Top Tips for Writing a Novel in Verse

My fourth novel in verse, Activist, is the story of one girl who won’t stop speaking out against injustice, no matter the consequences. As such, it’s a book about the power of words to save and heal; it’s about the importance of the individual voice, and the hope engendered by finding your words and beliefs echoed by others. Poetry is a powerfully political genre, so the narrative of Activist lent itself very well to the verse form.  

Poets and novelists have long theorised the differences and demands of their forms. But hybridity has always been acknowledged as important. Virginia Woolf commented that, “the best prose is that which is most full of poetry,” whilst T.S. Eliot believed, “to have the virtues of good prose is the first and minimum requirements of a good poem.” The verse novel acknowledges the beautiful debt each form owes to the other and for me it’s about taking the best of both worlds, throwing some of the power of drama in for good measure and riding the wave.

If you’d like to try writing a novel in verse, here are some things to think about:

1. Poetry is there for the writing 

It’s the form most often charged with elitism, but in my opinion of the fundamental aims of a verse novel should be to be as inclusive as possible. Poetry should be as democratic as any other text. Remember: you’re allowed to do this. No one can judge you for it. No one owns poetry.

2. Inspire language into your life

Read poetry. Read it in your head, or read it aloud, have it read to you, or read to others. Relish and appreciate wordplay, alliteration, assonance, rhyme and allow yourself be caught up in the rhythms and story of narrative verse, the beats and bars of spoken word, the  cadences and lyricism of poets from across the ages. I go back again and again to Tennyson and Eliot, Shakespeare and Hardy. But then I listen to George the Poet and Tony Walsh, read Nikita Gill and Manjeet Mann. Poetry of all kinds and places and people is a wonderful resource and seeking out the power and beauty of language and recognising its potential is a great way to begin.

3. Make each moment count

I don’t believe that there are any hard and fast rules for writing in verse; you can use one perspective, or multiple; write historical or contemporary; use different forms (such as tercets or sonnets) or write in free verse; you can use calligrams and concrete poetry. You can be as free and experimental as you wish. But ultimately a story must be told, and each verse in your novel needs to earn its place. After all, one of the beauties of this form is its brevity. So where to begin? Some verse novelists begin by writing the story in prose and then choosing their key scenes and locating the images that will drive the work. I prefer to let the character take over and do the telling for me, seeing the novel through their eyes, as if it is a series of moments, snapshots of time, and ensuring each verse captures that particular emotion and event in as precise and condensed and lyrical a way as possible. 

4. Voicing

As with any writing, your voice should be authentic and distinctive. How will you make that distinctive voice a “poetic” one, too? If your character is a young person, then their voice must reflect their time and place, their individuality and interests. You might think that’s at odds with “poetry” or poetic language. I’d argue that young people are closely in touch with the potential of language and as in love with words as any adult (who didn’t obsess over song lyrics as a teenager, writing them in tip-ex on their school books and bags?). The close first-person point of view so often used by verse novelists enables a powerfully subjective narrative, where the text can be a place of revelation and confession, joy and horror, dream and reality.

5. A hybrid form

The verse novel is a wonderful mix of genres and one of the things I love about it is the potential for drama. My YA protagonists are all facing challenges and experiencing the world in brutal ways. They’re young people who need to speak out against injustice for the sake of their own survival. Court rooms, boxing rings, school room riots: I set up scenes where not only is the finding of their voice of paramount importance, but also where conflict is inevitable. The subjectivity of poetic language and a plot driven by high stakes are powerful propulsive forces. Ultimately the verse novel enables the writer to cut to the chase. To say what matters and to say that with your chest. 

Louisa Reid is the author of the YA verse novels Gloves Off, nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and Wrecked, which was selected for both the Read for Empathy collection and National Poetry Day. Her debut adult novel, The Poet, was published this year by Doubleday to critical acclaim. Louisa Reid has spent most of her life reading. When Louisa’s not reading she’s writing stories, or imagining writing them at least. As an English teacher, her favourite part of the job is sharing her love of reading and writing with her pupils. Louisa lives with her family in the north-west of England and is proud to call a place near Manchester home. Follow Louisa on Twitter and Instagram.

Activist is published by Guppy Books on 13th October | for readers age 14+ | Paperback | £7.99. Follow Guppy Books on Twitter and Instagram.