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:
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- Create the characters. This is where I give identities to the people who will populate my world, and fill in my character sheets.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
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