We have a point, a theme, or a purpose in writing that we want to be sure our readers understand. This has to be abandoned in order to create compelling work. Why do you love the stories you love?
If we reduce the story to action, it is this: A boy accompanies his father and uncle to an Indian camp, where a woman is struggling with childbirth.
In literary fiction, we tend to be drawn to a story for the issues it asks us to consider. We admire the actions that got us there, but we recognize that the action is the vehicle through which we receive the story. Outlining the action ahead of time leaves the writer prone to deciding what he or she wants the reader to get out of the work.
We can advance the process of discovery, but to do that effectively, we must be engaged in discovering ourselves. So, should you throw out your notes and outlines, your character sketches and all the pre-writing you have made a habit in your pursuit of creating good fiction? If it helps you get started, keep it. Start writing. Write until you arrive at the point at which you have no idea what comes next.
And then, keep writing. Layer it in as part of the narrative, part of the story. Thoroughly research details , but remember, this provides simply the seasoning and should not become the main course, which is the story itself. Write briefly in third person, present tense about what happens in each chapter. Leave no mysteries, teasers, or questions. Synopses can reveal fatal flaws in your story, allowing you to make the fix before you invest months in the writing.
Randy Ingermanson — the Sheldon Cooper of novelists. Randy got his M. He also did two years of post-graduate work on superstring theory. He now applies that intellect to novel writing and teaching writing and has become a story outliner extraordinaire. Visit his site and check out his Snowflake Method for outlining your novel. Fair warning: some find this way too complex to consider. Others are drawn to it like moths to flame.
You may want to invest in his Writing Fiction for Dummies , as well. She recommends using a separate mind map for each chapter, each character, each major event, etc. Choose approaches that help narrow your focus so you can get on with writing your novel. Determine which works best for you, and have fun with it. Before you go, be sure to grab my character arc worksheet. Just tell me where to send it:. Share Pin Either way works from this point on — getting the outline out of your head is what matters at the end of the day!
Without groundwork, your scenes and story will collapse in on itself. Before you can write a good plot, you need a good premise. Here are a few ways to test the solidity of your premise. Developing motifs will help further sharpen the theme of your book. Equally important are the walls of your novel: your characters. To give you a starting line, read about the basics of character development here. Then we recommend you jump into this post on character profiles and download its thorough character sheet.
Create fascinating characters that your readers will love Get started now. Don't fret about nitty-gritty stuff like chapter length yet. Though if you are curious, you can read this post on how long a chapter should be. Instead, think about the big picture. If you need some inspiration, here's one simple way to kickstart your story structure. On a blank sheet of paper, draw a horizontal line.
On one side, mark B for Beginning. Then on the opposite end, mark E for End. Now turn to your central conflict and start visualizing its major turning points on your line. How does the action rise and fall?
As the story escalates or de-escalates, tweak the line accordingly. In the end, you might see something like this:. In other words, the start of a narrative arc. You can break any novel down into acts, sequences, and even chapters. But at its core, a story is made up of one basic kind of unit: scenes.
Here are some ways to kickstart your thinking. To get started, brainstorm scenes that will be the centerpieces of your plot, which may include anything from major turning points to the climax of the entire book.
Be sure to preserve your narrative arc as you go to give your story purpose and direction. The Snowflake Method encourages you to start thinking about your scenes from a granular point of view — and then build up from there.
To learn more, this post goes in-depth into the benefits of this particular kind of outline. With an outline in place, instead of spending time wondering what should happen next, you can put the effort into making sure what happens matters to the overall story, the events are important, and each scene is building toward the next. The plot is what happens. The tension is why they happen. Your plot consists of your character getting into situations, handling them, and moving on to the next scene.
And the character never grows. But if you use an outline, you can map in subtle differences to show how the character learns as she goes, and build to that epiphany at the end. You can note how the character reacts, who is involved, what impact the scene has on her. As much as readers are drawn into your plot, and are turning pages to find out what happens next, they also want to be engaged by how your character is feeling.
What emotion is conveyed by each scene? You know at the opening you need to create a character that readers want to root for, but then what happens? How does the reader stay engaged, and keep caring? That precious commodity we wish we had more of.
Having enough time is what keeps most writers from getting their words down.
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