Hi all, I have an idea for a novel, l have the plot more or less thought out. What l would like to know is how you proceed before writing the novel, how do you prepare your plot. Do you write it as a timeline, a document, start writing and just let it flow... Thanks, John
Any and/or all/none. I like having ideas, writing treatments, planning out my acts and writing character sheets, but some people here just get a story idea in their head and start writing and see where it takes them. It all depends on what works best for you, and the only way you can figure that out is start writing. Good luck.
It seems like there have been a million threads started about the prewriting phase. Those should be easy to find and give you an idea of how other people do it. There is no wrong way. It's just something you are going to have to figure out on your own. So, why not just start? Start writing. Start outline. If you really want to do this, I don't see what you're waiting for. Good luck.
I just start my rough draft. At that point, I just want to enjoy my new idea and kind of figure what might and might not work. It's not until my first or second draft that I actually settle on any particular structure or make any decisions on themes.
I too dive in pretty quick. Usually I don't have much more than the story premise and maybe a little bit of noodling around to see if the premise has promise. But once the ideas start attacking(good sign) and clicking together, I might as well get to writing. It's like I need to spill out the first chapter to make room for more. Most of my story/plot ideas comes while writing the first few chapters, so I build most of the outline then, and do very little pre-planning. I think there are probably as many methods for this as there are writers though, and I hope you find a way that will get you to write your story. Good luck!
I and my wife @K McIntyre both just dive in, that is the style we are comfortable with. We call it letting our characters tell us, the writers, the story. Which works well with us. We will brainstorm each other's stories, but neither of us make outlines, character sketches or do world-building beforehand. Karen's first fantasy draft lacked a location and a time, so she nailed that one down to be in 1950s Appalachia, a combination of world-building and historical research. This also enabled her to give her characters a distinctive voice. I do historical fiction, so research is imperative. I am currently reading about the Emperor Trajan's Desert Storm of 115AD, when he invaded what is now Iraq, and took it as far south as Kuwait... my characters don't know that, but they are heading into that storm, so I want to have the legions, auxiliaries, and movements correct, the HF writer's version of world building.
I get a rough outline in my head, then just start writing. Where I end up may be miles from the original destination. My ideas are often from life. My first novel (about 50%) is me re-living an incident from my youth. I call it 'living vicariously through my inner child'. This time of course, there will be much more dramatic conflict, and I will get it right in the end. My second is actually being outlined and researched since it is a historical fiction. The first does not need it since it involves things I have thought about all my life. The incidents occurred in the 1970's, though it is set in 1990. What research I need to do for that one, I do on the fly.
Pantsers of the world unite! Yeah you can either outline, or just start writing and see where you wander off to.
One thing I've learned is that there are two types of writers: Planners and Pantsers. I happen to be somewhere between, but I'm more of a Pantser. I do have a bunch of notes and quazi-outlines, but I find I mostly build the details of my story world and characters as I write the prose. Every writer has a different process. Try a bit of everything and see which method works for you. Good luck! BTW, I never thought of making a timeline, so thanks for that idea! I'll have to give it a shot.
Actually, it's a spectrum I'm about 85% Planner, 15% Pantser, but other people are less extreme planners, and other people are more extreme
Yeah, I need some sort of time line for this, because I need my character from China arriving in the Middle East in 115AD when all hell breaks loose in Mesopotamia. Funny thing, the Romans didn't keep it long, apparently the two cultures were incompatible for assimilation. I may spend some time there, with an understory of how the Parthians took it back through insurrection. I just finished reading Trajan, Optimus Princeps, by Julian Bennett, so I have their battle plan, legion order of battle, some of the commanders, and the general flow. Like Iraqi Freedom, it started with a pretext, the Armenian succession, which had been a problem for a century, but never more than a nuisance. It was initially very successful. The Romans took the northern half to about modern-day Mosul in a few months, turned it into a province. The next year they went south all the way to the Persian Gulf. Then the insurgency started, combined with Jewish uprisings throughout all of the Eastern Med. Could there be a connection? Jews might have had more affinity for the Parthians, successors to Cyrus who returned them to Israel 500 years earlier, than to the Romans who had just tramped all over them and burned the Temple 40 years earlier... hmmm. I bet Parthian agents could make big inroads into that community. Sub-stories just keep suggesting themselves. And I have a Jew from E&D who wants to get back into this story, though he is a centurion with one of the legions now.
Try and find something to say, and use your characters to make the point. If it's historical, then find a time period that you're interested in, and do the research. When you're done, you will be totaly versed in that realm. Speaking of realm, it is popular now to make up your own realm, but it could be based on real events. That is how my next novel will be, based on the Hussens. That is, if, and when I ever finish the two I'm working on.
I normally already have it in my head before I get started, but lately, I've been ordering my scenes on a separate document to keep it organized.
