How I Write: Starting a New WIP

This is the fourth installment in the “HOW I WRITE” series I’m participating in every Wednesday with several writers, where we all discuss how we approach writing a book. Every writer has a different process and this project gives us a chance to share and compare ours. Click on the “How I Write” image to find a list of the participating writers and links to their blogs.

Last week we talked about Research. This week’s topic is Starting a New W.I.P. (Work-in-Progress, what we writers like to call a story, novella, novel, article or non-fiction book that we are currently working on) .

The hardest part about starting a new book – to me, anyways – is deciding which story to write next. It’s a fine balancing act between applying some sort of rhyme and reason (trying to time the market, reacting to something specific a certain editor or agent is looking for) and going with your gut (which idea sparks the most passion in you right now?).

Once I’ve selected the project to dive into, I tend to follow these eight preparation steps:

1. Write the plot summary. This is a one-paragraph description of the book, which describes the who, what, why and conflict. This is the trick I use to try to determine whether or not my idea has the potential to be marketable BEFORE I begin writing it. I believe that if I can’t describe my book/story in a few clear, powerful sentences, then I need to rework the plot idea until I can. Because if  *I* can’t easily “sell” my story idea, then neither will an agent, editor or publisher.
2. Brainstorm themes. Why do I want to write this story? What themes, concepts, feelings or lessons do I want to convey through this tale? What is the point?
3. Determine the genres. I think it’s important to know what genre(s) and sub-genres the story will be upfront. Knowing my story’s themes and genre helps me generate the proper mood and tone for this work.
4. Create the characters. This is where I give identities to the people who will populate my world, and fill in my character sheets.
5. Take world-building notes, if applicable. For a refresher on how I do world-building and develop characters and plots, go back to my second installment of this series.
6. Outline or Storyboard. I’m a big-time plotter, and my outline is more like a storyboard of sorts: I write out a description of all of my scenes and have them side-by-side. Some writers use index cards, or special writing software to do this. But not me – I have a Storyboard spreadsheet (yes, another one) I created to lay out all of the scenes my story will include. I capture the date/time and location the scenes happen, and whose perspective they are in. I also have it so I can plot the growth of my characters. If details or story prose jump out at me at this stage I go ahead and jot it down under the scene in which it belongs. Because I tend to change my mind about scenes or entire chapters once I actually start writing or get to revising, a storyboard is never “final” until my book is. But it is essential as a guide for me to stay on track once I start writing. I have an example of my Storyboard Template in my Freebies section.
7. Determine the potential markets. Now that I know the plot, tone and mood, genres, and have an idea how long the story will be based on the number of scenes I have created in my Storyboard, I can determine the potential agent and/or publisher markets I can submit this story to when I’m done. Why is this important, you may ask? Because I may write a book intended for, say, a Harlequin category a bit differently than I would a book I was writing for an erotic ePublisher.
8. Conduct any necessary major research, which we talked all about in last week’s installment.

Not until I’ve completed or at least attempted to complete these steps do I consider myself prepared to begin the first draft, which is next week’s topic.

Don’t forget to visit other participating blogs to see how other writers prepare when starting a new book!