19 Novel Writing Tips for Your Next Book (Based on Neuroscience)

19 min readFeb 8, 2024

Canva Photos: kentoh & ucius from Getty Images

Do you ever get stuck while writing? We are here to help you get past writer’s block, and our 19 novel-writing tips will work for both new and experienced writers.

Your brain naturally tells stories; we will show you how to use your instincts and develop your writing skills to create an exciting book that endures in your readers’ memories. Based on neuroscience knowledge, we will teach you to set attainable goals, develop memorable characters and thrilling plots, and maintain your daily writing habits.

You can get past writer’s block by using just a few of our tips. Are you ready to make your masterpiece?

Starting now, let your inner novelist out and fire up those synapses!

Strengthen Your Writing Foundation

Daily writing can unlock the brain’s creative power and establish habit loops that strengthen neural pathways.

TIP 1: Automate Your Writing with Habit Loops

Unleash the power of neuroscience to establish and automate your writing habits by strategically using habit loops. Consistent cues, deliberate writing routines, and rewarding outcomes can boost your writing productivity.

Here’s a deeper look into how you can leverage habit loops for more disciplined writing practice:

Set Consistent Cues: Identify specific triggers—such as a fixed time of day, a designated writing space, or pre-writing rituals—that signal your brain it’s time to write.
Engage in Deliberate Writing Routines: Commit to a structured writing plan that becomes your routine response to the initial cues.
Reward Mechanism: Recognize the completion of your writing session with a reward, such as the satisfaction of progress, a break, or a treat.
Consistency Over Quantity: Emphasize regular engagement with your writing habit rather than the volume of work produced in each session.

Using structured cues, dedicated routines, and rewarding outcomes makes writing a daily habit and makes each session enjoyable.

What do other authors do? Authors like Andy Weir and Haruki Murakami have shared their writing routines, highlighting the importance of consistency over quantity.

Weir, who transitioned from software engineering to writing, applied his disciplined, problem-solving mindset to paper, setting aside time daily to tackle writing like a series of coding problems.
Murakami, renowned for his magical realism and meticulous prose, follows a strict routine, waking up at 4 AM and writing for 5 to 6 hours daily.

Over time, your habit loop will naturally activate your writing practice.

For a more in-depth look at how to build a positive writing routine, check out “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg.

TIP 2: Create a Dopamine-Friendly Writing Environment

Elevate your writing practice by cultivating a space that inspires and actively contributes to your motivation through the strategic influence of neurotransmitters like dopamine.

The right environment can significantly enhance your enjoyment of and productivity in writing.

Here’s how to design a dopamine-friendly writing environment:

Make Your Space Inspiring: Your writing environment can affect dopamine release, a neurotransmitter linked to pleasure and motivation. This chemical boost makes writing more enjoyable, increasing your chances of finishing.
Make a Space That Works for You: Create your ideal writing area to promote focus and passion. A well-lit corner of your home with your favorite chair or a café spot would work. Create a space that suits you and inspires creativity.
Make Small Changes: Minor changes to your writing space can significantly impact your writing experience. Consider adding visually appealing or comforting elements, such as plants, artwork, or a playlist of uplifting background music.

By thoughtfully designing a friendly writing environment, you pave the way for a more fulfilling and efficient writing process.

Consider two well-known authors’ writing spaces:

J.K. Rowling wrote most of “Harry Potter” at local cafés, where she found the crowded setting stimulating while encouraging her creativity.
Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” highlights the need for a peaceful, private writing space, which can be related to establishing a dopamine-friendly atmosphere.

To boost creativity and motivation, surround yourself with lights, plants, personal treasures, or the sound of a crowded cafe.

Cultivating a Productive Writing Mindset

Writing becomes more manageable and rewarding when you trust your brain’s instincts and keep a growth mindset.

TIP 3: Harness Your Brain’s Instincts and Cultivate a Growth Mindset

Did you know your brain is designed to avoid pain? While this design helps us survive, it can stall novel writing.

But there’s a way to overcome this pain avoidance. It’s believing you can get better. According to research, if your writing will improve over time, you will likely continue working on it.

