Nine Steps in Writing a Paper About a Novel

1. Ask yourself questions about the author's purposes. These questions should all begin with "why," or "What did the
author accomplish by . . . “

2. When you've read the book thoroughly enough to think of a good question, study the book with this question in mind, and use the answer as the thesis for your paper.

3. Introduce that thesis in the first paragraph. Many writers feel that the best place for the thesis statement is at the very end of the introductory paragraph. They believe that one does well to lead up to it by general statements about the book in which mention is made of the name of the book, the name of the author/and the general gist or purpose of the book. This introductory paragraph might be planned as if it were a funnel: it opens with a broad general statement about the book and narrows down to the specific statement which you intend to develop in your paper.

4. If your thesis statement is a limited one which doesn't have to be divided into various parts, you are ready to develop it, to make it specific instead of general by writing with details. If your thesis needs explanation, explain it, and then make it clear by giving examples from the pages of the book.

5. If your thesis is a complex one and needs dividing into parts, name those parts--they comprise your "outline." Each of these now needs to be explained and made clear with examples from the book. (The pattern for each is: state it, explain it, give examples of it.)
Remember that you write by paragraphs, and that you never handle more than one idea in one paragraph. If you have many examples from the text, you usually do well to devote a paragraph to each example.

6. It is seldom sufficient simply to announce an example and let it lie there without any interpretation. It's up to you to show the readers exactly how the example supports your thesis. Don’t  trust the readers to figure out anything for themselves, because they won’t. That’s your job.

7. Don't madden your readers by referring to your examples only by page number. Maybe they are reading another edition of the book and the pages are different. Besides, you have no right to ask extra work of your readers. It's your job to explain references by their content.

8. If you're lucky and throughout the book there are many demonstrations (what we're calling examples) of the validity of your thesis, you won't want to bore your readers to death with all of them. Instead, select those which are most significant to the book and will be most convincing to your audience.

9. Plan your paper from beginning to end before writiing. Know what points you intend to make, how you intend to make them, and the textual references you intend to use to prove them. And decide on the order in which you will do these things. Then—and not before—start writing.