These methods of outlining will help you create a novel outline that makes writing your first draft a breeze, whether it's your 1st or 10th time writing a book.
So, where exactly is your plot taking you? What happens next? What is this story about? It’s time to think about plot. Plotting Worksheet
This plot diagram can be used to go along with the seventh grade SpringBoard Unit 1, Embedded Assessment 2. It can assist students with mapping out and planning their myth with all of the required components. ...
Jami Gold's Writing Worksheets: Help for all writers, from newbies to experts and from plotters to pantsers.
So NaNoWriMo is being a bust for me this year. I’m failing to write anything meaningful, despite all the planning I did in October. Instead of forcing myself to continue writing a story that …
Planning your book doesn't have to be complicated,so in this post I show you how to outline a novel in just four simple steps.
Exploring using Notion for writing? Here's a step-by-step guide on creating a Notion writing project tracker template that serves your needs.
A blank novel outline template for use with Google Docs, Google Keep, and Scrivener. The One Page Novel is a simple, memorable structure for novelists.
Writing a great plot twist needs a few ingredients. Read this post to find out how to mislead and surprise your readers.
Use this author planner to help you with writing a novel. The novel writing template will guide and direct you as you write a book. Planning your book can be daunting and confusing, but using this writing planner printable you can print the pages and fill them out. Plan your plot, your characters, and your setting. This book writing template will help you figure out all the pertinent information you need before you write you first draft or it can be used after your first draft to make sure you've checked all the boxes in your draft. Included in the Writing a Novel Planner are these worksheets: >Novel Planner >Author Checklist >Genre Research >Character Research >Plot Outline >Scene Outline >Character Goals >Character Arc >Scene Ideas >Research >Chapter Overview >Storyboard >Story Development >Trope Generator >Hero's Journey >Idea Log >Theme >One Sentence Summary >Setting >Cast of Characters >Character List >Character Evaluation >Character Relations >Character Profile >Character Voice >Protagonist >Antagonist >Scene POV Tracker >Scene Progress >Scene Brain Dump >Scene Planner >Novel Revision Notes >Artifacts and Objects >Research Scribble >Notes Download this planner instantly. Nothing will be shipped to you. You can begin immediately to work on your novel. Created for authors by an author. Write with passion!
Cards and drafts I thought I’d mention a bit about how I use the cards and Post-Its on my plotboard before I get into detail about the different sections of the board. First draft The keyword for this stage is: messy. This is the ideas stage, after all. Flashes of inspiration. Nothing neat about those. In this stage I tend to scribble ideas down on any bit of paper I can find and pin them to the board where I think they’ll be most relevant. Don’t care about what colour or what shape the ideas are written on, as long as they go on the board. Some of them may be thrown away later and some of them may prove to be some kick-butt ideas to take my story forward. No way to know which until I start to write, so everything stays until I’ve finished the first draft. If I don’t use an idea, I keep the bit of paper anyway. For the last book that came in very handy, because ideas that I’d discarded in the first draft helped me revise the book after my editor had seen it and asked for changes. As I write, I use half an index card (cut vertically) and put the bare plot point of the element on the top of the card. For example, some card headings from the previous book were: “Zoe and Damien dance” or “Zoe and Damien reach a truce” or “Zoe goes back home”. At the moment I’m using white cards. I was using yellow, but I discovered I kept running out of yellow index cards and was drowning in the other colours from the multi-coloured packs you can buy. At least I can get white index cards easily in one pack on their own. As I complete a scene, I add an index card to the board. For the previous book I also stuck a small Post-It to the card indicating the goal of the POV character for that scene. Always good to remind yourself what your characters want (and what’s thwarting their progress). In this part of the process, I find myself returning to my board constantly to remind myself of what good ideas I’ve forgotten and to remind myself of where I want to go. It can be hard to hold all of that information in your head. Sometimes, when I’m focussed on a particular part of the story, I forget all about the flashes of inspiration I’ve had about a different sections. That’s where my board comes in handy. It holds all that information for me until I’m ready for it. The plotboard is also useful to remind myself of things I need to go back and change as I get further on in the writing process. I added notes while writing my previous book to change the style of the bride’s wedding ring in the opening scenes and to set up my hero as being a little more stiff and structured. Subsequent drafts/revisions Quite often, after you’ve finished a book, you’re far