I have what I think is a great idea for my next attempt at writing a humorous fantasy/adventure novel for children and have roughly drafted the first two chapters. I want to go about drafting the rest in an orderly fashion, rather than the haphazard stringing together of scenes that I usually end up doing, tying myself in knots in the process. How do you writers go about planning your novel?
I do basically the same as Adrian because I work towards a word count.
First time out the thought of writing 100k words was pretty terrifying because I'd no idea if my story would stretch that far. So I not only wrote 30 chapter ideas (3000 words per chapter), I broke each chapter into three sub-ideas (1000 words each) and each of these into three again (300 ish words each). Since 300 words is only a pageful, and I knew I could write that much, getting going became easier, and it was harder to get stuck than carry on.
It's worked for me twice so far :D
Hi Susan,
I tried taking a chronological approach to planning my first book and found myself with under-developed characters, that I wasn't happy with and still trying to decide the end of the book while I was still writing it. I imagine I jumped into writing too soon, without finishing my planning properly... I'm excitable like that.
This time I'm trying something else: I had a general plot already worked out, and then I worked through the lives of each of the main characters, which in turn has given me so much more to my story that I would never have had otherwise.
I'm sure there's no right or wrong way, but this is working well for me and I think I'll have such a rich story for it. The problem I have now is knowing what not to include in the story. I'm quite enjoying the planning, but I'm so eager to start writing now.
However you do it, enjoy and good luck.
Mark.
Your plot and storyline should be as straight and as clear as you can make it.
Plan your novel by making a list of 30 working chapter titles, from the beginning to the middle, and then from the middle to the end of your novel. List your ideas for each chapter. More importantly, the dramatic ending to each chapter.
A tip that might work for you. Once you know what a chapter is about, START BY WRITING THE ENDING FIRST, it will make it much easier writing towards it.
I hope that helps.
Good luck.