Here's a little thing that I think is a good sort of ladder for novels. A little thing called the Hero's journey. A sort of layout for a character as they progress through the story. As the title states, it's a journey, an outline of how the character grows. Here's each element:

1. THE ORDINARY WORLD
-As it states this is just the hero interacting with the world within the story as it is. This is so the reader is introduced to the character, what are they like, do they have motives? The situation or dilemma is just starting to show so we see the hero starting to grow uneasy.

2. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE
- This is where everything starts and a conflict is introduced. Something powerful enough to pull the hero away and into the start of their adventure.

3. REFUSAL TO THE CALL
- This is another conflict, with the hero. Perhaps they're facing fear of their adventure or a close friend is advising against it? Whatever it is, it's a brief scene that tries to pull the hero away from the adventure.

4. MEETING WITH THE MENTOR
- As it states the hero meets up with someone who gives them advice and helps them overcome the refusal. Prepares them for the adventure ahead.

5. CROSSING THE THRESHOLD
- The hero then commits themselves to leave the ordinary world and finally start their adventure. They enter a new, unknown world filled with new challenges, often called the Special world.

6. TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES
- The hero is tested and meets new characters. They either find enemies or form alliances.

7. APPROACH
- The hero and new allies if any, find new ways to tackle the Special world.

8. THE ORDEAL
- This is usually near the middle of the story where the hero comes face to face with the biggest threat. Let's say either fear or even death, the ordeal is the gateway to a new birth.

9. THE REWARD
- The hero takes the reward they gain after successfully facing the ordeal. Either can be celebration or fear of losing the reward.

10. THE ROAD BACK
- This is about 3/4 of the way to the story, the hero drives to finish the adventure to completion and bring the reward home.

11. THE RESURRECTION
- This is the climax, bringing the peak to the conflict. The hero is tested once more, at the threshold of home. Here in comes another moment of death, sacrifice, and rebirth. Through the actions of the hero the conflict is finally resolved.

12. RETURN OF THE ELIXIR
- The hero comes home bearing the reward. The element of the reward bringing transformation to the home as the hero has transformed.

This is a great step by step way to ensure your novel is following some sort of storyline. It's a popular tool used by authors. Some don't even go the full circle. Some authors like to experiment; for example to journey could end at the ordeal without any resolution, or perhaps mixing up the steps.

And the Reward is sort of special as the reward could be anything material or non material. The greatest reward can be knowledge.

So, practicing with the hero journey can be rough but people can pick up upon it. Perhaps you can analyze a story using the hero journey picking up on each element. The easiest stories to analyze would be Shakespeare plays in my opinion. But it could be anything really.