8 Essential Steps When Plotting Your Bestselling Novel

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Plotting is normally where I start when I begin a story. This can mean any size story: a poem, short story, or even a full Lord of the Rings-style Trilogy.

I’m going to take you through how I plot out stories and, hopefully, this will help you when plotting out your next bestseller.

#1 The Idea:

This is where every story starts. We’ve all heard the tale of how J.K. Rowling first thought up Harry Potter while on a train ride. For a lot of writers this is how a story begins, simply an idea, daydream/dream, or even a vision from beyond.

The Best thing you can do when your muse taps you on the shoulder is to WRITE IT DOWN!

There is no telling how many best-selling ideas have fallen into the black hole that is the human mind. Here is an example:

One night I had a dream. I woke up and thought “Wow, that was a freaking cool dream.” For some odd reason, I didn’t have a notebook by my bed so I ran downstairs to my office, grabbed one, and began writing. I wrote down every detail I could remember from that dream. I am currently in the middle of outlining that really cool dream into a storyline that I am falling in love with every day.

#2 What Attracts You More?

For this part of my plotting, I normally reread my notes from my dream, daydream, or any other ways I got my idea. As I read through it I began to question what attracted me more to this idea. Is it the character? Is it the world? Or is it a conflict?

Ask yourself this question, when you have your answer ask yourself some more questions like:

• What about this character intrigues me?

• Would this be a world I could see my characters in?

• What caused the conflict?

Asking these questions leads me to the next phase of plotting.

#3 Develop That.

For this section, you have to find a way that suits you best. Personally, I am a huge fan of notebooks. Not just the plain everyday school notebooks, but the hardbound, thick, and decorative notebooks really stand out to me. For me if I don’t like the notebook I’m probably not going to use it, so I always make sure that I’m absolutely in love with notebooks when I purchase them.

I have heard other writers speak about how they use notecards to flesh out their ideas, while others use everyday college-ruled notebook paper and a binder. Some use programs like Scrivener or Microsoft Word from the very beginning to the end of the writing process. Like I said for this part you just have to find what works for you.

#4 Ask Questions.

Normally the first page of that notebook is for the part of the idea that attracted me the most. A great deal of the time that is the main character. I will often put their name at the top of the page and under that I will put:

• Their age

• Their sex/ race/ creature status

• Their occupation

And anything else that I might know about them already.

Once you’ve written down everything you already know about this character, location, and conflict begin to ask questions. This happens to be my favorite part of writing.

Ask things like:

• Why did they do that?

• How does that happen?

• How does that connect?

And just keep asking question after question after question until you’re ready to move on to the next part of your idea.

#5 Flesh Out Everything

Yes, I mean everything. The world or worlds, each one of the characters, the history, and the plot. I normally end up with about one page per item. When you get stuck, this is also a great way to keep working without getting frustrated. For example: I was working on a character page one day and got stuck. Instead of closing my notebook and walking away from the entire project, I simply moved on to another idea like the history behind the story or another character.

This way you can continue to work on the same project without getting stuck or frustrated and walking away like so many writers do.

#6 Start Looking For Paths

Once you feel like you’ve got a lot of details about the story, start looking to connect everything. This can help you find more conflicts, and hidden connections between characters, and if you’re writing a series it can help you create those bonds between each of the books. This is also the perfect time to start looking for your outlining points.

#7 Add.

When I start creating connections I often find more details that can be added to the story. Honestly, you can never have enough details. I find it’s easier to take things away than to add them later.

And finally…

#8 Start Outlining.

Now if you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants (Pantser) kind of writer you’re probably rolling your eyes at me right now. I’m not saying that you have to do a 300-page outline of your story but at least have a bare-bones understanding of where the story starts, what’s in the middle and have a good idea of what’s at the end. This way when you’re writing it you have a road (paved or dirt) laid out in front of

you.

Different writers like to outline in different ways some love notecards on a pushpin board or papers strewn all over the floor. Others quite enjoy the pen-to-paper methods, Some love to use technology (Microsoft Word, Scrivener…).

Need Help? Check out my post on Outlining: Outlining your Novel Like a Pro

And as with everything find your own method. When plotting, I like to write everything out with pen and paper first and then go back and put it into Scrivener.

I hope these eight phases of plotting your story help you as they have helped me. Please click the heart so I know that you found this post helpful.

Happy writing!

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