In my blog post about my novel ‘A Hobbyist’s Chance’ I spoke about my planning and how I struggled writing it. I think planning is something a lot of people struggle with, because it’s hard to view how it would be received. The key thing people care about when planning something like a story, is how ‘good’ it is. Of course, your own opinion is biased, that’s why editors exist, for an external opinion. But this post isn’t about that.
I wish to speak about how I plan my novels and chapters, along with showing you some examples of things. Maybe it’ll give you an understanding on how to make things easier when writing. So, let’s begin.
To start, I find that the best way to think about planning a story is to think of the end and start first. I’d say the end is the most important thing as the end will give you your character motivations and you can plan around that. Typically, your ending is going to be a happy ending. Usually, the good guys have a happy ending and the bad guys have a not so happy ending. Obviously, you can spice it up. Maybe not everyone survives, maybe the bad guys lose but the good guys don’t feel like they’ve won. For instance, what if the good guys saved the world at the price of innocent lives. The end is important, and I think helps you when constructing the hard part, the middle. There’s a lot you can do with the end. If you’re writing a series, think about the end of the final book as well as the end of the individual books.
The start of a book can also be difficult, as you need to explain your setting, characters, and blah blah blah. If you’ve ever watched something and thought about how slow it is, that could be because it’s trying to get you to be interested in the characters (or at least, it should be, it could just be super slow and uninteresting because they had to drag it all out for whatever reasons).
The best way to introduce the world and the characters is slowly over time. I think One Piece is a great example of world building. It may seem obvious, but to me, it all just makes sense. When something is introduced in One Piece, it just makes sense. The world of One Piece has systems in place. It has a government, and clans, groups, history, all that it can use to its advantage when creating future stories. Foreshadowing is a great tool for creating these stories. Hinting to characters meeting in the past, or something occurring could be a great way to flow your story, as well as amaze your readers.
But enough about One Piece (I highly recommend you watch/read it if you haven’t), let’s get back to the middle part.
The middle part sucks.
Coming up with ideas that flow and are consistent with your characters or things you’ve written before isn’t easy. I’d say it’s annoying.
It’s possible that it could just flow for you. You could just write out your initial ideas of what you want your characters to go through, how you want them to develop and then you’ll be done. But it’s not always the case.
As I said when talking about my novel, A Hobbyist’s Chance, the last few chapters or so were really painful to write. Because they were the start of the end. They had to flow and lead into the ending that was always going to happen. I didn’t want to change my ending to match my inability to come up with a good plan, so I kept trying, kept thinking about how to do it, and how it should go. Do I think the build up I used worked? Kinda. I knew it was going to be rushed. The build up to the ending I used was certainly rushed. (But, that’s just because I had to make it rushed, as if you know the format of A Hobbyist’s Chance, you know that adding more meant adding another 5 or so chapters)
Personally, if you’ve got a good ending, I say stick to it. Don’t change your ending to match your middle, because the conclusion of a nice story can’t be beat. A truly satisfying conclusion can overlook a lot (at least, that’s what I think). The way I see it, if something has made me put it down and feel empty, then it’s good. The reason I feel empty is because I know the world is done. Even if it’s not a set conclusion or one that I want, the world won’t be returned to by the author, and that is perfect for me. To me, it’s the end of the journey, that I feel like I’ve been taking with these characters. Because when their journey ends, it feels as if I have to leave them as well. I want to be happy for my characters, and I want to be sad for them. Just try and keep those things in mind when coming up with ideas.
But anyway, let’s talk about how I take my notes.
Note taking is important, as messy notes can be a bit difficult when writing. I think it’s perfectly fine to have messy notes at the start. Throwing all your ideas down in a word document is a good idea at the start. But the most important thing is chapter outlines.
I started doing chapter outlines ever since writing Oscar Pat 1. I didn’t do any for ‘Is it snowing yet?’ as that was something that just ‘flowed’ and I wrote that all in 1 weekend.
But let’s talk about chapter outlines. Typically, I write most, if not all, chapter outlines before starting to write the actual novel.
You hear a lot that ‘the first draft is to tell yourself the story, and the second is to tell others’, and by that I think they mean the first draft is your messy chapter outlines.
So, what goes into these chapter outlines? What do you write in them? Are they long or short? Who knows.
The answer is whatever you want it to be. I tend to make my chapter outlines as long as they need to be. Some are really long, others are really short. Some are really long but result in a short final chapter, whereas some are short and result in a long final chapter.
