Easy two step tutorial on how to create a general plot for your novel.
The first step in writing any successful novel is creating a plot.
While making plots may seem annoying at first, having the plot of your novel planned out can help your writing in many ways. Specifically, it can help you keep track of the way your story is supposed to go. A detailed plot can also help you follow the multiple story-lines happening throughout your novel without losing a story-line.
When I first started writing I never plotted my book, instead choosing to sit down and write whatever came to mind. Currently, about six years after I originally started writing my book, I almost always have to plot not only the entire novel, but also each individual chapter.
Personally, I would first create a general plot for your entire book, and then move on to plotting each individual chapter.
So how do you get started on making your plot. I would start with these simple two steps on making a basic plot.
Step 1: General Ideas
First, you need to have some idea of what’s going to happen in your novel.
This first step doesn’t need to be super detailed, in fact I would start off with just figuring out some basic beginning, middle, and end ideas.
Stick with only the important points that happen in your novel. If it doesn’t severely impact the plot, I would save it for later or simplify it to a general idea.
For example, in the image below, I have “Alias and Thia travel throughout the ordinary world to get back to the magical realm and clear Alias’s name” instead of specifying every one of their trials in that happen in the middle of the story.
Here is the general idea for what is going to happen in my novel. It’s obviously missing a lot of detail, but for right now that alright.
After writing down your basic plot points, you should have some idea of what’s going to happen in your novel.
This is pretty simple information, but if you find that you’re missing something, don’t panic. It’s perfectly alright to have some blank spaces in the first version of your plot, but keep in mind that your going to have to fill in those blanks at some point.
Step 2: Working Out Smaller Details
The next step for creating your plot is to work out some of the smaller details in your book. This tutorial is specifically about making a simple plot for your novel, in a different article I will get into the finer details and how to weave story-lines throughout your novel.
For Step 2, I would explain each of your earlier plot points in more detail. For this example I just did the Beginning part of my plot, but it still gives you a good idea of what to do.
Here is the slightly more detailed version of my plot.
You could attempt to start on Step 2, skipping step 1, but if this is your first time creating a plot I would stick to the basics to make sure you don’t forget anything.
As you can see above, I still have all of my major plot points from Step 1, but have now added a little bit more explanation below each of them. Again, my explanations are quite broad, but for a basic plot, details aren’t necessary yet.
Now I only explained the points for the Beginning of my novel, in actuality you would want to do this for also the middle and the end. Try and stick with only major events right now, leaving the trials out for later.
(I will do an article explaining the difference between “trials” and “major events” later, but for now just fill in what you think is important)
After you’ve filled in those smaller details, you have successfully created a basic plot for your novel.
Keep in mind, this is not a detailed plot, which is better to follow when actually writing; But creating this simple plot is a good first step in learning how to successfully plot your novel.
If you are interested in continuing to work on your plot, stay tune for the next article in BookNewsie’s Plot Series:
Beginning your story is one of the hardest steps to take in any writers process. While it might not seem like it should be, we are “writers” after all, actually sitting down and working on your story is a very difficult decision.
That being said there are some things you can try, to make getting started on your novel easier:
1.) Create your plot first
One of the hardest parts of writing for me is creating a plot, specifically for the chapters in my novels.
Writing down ideas for what you want to happen in your first chapter though, can help you get started writing. Everything becomes much easier when you know exactly how the chapter your writing is supposed to go, and you don’t have to try and make things up as you go along.
If you aren’t sure exactly what you want to happen in that chapter, begin with what you do know you want to happen. The characters you introduce, personalities, and themes can all be written down on a piece of paper.
Here’s a simple plot map I used to come up with an idea for the plot of my first chapter. It’s a bit messy, but I can read it and understand what its saying which is what’s most important.
Starting at one, I created questions and ideas for what I wanted to happen in my first chapter. Afterwords, I can answer these questions and get a good plan for the plot for chapter one.
For example, in the photo above I would start by answering 1b: “Why is Alias labeled as an outcast?”
In my story, a main theme for Alias is that he wants to fit in and feel like he belongs somewhere. Wanting to fit in is a trait that many people I know have, and I want people to feel as though they can relate to Alias.
With the answer to my previous questions in mind, I can move onto answering my next question: “How can I show the reader Alias is an outcast?”
In this case, I have decided from what I know about Alias’s character to show that he is an outcast through bullying. I want to make him the target of a bully that nobody wants to mess with, meaning that the only people willing to befriend him are the other targets of the bully, known as the other outcasts.
Another factor is Alias’s magic manifesting, if an incident involving Alias realizing he had magic happened, it could further him from his peers in the normal world.
