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Some authors prefer to have a detailed outline before they start writing their novel, while others feel constrained by an outline and prefer to discover the story as they write it.
And then there are lots who are somewhere in the middle. They don’t want – or don’t have the time – to write a ten-page outline, but they also don’t want to sit down to write without any direction at all.
I do think it’s useful to have a basic idea of some elements of your novel before you start it; you don’t want to get halfway through and realise you no longer like your story or there’s not enough of an idea there to sustain a full novel.
I suggest having a think about the following six things before you start, but remember, you can always divert from or change your plans as your novel develops. Your plan is meant to guide you, not make you feel stifled.
At a basic level, a novel’s genre describes the type of story it is, e.g., romance, women’s fiction, fantasy, or mystery. It also provides you with a series of conventions and reader expectations to use as a roadmap for planning and plotting your novel.
Genres also further divide into subgenres, which provide more conventions and expectations to guide you as you write.
All of this means that the genre of your novel gives you an idea of at least some of the scenes you’ll need, the order in which they need to appear in your book, and the characters and settings that readers will expect to see.
As an added bonus, readers are often extremely loyal to their preferred genre, so a novel with a clear genre is easier to market than one without.
Your main characters (your protagonist and antagonist) are arguably the most important aspect of your novel to consider, especially in character-driven genres such as women’s fiction. It’s your main characters’ goals, motivations, and how they interact with the conflict in the story that keep your readers turning pages.
Your main characters’ goals and motivations dictate how they behave when faced with the conflict in your novel, whether this is external conflict, internal conflict, or both. And it’s the change in their behaviour – and often the change in their goals and motivations as well – that demonstrate their character arc from the beginning to the end of the story.
You can get incredibly in depth when creating characters, and generally, the more you know about your characters, the more authentic your story will be, and the more engaged with your story your readers will be.
However, as far as your story is concerned, the most important things you need to know about your main characters are the things that will shape their character arc:
What is it that they need or want to achieve by the end of the story? Does their goal change as their arc develops? Is there a difference between what they think they want (often referred to as your character’s lie) and what they actually need (often referred to as the character’s truth)?
What drives your character towards their goal? What has happened in their past that influences their needs, desires, and misbeliefs?
What will happen if your character doesn’t achieve their goal? Stakes need to be believable, and they need to be strong enough to support your character’s reasons for behaving the way they do throughout the story.
What are the external obstacles standing between your character and their goal during the story? This is often another character, but could also be an environmental force, society, an animal, or even technology.
What are the internal obstacles standing between your character and their goal? What is it that they think they want (their lie or misbelief) versus what they actually need? Internal conflict is normally the war between a surface goal that they project to the outside world (that in the beginning they believe will truly make them happy) and what they really want deep down (that by the end of the story they are willing to change or make sacrifices to get).
Conflict is what makes stories interesting and keeps your readers questioning what will happen next. Without it, your characters simply go through the story getting everything they want, which soon becomes boring and predictable. Conflict needs to escalate through the story, increasing the tension until the climax, at which point it is resolved.
Some stories focus more on external conflict, and some focus more on internal conflict. But whichever type of conflict is more prominent in your novel, it needs to be believable – it needs to be something that is a major obstacle for your character and something that can’t realistically be resolved very quickly. And your characters need to react to it in an authentic way (in relation to their backstory, motivations, goals, and beliefs).
Your setting is the environment in which your novel takes place. You may think yours doesn’t require much thought, especially if your novel has a contemporary setting, taking place in an average town or city.
However, without a well-thought-out setting, your story will feel like it’s taking place in a vacuum, your characters existing in a void of white space, which will reduce the immersion for your readers.
A well-written setting can function much like a character. It can add mood and atmosphere, enhance or reduce the conflict, and how your characters interact with and view their environment can reveal a lot about them.
Some genres, such as fantasy, require extensive wordbuilding, but even for a contemporary novel, consider the wider nature of your setting (e.g., a sprawling city or a coastal village), the individual locations within it (e.g., your characters' homes, workplaces, and happy places), and how you'll use it to add depth to your story and engage your readers .
It’s a good idea to make a conscious decision about the point of view (POV) and the tense of your novel before you begin to write it, because changing your mind at the end, or even halfway through, is going to mean an awful lot of rewriting.
Most novels are written in past tense in either first person or third person limited (meaning your POV character only knows what they personally can see, hear, experience, etc. unlike an omniscient narrator that knows everything), though you will find a few written in first person present.
Choosing a POV and a tense can simply be a case of going with what you find easiest and most natural to write. Or you might find your story dictates your POV and tense choices.
If you’re unsure which POV or tense to use, see what’s prevalent in your chosen genre and go with what’s most popular, as that will be what readers are most used to.
Creating a premise for your novel is a useful exercise in narrowing down exactly what your novel is about, and it helps make sure you’ve considered the important elements of your story.
If, when you’re writing your story, you get to a stage when you’re not sure what should happen next or how your characters should be reacting to something, your premise is a useful reminder of the foundation of your story, which everything in your novel should relate back to.
It’s normally a one- or two-sentence summary, which should contain information about the protagonist and their goal, the conflict, the antagonist or antagonistic force, and what’s at stake:
[Character] must [defeat/overcome the antagonist/antagonist force/their own misbeliefs] to [do/achieve whatever their goal is] or [the story stakes] will happen.
The major plot points of a novel are the turning points for the main character; they’re the scenes in which your protagonist makes decisions or does things they can’t take back – the points of no return.
Outlining the following archetypal plot points means you’re starting your novel with the major scenes already planned. Use them as a guide when filling in the gaps between them.
This is the moment that your main character’s life is first disrupted. It’s the point at which they are invited (literally or metaphorically) to join the story. Maybe they meet the antagonist, receive a mysterious letter, or are invited on a literal adventure. However, at this stage, they could still refuse the call and continue with their normal life (obviously, they won’t, or you’d have a very short story!).
At approx. 25%. This is the moment your protagonist passes the point of no return and accepts the call to adventure presented in the inciting incident. Your main character needs to make a decision or do something here that means there is no way they can continue with their old life.
At approx. 50%. This major turning point is a moment that reinforces the stakes and conflict of the story, making the protagonist more determined than ever to achieve their goal. It is a moment that prompts story-defining action from your main character. This is often the point when they go from being reactive to active.
At approx. 75%. This is the point when everything seems lost for your main character. The choices and decisions they’ve made up until this point have culminated in disaster, and their goal is further away than ever.
It is between this point and the climax that they have to come to the realisation that they have to face their fears and misbeliefs, and change to achieve their goal.
At approx. 90%. This is the most dramatic point of your novel – the scene that the entire plot has been building up to. This is where the protagonist has to face the antagonist (or the antagonistic force) and demonstrate that they’ve changed enough they can now defeat them (or that they haven’t if it’s that sort of story).
It is the end of the conflict – the moment of ultimate success or failure – from which there is no going back for either the protagonist or the antagonist.
At approx. 98%. This is the last scene or two of the story. It shows your readers your protagonist’s life as it is now and is a release of the tension of the climax. It provides a satisfying conclusion to your novel that ties up all the loose ends.
Creating an outline may seem like a lot of work when you're excited to dive into writing your book, but I do think even a pretty vague outline can be helpful to keep you on track and stop you getting lost in your plot and characters. At the very minimum, I'd suggest jotting down some notes on:
Your book's genre expectations
Your main characters' motivations, goals, and misbeliefs
Your story's conflict and stakes
Your six major plot points
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