
   3
   Consider your setting. Once you've decided which genre (or genres) to write within, start dreaming up a setting for your novel. This goes beyond the particular city where your characters will dwell; you've got an entire universe to dream up. The setting you create will determine the mood and tone of your novel, and will affect the problems your characters will face. Think about these questions as you sketch out the parameters of the new world you're creating:
   • Will it be loosely based on places that are familiar to you in real life?
   • Will it be set in the present, or in some other time?
   • Will it take place on Earth, or somewhere imaginary?
   • Will it be centered in one city or neighborhood, or expanded to a range of locations?
   • Will it take place over the course of a month, a year, or decades?
   • Will the world be cast in shadows, or will it inspire optimism?
4. 
   4
   Create your characters. The most important character of your novel will be your protagonist, who should be fleshed out with recognizable personality traits and thought patterns. Protagonists don't necessarily have to be likable, but they are usually relate-able in some way so that readers stay interested in the story. One of the joys of reading fiction is recognizing yourself and living vicariously through your favorite characters.
   • Your protagonist and other characters don't have to be likable, but do have to be interesting. Like Lolita's Humbert Humbert, the character can be despicable — as long as he is fascinating.
   • Your novel also doesn't have to have just one protagonist. You can have multiple characters that engage the readers, and can even play around with telling the story from multiple points of view.
   • Your world should be populated with other characters too. Think about who will interact with your protagonist, serving as either friends or foils.
   • You don't have to know exactly who will populate your novel before you begin. As you write, you may find that your real protagonist is actually one of the minor characters you created, or you may find new characters creeping up where you didn't expect them to be.
   • Many novelists describe thinking of their characters as real people, asking themselves what the characters would do in a given situation and doing their best to stay "true" to the characters. Your characters should be so well-developed in your mind that it feels natural to help them navigate your fictional world.
5. 5
   Visualize the plot. Most novels, regardless of genre, have some sort of conflict. Tension builds until the problem comes to a climax, and then it's resolved in some way. This doesn't mean novels always have happy endings; it's more about providing motivations for the characters' actions and creating a vehicle for change and meaning across the span of your novel.
   • There is no set formula for the plot of a perfect novel. Though one traditional approach is to have rising action (building the details and tension in the story), a conflict (the main crisis of the novel), and a resolution (the final outcome of the crisis), this is not the only way to do it.
   • You can start with a central conflict and work backwards to show why it matters. For example, a girl can be returning home for her father's funeral, and the reader may not know why this is going to lead to a major conflict momentarily.
   • Your novel also doesn't have to neatly "resolve" the conflict. It's okay to leave some loose ends undone.
   • Your novel also doesn't have to be linear. It can start in the present, jump back and forth between the past and the present, or even start in the past and jump ahead twenty years — do whatever works best for telling your story. For an example of a nonlinear novel, see Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar.
   • Read some of your favorite novels and follow the plot arc. See how the novel is put together. This can be even more interesting if the novel isn't linear.
6. 6
   Decide on a point of view. Novels are typically written in the third or the first person, though they can also be written in the second person, or in a combination of multiple perspectives. The first person is the "I" voice that is told directly from the point of view of a character; the second person, less commonly used, addresses the readers as "you" and tells the reader exactly what he or she is doing, and the third person describes a character or set of characters from an outside perspective.
   • You don't have to decide on the point of view of the novel before you write the first sentence. In fact, you may write the first chapter — or even the entire draft of the first novel — before you have a better idea of whether the novel will sound better in the first person or the third.
   • There's no hard and fast rule about what point of view will work better for what type of novel. But if you're writing a panoramic novel with a wide variety of characters, the third person can help you manage all of the characters that populate your novel.
7. 7
   Consider starting from scratch. Though it's great to start with a genre, plot, characters, and a setting in mind, if you want to write a novel, you shouldn't get too bogged down with all these details first. You can get inspired by something simple — a historical moment, a snatch of a conversation you hear in the grocery store, or a story your grandmother once told. This can be enough to get you writing and to start creating something from what you already know.
   • If you're too worked up about getting the details figured out before you write a draft, you may actually be stifling your own creativity.

