How to Write a Novel. A 20 line poem

20 lines.
You’re writing a novel? That’s interesting.’
They ask, ‘how do you do it?’
He starts to tell, but they’re not listening.
Don’t want to know, be the first to admit it.

But because he’s a bore, doesn’t realise,
He tells them. ‘I’ll first need a genre.
To toss around thoughts, mull, think and theorise.
Come up with a title with a double entendre.’

And then? ‘I’ll need a protagonist.
One who generates empathy.
Then of course an antagonist,
For him there’ll be no sympathy.’

‘The die is cast, all that remains,
Is to write the words and the chapters.
And hope and pray it entertains,
And there aren’t too many detractors.

And there you have it, as simple as abc.
A genre, a plot and a cast.
As easy as falling out of a tree,
A best seller that won’t be surpassed.’