I have an interest in writing novels, but I need some beginners advice. I also have a few questions. Should I rely on active voice or passive voice? Is there a vocab list I can use somewhere that can help me increase my vocab in the novel? How do you write quickly?(It takes forever for me to write just one chapter)
Active voice primarily. #1 thing is to write. To improve vocabulary, read books you like. Don't get caught up in writing books or experts. Remember that novels are not the only form, there are short stories. If you have some shekels, consider getting Scrivener. Good luck.
I would say grammarly is a big help. Even the free version significantly improves my writing so you should get it. It helps with vocab and passive/active voice. Active voice is usually always better to use btw.
Active voice: The focus is on the subject or the subject's action (A killed B.) Passive voice: The focus is on the result of the action (Did you hear? B was killed by A!) The writing should be mostly in the active voice, but the passive voice can be used for emphasis. thesaurus.com Search up suitable idioms and phrases on google. Making a rough draft and storyboard would probably help. Choose the right writing tool for you, keyboard or pen and paper. Most importantly, Practice Makes Perfect.
I got my start by writing about my MMORPG characters in the games I played. Just three or four paragraph short stories I wrote to forums like this one. After about ten years of that, while I was between games I started to respond to writing prompts all over the internet, again short stories to various internet forums about topics I enjoy. I really didn't chase after paid writing gigs until I had been writing for about twenty years or so. Read a lot. What you like to read will most likely be what you want to write including your voice. You don't need to add big words to what you write to make it readable. A lot of great authors turn their work to shit trying to be verbose. If you want the widest possible audience then you should keep it simple. The idea is to tell a compelling story that people want to read, not impress the other authors with your thesaurus skills. Hope that helps!
Use active voice, If you are looking a word that fits better than the one you are using, do a google search with the word plus “synonym”. Options will then appear Depending on the scene, when I write, it can take me 2 hours to write a page. Sometimes I might not even like it and will scrap it and write that scene again. Overall, the best thing you can do is just sit down and write. You will quickly find that an idea will only get you so far in terms of word/page count. The rest is sitting down, thinking about the characters, how the story will go, and writing it out.
Everyone here has given really great advice. My biggest piece of advice is to create the habit of writing every single day. Sit down for 15 minutes (around the same time if possible) and churn out what you can. If you go over your 15 minutes, awesome. If you only get 200 words down, still awesome. You can continue to build on this over time, but you're creating the habit. Every writer started by slowly churning out chapters. Speed comes with practice. Try not to get discouraged when you see the longer/frequently updated stories. You'll get there.
What DoubleBlind said, also I recommend learning to type if you can't. I know it's off topic and obbious but it's the thing that helped me the most.