The simplest way to write a terrible book is to start out having no idea what your story is, or where it\u2019s going to lead. The easiest way to avoid that outcome is to prepare a simple outline of your plot before you even write the first sentence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The downside of this approach: you actually have to do some thinking before you can start writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upside: you won\u2019t end up writing a terrible book. Which is a plus point, no? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
7 Steps To Writing A Plot Outline For Your Novel:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n- Understand the purpose of your outline.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Start with a barebones outline.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Add a midpoint.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Have a firm sense of purpose.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Integrate your characters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Complete your outline.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Work in circles.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Understand The Purpose Of Your Outline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At its simplest, a plot outline can be defined as a very simple, barebones summary of your story. It could be as short as a single page outline. Or it might run to as many as ten or twenty pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Either way, it\u2019s important to realise that you\u2019re not telling the story, you\u2019re summarising it. So if your outline feels flat and unengaging, that\u2019s fine. Your story itself can\u2019t be either of those things, but your outline just needs to be functional, clear \u2013 and brief. The outline is for you, and for you only. It\u2019s not for a reader either now or in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approach we\u2019re going to recommend in this post is to start really simple, then start to build as you get more insight into detail. Here goes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Start With A Barebones Outline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s commonly said that there are only seven plots<\/a> in the world. We\u2019re not totally sure about that, in fact, but it\u2019s certainly true that pretty much every novel will adopt the same rough shape. That shape, at its simplest, is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- Status quo: <\/strong>This is the situation at the start of the book. So, for example, if we were dealing with a Lee Child \/ Jack Reacher novel, the status quo might be \u201cJack Reacher is travelling through rural Montana, wanting to heal after a particularly bruising recent adventure.\u201d At this point, nothing has happened. The situation is stable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Inciting incident:\u00a0<\/strong>The\u00a0inciting incident<\/a>\u00a0is whatever happens to disturb that status quo. It could be an apparently small thing, or an obviously big one.\u00a0So\u00a0in\u00a0Twilight<\/em>, for example, the inciting incident is simply that Bella Swan\u2019s attention is caught by an attractive \u2013 but odd \u2013 boy at school.\u00a0In our Reacher story, it could be that an unseen sniper kills the bus driver dead and seems intent on killing everyone else on the bus too. Either way, the important issue is that the status quo has been disrupted. The reader already feels that a story has been set in motion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Developments: <\/strong>This is the big middle chunk of your book. This is the part that probably occupies you from (say) 15,000 words into your book right up to 10 or 15,000 words before the end. It\u2019s the scariest part of your outline, whether you\u2019re a new novelist, or a seasoned scriptwriter, or anything in between. We\u2019ll talk more about this element of your plot later in the post, but for now just bear in mind that your character<\/a> will encounter obstacles, victories and reversals \u2013 but the victories won\u2019t be permanent and the reversals won\u2019t be lethal. Everything is still in play \u2026 but the stakes will gradually rise.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Climax: <\/strong>We said that the stakes gradually rise and, by the end of the book, the stakes feel like life and death. In a romance story, your protagonist will feel that she has to get this guy, because he is going to be her forever one. In a thriller, it\u2019s not just that your protagonist\u2019s life is in danger, it\u2019s that some vast other risks are in play as well (a bomb in New York, a high school massacre, or whatever.) It\u2019s not too much to say that the success of your book really stands and falls by how profound and engaging this climax moment feels.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Resolution: <\/strong>Then your story needs to resolve. It could be a triumphant resolution: Jack Reacher wrestles the bad guy on the lip of a gigantic dam and ends up hurling him over the edge to his destruction. Or it could be a bitter failure: The guy your romantic protagonist really, really wanted rejects her, or dies, or otherwise becomes unavailable. Or you could have some bittersweet ending. So in The Fault In Our Stars<\/em>, the two romantic protagonists are truly in love (yay!), but their sickness takes its inevitable and tragic course. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
I strongly recommend that, for the first draft of your plot outline, you simply use those five headings. Quite likely, you have a pretty clear idea in your head of the first two of those stages, and a fairly clear idea of the last two as well. So just write down whatever you know under those headings. If you don\u2019t have a clear idea, just leave a blank or a write question to yourself. (For example: \u201cJack Reacher has to find a way to escape the prison. But how?\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most likely, the area where you\u2019ll struggle most is the Developments section \u2013 but don\u2019t worry. Just write what you know. We\u2019re about to move to the next stage. Before that though, let me offer one more heading, which is kind of optional \u2026 and kind of doesn\u2019t fit into a post on plot outline \u2026 except that it really, really does as well. So especially if you are writing a book with an interesting or complicated character, I suggest you make notes on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Main character(s)<\/strong>. A paragraph or two of notes on each of the main characters in your novel will help inform the work you do on plot \u2013 and vice versa. Your plotting insights will also enrich your main character. And because you want to think of character as fluid rather than static, you should also consider making some short notes on \u2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Character arc or character development<\/strong>. You want to sketch \u2013 in broad, simple terms only \u2013 how your main character changes or develops through the course of the book. More help on that here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