Method 2 of 3: Drafting the Novel

1. 
   1
   Consider making an outline. Every novelist has a different method for starting a new novel. Creating an outline can be a good way to map out your ideas and give you small goals to accomplish as you work toward the larger goal of writing an entire book. But if you write from the hip and don't have all the details — or any of them — down yet, then you should just let yourself get inspired and write whatever feels right until you latch on to something that really appeals to you.
   • Your outline does not have to be linear. You could do a quick sketch of each character's arc, or make a Venn diagram showing how different characters' stories will overlap.
   • Once you make your outline, don't attempt to follow it exactly. The point is simply to jump-start the writing process with a visual representation of where the story might go. It will certainly change as you begin the writing process.
   • Sometimes an outline can actually be more helpful after you've completed a draft or two of your novel. This can help you have a better sense of how your novel is structured and can help you see what does or does not fit, or what should be expanded or compressed.
2. 
   2
   Find a writing routine that works for you. To complete your first draft, you'll need to find a time and place that is conducive to your writing goals. You can write at the same time every morning or evening, write in spurts throughout the day, or write in long bouts three days a week. Whatever your routine may be, you can't just write when you're inspired — that's a myth. You'll have to treat writing like real work and stick to a regular routine, whether you "feel" like writing on a certain day or not.
   • Create a writing space to help you get into a routine. Find a cozy place where you can relax and there are no distractions. Get a good chair to use which won't give you back pains after hours and hours of sitting and writing. You don't write a book in an hour; it takes months, so protect your back.
   • Your routine can also include what you need to eat or drink before or during your scheduled writing time. Does coffee make you feel more alert and aware, or too jittery to be productive? Does a big breakfast energize you, or leave you feeling sluggish?
3. 
   3
   Do your research. The amount of research you need to do will depend on the novel you write. Be sure to know, research, and learn as much as you can about your novel's setting (like the character's culture, the place he/she is in, the time period, etc). The research you'll need to do to write historical fiction set during the Revolutionary War, for example, will be more copious than the research you may need to write a Young Adult novel inspired by your own experiences in high school. Still, whatever novel you're writing, you'll need to do enough research to make sure that the events in your novel are accurate and believable.
   • Make use of the library. You'll be able to find most of the information you need in your local library, and libraries are also excellent places to do some writing.
   • Interview people. If you're unsure whether a topic you're writing about rings true, find someone with firsthand knowledge on the subject and ask a lot of questions.
   • Part of doing research means reading the other novels that are working in your tradition. For example, if you're writing a novel set in World War II told from a French perspective, read the other novels that are written about this topic. How will your novel be different from the rest?
   • Researching can also influence the scope and content of your novel. As you read more about the time period or topic you're writing about, you may find some new details that are completely fascinating — and which change the entire direction of your novel.
4. 
   4
   Write a first draft. When you feel ready, sit down and begin writing the first draft of your novel. Don't worry about making the language perfect — no one will read this draft but you. Write without judging yourself. The first draft of a novel does not have to be spectacular — it just has to be done. Don't hold back. The roughest parts of the novel may turn out to be the most compelling in future drafts.
   • Make the commitment and write every single day — or as often as you can. You do need to understand what you're undertaking. Many wonderful writers go unnoticed and unread because their drawers are filled with unfinished novels.
   • Set small goals — finishing a chapter, a few pages, or a certain amount of words every few days — to keep yourself motivated.
   • You can also set long-term goals — let's say you're determined to finish the first draft of a novel in one year, or even in six months. Pick an "end date" and stick to it.

Method 3 of 3: Revising the Novel

1. 1
   Write as many drafts of your novel as necessary. You may get lucky and only need to write three drafts to get it right. Or you may write twenty drafts before your novel rings true. The important part is slowing down and figuring out when your work feels done and ready to share with others — if you share it too early, your creativity will be stifled. Once you've written enough drafts of your novel and feel ready to move on, you can move on to the editing stage.
   • When asked what was the hardest part of writing the ending for A Farewell to Arms (after rewriting it thirty-nine times) Ernest Hemingway famously replied, "Getting the words right".
   • After you've written your first draft, take a break from it for a few weeks, or even a few months, and try to sit back and read it as if you were one of your reader. Which parts need more explaining? Which parts are too long and boring?
   • A good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself skipping over long chunks of your novel, your readers will, too. How can you make the novel more appealing to them by cutting down or revising these cumbersome parts?
   • Each new draft, or new revision, can focus on addressing one or multiple aspects of the novel. For example, you can write one entirely new draft focusing on making the narrator more interesting to readers, another draft that hones in on developing the setting of the events, and a third that fleshes out the central romance in the novel.
   • Repeat this process over and over until you have a draft you'd be proud to show other people. It may be months or years before your novel gets to this stage; be patient with yourself.
2. 
   2
   Practice self-editing. When you have reached the point where you have written a solid draft of your novel, you can start editing your work. Now you can focus on cutting paragraphs or sentences that aren't working, getting rid of any awkward or repetitive phrasing, or just streamlining your prose. There's no need to edit every sentence you write after the first draft — most of the words will change by the time you've completed a solid draft anyway.
   • Print out your novel and read it aloud. Cut or revise anything that just doesn't sound right.
   • Don't be too attached to your writing, for example a particular paragraph that just isn't moving the story forward. Challenge yourself to make the right decision. You can always use the paragraph in a different piece.
3. 
   3
   Show your work to other people. Begin by showing your writing to someone you completely trust, so you can get used to the feeling of having others read your work. Since it isn't always easy to get honest feedback from people who love you and want to spare your feelings, consider getting outside opinions in one or more of the following ways:
   • Join a writing workshop. Local colleges and writing centers are great places to find fiction workshops. You'll review other people's writing and receive notes on yours as well.
   • Start a writing group. If you know a few other people who are writing novels, arrange to meet with them once a month to share progress and ask for tips.
   • Take advice with a grain of salt. If someone tells you a chapter isn't working, get a second opinion before you decide to cut it from your manuscript.
   • If you're really committed to finishing a novel, you can consider applying to an M.A. or an M.F.A. program in creative writing. These programs offer a supportive and inviting environment for sharing your work with others. Additionally, they can help motivate you by setting deadlines for completing your work.
4. 
   4
   Consider trying to publish your novel. Many first-time novelists look at their novel as a learning experience that can help them write stronger fiction in the future; however, if you feel very confident about your novel and want to try to take it to a publisher, then there are a number of routes you can take. You can choose a traditional book publishing house, an online e-publisher, or self-publishing.
   • If you're going the traditional route, it helps to find a literary agent to shop your book around to publishers. Go to Writer's Market for a list of agents. You'll be asked to submit a query letter and a synopsis of your manuscript.
   • Self-publishing companies vary widely in quality. Before choosing a company, ask for a few samples so you can see the quality of their paper and printing.
   • And if you don't want to go the publishing route, that's not a problem. Congratulate yourself on a job well done and move on to your next creative project.

