My Writing Process – Part 1/3 – “Planning”

Every writer eventually develops a writing process, a procedure he or she follows from the start of a novel to its finish. My own process has evolved over the years, at last settling into what I’m about to show you. This step-by-step guide is what I’ve used for my past few novels, and it works for me. That’s the whole point – experiment and find what works for you. There isn’t a right or wrong way to create art.

Step One: Brainstorming

I get ideas at weird times – when I’m in the shower, driving to work, while listening to a song. I find it easier to brainstorm when I’m relaxed, and that’s usually when my story kernels come to me. I also brainstorm best when I’m not rushed. Before I go to sleep, I’ll whip out a notebook and a pen, and I’ll just lay in bed and jot down whatever comes to my mind. It’s kind of turned into a “reflection” period for me. I scratch out things I wrote from the day before that I’m no longer in love with, or build upon ideas I’ve already written down. I let my mind play for about 20-30 minutes until I’m too sleepy to think anymore. Then I pick up the latest novel I’m reading and read until I doze off. That’s usually how I end my nights. (Hey, it may not be the most exciting lifestyle, but it’s relaxing, which is conducive to creativity.)

I also carry around a notebook with me wherever I go and make notes throughout the day. These notes cover the four pillars of a story: plot, character, theme, and setting. All four have to work together to make a novel sing. At During the brainstorming stage, my ideas are very basic. I’m figuring things out and just kind of playing around, or “dating” the story idea to see if we have chemistry. I can brainstorm anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on how passionate I am about the story idea. If I’m really into it, I move on to step two pretty quickly…

Step Two: Story Sketching

This is where I start to get an idea of the “bigger picture” by mapping out the story’s four acts. (Yes, I follow four-act structure instead of three. Please see Recommended Writing References for some great book recommendations that talk about four-act structure.) At this stage, I’m focusing mainly on getting the plot structure and character arcs hammered out. I usually make a bulleted list on each piece of the story’s structure. This includes from top to bottom:

 Ordinary World
 Inciting Incident
 Heroine’s denial
 First Door/Entry into Act II
 Rising conflict/Heroine reacting to circumstances/learning about new world
Midpoint/Entry into Act III
Escalating stakes/Heroine’s trying to actually do something about the situation instead of just reacting
False summit
2nd Door/Entry to Act IV
Tests
Climax
Resolution

I sketch all this out in a notebook and try to get an idea for how big the story will be. I also make notes about setting and theme, and I tie in my characters’ arcs to the main plot points. (I like to get a big piece of paper and draw out my story map, then get different colored markers for each character and subplot, and map those out below the main plotline.) Once I have a good idea of how my novel’s going to jive, I move on to…

Step Three: Outlining

I used to do this on index cards, but now I outline exclusively in Scrivener. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s this amazing software designed to help writers outline and write their novels. It pretty cheap, too, running at about $40. Plus, they’re running a NaNoWriMo special where if you win NaNoWriMo, you can get the program at 50% off, and even if you don’t make your NaNo goal, you can still get it for 20% off. It’s well worth the investment, as it makes it so much easier to bounce around between scenes in your novel. If you’re still unsure if you’ll like it, you can always do the free trial.

Okay, enough with my Scrivener promo. So I throw everything into Scrivener and figure out how many scenes I’ll need. They say the average number of scenes in a novel (we’re talking of the 80-90k variety) is 60. I tend to use less, simply because I find myself doing more “fluffy/filler” scenes if I try to push for sixty. The number of scenes you need will also depend on your writing style. I tend to be long-winded, so my scenes usually run between 1.5-3k. Some are shorter, but that’s a ballpark number. Thus, I don’t use as many scenes, otherwise my story would be ginormous. I, personally, am pretty comfortable at 40 scenes. Depending on scene content, this allows me to produce a book between 50-70k. (Remember, a novel is 50k+ words. Some websites and organizations even say 40k constitutes a novel.)

You won’t really know how many scenes will work for your style until you’ve practiced writing a few novels. So just experiment and tweak your methods as you go along, and you’ll develop your own formula. I would recommend starting with at least forty scenes for a novel, though.

Once I know the number of scenes, I plug in my story landmarks (first door, midway, etc.), and get to work outlining. I add in just enough detail to get a rough idea of how the scene will play out, with a clear beginning, middle (all that juicy “conflict”), and end. Scenes are like mini-stories. You don’t have to put in bare-bones details like me. You can be very detailed. Having written forty-page outlines, however, I found that tends to make the final story sound more formulaic than if I’d relied on my creative spontaneity. But, again – and I can’t stress this enough – do what works for you.

Step Four: Walk Away

Yup. You read it right. I treat my outlines the same way I do my rough drafts. Outlines need time to marinate before they get really good. I recommend walking away from your outline for at least a day – if not a week – and just let the story ideas bubble in the back of your brain. Tweak it throughout the week, if you want, but don’t spend too much time fussing with it. They say our brains continue to work on things subconsciously. This is where magical things happen. If you’re stuck on a scene, forget about it for a while. Usually, the answer will just pop into your head when you’re not even thinking about that story. This has happened to me numerous times. It’s really cool. =)

So, in part two I’ll be talking about the actual writing part of my process. Though, if I had to tell you which part is most important, I’d say numero uno – or the “planning” process. Get this part right, and you’ll save yourself loads of revisions. (Which is always a thumbs-up.)

How much time do you spend planning out your novels before starting to write? I’d love to hear from you!

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