Got that? Good. OK:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"plot](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/optional-header-188-plotting-a-novel.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAdd A Midpoint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We just said that the developments section is the one you\u2019re going to struggle with the most \u2013 and that\u2019s fine. That\u2019s just part of the joy of writing. But we can make your job a bit easier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The single hardest thing about that developments part of your book is that it feels very long and unstructured. So the simplest way to navigate it is to give yourself a solid anchor in the middle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That anchor is typically a piece of major drama in a particular scene (read more about how to perfect that dramatic scene, here<\/a>). Sometimes it\u2019ll look as though the protagonist has \u2018won\u2019. Sometimes it\u2019ll look like he\/she has \u2018lost\u2019. But either way, because we\u2019re not yet at the true climax of the book the defeat or victory will be a false or temporary one. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe actual type of drama involved will depend on your book. In a crime thriller (like the ones I write, for example) there will typically be an episode of action\/adventure that also does something to change the complexion of the case being investigated. So I\u2019ve had my protagonist get involved in hostage situations. I\u2019ve had her be abducted. I\u2019ve had her investigate a major unexplored cave system. And so on. They\u2019re the sort of extended, memorable sequences that should echo long after the reader has finished the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A romantic story needs the same kind of major twists. So it could be that your happy couple go away on what should be the holiday of their dreams, only for things to go terribly wrong. Or an ex-boyfriend\/girlfriend comes along to mess things up. Or something else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you can determine what your midpoint is, you\u2019ll find your whole plot feels more manageable. Imagine your plot as a bridge. In the first \u2018barebones\u2019 version of your plot outline, we just had a major support at the Initiating Incident point and then again at the Climax\/Resolution one. The rest of your plot was just a long stretch over the void. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By introducing a midpoint, you give yourself another major support element. So it\u2019s like you only have to manage the span from the Initiating Incident to the Midpoint , then from the Midpoint to the Climax. By breaking that developments section into two, you\u2019ll find it much, much easier to navigate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Header3-plot-novel\"\/](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Header3-plot-novel.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHave A Firm Sense Of Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It probably goes without saying, but we\u2019re going to say it anyway \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No plot will cohere or feel compelling unless your protagonist has a really clear sense of purpose. That purpose can morph a little through the book, but it can\u2019t change its essential nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So a Jack Reacher novel, for example, might start with Reacher trying to protect the bus passengers from the sniper \u2026 but as the narrative evolves, he might end battling a plot to \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 swamp Great Falls in drugs, or plant a bomb under the state Capitol, or whatever it is. But there has to be a solid continuity in what drives him throughout the book. He can\u2019t start off chasing bad guys in Montana, then zoom off somewhere else and start some totally different story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The way to be sure that your outline is staying on track is to define, upfront, what your\u00a0character\u2019s motivation<\/a>\u00a0is. You may also want to explicitly state who their\u00a0antagonist<\/a>\u00a0is and what the obstacles in the way of their success are. (That approach works better for some books than others, so if it doesn\u2019t quite make sense to you, you can just ignore it. Who\u2019s the antagonist in\u00a0Twilight<\/em>, for example?\u00a0There isn\u2019t really a great answer to that question.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nIntegrate Your Characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
