I’m deep into the planning stages of my novel now. It may seem like only yesterday that I announced I was working on it… well, that’s true, but as with many other announcements, I only put that one out there when I felt comfortable that the idea had legs and was going to survive early gestation. Maybe you’d be interested in knowing my planning process.

My last post was about the “What If?” This is the seed that starts all my thinking. In this case, I envision a future that I don’t think is necessarily unlikely. It draws upon the things that I know and some professional knowledge to forecast what I believe to be a plausible utopian dystopia in the future.

Set the stage

The next thing I do is start thinking about the details of this world. What are the implicit immutable rules that I must abide by when writing the story. If there are inconsistencies in the setting, the story will fall apart. So the first thing I start writing is a plan for the world. I try to consider as much as I can. I draw upon my geography and history background to prepare the world, even before I start putting a plot and characters in it.

Primary Story Arc

Next, I try to think of a compelling conflict in the world, and what kind of character would fit into that conflict. I will share one detail here, my novel is centred upon a 12-year old girl this time. This will (obviously) be a stretch for me personally, as I have never been, and likely never will be a 12-year old girl. I consider the background that she needs to fit into the story and for the conflict to seem reasonable. If aliens are attacking (they aren’t) and I need someone to fly an advanced fighter jet (I don’t), then a child doesn’t make much sense in a normal, real-world situation, without really stretching credibility, or requiring significant explanation for why that is somehow reasonable. Once I’ve figured out the character and a bit of her backstory, then I can fill in the general direction of the story.

Begin with the end in mind

I envision the conflict and direction at a broad scale. Is the character moving throughout the story, or do they stay static in one location? In my case, movement is necessary to facilitate several sub-conflicts under the broader story arc. It is a little cliché, but I try to begin with the end in mind and work backwards from there. If the character ultimately needs to get elected president (she doesn’t), then I have to get her involved in politics for some reason, and that reason needs to be well established, and going back further, she likely needed to be involved in extra-curricular activities, or be tapped by somebody early on, or be wealthy enough to afford to run. As I back my way through from the end to the beginning, I start adding smaller conflicts and dilemmas, things that have to be solved.

Attaching Flesh to the Bones

Once the arc and bones of the story exist, I actually break it down into acts and chapters. Acts are larger sections, generally in one geographic area, where there is a defined conflict with which to deal, and a set list of characters. Chapters are smaller sections that contain necessary building blocks for the act overall. At this point, I already know my major plot points, now I’m attaching information.

• Where does this act/chapter take place?
• Which characters are going to be involved?
• What themes and symbolism need to be employed?
• What actions and consequences will happen, how do they tie back in later?

That last point is maybe the most important. If the character does something that has no impact on the story, think Raiders of the Lost Ark, then what is the point? The experience of reading the story should be rewarding, and feel like everything happened for a reason, not just to fill some pages.

I also like thinking up easter eggs that I can drop here and there throughout the story. Some references will be obvious, others might take a deeper look. Some will be direct, while others are hidden in subplot.

Tying it all together

Maybe I’m unique in this, but probably not, one of the last things I do is make sure that all the loose ends are planned, I want to make sure that things are consistent, that the characters are believable and deep, and that the story, as a whole, is compelling and interesting to read at every turn. The aim is to keep people always looking for more. Hopefully I can deliver that.

Current Status

As of right now, I have no written pages of the story, but 67 pages of notes on 36 chapters spread over 6 acts. I have written 9 pages of notes about different characters, 6 pages about themes and Easter Eggs, and 15 pages about the history of the world, why it is the way it is, and how it got that way.

Next

Writing. It may sound obvious, but the next stage of the process is the actual rough draft. Everybody I’ve talked to says the same thing. Just start putting things on paper. It doesn’t have to be perfect, there will be round after round of editing to get things just the way I want it, but until you have a basic, crude draft, you obviously have nothing. My goal will be to get at least a couple chapters written every week, starting today. If I can achieve that, I should have my basic draft copy finished before the summer.

I’d love to hear from any aspiring authors, or established ones. Does this sound like how you would tackle this? What would you do differently? Have I missed anything?