Like Harry Potter accidentally removing the glass to the snake exhibit, it would give an insight into Alias’s abilities and also cause the way others see him to change.
With those answers in mind, I can move onto my last questions and finish the general idea for my plot.
By creating a plot map, I laid out general goals that I want to be met in the chapter, and ideas on how to connect each of these goals together to create a plot that flows together nicely.
In this case, I knew that Alias was going to be an outcast. To create him into an outcast I decided to make him the target of a middle school bully that nobody else wants to mess with. The last step is to find a way to tie his magic into the chapter, which in this case I decided to do by having Alias’s magic manifest when he is put in danger from the bully.
It labels Alias as an outcast and eventually a freak, which ties back into Alias’s motivation to find a place where he belongs.
2.) Play the What If… Game
This is a game to help people get started writing, or to get over writers block.
The general idea of this game is to write down What If… situations that could happen in your chapter or novel. Any idea you can write down, no matter how crazy or unlikely it seems, just to help get your creativity going.
This helps you get some ideas of what could happen, and often gives you some interesting ideas for plot twists. Imagining many different scenarios, no matter how ridiculous you think some of them are, can help you imagine what is going to happen.
This is also a good idea if you have no idea what is going to happen next in your novel, and need some ideas. Just play around with some What If… situations and soon you’ll have plenty ideas to choose from or combine.
For me this isn’t as helpful for a first chapter as creating a plot map, but its still a good way to get ideas and get started.
3.) Work on a different aspect of your story
While it isn’t ideal if you want to start writing your novel, sometimes it helps to take a step back and first get your information in order.
Instead of writing, try working on something else for your story.
You can work on your plot, which is what I would suggest, or your characters. Another idea is to work on the details of your story that you want to weave into your novel as you write.
If your creating details for example, try to think of things that would be happening in the background of your story. If your story takes place within a city or civilization think about things like headlines of the newspaper, or other details that could hold deeper meaning in your story than the reader originally thinks.
Imagine things like the headlines of the newspapers in Harry Potter.
These details can help you get an idea of the setting your novel is going to take place and the details you can weave into your story.
Working on your characters has the same idea, many times if you step back and work on your characters you can discover more about their personalities and how they would react in different situations.
It can also give you ideas of why they might act the way they do, which can help weave layers of information into your novel.
This is also a good way to get over writers block because you are getting your creativity going but aren’t trying to force your way through a piece of writing.
4.) Read a book just before you start
Many times reading a book right before you sit down to write can help you start writing.
You can take ideas from the book you were reading, and integrate them into your own story. Remember that your first draft is just to get it onto paper, and there’s no reason you can’t take inspiration from other authors, as long as you don’t plagiarize.
I would suggest reading books that have the same genre as the book you are trying to write. You can read books of other genres of course, but if you’re anything like me the style of the author you’re reading can impact the way you are writing.
For example since my main genre is childrens, adventure, or fantasy novels, I will read through stories like Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, or other books I liked to read in elementary school.
These books give me inspiration, because they are a lot like the type of novel I want to write. I don’t usually look for inspiration for my writing from an author like Dickens, though I love to read his novels, because his style doesn’t match the type of book I’m trying to write.
By reading through other novels you can draw inspiration from, it can give you ideas of how to want to start your novel, or for other scenes in your story.
5.) Just Write
Although this isn’t a great plan for your final copy, sometimes it can be helpful to just start writing.
Don’t worry about planning, just write out what you feel like you should write for that scene.
The first few drafts of my novel were written like this, and while I would never attempt to publish these drafts, they were very helpful for me to get an idea of what I wanted to happen in my novel.
It’s a good to get words onto a page, even if they aren’t perfect as you right them, as soon as you take that first step and begin writing you’ll find that it comes easier later. Plus, you’ll always have to edit your writing, whether you think it’s perfect in that moment or not.
Another part of this is to ignore the chapters, or parts of your novel you have no ideas for.
When I am working on my stories, I often create what I call “Scene Collages”. My “Scene Collages” are documents of random parts of my novel that I know how I want to write. While there are parts of the novel that I may not know how to write, that doesn’t mean I need to stop writing.
Instead I work around them, then come back and fill in the information later. Sometimes working on another piece of writing first, can help you with the part of your story you were having trouble with.
You don’t always need to write in order, sometimes you just need to start writing.
Let me know in the comments if any of these tips worked for you, these are things that I have done in the last 6 years while working on my own story to help get started on new novels or chapters. While they work for me, they may not work for everyone but it’s worth a shot to start on your novel.