So far, we\u2019ve spoken of a plot outline as something almost mechanical \u2013 like a piece of clockwork you just have to wind up and set in motion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But of course your plot is propelled by its characters and the best stories aren\u2019t character-led or plot-led, but led equally and powerfully by both. You can read more about plotting here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo take an example, think of John Le Carre\u2019s The Spy Who Came <\/em>In<\/em> From The Cold<\/em>. The twisty, double-crossing plot needed a suspicious and experienced spy at its heart. And if that sounds cold, then the spy, Alec Leamas, also had a desperate desire to find love, to be able to trust again after his years of secret service. That character \u2013 cynical, but with that hopeless dab of longing \u2013 turned an efficient spy story into a twentieth century masterpiece. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe best way to bring your characters and plot into perfect synchrony is to develop them both together. So you probably want to work on your character worksheets (more here<\/a>) at the same time as you\u2019re developing your story outline. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo you might fill out your developments section with a new idea you had for a scene there. That might trigger an insight into your character, so you\u2019d go and add something to your character worksheet. Then back again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll find you don\u2019t even need to work too hard on the integration. If you develop your story and your characters alongside each other, each element will bleed into and influence the next. The process will happen automatically and in a beautifully seamless way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Header4-plotting-novel\"\/](\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/header7-lib-writing-quotes-from-writers.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nComplete Your Outline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How far you take your outline is very much up to you. Some writers like to plan very intensively. Some like to use the\u00a0Snowflake method<\/a>. I know writers who will write a detailed\u00a030 page\u00a0synopsis of their novel before they proceed. I know others (like me!) who do the absolute bare minimum. Who just trust their instincts to be able to create on the run, if you\u00a0like.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nSo I\u2019m not going to tell you how far you need to take your outline. What I will say is that if you want a detailed plot outline template to follow, then you may well want to use Blake Snyder\u2019s famous beat sheet from his \u2018Save the Cat\u2019 book. That book was written for screenwriters and doesn\u2019t have universal applicability to novelists, but a lot of people find it helpful all the same. So if you are Mr\/Ms\/Mx Detailed and you want a roadmap, then here it is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Opening image<\/strong>. This is like a touchstone for where your protagonist is at the very opening of the book. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Theme stated<\/strong>. All decent books (or films) should have some underlying theme or debate. You want some statement of that theme \u2013 possibly playful; you don\u2019t have to be too heavy \u2013 in the opening couple of chapters of the book. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Set<\/strong>-up<\/strong>. This corresponds roughly to our Status Quo section <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Catalyst. <\/strong>This corresponds roughly to our Initiating Incident section. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Debate.<\/strong> Is the hero going to rise to the challenge posed by the Initiating Incident? Quite often there\u2019s a refusal or reluctance, before something tips the hero into changing their mind. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Break into two<\/strong>. That\u2019s the moment that launches the story from the opening set-up into the excitement of the Developments section. It\u2019s where your character decides to accept the adventure being offered and launches off into the guts of your story itself. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- B story<\/strong>. A really good tip this. Very often, there\u2019ll be some secondary story to accompany your main one. So if you are writing a broadly action-themed novel, the secondary story might be a romantic one. Introducing that that secondary tale right after the opening section is done and dusted feels just about right in terms of timing. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Fun and Games<\/strong>. This is Snyder-speak for the opening round of action, where your premise really starts to make itself felt. So if you were writing (let\u2019s say) an \u2018action\u2019 film set in an old folks home, this is where you\u2019d really start to have fun with the premise. Yes, things are at stake here, but this is still the lower stakes portion of the book. Things seem to matter, but they\u2019re not that consequential compared with what follows. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Midpoint<\/strong>. As discussed above. The quivering dagger at the dead centre of your book. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bad guys close in<\/strong>. After the midpoint, things feel more consequential. Yes, your character may notch up some \u2018wins\u2019, but the mood, broadly, will be one of increasing seriousness as you move towards the climax of your story. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- All is Lost<\/strong>. It looks like everything is lost. Bond is captured and the villain is going to detonate his bomb. Or Lizzy\u2019s Bennett\u2019s silly sister has gone and destroyed her hopes of happiness with Darcy. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Dark Night of the Soul<\/strong>. This is the interior \/ emotional counterpart of the \u2018all is lost\u2019 moment. It\u2019s how the character reflects to themselves after the disaster that\u2019s just happened. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Break into three<\/strong>. This is the moment where the character bursts out of their despair. Where they come up with one last desperate stratagem, or some last effort of will. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Finale<\/strong>. This is the climax and resolution elements we\u2019ve already spoken of. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Closing image<\/strong>. This is the image that shows where we are now \u2013 and is often a mirror image, in some way, of where we were. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