Here are some ways to cultivate your growth mindset:

Recognize Avoidance: Understand that your brain avoids discomfort, which can inhibit wanting to write.
Identify and Combat Triggers: Pinpoint thoughts, feelings, or situations that lead to procrastination. When these triggers arise, keep a list of positive thoughts or actions you can take to combat negativity.
Embrace a Growth Mindset: Believe in continuously improving your writing skills and regularly remind yourself of this potential.
Celebrate and Reward: Acknowledge every writing milestone, providing yourself with positive reinforcement for each achievement.

By tapping into your brain’s instincts and cultivating a growth mindset, you can make your writing journey more manageable and rewarding.

That brings us to our next novel writing tip: take your project one step at a time.

TIP 4: Break Down Tasks into Achievable Milestones

Breaking down your writing project into smaller milestones minimizes stress and stimulates your brain’s reward system, boosting your motivation.

Little Goals: Setting and accomplishing little goals can help you move toward your bigger writing goals.
Divide and Conquer: Divide your novel-writing journey into achievable, synapse-stimulating goals. Examples include word count goals (300 words per day), scene goals (1 scene per writing session), and chapter goals (1 chapter per week).
Getting Closer to Bigger Goals: Achieving small goals increases dopamine and serotonin, the brain’s natural motivators, bringing you closer to your larger writing goals.

Working to celebrate each victory strengthens your brain’s reward loop.

Technology can also help you stay on track to meet your writing goals, so you don’t have to rely on your willpower and strength alone to finish things, which leads to tip #5.

TIP 5: Use a Technological App to Encourage Daily Writing Productivity

You can use technology to harness your brain’s natural cycles and reward systems to encourage a daily writing practice that feels enjoyable and doable.

Here are a few options:

Forest App for Focused Writing Sessions

Why it Works: This app uses the Pomodoro Technique, which works well with the brain’s natural need for breaks and short bursts of focus; this will help you stay focused and avoid burnout.

How to Apply: Set specific writing intervals (for example, 25 minutes) and take a short break.

Habitica for Gamifying Your Writing Goals

Why it Works: The brain enjoys earning rewards and overcoming challenges. Habitica turns your tasks into “monsters” that you must “defeat” by completing them, stimulating your brain’s reward system.

How to Apply: Use Habitica to set daily writing goals. As you complete tasks in the app, you will receive prizes, making it easier to establish a writing habit.

According to research, such as that conducted by R.S. Alsawaier, “in many studies, students’ levels of engagement increased significantly following the introduction of game elements.”

You are not only writing with willpower; you are also using the brain’s natural tendencies to boost productivity and creativity.

Free Your Creativity: Outline Your Novel

Creating a novel outline acts as a mental schema, assisting you in categorizing and understanding information more effectively.

TIP 6: Optimize Your Novel-Writing with Outlines and Visual Aids

Using neuroscience concepts to arrange your novel-writing process significantly improves your and your readers’ memory and understanding.

Visible structure and outlines speed the writing process and enhance the story by decreasing external pressures and focusing cognitive resources on creativity and innovation.

Here’s how to properly implement these strategies:

Reduce Cognitive Load: Less stress on your brain saves mental space for character development and world-building, making stories richer and more complex.
Schemas for Efficiency: Use creative outlines to simplify the massive amount of information you need to manage, freeing up creative energy for exploring and deepening your story.
Use Visual Tools for Clarification: Use mind maps, flowcharts, and storyboards to graphically arrange your concepts, character relationships, plot lines, and theme aspects. These tools provide a bird’s-eye view of your story framework, allowing for faster tweaks and additions.
Increase Emotional Depth: Using visual and organized planning, you can weave layers of significance throughout your story, increasing its emotional impact. This balanced approach ensures that each story component has a clear purpose and effect.

Modern novel writing software reduces decision fatigue and cognitive stress, allowing for a more enjoyable writing experience. It enhances narrative complexity, engagement, and emotional depth, enhancing the reader’s experience. Neuroscience-based organizing and visual aids improve novel writing, making it more manageable and rewarding.

Tip 7: Opt for Novel Writing Software to Reduce Cognitive Load

Don’t get overwhelmed by plotting and story choices!