Below is an example. This is the chapter notes for Chapter 1 of Oscar Pat 2 (The Hospital of Life)
A ceremony for Oscar for his service at the golden plate hotel and is given his full licence back and has a meeting with Marsh about it. Fi being shown around the facility by Alex. Fi is shown her room by Alex (last stop on the tour). Oscar is introduced to a member of TFFP who says he will heal Oscar’s broken tooth that Oscar says he forgot about (happens during the Marsh meeting). – Oscar Pat 2: Chapter 1 Notes
It’s a fairly long chapter, but the notes are short. The reason for this is when writing the chapter, it all just flowed. I found that writing the main points much easier for this chapter, whereas some times, I go into a bit more messy details.
The last day of term and Lucas is in Uni wondering about the results where he discusses his thoughts with George. It comes up that Lucas hasn’t told his parents and decides to tell them through text message. George says he is also worried for Lucas and something happens that requires George to go to Lucas’ Flat. In Lucas’ Flat, Lucas tells George about his writing and that his self claimed editor will be coming around soon to discuss his writing. George says he is interested and wishes to read Lucas’ stories. Lucas is against it but gives him a link regardless and sends him on his way. He forces him out the door but Mia is outside with her boyfriend Dave and they introduce each other awkwardly. Lucas’ forces George to leave and says that he will check out the writing tonight and message him his thoughts. Lucas says not to worry and that he doesn’t have to. Mia makes a joke about being replaced and forces herself inside. Lucas and Dave shake hands and meet properly for the first time. – A Hobbyist’s Chance – Chapter 7 notes
The above is an extract of the notes for Chapter 7 of A Hobbyist’s chance. You can see I go into a bit more detail in this one. I can’t tell you the exact reasons as to why, as I don’t know. I think it’s to do with how I’ve ‘convinced’ myself of the story. As I said above, the first draft is about telling yourself the story, so the more detail I go into, the more I’m finding out about the story myself. Sometimes it’s also nice to have some extra detail in there to remind yourself how characters are feeling/reacting to things. Plus, it can help the flow when writing the full thing.
Additionally, your chapter notes don’t have to be final. You can change them whenever. You most likely will find yourself following them, only to diverge from your path as it flows better, and maybe rejoin it in a bit. Maybe you’ll even skip a bit because it feels unnecessary. Ultimately, the flow of it all is important. I think the mind is best when it’s rushing down the gentle stream. Once you are in the mood, you’ll create something good without realising.
Below is an example from chapter 12 of Alterum. This is a good example as, if you’ve read the book, you’ll know that this doesn’t happen as I originally wrote in my notes.
They are safe in Dolus and the girl heals Ryan’s wounds, but Ryan is against leaving the building. Zac goes out with the girl and they talk and uncover that Sally will become queen. Before Zac leaves, Ryan explains how no one should know he is here. They see Sally and her parents giving a speech to a large crowd and listen to the speech about the return of their child and the birth of a new queen. They also meet Sally’s Brother (MAYBE MOVE TO NEXT CHAPTER?), who asks them about Ryan. Zac has to discover if Sally’s Brother can be trusted. – Alterum: The Other World – Chapter 12 notes
You can see some of my uncertainties at points as well. You can see what ideas I’m not sure on and what I keep. But, even if I didn’t use part of my notes, I still like to keep it to compare with my original idea. You can compare the idea you came up with in the moment with the original one. It’s pretty helpful (and can help self-esteem).
I think that’s all I wish to speak about chapter notes, but to end I want to say a few little things.
The more history, characters, locations and stuff you have, the more notes you’ll need. TAKE NOTES OF EVERYTHING. You could even create a Wikia page for your stuff if you wanted.
It’s super important to keep track of everything. You don’t want to slip up and make a mistake somewhere along the line. I tend to have a document for each thing. So, in terms of my web novel, the Story of a Hero named Fishy, I have documents for History, Characters, Monsters, Magic, Religious groups, Plants, and locations. I also have a generic spreadsheet where I write down all random ideas and whatever I come up with.
Writing down every little idea is a good place to start, as you might find something that fits better with a different series.
It’s up to you how you want to organise things, and lay things out. Personally, Google Drive is what I use. Each series I work on has its own folder, each filled with documents of ideas, thoughts and whatever I need. Some are super messy, but that’s ok, because only I need to understand them. I think my web novel Continuous School was slightly different when it came to making notes, as each note for every chapter was just 1 line (with some exception). Ultimately, figure out what works for you.
Thanks for reading. You may read this and think of an easier way to plan or draft, and that’s ok. This is just how I do it. My way may be good for some, or bad for others. Just draft and plan how you want.
I’m always trying to refine how I plan and my notes, so it was interesting to write this.
Once again, thanks for reading, and as always, my links are below.
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