How to Write a Novel. A 20 line poem

A step by step guide

20 lines.
You’re writing a novel? That’s interesting.’
I asked, ‘how do you do it?’
He begins to tell, but I’m not listening.
I don’t want to know and the first to admit it.

But because he’s a bore, doesn’t realise,
And tells me, ‘I’ll first need a genre.
Then toss around thoughts, mull, think and theorise.
And find 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.’