Use novel writing software such as Final Draft or Novel Factory to help you focus solely on the creative aspects of your work.
Use a writing software program like Scrivener to help organize your projects.
Use a plot designer like Plottr.
Take advantage of their built-in templates for character arcs, plot structure, and settings to make your writing process go more smoothly.

Researchers have been looking into how AI and other software tools can reduce overwhelm and help you focus on the most important aspects of your creative process. Make sure to pack one or two in your writer’s toolbag.

Mastering Storytelling with Brain-Friendly Techniques

Writing stories that engage readers cognitively and emotionally requires knowledge of your brain’s neural patterns.

Following these guidelines, you can structure a story to match your audience’s understanding of patterns.

TIP 8: Embrace the Rule of Three for Cognitive Resonance

The allure of patterns is undeniable in storytelling, with the number three holding a special significance. It is the standard pattern, the earliest sequence our brains identify and appreciate as a consistent structure.

By integrating the “Rule of Three” within your narrative framework, you can significantly enhance the cognitive resonance of your story, making it more engaging and memorable for your readers.

Here’s how to effectively apply this principle:

Utilize a Three-Act Structure: Break your narrative into three distinct sections: the setup, the confrontation, and the resolution. This classic structure provides a satisfying rhythm to your story, guiding readers through a journey that feels inherently complete and balanced.
Create Three Key Characters: Design your narrative around three central figures—this could mean focusing on a protagonist, an antagonist, and a pivotal secondary character who influences the plot’s direction. This trio creates dynamic interactions and relationships that captivate readers’ interest.
Challenge Your Protagonist Thrice: Present three significant challenges or obstacles to your main character. Each hurdle should be a stepping stone in their development, contributing to their growth and the story’s momentum; this enriches the character’s journey and keeps the readers invested in the outcome.

The “Rule of Three” taps into a deep-seated cognitive preference for patterns, enhancing your narrative’s rhythm, recall, and overall satisfaction.

By consciously incorporating this structure into your storytelling, you leverage a powerful tool that aligns with our brain’s natural inclination toward pattern recognition.

This strategic use of the rule can elevate your story from merely engaging to genuinely memorable and fulfilling, resonating deeply with your audience’s cognitive and emotional faculties.

TIP 9: Build a Climax and Resolution for Cognitive Closure

The need for narrative closure is an essential aspect of our mental experience. This drive stems from our brain’s natural longing for completeness and closure.

Successful writing requires a well-planned climax and resolution. Here’s how to ensure that your story fulfills this psychological need:

Understanding the Psychological Underpinning: Understanding that the urge for a story conclusion is psychological rather than an option may help you write. A narrative that meets this need by concluding on a positive note connects powerfully with the reader’s desire for emotional closure.
Create a well-defined climax: The finale is your story’s pivotal conflict resolution point and emotional crescendo. Developing a compelling and unmistakable peak prepares the audience for a gratifying conclusion that matches expectations of an outcome.
Ensure a Clear Resolution: After the climax, a concise and logical ending is essential to satisfy the reader’s need for closure. This piece of your story should tie up loose ends and answer any remaining questions, giving readers a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment.
Align with Human Psychological Tendencies: Offering a satisfying and complete finish appeals to human nature. Such an ending entertains and fulfills the deep need for closure, enhancing your story.
Apply Psychological Insights to Storytelling: Understanding storytelling brain areas and intellectual and emotional responses helps authors write compelling and psychologically relevant stories. Knowing this enables you to compose a captivating story with a satisfying ending.

By emphasizing a distinct climax and resolution, you meet the reader’s cognitive need for closure while also engaging and satisfying their psychological needs.

This strategy enhances the narrative and strengthens the emotional and cognitive connection between your story and its audience.

TIP 10: Experiment with Point of View (POV) to Engage Different Cognitive Processes.

Change the perspective and drastically modify your reader’s emotional experience.

The first-person POV elicits empathy and emotional attachment because readers experience the narrative through the character’s eyes.
The second-person POV lets the reader feel like an active participant in the events, which can boost emotional involvement.
A third-person POV lets readers emotionally identify with numerous characters and circumstances, which deepens the story.

Experimenting with POV enhances storytelling by activating empathy regions and allowing readers to understand and share emotions, giving stories more power by putting themselves in the characters’ shoes.