Tips

• If you're having trouble developing a character that seems realistic, try this: Take them with you wherever you go. Next time you go to work, the grocery store, the mall, or even on the street, imagine what they'd do in your position or situation. Take note of what they'd do the same as you would and what they would differently.
• Remember to make characters that have similar and different personality traits (including opinions) compared with your own. No one wants a Mary Sue, and people may tolerate a well-written Author Avatar (as TV Tropes would call it) but we should really strive for variety.
• There are plenty of notepad applications (i.e. Google Keep, Astrid Tasks) for your smartphone/iPod/tablet that can be incredibly useful for documenting those random ideas wherever you are. Some devices even have office suites/word processors which can allow you to write on the go.
• Just because you love your story, doesn't mean others will. Let a minimum of 3-4 trustworthy, reliable friends read it before sending it off to a publisher. Remember to copyright your work first even if it's not finished.
• To plow through writer's block, read lots of books, watch plenty of movies/TV, look around in magazines, travel, dine out, go out with friends to the bar or dinner, go to parties, explore the city — in other words, live life. You'll never know when inspiration might hit you.
• Write about anything you desire or fantasize (interpret that in any way you wish). If you're a sci-fi nut, you probably won't have as much fun with a historical fiction work.
• "It is better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self." Write your story the way you want. There are markets for all genres, and there will always be a slot for your story if it's well written and interesting.
• Read lots of books (especially ones similar in genre or relevant to yours in any way); before, during, and after you've written your novel. That will help you in many ways.
• If you're stuck on how to move the story forward, imagine one of your characters standing behind you and telling you what they'd do in that situation.
• Write a page a day regardless of how creative you are feeling.
• Invest some time (or a lot), while writing or not, into music — specifically, songs that would cast a particular emotion, sensation, or short story in your mind. Search within your current collection of CD's/tapes/vinyls/MP3s, as well as explore other genres and moods. Compile a list of songs that would fit your novel/story, kind of like the soundtrack to a movie. This can help give you ideas on how to add emotion to parts of your draft that you find bland or lacking emotion. Or you can try to write a scene or chapter based on what you feel from hearing a particular song.
• If you are a procrastinator, try joining NaNoWriMo: write 50,000 words in one month to complete your novel. Writers tend to work better when there's a deadline to face (more motivation).
• You'll know after a while if a story you're writing has really captivated your attention and imagination. If you don't feel this right away, keep developing ideas and trying. Sometimes it helps to listen to music in between moments when you're writing. The right songs can give you ideas on different scenarios and chapters, and how characters might feel about these adventures, themselves or even other characters around them.
• As the old joke goes, "Avoid clichés like the plague" (ironically, this useful bit of advice has been so oft-repeated that the joke itself is slightly clichéd). They have their place, but over-using them is boring and unoriginal.
• Sometimes that perfect character has everything — except a good name. Invest in a baby book that provides names and their meanings, and keep it with you while writing. There are also websites online that can generate names and/or tell you what names mean. Alternatively, you may want to try using any online translator to translate an English word (say 'Warrior') into another language and use that as a name (if it fits the story in general). You can even mix and match words from different languages.
• Don't wait for inspiration to just come to you. Writing is kind of like digestion — there won't be output if there's no input. For example, you know when you get an idea out of absolutely nowhere, while you're doing something totally irrelevant to your idea? That's when you observe something, let it slip into your subconscious where it gets processed, and at some point, returns back to your conscious. In some instances, these are some of the best resources for ideas — the spontaneity of these ideas can really help to develop rich irony or exciting twists and turns in your story.
• Start a diary or journal and read more, as this will improve your skills. Remember, if you want to change something, change it. Your novel can evolve from a war in the Middle East to a simple high school predicament. It happens, whether you're just starting your book or in the middle of it. So make sure you really think about things before you write them.