As I say, there\u2019ll be elements of that template that may seem very helpful, and others that may not especially speak to you. So grab what you want. Discard what you don\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when you come to thinking about adding in more details, read this article on chapter lengths<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s really helpful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nWork In Circles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In most things we do, we want to work in a logical, disciplined way. Start at the beginning. Follow a plan. Complete the task. Done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outlining a novel is not like that. It\u2019s the opposite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve already mentioned that you\u2019ll probably be developing plot<\/a> as you develop character<\/a>. So you\u2019ll dive from one thing to another and back again. <\/p>\n\n\n\nGood. That\u2019s not indiscipline at work. That\u2019s creativity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But also \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll make mistakes. You\u2019ll screw up. You\u2019ll have ideas, you\u2019ll write them down \u2013 then you\u2019ll figure out they\u2019re bad and you\u2019ll delete them again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good. That\u2019s not incompetence at work, it\u2019s creativity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A cyclical, repetitive, trial-and-error type process is exactly what you\u2019re after. That also means you\u2019re not going to be able to sit down and develop a decent plot in a weekend. That\u2019s not how it works (or almost never anyway.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So give yourself time. Forgive yourself errors. And have fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understand The Purpose Of Your Outline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
At its simplest, a plot outline can be defined as a very simple, barebones summary of your story. It could be as short as a single page outline. Or it might run to as many as ten or twenty pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Either way, it\u2019s important to realise that you\u2019re not telling the story, you\u2019re summarising it. So if your outline feels flat and unengaging, that\u2019s fine. Your story itself can\u2019t be either of those things, but your outline just needs to be functional, clear \u2013 and brief. The outline is for you, and for you only. It\u2019s not for a reader either now or in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The approach we\u2019re going to recommend in this post is to start really simple, then start to build as you get more insight into detail. Here goes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Start With A Barebones Outline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s commonly said that there are only seven plots<\/a> in the world. We\u2019re not totally sure about that, in fact, but it\u2019s certainly true that pretty much every novel will adopt the same rough shape. That shape, at its simplest, is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I strongly recommend that, for the first draft of your plot outline, you simply use those five headings. Quite likely, you have a pretty clear idea in your head of the first two of those stages, and a fairly clear idea of the last two as well. So just write down whatever you know under those headings. If you don\u2019t have a clear idea, just leave a blank or a write question to yourself. (For example: \u201cJack Reacher has to find a way to escape the prison. But how?\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most likely, the area where you\u2019ll struggle most is the Developments section \u2013 but don\u2019t worry. Just write what you know. We\u2019re about to move to the next stage. Before that though, let me offer one more heading, which is kind of optional \u2026 and kind of doesn\u2019t fit into a post on plot outline \u2026 except that it really, really does as well. So especially if you are writing a book with an interesting or complicated character, I suggest you make notes on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Got that? Good. OK:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We just said that the developments section is the one you\u2019re going to struggle with the most \u2013 and that\u2019s fine. That\u2019s just part of the joy of writing. But we can make your job a bit easier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The single hardest thing about that developments part of your book is that it feels very long and unstructured. So the simplest way to navigate it is to give yourself a solid anchor in the middle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That anchor is typically a piece of major drama in a particular scene (read more about how to perfect that dramatic scene, here<\/a>). Sometimes it\u2019ll look as though the protagonist has \u2018won\u2019. Sometimes it\u2019ll look like he\/she has \u2018lost\u2019. But either way, because we\u2019re not yet at the true climax of the book the defeat or victory will be a false or temporary one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The actual type of drama involved will depend on your book. In a crime thriller (like the ones I write, for example) there will typically be an episode of action\/adventure that also does something to change the complexion of the case being investigated. So I\u2019ve had my protagonist get involved in hostage situations. I\u2019ve had her be abducted. I\u2019ve had her investigate a major unexplored cave system. And so on. They\u2019re the sort of extended, memorable sequences that should echo long after the reader has finished the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A romantic story needs the same kind of major twists. So it could be that your happy couple go away on what should be the holiday of their dreams, only for things to go terribly wrong. Or an ex-boyfriend\/girlfriend comes along to mess things up. Or something else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can determine what your midpoint is, you\u2019ll find your whole plot feels more manageable. Imagine your plot as a bridge. In the first \u2018barebones\u2019 version of your plot outline, we just had a major support at the Initiating Incident point and then again at the Climax\/Resolution one. The rest of your plot was just a long stretch over the void. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By introducing a midpoint, you give yourself another major support element. So it\u2019s like you only have to manage the span from the Initiating Incident to the Midpoint , then from the Midpoint to the Climax. By breaking that developments section into two, you\u2019ll find it much, much easier to navigate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It probably goes without saying, but we\u2019re going to say it anyway \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n No plot will cohere or feel compelling unless your protagonist has a really clear sense of purpose. That purpose can morph a little through the book, but it can\u2019t change its essential nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So a Jack Reacher novel, for example, might start with Reacher trying to protect the bus passengers from the sniper \u2026 but as the narrative evolves, he might end battling a plot to \u2013 I don\u2019t know \u2013 swamp Great Falls in drugs, or plant a bomb under the state Capitol, or whatever it is. But there has to be a solid continuity in what drives him throughout the book. He can\u2019t start off chasing bad guys in Montana, then zoom off somewhere else and start some totally different story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The way to be sure that your outline is staying on track is to define, upfront, what your\u00a0character\u2019s motivation<\/a>\u00a0is. You may also want to explicitly state who their\u00a0antagonist<\/a>\u00a0is and what the obstacles in the way of their success are. (That approach works better for some books than others, so if it doesn\u2019t quite make sense to you, you can just ignore it. Who\u2019s the antagonist in\u00a0Twilight<\/em>, for example?\u00a0There isn\u2019t really a great answer to that question.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, we\u2019ve spoken of a plot outline as something almost mechanical \u2013 like a piece of clockwork you just have to wind up and set in motion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But of course your plot is propelled by its characters and the best stories aren\u2019t character-led or plot-led, but led equally and powerfully by both. You can read more about plotting here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To take an example, think of John Le Carre\u2019s The Spy Who Came <\/em>In<\/em> From The Cold<\/em>. The twisty, double-crossing plot needed a suspicious and experienced spy at its heart. And if that sounds cold, then the spy, Alec Leamas, also had a desperate desire to find love, to be able to trust again after his years of secret service. That character \u2013 cynical, but with that hopeless dab of longing \u2013 turned an efficient spy story into a twentieth century masterpiece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to bring your characters and plot into perfect synchrony is to develop them both together. So you probably want to work on your character worksheets (more here<\/a>) at the same time as you\u2019re developing your story outline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So you might fill out your developments section with a new idea you had for a scene there. That might trigger an insight into your character, so you\u2019d go and add something to your character worksheet. Then back again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll find you don\u2019t even need to work too hard on the integration. If you develop your story and your characters alongside each other, each element will bleed into and influence the next. The process will happen automatically and in a beautifully seamless way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How far you take your outline is very much up to you. Some writers like to plan very intensively. Some like to use the\u00a0Snowflake method<\/a>. I know writers who will write a detailed\u00a030 page\u00a0synopsis of their novel before they proceed. I know others (like me!) who do the absolute bare minimum. Who just trust their instincts to be able to create on the run, if you\u00a0like.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n So I\u2019m not going to tell you how far you need to take your outline. What I will say is that if you want a detailed plot outline template to follow, then you may well want to use Blake Snyder\u2019s famous beat sheet from his \u2018Save the Cat\u2019 book. That book was written for screenwriters and doesn\u2019t have universal applicability to novelists, but a lot of people find it helpful all the same. So if you are Mr\/Ms\/Mx Detailed and you want a roadmap, then here it is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n As I say, there\u2019ll be elements of that template that may seem very helpful, and others that may not especially speak to you. So grab what you want. Discard what you don\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And when you come to thinking about adding in more details, read this article on chapter lengths<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s really helpful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n In most things we do, we want to work in a logical, disciplined way. Start at the beginning. Follow a plan. Complete the task. Done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Outlining a novel is not like that. It\u2019s the opposite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve already mentioned that you\u2019ll probably be developing plot<\/a> as you develop character<\/a>. So you\u2019ll dive from one thing to another and back again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Good. That\u2019s not indiscipline at work. That\u2019s creativity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But also \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll make mistakes. You\u2019ll screw up. You\u2019ll have ideas, you\u2019ll write them down \u2013 then you\u2019ll figure out they\u2019re bad and you\u2019ll delete them again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Good. That\u2019s not incompetence at work, it\u2019s creativity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A cyclical, repetitive, trial-and-error type process is exactly what you\u2019re after. That also means you\u2019re not going to be able to sit down and develop a decent plot in a weekend. That\u2019s not how it works (or almost never anyway.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n So give yourself time. Forgive yourself errors. And have fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAdd A Midpoint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHave A Firm Sense Of Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Integrate Your Characters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nComplete Your Outline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Work In Circles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n