A goal without a plan is just a wish...

“Plan your writing and write your plan.” 

Napoleon hill

How do you plan a novel?

By Dr Charley Barnes

There are – and I don’t feel any trace of hyperbole in saying this – literally hundreds if not thousands of books that are available to tell you how to plan your novel. Some of them may well be helpful, and a few of them likely aren’t. There’s nothing wrong with approaching your planning in a researcher capacity to start with, to look at how other writers have planned a novel before you. There will be some good advice from authors who have used different structures – and there will be advice from authors who haven’t used structures at all, but more on those in a second. Either way, you’ll likely find some pearls of wisdom pressed between those pages. 

That said, there’s also nothing wrong with feeling your own way through the process of planning a novel either. 

When I wrote my first novel, I honestly didn’t know what I was doing to begin with (which makes it sound like I did know what I was doing towards the end; a comment my family would debate to great lengths). It was very much a process of learn-by-do to see what did and didn’t suit the project I was working on at the time though. 

“In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.” Rose Tremain

The reason I say “suit the project… at the time” is because I’ve written three novels since that first book, and none of them have been planned in quite the same way as another. 

One or two of my books have seen me take on the role of plotter. This is one of the options available when you’re looking for how to piece your novel together. You plot, plot, plot until you know the beginning, the end, and the various points on the road there. Plotters tend to break their novel down into individual chapter outlines, and they use these to guide their writing process.

What’s the benefit of plotting? You know exactly where you are in your story at any given point.

What’s the drawback? It can take time…

One or two of my books have also seen me take on the role of pantser and, if this isn’t a term you’ve heard before, you might know it more by the lengthened version of, “someone who flies by the seat of their pants”. For these books, I haven’t plotted anywhere near what I could have done! I would usually have a point A and a point B that I was working towards, but the middle ground was often a case of making-it-up-on-the-go (and isn’t that what all writing is, by definition?). 

So, what’s the benefit of pantsing? You feel your way through twists and turns as they naturally arise, and you write into the ideas that feel appropriate at the time. 

What’s the drawback? It’s a bit like driving down an unfamiliar road in the pitch black; you never can be sure what’s coming, and that makes it hard going sometimes.  

Out of these two options, and the half-measures that are between them, there still isn’t a right or wrong way for writing. It can be a tricky business to put one word after another some days, which is why it’s especially important to go with what feels right for that one particular story at the time of writing – and the worry about the next novel when it gets here! 

And here's the wonderful author of this week’s post

Dr Charley Barnes

Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2019-2020

"I'm a poet, author and academic based in Worcestershire, UK, and I do love a good sit-down conversation about writing. At present, I'm a lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature and I work at a number of institutions around the West Midlands, most recently University of Worcester and Newman University. When I'm not teaching I'm likely writing - Charley Barnes for poetry and C.S. Barnes for fiction - or I'm editing, either at the Dear Reader poetry journal or as the Personal Essays and Creative Non-Fiction Editor at Mookychick. I've devoted my career to writing and I've loved every second so far! It makes me sincerely happy to pass on a few pearls of wisdom that I've picked up along the way."

Here are some more ideas from Jaskaran Chauhan

I'll try to list out the steps that help me develop a plot, that vaguely roams about in my mind, into something more tangible. Here goes:

1. Visualise: This is the first step. Go to a quiet place (or an impersonal space, like a cafe), isolate yourself and try to think clearly about the story you wish to portray. Notice the way your characters look in your mind; the was they behave et cetera. Since you already have an idea about the plot, this will make the picture clearer and will help to familiarise you with your characters.

2. Character Sketches: Now, this is not strictly necessary but knowing your characters beforehand will help develop the plot faster once you start writing. You can write down physical/ psychological aspects of your characters and see them become more real.

3. Plot summary: This is important. A very good way to do it is to make a flow chart (especially if the plot is complex). It resolves many conflicts that might arise in the story later and saves against plot holes. Besides, even Rowling did this!

And here is another train of thought from Jody Lebel

In order to write stories that people want to read you will need to understand how to put one together. There is a definite pattern and rhythm to it. And there are certain expectations from the editors and publishing houses as to how your story is laid out. You will need a good imagination, one that can look at a situation and picture all sorts of different scenarios. You need to be able to ask 'what if' and come up with twists and lines that are new and fresh. You will need to be able to research things. For example I wrote a story set in Iran where there was a wedding. I had to research how the wedding would take place, the food, the customs, common Iranian names, clothing, etc. in order to write an interesting yet correct story.