HOW   TO    WRITE    A   BUSINESS   PLAN.

INTRODUCTION:

Four Parts:Doing Your HomeworkStructuring Your BusinessWriting the Business PlanSample Business Plans

Creating a business plan will help you achieve your entrepreneurial goals. A clear and compelling business plan provides you with a guide for building a successful enterprise focused on achieving your financial goals. It is also a document that can persuade others, including banks, to invest in what you're creating and running. While there are many types of businesses out there, the basic categories of information and questions that need to be covered by a business plan are fairly standard and widely applicable. You can learn how to conduct research, structure your business appropriately, and write up a draft. See Step 1 to learn how to approach your business plan.
Part 1 of 3: Doing Your Homework

1. 
   1
   Analyze the potential markets for your business. Consider which segment of the local (and/or international) population will be seeking to use your products or services. This needs to be more than mere guesswork and involves doing accurate and intelligent research. You need to analyze secondary research collected by outside observers, as well as getting primary research that you collect yourself, with your own methods and observations. Consider the following areas of inquiry:
   • Is there a viable market for the product or service you want to sell?
   • How old are your potential customers?
   • What do they do for a living?
   • Is your product or service attractive to a particular ethnic or economic population?
   • Will only wealthy people be able to afford it?
   • Does your ideal customer live in a certain type of neighborhood or area?
2. 
   2
   Establish the size of your potential market. It's important to be as specific as possible in regard to your market and your product. If you want to start a soap business, for example, you may believe that every dirty body needs your product, but you can’t start with the entire world as your initial market. Even if you’ve developed such a universally needed item as soap, you need to identify a smaller, more targeted customer group first, such as children under eight who might like bubblegum scented bubble bath, or soap made for mechanics. From there, you can analyze demographic information more specifically:
   • How many car mechanics are in need of soap in any given community?
   • How many children in the United States are currently under the age of eight?
   • How much soap will they use in a month or a year?
   • How many other soap manufacturers already have a share of the market?
   • How big are your potential competitors?
3. 
   3
   Identify your company’s initial needs. What will you require to get started? Whether you want to buy an existing company with 300 employees or start your own by adding an extra phone line to your home office desk, you need to make a list of the materials you’ll need. Some may be tangible, such as five hundred file folders and a large cabinet in which to store them all. Other requirements may be intangible, such as time to create a product design or to do market research on potential customers.
4. 4
   Prepare product samples. If you’re going to build a better mousetrap, you may have constructed a prototype out of used toothpaste tubes and bent paperclips at home, but you’ll need a sturdier, more attractive model to show potential investors. What exactly will your mousetrap look like? What materials will you need? Do you require money for research and development to improve on your original toothpaste tube and paper clip construction? Do you need to hire an engineer to draw up accurate manufacturing designs? Should you patent your invention? Will you need to investigate federal safety standards for mousetraps?^[1]
5. 5
   Research possible locations for your business. Call a real estate broker and look at actual retail spaces in the neighborhood where you’d like to open your restaurant. Make a chart of the most expensive and least expensive sites by location and square footage. Then estimate how much space you require and how much money you’ll need to allow for rent.
6. 6
   Determine your start-up cost. Make a list of all the tangible and intangible resources you need to get your business going. The total estimated price of all of these items will become your start-up cost whether you’re buying highly sophisticated computers or simply installing a new telephone line on your desk. If there’s any item in your estimates that seems unreasonably high, research other alternatives. But keep in mind that it’s better to include every element you truly need along with a reasonable estimate of the cost of each item, so you don’t run out of money or default on your loans. Be honest and conservative in your estimates, but also be optimistic.
   • Don't aim for the best of everything at the beginning. You can forgo the expensive trimmings of an office of a more well-established company and stick to the basics at the beginning. Get what is affordable, works and is actually needed and don't buy frills.
7. 
   7
   Put yourself in the shoes of potential investors. Ask yourself, “If I were going to invest X amount of dollars into a concept or idea, or even a product, what would I want to know?” Gather as much helpful and credible information as you can. Depending on your product, you may need to search long and hard for relevant information.
   • Don't lose heart if you discover some, or even all, of your ideas have been adequately covered by the market. Don't ignore this reality; instead, work with it. Can you still do a better job or provide a better widget than your competitors? In many cases, it's likely that you can provided you know the market well and how to add value in ways your competitors are not doing. In other cases, it may be a case of focusing more narrowly or more broadly than your competitors are doing.
8. 
   8
   Identify potential investors. Banks and other funding sources don’t lend money because people with interesting business ideas are nice. They follow specific guidelines, such as the Risk Management Association (R.M.A) database, which are designed to ensure that they will make money by investing in or lending to your business. Lenders will typically look to the company's Capital, Capacity, Collateral, Conditions, and Character or what is known as the 5C's of lending when underwriting a loan. You'll need to have covered all these bases well before seeking funding.