TIP 11: Master the Art of Pacing for Optimal Cognitive Processing

Sentence structure can influence the rhythm and mood of your narrative.

Use short, powerful words in action scenes to keep the audience guessing.
To achieve emotional resonance, alternate between short and long phrases.
Simplify complex scenes with straightforward language to sustain interest.
Slow down the pace of your story and allow readers to reflect by using long, intricate sentences.
Writers control pacing and emotion by manipulating sentence length and word choice.

Effective pacing matches the brain’s information processing capacity, keeping tension without overwhelming the reader.

TIP 12: Engage the Brain with Vivid Sensory Details

You can immerse your reader in the human experience by stimulating the senses with your words.

Draw your reader in with vivid, sensory language. Neuroscientific studies show that sensory-activated descriptive prose immerses readers in your world.

Add sensory details to your story to transport readers.

Use “show, do not tell” to describe “the pungent perfume of spices” that filled the room or “the rough texture of burlap bags” that the character stacks in a corner.
Use metaphors and similes like “his regret was like the aftertaste of bitter medicine” or “her affection was a secret garden.”

Some examples of how sensory details engage readers include:

“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern and “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Süskind. Morgenstern’s descriptions of the circus’s smells, sounds, and sights engage the reader’s senses, making the fantastical setting come alive.
Similarly, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” by Patrick Süskind masterfully uses sensory language to tell the story of a man with an extraordinary sense of smell, profoundly engaging the reader’s olfactory imagination.

According to neuroimaging studies, sensory details in stories improve reader immersion and emotional impact, allowing readers to engage with the story by awakening their senses and drawing them into the narrative.

Engage Readers with Brain-Based Techniques

The following tips will help you build suspense, manage your pacing, use sensory details, and include mystery elements to captivate your audience.

TIP 13: Trigger Dopamine for Suspenseful Stories

Engage your readers with time-tested suspense techniques that captivate and chemically engage their brains. Here’s how to weave suspense into the fabric of your narrative:

Cliffhangers: Conclude your chapters on notes of suspense to fuel the reader’s curiosity about forthcoming events. This technique keeps your audience tethered to the narrative, eager to discover what lies ahead.
Plot Twists: Introduce unexpected developments that defy your readers’ predictions. This strategy maintains a high level of interest and excitement throughout the story.

Cliffhangers and plot twists cause the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and anticipation, which keeps readers engaged.

Examples of this technique can be seen across a spectrum of literature:

Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” is a prime example of suspense mastery, with its intricate plot twists ensuring a relentless dopamine surge that compels readers to persist in their quest for the truth.
Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” masterfully maintains suspense and anticipation, keeping readers engaged as they unravel the next target and the mystery’s resolution.

These elements create urgency and anticipation while promising a satisfying resolution, making your narrative irresistible.

However, the challenge of manipulating the reader’s emotions goes beyond suspense, prompting us to investigate the complexities of emotional pacing.

TIP 14: Manipulate Emotional Pacing for a Gripping Narrative

Adjusting your story’s pacing can profoundly influence your readers’ emotional journey, enhancing the narrative’s grip. Here’s how to masterfully manipulate pacing:

Time-Sensitive Scenarios: Incorporate deadlines or ticking clocks to maintain high emotional stakes, ensuring readers remain riveted.
Internal Conflicts: Employ moments of introspection to decelerate the pace, allowing readers to delve into the depths of your characters’ psyches.

Emotional pacing is similar to conducting an emotional symphony, intending to transport readers on a tumultuous journey that captivates and enthralls.

As we will see in the following section, the complexities of mystery add an extra layer to your emotional work of art.

TIP 15: Sustain Interest with Elements of Mystery

The allure of the unknown appeals to the human brain’s natural problem-solving ability, keeping readers engaged and invested. Use these strategies to add mystery to your story:

Red Herrings: Introduce characters who seem guilty but are ultimately exonerated, challenging and engaging your readers’ detective skills.
Romantic Subplots: Incorporate romance into the fabric of your central mystery to engage readers on various emotional and intellectual levels, increasing the narrative’s complexity and appeal.