Read a lot. Get a feel for how a story is told; how it starts, how it progresses through the story to a satisfying end. See how your favourite author keeps you interested. I don't know your age, but when you are able join some writing groups, even online groups are helpful. Oftentimes these groups offer lectures and classes in writing. They share their work and critique each other.

Once you feel you have written a great short story, be brave and submit it to a magazine that publishes fiction in the genre you wrote. Don't worry about rejections. They will come. Oftentimes it's not because your story is not good, it's because the story doesn't fit their needs. They are running a business after all, and they pick the stories that they feel will best entertain their readers. All authors get rejections. It's part of the 'hunt'.

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Here's some more words of wisdom, to help you plan your next work of fiction...

Cyn Mobley has her way of planning...

Personally, I start with an idea that I distill down to a log line that covers all three acts. This is the hard part. I have a format, and while I'll often vary from it later, I stick to what works to get started. 

It goes like this:

When a (INCITING EVENT), (HERO) must overcome (CHALLENGES) in order to (HAPPY ENDING). That's it. The first clause lays out the inciting incident and Act I, HERO and CHALLENGES covers Act II, in order to gets you through Act III. 

From that, I start my planning with 16 chapters, three scenes per chapter. I'm aiming for a final ms of around 80K words, with a first draft of around 72K words. 

Then I get detailed about my fly-to points, the ending scene of each act. Act I should end with the Hero committed to the challenge, Act II should end with the Hero facing doom and at his darkest point (his weaknesses pitted against the Villain's strengths), Act III (hero's strengths v. Villain's weakness) should end with all conflicts resolved, with perhaps a twist to set up the sequel. 

Then I pick three sorts of conflicts. Physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental -- don't care which, just pick three. Escalate the stakes for each three times, i.e. the consequences of failure get worse over time. Now, I may or may not stick to this three times three formula, but that's where I START. I know the rules well enough to break them.

Then finally, I break those escalating conflicts into scenes, put them all into an outline in Word, and dictate a first draft at around 10K words a day. Pure crap, first draft, just get it down on paper.

Why 80K words? Good length for almost any thriller and most genres of fiction. The 16 chapters is a hold over from when I first started dictating, as it would generally take me 16 microcassettes, both sides, on fast, to get a first draft down. 

So -- if your way isn't working, try it that way. I usually go off the plan at some point, but at least I'm not staring at a blank page wondering where to start. And doing it this way has gotten me through around 30 novels, most of which were published by large NY houses.

Surendra Bhatia

, has some more advice

No amount of planning is enough, and yet, if you spend so much time planning, you will never get the novel written.

An effective way, which has worked for me, is not to bother about breaking my head over the planning of the novel and instead just get down to writing as much of it as runs through my head. This helps in getting the basic narrative down on paper and, often, helps evolve a style of writing suitable to the subject.

This is done quickly where I have get the broad strokes of the novel clear in my head, sometimes right up to the conclusion.

Then the planning begins. This is a point when the structure, characters, incidents start coming through, during sleep too, and the initial pages begin to shape up as a novel.

After that it is just a matter of putting your head down and writing, rewriting till you think you have got it as right as you ever will.

Mercedes R. Lackey offers ...

It depends entirely on if you are an “outlining” type of person or a “seat of the pants” type person.

If you thrive on getting all the ducks in a row in advance, then by all means, get it all down in an outline beforehand. Aim for a 10–40 page outline, and then you can just get down to the part of expanding that and making it all come alive. I’m that kind of writer, usually.

If having things lined up in advance drives you insane, then just write—but bear in mind, that this will inevitably take longer than if you outline. You’ll be revising as you go, throwing things out in earlier portions that don’t work anymore, and backtracking to add foreshadowing and setup for something neat you just came up with. Stephen King is that kind of writer, and so, I believe, is David Brin (now waiting for David’s Brin-sense to start tingling and have him come in here and contradict me.)

There’s plenty of people who will swear by one method and swear at the other. Personally, since I have seen great work come out of both methods, I say do what works for you.

and 

Priyanka T says

The only way to write a novel is build it word by word. To get down and do it. 

You can have a rough idea in mind. You can try to sort it all out. But in my experience, writing something creative is almost spiritual. You don't know where you are going and beyond a point, you are just the medium as the story writes itself out. 

You will be shocked at what your character does and you will be want to kill the bad guys and hate them from the bottom if your heart. 

If you are stuck somewhere, google is always there. 

The only prep that you have to do is consciously keep the story hovering in your head. And just keep observing. This will give you a lot of dough to work with.

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