Part 2 of 3: Structuring Your Business

1. 
   1
   Define your company. A business plan won't be useful until you're certain what your company exists for. What will you accomplish for others? What products and services will you produce or provide? Write down all the specific needs your company will satisfy. Potential investors need to know that your business will be meaningful and marketable to people who can use your product or service. So concentrate on the external needs your company will meet.
   • What will your product or service enable people to do better, more cheaply, more safely, or more efficiently? Will your restaurant make people’s palates delirious with new taste sensations? Will your new mousetrap help people capture mice without feeling sick to their stomachs? Will your new bubblegum scented bubble bath revolutionize the way children agree to take nightly baths?
2. 
   2
   Choose a winning strategy. Once you’ve established the competitive advantage your business offers, you will be able to select the best strategy to reach your goal. How will you distinguish your product or service from others? Although there are millions of types of businesses, there are actually only a few basic strategies that can be applied to make any enterprise successful. The first step in selecting an effective strategy is to identify a competitive advantage for your product or service.
   • Your competitive advantage may include designing special features not found in rival products. It may entail superior service characteristics such as speedier delivery, a lower price, or more attentive sales people––these are never to be sniffed at as possible winning ways, as many companies grow complacent and can be overtaken by giving customers experiences that are better than the average expectations. Even where your product or service is already well established, perhaps you’re establishing an image or brand of exceptional quality or reputation.
3. 
   3
   Design your company. Consider how will you hire and organize your workforce. By the time you’ve reached this stage of thinking about your potential business concept, you’ll probably have a good idea of the number of people you’ll need and the skills they’ll require to get your enterprise up and running.
   • Keep in mind that your initial plans will undoubtedly change as your business grows. You may need to hire more managers to supervise your expanding staff or to set up new departments to meet new customer demands. Projected growth and expansion for your company should be mentioned in your business plan, but it’s not the primary focus. For now, you want to secure help in getting started and convince your funding sources that you will become profitable.
4. 
   4
   Consider the practical issues of running a business. Think about your role as leader or boss of the business. As you think about hiring personnel and organizing your workforce, you must also confront your desire and ability to be a good boss. Decide how you will handle your employees' entitlements. For example, salaries and wages, their insurance and retirement benefits, as well as analyzing the extent of your knowledge of tax related issues.
   • Investors will want to know if you’re capable of running the business. Do you need to bring in experienced managers right away? Will you keep some of the existing employees or hire all new people? And where do you find these potential employees?
   • Funding sources will also want to know if any of your partners expect to work alongside you or if their obligations are only financial. Your plan will need to specify the key management jobs and roles. Positions such as president, vice presidents, chief financial officer, and managers of departments will need to be defined along with stating who reports to whom.
5. 
   5
   Decide on a marketing plan. One of the most common flaws in plans is the entrepreneur’s failure to describe exactly how customers will be reached and how products will be presented to them. Potential investors, staff, and partners won’t be convinced that your idea can succeed until you’ve established well-researched and effective methods of contacting your customers––and the assurance that once you’ve reached them, you can convince them to buy your product or service.
   • Consider how will you reach your customers. What will you say to persuade and convince customers that your product or service is better value, more timely, more useful, etc. to the consumer than the rival product or service? If it currently has no rival, how will you properly explain the purpose of and the consumer's need for the product?
   • What advertising and promotional efforts will you employ? For example, two for the price of one specials or free coupons inside those same kid-oriented cereal boxes? Where can you locate lists of the greatest concentrations of children under the age of eight or whatever group constitutes your market?
6. 
   6
   Build a dynamic sales effort. The word “sales” covers all the issues related to making contact with your actual customers once you’ve established how to reach them through your marketing campaign. In a nutshell, this part of your business plan is about how you will attract customers or clients for your product or services.
   • What will your basic sales philosophy be? Building long-term relationships with a few major clients or developing a clientele of many short-term customers?