By embedding elements of mystery, you captivate your readers’ minds and hearts, ensuring they remain absorbed in your story, eager to unravel the layers of intrigue and revelation.

TIP 16: Anchor Memories with Recurring Plot Points

Using recurring plot points in your novel is a powerful technique for increasing reader engagement and retention.

These elements serve as “memory anchors,” triggering the reader’s memory while significantly increasing emotional engagement.

Here’s why and how:

Reinforcement Through Repetition: The brain is structured to remember and recall repeated information. Recurring themes build a memory tapestry that helps you remember your story.
Emotional Relevance: Recurring plot points may be emotional. Each return can heighten the story’s emotional impact and significance.
Creating a Cohesive Narrative: A coherent narrative connects story pieces using recurring motifs, which improves reading and memory retention.
Symbolism and Theme Reinforcement: Recurring narrative components can be used as symbols or motifs to reinforce your story’s themes, giving the reader a richer and more meaningful experience.

Recurring plot points make your novel more memorable and emotional. It improves narrative and retention, making reading more enjoyable. Incorporate these memory anchors into your story to win readers.

TIP 17: Incorporate Reflection Points to Optimize Cognitive Load.

A great reading experience requires controlling the reader’s cognitive load in the complex narrative process.

Integrating reflection points can improve story memory and emotional impact.

It works like this.

Making Reflections: A slower narrative cadence helps readers understand your story’s complexity. This space helps us think, connect, and reflect.
Improving Retention: Readers with time to think are more likely to remember the story. Reflection pauses aid brain processing and memory.
Deepening Emotional Impact: Reflection helps with knowledge processing and fully develops emotional reactions. Pauses help readers emotionally connect with the characters and plot, making the novel more engaging.
Facilitating Engagement and Empathy: These deliberate pauses help readers empathize with the characters and get more engrossed in the story. Reading may be more meaningful and effective.

Smart reflection spaces reduce reader cognitive stress. This method enhances emotion and memory.

As an example:

Tara Westover’s memoir “Educated” includes reflection points to help readers understand her experiences. This method reduces cognitive load by letting readers digest complex topics slowly.
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” sprinkles Scout’s Maycomb, Alabama, memories throughout. These moments simplify social and moral issues to help readers understand the story.

Consider how and where to include these reflections to make your story stand out.

The tips below will help you create memorable characters who bring your story to life.

Crafting Relatable Characters Using Neuroscience

To create unforgettable characters, you need to evoke empathy in your readers.

Let’s explore the neurochemistry that brings life and relatability to your creations.

TIP 18: Tap into the “Hero’s Brain” for Relatable Characters

Using neuroscience and empathy to unlock the potential of character development can affect how readers connect with your story.

You can create characters who resonate on a deeply personal level by engaging the reader’s capacity for empathy and identification, also known as the “Hero’s brain.”

Here’s how to harness this approach:

Reflect Humanity’s Complexity: Create characters with diverse strengths and weaknesses. Such complexity reflects the reader’s experiences, eliciting empathetic responses that bond readers to characters and make their stories more engaging.
Reveal Character Flaws: By highlighting characters’ insecurities and flaws, readers can see reflections of themselves within the story. This vulnerability builds trust and empathy, making the reader care about the character’s journey.
Weave in Moral Challenges: Embed moral dilemmas within your narrative to add depth and provoke thought. These scenarios encourage readers to consider their values and empathy in similar situations, making the narrative more relatable and complex.
Anchor Characters in Reality: Characters with realistic flaws resonate more deeply with readers. Characters can become more relatable and memorable by displaying genuine flaws.
Position Characters as the Emotional Core: Characters that evoke strong empathy and identification become the narrative’s heart and soul. Their struggles, growth, and resolutions resonate with readers, ensuring your story has a lasting emotional impact.

Some examples of character flaws in literature include:

In “Pride and Prejudice,” Elizabeth Bennet’s prejudice and fast judgment led to her demise. Her quest for self-discovery and love becomes more relatable.
In “Macbeth,” Macbeth’s uncontrolled ambition leads to his moral collapse. His transformation from nobleman to tyrant exemplifies the corrupting power of ambition.
In the play “Othello,” Iago takes advantage of Othello’s jealousy, leading to tragedy. Jealousy kills Othello because he does not trust Desdemona.

