So, you’ve always wanted to write a novel. You’ve got a great idea buzzing around in your head and you want 2020 to be the year you use it, but you don’t know where to start.
Writing a novel is a big undertaking, but spending some time planning will help you get up and running and feeling confident about your story. Remember that proverb about eating an elephant one bite at time? That’s exactly how we’re going to tackle writing a novel – by breaking it down into manageable chunks – one for each day of the week.
It’s helpful if you can do these steps on consecutive days, but of course life can get in the way. Sometimes having a day’s break can be helpful in getting some distance from the story. Agatha Christie said that the best ideas often come when you’re at the kitchen sink washing up, so maybe try that? I’d say that each section should take a minimum of an hour, but it’s preferable that you spend longer than that.
Day one: Basic plot
This one is fairly easy if the idea has been bouncing around in your head for a while, but now is the time to get it on paper. This will tell you if your story ‘has legs’. Write out your plan in bullet points – just the skeleton. You’re looking to include roughly the theme of the book, what happens and to who (your main character).
Day two: Deeper plot
This is where you start to add layers to the story. Read back over your basic plan and start to ask yourself more detailed questions. Keep asking yourself what happens next and why and then add bullets to your existing list. For example, if your main character is a police officer who finds a body, think about the next steps they need to take. If you’re writing an amateur sleuth, think about their next steps after finding a body. You can also add in details of any subplots.
Now you need to look more closely at the characters who carry the weight of the book. This includes the victim(s), the killer and the investigator. You need to know why the killer killed the victim(s), who those characters are and why the investigator wants to solve the crime. This is the level of detail you need to know it. You also need to add in some personality and backstory at this stage. There’s some great advice on how to do this in The Weekend Novelist Writes A Mystery.
Day four: supporting cast
These are the people without whom the plot would collapse. You could include the investigator’s sidekick, key witnesses, red herrings who pop up to distract the sleuth and anyone aiding and abetting the killer. It’s important that you understand who these people are and why they play the part they’re playing. You also need to know whether they’re genuinely playing that role – for example, is the sidekick definitely trying to help the sleuth or do they have their own agenda? You need to know that, even if you’re not going to show it to the reader immediately.
Day five: Timeline
You need to know the order that things happen in the book. It will help you to keep the plot on track so make a note of what happens and when. This means you’ll never have the scenario where your sleuth uses information that they haven’t been told yet! I don’t use a timeline at the moment but I will be adding this to my planning process and it makes it much easier to keep control of a 90,000-word novel.
Day six: Setting out scenes
No doubt as you’ve been going along this process you’ve been generating ideas for scenes. Now is the time to get them down on paper. Look back at your deeper plot, and just start to start to jot down the scenes that you need. You may end up with too many or not enough to start with but just dump them into a big list. Include brief details of who is in the scene and what happens. I like to use index cards and spare bit of floor for this, but pen and paper or computer document will work just as well. It’s also helpful to colour code your scenes by character so you can see at a glance whether it’s balanced and all the characters are getting an even amount of ‘screen time’, for want of a better phrase.
Day seven: reviewing your scenes
Look back over your list of scenes and compare them to your timeline and plot. Are the scenes in the right order? Does your plot flow? If there are a few gaps, try to go back and ask ‘what if’ and see whether that sparks the next step. Once you’re happy with the order of the scenes, you’re ready to start writing! I like to begin at the beginning, but there is a school of thought that says you can start anywhere and write scenes out of order, but I think for simplicity it helps to write linearly.
So what are you waiting for? Get planning!
Some useful planning resources are:
2k to 10k: Writing faster, writing better and writing more of what you love by Rachel Aaron
The Weekend Novelist Writes A Mystery by Robert J Ray and Jack Remick