Part 3 of 3: Writing the Business Plan

1. 
   1
   Organize all the relevant information about your business. Begin creating section headings and putting the appropriate information under the appropriate headings.^[2] Effectively separating your business' unique approach to each of these headings will organize your plan in a way investors find useful:
   • Title Page and Table of Contents
   • Executive Summary, in which you summarize your vision for the company
   • General Company Description, in which you provide an overview of your company and the service it provides to its market
   • Products and Services, in which you describe, in detail, your unique product or service
   • Marketing Plan, in which you describe how you'll bring your product to its consumers
   • Operational Plan, in which you describe how the business will be operated on a day-to-day basis
   • Management and Organization, in which you describe the structure of your organization and the philosophy that governs it
   • Financial Plan, in which you illustrate your working model for finances and your need from investors
2. 2
   Write the executive summary last. The executive summary is basically your big appeal to investors, or really anyone who reads your business plan, that should summarize and articulate what it is that's great about your business model and product. It should be less about the nitty-gritty details of operations and more about your grand vision for the company and where it is headed.
3. 
   3
   Gather all the information together and prepare multiple drafts. You've done all of the hard work researching, deciding what your business is about, targeting it accurately and selling it. It's time to put the business plan together and articulate all your thinking, research, and hard work into a comprehensive description of your structure and service.
   • At first, do not worry about capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. All you need to worry about is putting your ideas down on paper. Once you have a general form, you can spend time proofreading your plan and correcting mistakes. Have someone else read over it for you and take heed of their comments.
4. 
   4
   Sell yourself and your business. The idea of the business plan is to present yourself in the best light. The talents, experience and enthusiasm you bring to your enterprise are unique. They provide some of the most compelling reasons for others to finance your concept. Keep in mind that investors invest in people more than ideas. Even if your potential business has many competitors or is not on the cutting edge of an industry, the qualifications and commitment you demonstrate in your plan can convince others to proffer their support.
   • Your resume will be included in the separate appendix of exhibits at the end of the plan, so this is not the place to list every job you’ve ever had or the fact that you were an art history major in college. But don’t overlook the impact of some part of your background that might even seem unrelated to your new venture. Focus on group experiences, leadership opportunities, and successes at all levels.
5. 
   5
   Present and explain your financial data. How will you convince others to invest in your endeavor? By having clear, transparent and realistic financial information that shows you know what you're talking about and that you're not hiding anything.
   • The accuracy of your financial figures and projections is absolutely critical in convincing investors, loan sources, and partners that your business concept is worthy of support. The data must also be scrupulously honest and extremely clear.
   • Since banks and many other funding sources will compare your projections to industry averages in the R.M.A data, in the United States you can use the R.M.A figures to test your projections before the bank does.

Tips

• There are a few valuable online archives of business plans that feature companies which have successfully penetrated the market based on a well defined and executed business (and marketing) plan. Take the time to study the market through a successful company's eyes and consider what your company will offer that distinguishes your product or service from the rest. Be certain about what gives your business the competitive edge.
• Make sure you cite your information. This way you will have support for any statistics you put into your business plan.
• Many sources exist for finding information for your business plan. Your local library and the internet are always helpful sources. If you live near a university, you may be able to schedule an appointment with one of the college's professors. The professor may be able to give helpful insight.
• In the United States, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is a useful resource for information. Many other countries have a similar resource, either government or industry funded/run, check online for assistance.

Warnings

• Do not submit your draft business plan to potential investors! However, it is advisable to give the executive summary instead of the whole plan after it is completed. Sometimes, busy investors may not have the time to look at an entire plan, which can sometimes be up to 50 pages.

LW 304 : LEGAL WRITING AND DRAFTING ----UNIVERSITY OF DAR--ES--SALAAM SCHOOL OF LAW.

LW    304 : LEGAL  WRITING    AND  DRAFTING.

INTRODUCTION:

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Books on legal writing at a law library.

Legal writing is a type of technical writing used by lawyers, judges, legislators, and others in law to express legal analysis and legal rights and duties. Legal writing in practice is used to advocate for or to express the resolution of a client's legal matter.

Contents

• 1 Distinguishing features
  • 1.1 Authority
  • 1.2 Precedent
  • 1.3 Vocabulary
  • 1.4 Formality
• 2 Categories of legal writing
  • 2.1 Predictive legal analysis
  • 2.2 Persuasive legal analysis
  • 2.3 Legal drafting
  • 2.4 Legal Writing in academia
• 3 Plagiarism
• 4 Legalese
  • 4.1 Public comprehensibility
  • 4.2 Resistance to ambiguity
  • 4.3 Coverage of contingencies
  • 4.4 Expectation/preference
• 5 See also
• 6 Notes
• 7 References and further reading
• 8 External links

Distinguishing features

Authority

Legal writing places heavy reliance on authority. In most legal writing, the writer must back up assertions and statements with citations to authority. This is accomplished by a unique and complicated citation system, unlike that used in any other genre of writing. The standard methods for American legal citation are defined by two competing rule books: the ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation and The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Different methods may be used in other countries.^[1]

Precedent

Legal writing values precedent, as distinct from authority. Precedent means the way things have been done before. For example, a lawyer who must prepare a contract and who has prepared a similar contract before will often re-use, with limited changes, the old contract for the new occasion. Or a lawyer who has filed a successful motion to dismiss a lawsuit may use the same or a very similar form of motion again in another case, and so on. Many lawyers use and re-use written documents in this way and call these re-usable documents templates or, less commonly, forms.

Vocabulary

Legal writing extensively uses technical terminology that can be categorised in four ways:

1. Specialized words and phrases unique to law, e.g., tort, fee simple, and novation.
2. Quotidian words having different meanings in law, e.g., action (lawsuit), consideration (support for a promise), execute (to sign to effect), and party (a principal in a lawsuit).
3. Archaic vocabulary: legal writing employs many old words and phrases that were formerly quotidian language, but today exist mostly or only in law, dating from the 16th century; English examples are herein, hereto, hereby, heretofore, herewith, whereby, and wherefore (pronominal adverbs); said and such (as adjectives).
4. Loan words and phrases from other languages: In English, this includes terms derived from French (estoppel, laches, and voir dire) and Latin (certiorari, habeas corpus, prima facie, inter alia, mens rea, sub judice) and are not italicised as English legal language, as would be foreign words in mainstream English writing.

