How I Planned My Novel

Last year I thought I’d finished my novel. I’ve been  working (on and off) for over a decade on it, changing it, and not quite hitting the mark. I’d received rejections, one request for a full manuscript (rejected) and I was beginning to feel quite flat.

What was I doing wrong? How could I make the book stand out in an ever-overwhelming world of novels? So I asked my lovely friend and writer Susan to have a read, and of course, she came back with honest feeedback. It was feedback I truly needed to hear, and although some of it may have of hurt at the time, I look back and realise how essential this process was for me, and my book.

My book was failing, for many reasons, and Susan pointed me in the right direction to fix it. I took six months away from it, after making some healthy notes in response to Sue’s critique, and then in May 2020 I pulled it out of my drawer and started to plan.

I started around May 3rd, and the first thing I did was to read over my beginning, middle and end. I then broke each section into chapters and figured out what would happen in each chapter. I ended up with 18 chapters, reducing to 17 as I adjusted the start of the novel. In the book I sent Sue, I had over 70 short chapters, and now I look back and shake my head at this, I have no words…

I found finding humour in my errors really helped, because although it’s my baby, I want it to work. Denial of what was wrong with my plotline, layout, and so on, wouldn’t have helped move the book forward. So instead of taking Sue’s criticism personally, I tried to listen and nurture what I’d created.

So, on day two I sat down and I decided how my novel would begin. And then I wrote the first chapter. I stole snippets from my old work, and then carried on, inserting things that worked and ignoring the pages and pages (and pages) that didn’t.

I’m now on day 8, and I’ve written 18774 thousand words, and just completed chapter 5. At the end of chapter 6 (marking the end of part one) I am going to edit part one. I’m going to fill out the ‘bones’ of the chapters, with colour and sounds, and smells, and sights, and flesh it out. I’m going to (hopefully) make sure it all makes sense, and then I’ll move onto part two.

I have a lot of notes, spanning years, but my main focus is on my chapter breakdown, my separate document with things to consider (I write these after I’ve written the bones of the piece to remember what I need to fill out), Sue’s notes, and her annotations on the areas I’m keeping.

I also have a couple of sheets with character descriptions and reminders of the rules for the world I’m creating. It all helps remind me to focus, and I’ve been using my focus app to work; you set it for 25 minutes, write away, without any disturbances, then have a 5 minutes break, and so on. It really works.

I’ve also set aside 9-12 every singe day (without fail) to write. I may finish early if I feel burnt out, or confused, and I need time to process the next steps, but each morning it’s me and my book. I have to thank Zoey, who has supported me all these long years, and currently runs the house every morning, without her I wouldn’t have a word count at all!

I think this dedication is key to my development so far, and I am super chuffed to have 5 full and almost finished chapters…

So yeah, that’s my process so far. I’ll update you soon, when I finish part 2!

Happy writing 🙂

My progress so far….

18774 / 70000 words. 27% done!