By creating characters that reflect the reader’s empathy and emotional engagement, they can reflect on their own lives, challenges, and growth, creating an unforgettable human spirit journey.

The final tip emphasizes giving characters authenticity through dialogue.

TIP 19: Master the Neurochemistry of Dialogue for Realistic Interactions

Creating dialogue in your story is the key to increasing reader engagement.

Creating realistic interactions between your characters allows you to tap into the same neurochemical processes during real-world social interactions.

To make reading more authentic and impactful, improve your dialogue:

Mirror Real Conversations: Try to capture the flow and nuance of real-life discussions in your discourse. This authenticity activates the brain’s social regions, making characters seem more “alive” and relevant to the reader.
Embrace everyday language. Contractions, slang, and colloquial terms give your discourse a realistic and authentic tone. It bridges the gap between page and real-world speech, adding authenticity to your characters’ interactions.
Neurochemical Engagement: Realistic discussion can cause the release of neurotransmitters like oxytocin, which is renowned for its involvement in bonding and social connection. By activating the reader’s neurochemistry through authentic interactions, you encourage a more robust emotional engagement in the tale.
Dialogue as the Story Driver: Genuine conversation may move your story along in addition to presenting facts. It exposes character, heightens suspense, and enhances the storyline, making it an essential storytelling component.

Mastering the neurochemistry of dialogue entails emphasizing authenticity in character conversations, making them relatable and increasing reader engagement, and altering the reading experience by making fictitious exchanges vividly resemble real-life social experiences.

APPLY WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED TO YOUR NOVEL

Now that you’ve looked into our “19 Novel Writing Tips Based on Neuroscience,” each tip, based on exciting discoveries in neuroscience, gives you a new way to look at and improve your writing.

Before we go, let’s review the key takeaways and some ideas for implementing these tips today.

Key Takeaways:

Cultivate Good Habits: Setting regular writing habits and creating a welcoming environment are critical initial steps. Automating your writing using habit loops improves discipline and increases creativity and productivity.

Break Down Obstacles: Understanding and addressing cognitive hurdles, such as discomfort avoidance and mental fatigue, is essential for maintaining momentum in your writing journey.

Optimize Creativity and Efficiency: Using outlines, visual aids, and the appropriate writing tools may help simplify your workflow, minimize cognitive load, and unleash creativity.

Engage Through Structure and Style: Brain-friendly frameworks like the rule of three and the cognitive closure provided by an artfully crafted climax and conclusion increase the power of narrative. Experimenting with POV and pacing stimulates readers on a deeper cognitive level.

Infuse Emotional Depth: Techniques that activate dopamine, alter emotional pacing, and add sensory details may turn your story into a riveting and memorable experience for readers.

Develop Relatable Characters: By delving into the neuroscience of empathy and understanding the neurochemistry of dialogue, you can develop characters that readers will connect with.

Implement These Tips:

Start Small: Implement one or two tips into your writing routine at a time. Small, consistent changes are more sustainable and can significantly improve over time.

Reflect and Adjust: Regularly reflect on the effectiveness of each tip you’ve implemented. What works for one writer may not work for another, so adjusting your approach based on personal experience and progress is essential.

Combine Techniques for Synergy: Many of these tips are complementary. For example, visual aids (TIP 6) can enhance your ability to break down tasks into achievable milestones (TIP 4), creating a more efficient and enjoyable writing process.

Seek feedback: Share your writing with peers or a writing group. Feedback can provide insights into how well your neuroscience-based techniques resonate with readers.

Stay Curious: Continue learning about the intersection of neuroscience and creative writing. The field constantly evolves; new insights can offer additional strategies to enhance your writing.

Your Future Novel Awaits

Understanding your brain’s natural tendencies to resist writing and using cognitive strategies for compelling, dynamic storytelling are neuroscience-backed novel writing tips. These tips aim to improve your writing efficiency and enjoyment.

Put your best writing tool, your brain, to use and create your next fantastic novel. You have everything you need. Use these neuroscience-backed methods to overcome obstacles and boost creativity to finish your final draft faster.

Congratulations on your upcoming release!