Formality

These features tend to make legal writing formal. This formality can take the form of long sentences, complex constructions, archaic and hyper-formal vocabulary, and a focus on content to the exclusion of reader needs. Some of this formality in legal writing is necessary and desirable, given the importance of some legal documents and the seriousness of the circumstances in which some legal documents are used. Yet not all formality in legal writing is justified. To the extent that formality produces opacity and imprecision, it is undesirable. To the extent that formality hinders reader comprehension, it is less desirable. In particular, when legal content must be conveyed to nonlawyers, formality should give way to clear communication.
What is crucial in setting the level of formality in any legal document is assessing the needs and expectations of the audience. For example, an appellate brief to the highest court in your jurisdiction calls for a formal style—this shows proper respect for the court and for the legal matter at issue. An interoffice legal memorandum to a supervisor can probably be less formal—though not colloquial—because it is an in-house decision-making tool, not a court document. And an email message to a friend and client, updating the status of a legal matter, is appropriately informal.
Transaction documents—legal drafting—fall on a similar continuum. A 150-page merger agreement between two large corporations, in which both sides are represented by counsel, will be highly formal—and should also be accurate, precise, and airtight (features not always compatible with high formality). A commercial lease for a small company using a small office space will likely be much shorter and will require less complexity, but may still be somewhat formal. But a proxy statement allowing the members of a neighborhood association to designate their voting preferences for the next board meeting ought to be as plain as can be. If informality aids that goal, it is justified.
Many U.S. law schools teach legal writing in a way that acknowledges the technical complexity inherent in law and the justified formality that complexity often requires, but with an emphasis on clarity, simplicity, and directness. Yet many practicing lawyers, busy as they are with deadlines and heavy workloads, often resort to a template-based, outdated, hyperformal writing style in both analytical and transactional documents. This is understandable, but it sometimes unfortunately perpetuates an unnecessarily formal legal writing style.

Categories of legal writing

Legal writing is of two, broad categories: (i) legal analysis and (ii) legal drafting. Legal analysis is two-fold: (1) predictive analysis, and (2) persuasive analysis. In the United States, in most law schools students must learn legal writing; the courses focus on: (1) predictive analysis, i.e., an outcome-predicting memorandum (positive or negative) of a given action for the attorney's client; and (2) persuasive analysis, e.g., motions and briefs. Although not as widely taught in law schools, legal drafting courses exist; other types of legal writing concentrate upon writing appeals or on interdisciplinary aspects of persuasion.

Predictive legal analysis

The legal memorandum is the most common type of predictive legal analysis; it may include the client letter or legal opinion. The legal memorandum predicts the outcome of a legal question by analyzing the authorities governing the question and the relevant facts that gave rise to the legal question. It explains and applies the authorities in predicting an outcome, and ends with advice and recommendations. The legal memorandum also serves as record of the research done for a given legal question. Traditionally, and to meet the legal reader's expectations, it is formally organized and written.

Persuasive legal analysis

The persuasive document, a motion or a brief, attempts to persuade a deciding authority to favorably decide the dispute for the author's client. Motions and briefs are usually submitted to judges, but also to mediators, arbitrators, and others. In addition a persuasive letter may attempt to persuade the dispute's opposing party.
Persuasive writing is the most rhetorically stylized. So although a brief states the legal issues, describes authorities, and applies authorities to the question—as does a memorandum—the brief's application portion is framed as an argument. The author argues for one approach to resolving the legal matter and does not present a neutral analysis.

Legal drafting

Legal drafting creates binding, legal text. It includes enacted law like statutes, rules, and regulations; contracts (private and public); personal legal documents like wills and trusts; and public legal documents like notices and instructions. Legal drafting requires no legal authority citation, and generally is written without a stylised voice.

Legal Writing in academia

Mercer University School of Law is home to the Legal Writing Institute, the world's largest organization devoted to improved legal writing. The Institute's 2100 members represent attorneys, judges, and legal writing professors in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

Plagiarism

In writing an objective analysis or a persuasive document, lawyers write under the same plagiarism rules applicable to most writers. Legal memoranda and briefs must properly attribute quotations and source authorities; yet, within a law office, a lawyer might borrow from other lawyers' texts without attribution, in using a well-phrased, successful argument made in a previous brief.
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited in academic work, especially in law review articles, seminar papers, and similar writings intended to reflect the author's original thoughts.
Legal drafting is different; unlike in most other legal writing categories, plagiarism is accepted, because of the high value of precedent. As noted, lawyers extensively use formats (contracts, wills, etc.) in drafting documents; borrowing from previous documents is common. A good lawyer may frequently copy, verbatim, well-written clauses from a contract, a will, or a statute to serve his or her client's legal interests.

