Several years ago, I wrote a series of articles that taught a step-by-step process on how to write a novel. Many people have asked what happened to that series. I have decided to re-create it here. Plan on about 20 blog articles that will get you through the process. Even better, I plan to write a novel right in front of your eyes as part of this series. Look for my progress at the end of each article.
Step 1: Get Organized
In the writer world, we often define two types of authors. There are discovery writers, and there are plotters. Discovery writers sit down with a loose idea and slam down words quickly. The writer discovers what their story along the way. When they hit 85,000 or so words, they have a novel.
Plotters, on the other hand, spend tons of time before they start writing to organize their characters, settings, and plot. By the time the plotter begins writing, they have set forth precisely what will happen throughout the story. There are few along the way surprises for a plotter.
I am a plotter. Here is why. If you write without planning, you risk painting yourself into a plot corner. This kind of trap can be difficult to solve. It can also cause you to give up on your story altogether. You risk writing of inconsistencies in your story. You might change your mind along the way, which will cause tons of unnecessary re-writing.
Developing a bomb-proof plot can help you avoid some of the traps of discovery writing.
Get organized before plunging into your manuscript. Plan to collect and write tons of documents along the way. Plan to research settings, characters, and unique items. Plan to look up statistics, read articles, and reference historical documents. The sky is the limit. You must organize all of this data.
Set up a folder structure somewhere on your hard drive. Create a master folder that will contain several sub-folders.
Within your master folder, start with these sub-folders:
Plot
Characters
Settings
Devices
Research
You will place several documents into each of these folders. You will put treatments, summaries, and beat sheets in the Plot folder. Don't worry if you don't know what these things are; I'll get to them in this blog series.
You will place a document about each central character in the Characters folder. These documents will contain character sketches and significant along-the-way information about each character.
The settings folder will contain sub-folders for all primary settings where your story will take place. You can put photographs, maps, and historical information in this folder.
The devices folder will contain documents about objects your characters uses or interacts with. If your protagonist is an inventor who has learned how to create lighting, you could record his invention in your device's folder.
Finally, research folder will contain information that pertains to your story. Let's say you want to write a novel in late 1800s America. You might want to put a few articles and links about the daily routines of people who lived in that era.
Be diligent about placing your information in these respective folders. Keep it organized through the writing process. You will need to put other sub-folders within these master folders; that's okay. Your folder structure will breathe and live within your writing world.
If the idea of keeping a structure of folders doesn't excite you, here's a pro tip. Some writing software products can help you to organize your information. When it comes to your story, you need to retain ultimate control. Avoid writing software that forces you to niche your characters, limit your settings, or stick to a rigid plot structure. You have to maintain flexibility.
I recommend a product called Scrivener. This software offers ultimate flexibility. You can organize your information however you want. You can add information on the fly. You can structure your data into any hierarchy you like. I'm receiving nothing from Scrivener by pushing their product.
That's it. Painless right? The secret: organize yourself and take it one step at a time to make writing your novel flow with few obstacles.
Your Assignment:
Somewhere on a hard drive, create a master folder. If you already know the title of your novel, use for you folder name. Otherwise, just call it My Novel Title – Master. Within this folder, create five subfolders. Call them Plot, Characters, Settings, Devices, and Research.
After you have finished that assignment, you are ready for the following blog article: Step 2: Crank the Idea Mill.
I plan to get you from zero to accomplished novelist quickly. Please subscribe to my channel, share the articles with friends. Oh yeah, and don't forget to leave plenty of questions and comments. I will try my darndest to get to every one of them. You can even email me directly at craiglnybo [at] gmail [dot] com.
And don’t forget to register with your email for ongoing giveaways and information.
Happy writing.
Welcome to Thornhill: Nicholas Noirs Midnight Carnival and Sideshow (working title). I plan to write this book as part of this article series. Below, you will find my folder structure.
Master-folder – Thornhill – Nicholas Noirs Midnight Carnival and Sideshow
Sub-folder - Plot
Sub-folder - Characters
Sub-folder - Settings
Sub-folder - Devices
Sub-folder - Research
When you are ready, head to Part 2 - How to Write a Freaking Awesome Novel - Crank the Idea Mill