Legalese

This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2013)

Legalese is an English term first used in 1914^[2] for legal writing that is very difficult for laymen to read and understand, the implication being that this abstruseness is deliberate for excluding the legally untrained and to justify high fees. Legalese, as a term, has been adopted in other languages.^[3][4] Legalese is characterized by long sentences, many modifying clauses, complex vocabulary, high abstraction, and insensitivity to the layman's need to understand the document's gist. Legalese arises most commonly in legal drafting, yet appears in both types of legal analysis. Today, the Plain Language Movement in legal writing is progressing and experts are busy trying to demystify legalese.
Some important points in the debate of "legalese" v. "plain language" as the continued standard for legal writing include:

Public comprehensibility

Perhaps most obviously, legalese suffers from being less comprehensible to the general public than plain English, which can be particularly important in both private (e.g., contracts) and public matters (e.g., laws, especially in democracies where the populace is seen as both responsible for and subject to the laws).^[5]

Resistance to ambiguity

Legalese may be particularly resistant to misinterpretation, be it incidental or deliberate, for two reasons:^{[citation needed]}

1. Its long history of use provides a similarly extensive background of precedent tied to the language. This precedent, as discussed above, will be a strong determinant of how documents written in legalese will be interpreted.
2. The legalese language itself may be more precise when compared to plain English, having arisen from a need for such precision, among other things.

Joseph Kimble, a modern plain-English expert and advocate, rejects the claim that legalese is less ambiguous in The Great Myth that Plain Language is not Precise.^[6] Kimble says legalese often contains so many convoluted constructions and circumlocutions that it is more ambiguous than plain English.

Coverage of contingencies

Legal writing faces a trade off in attempting to cover all possible contingencies while remaining reasonably brief. Legalese is characterized by a shift in priority towards the former of these concerns. For example, legalese commonly uses doublets and triplets of words (e.g., "null and void" and "dispute, controversy, or claim") which may appear redundant or unnecessary to laymen, but to a lawyer might reflect an important reference to distinct legal concepts.
Plain-English advocates suggest that no document can possibly cover every contingency, and that lawyers should not attempt to encompass every contingency they can foresee. Rather, lawyers should only draft for the known, possible, reasonably expected contingencies; see Howard Darmstadter, Hereof, Thereof, and Everywhereof: A Contrarian Guide to Legal Drafting 34 (ABA 2002).

Expectation/preference

Regardless of its objective merits or demerits when compared to plain English, legalese has a clear importance as a professional norm. As such, lawyers, judges, and clients may expect and prefer it, although no client or judge has ever actually expressed such a preference publicly. But a study conducted by Joseph Kimble, has expressly revealed the preference of Judges and lawyers for plain language alternatives.

See also

• Business speak
• Gobbledygook
• Legal English
• Plain English
• Plain language
• List of plain English words and phrases
• Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers
• Walter F. George School of Law

Notes

1. flordelizflorida. "Thinking Makes Visible". Retrieved 21 October 2012.
2. Online Etymology Dictionary
3. legalese | French | Dictionary & Translation by Babylon
4. http://tur.proz.com/kudoz/1551838
5. Lundin, Leigh (2009-12-31). "Buzzwords—Bang * Splat!". Criminal Brief. Retrieved 2010-02-19.
6. 7 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 109 (1998–2000)

References and further reading

• International Legal English, written by Amy Krois-Lindner and TransLegal, is a coursebook for Cambridge ESOL’s International Legal English Certificate.
• Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage (Oxford University Press) is regarded as an authoritative guide to legal language, and is aimed at the practising lawyer.
• Peter Butt and Richard Castle’s Modern Legal Drafting is a reference book aimed at the practising lawyer.
• Legal English (2004) by Rupert Haigh and published by Routledge.
• New ELS: English for Law Students written by Maria Fraddosio (Naples, Edizioni Giuridiche Simone, 2008) is a course book for Italian University Students.
• The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, created by Scribes: The American Society of Legal Writers.
• The Oxford Handbook of Legal Correspondence (2006) by Rupert Haigh and published by Oxford University Press.
• For a humorous perspective on legal writing, see Daniel R. White's Still The Official Lawyer's Handbook (NY: Plume/Penguin 1991), Chapter 13, pp. 171-176, especially its notorious riff on how a lawyer might edit -- and torture -- the phrase "The sky is blue" (pp. 172-174). Similarly, see Professor Fred Rodell's "Goodbye to Law Reviews," whose opening lines contain the classic statement of the problem: "There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content." (This and other articles are collected in Trials and Tribulations—An Anthology of Appealing Legal Humor, edited by Daniel R. White (NY: Plume/Penguin 1991), p. 241.)

External links

• Exercises for Legal Writers II: Wordiness
• Exercises for Legal Writers I: Active and Passive Sentences and Writing with Verbs

Categories:

• English language
• Jargon
• Language varieties and styles
• Legal communication
• Legal works
• Legal writing