too close to it to see where the problems lie. I often return to my plotboard, strip it bare of everything but the white cards and look at the story in a more tidy, analytical way. First draft was where I let my creative right brain play. Revisions and editing are much more about the logical left brain. Last time round (after reading Dara Mark’s fabulous book Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc) I decided to look at my book in three threads: What Dara calls the A story – on other words the plot. It’s very easy in a character-led book to slip into classifying internal decisions as plot, but I try and save that for the other threads. The A story is all about the physical action: what are the characters doing? What are the working towards? Where are they going? I used yellow Post-Its. For some reason yellow means plot to me. Dunno why. Sometimes, if the scene heading on the top of the card was enough description on its own, I highlighted that text yellow and didn't bother with the Post-It. Then we have the B story: the character arc. In a romance, you normally have two character arcs or journeys – one for the hero and one for the heroine. I chose green from my pack of Post-Its for this (because green makes me think of growth). On these stickers I noted my characters’ internal journeys – what they started out like, what their character flaws and fears were, what they need to learn. Also, when they had moments of breakthrough and changed, how they faced challenges and either resorted on their armour to keep themselves safe or did something new and brave. At the end of the board it's all about making sure those flaws and fears you mentioned at the beginning have been dealt with. I read through each chapter, saw what I’d already brought out and then I crystalised it into a sentence or two on a Post-It and stuck it on the index card. Quite often it helped me define the character’s growth at that point and I could start to see if I’d brought out the right things or if there was something missing. Then there’s the C story. Dara says there’s always a C story. It’s the relationship that changes the protagonist. Quite often it's through interaction with another person or thing that the protagonist discovers the error of their ways. In a romance, this will be the developing love story. I noted down on pink Post-Its (the only colour I had left - I’m really not anal about what colour goes where) how the hero and heroine were feeling about each other, what the romantic conflict was, and where the milestones were e.g first kiss, first meeting, declarations of love. Again, it helped me check each scene was moving the relationship on in a believable and emotionally logical manner. The odd thing is about this part of the process that I hardly ever look back to see what I’ve put on the board in great detail. Unlike the first draft, when I need reminders, the second draft (or whatever) seems to be much more about the process of plotboarding. As I write it all down it somehow solidifies the story in my head, keeps the threads woven tight together so I can see where things need changing or developing as I work. More detail on each section of the board soon...
Writing a great plot twist needs a few ingredients. Read this post to find out how to mislead and surprise your readers.
There's a lot of things that you need to consider when writing stories. You can use any of these story outline templates to create a good piece of work.
Writing your first novel can be daunting. That's where these free novel-writing templates and worksheets can prove handy.
One of my favorite ways to outline or plan a story is to map it out like a subway or road map. Here's how this technique works. Each road or subway line
I have been working on my novel for many years. I’ve had confidence issues, fear issues, procrastination issues…but now I’ve decided enough is enough and it’s time to get on with it. This is a vlog of my progress and for this month I show how I am outlining and re-plotting my manuscript.
Your story's plot is more than just a string of events. Learn how to write the perfect plot for your story by crafting it into a meaningful whole.
Structuring your story can frighten some writers and confuse others, but it doesn't have to be so - here is a simple way to look at story structure.
Inspired by my love for Nanowrimo, this Novel Writing Planner contains key story planning pages to write that book. From building dynamic characters to plotting their journey, this story writing kit will help you stay organized, track your writing stats, and write that story out of your head. Whether you are a pantser, planner, or plantser this author planner is the workbook for you. ♡ WHAT'S INCLUDED 81 Printable Pages Total (1 PDF File - US Letter, Fillable) • 1 Front Cover • 6 Dividers & 6 Quotes • 5 Writing Schedule Planning Pages • 12 Monthly Word Count Tracker (Sunday Start) • 15 Character Profile Worksheets • 9 World Building Pages • 23 Plot Organizing Pages • 4 "Extra" Pages (editing tracker, playlist, etc) ♡ ALSO IN THE SHOP • The digital planner version of this workbook is available in the shop at https://etsy.me/3m7Euuk ♡ DOWNLOADING • These are instant digital downloads. So you won't be receiving anything in the mail. But you will receive an email with your download. • Once you purchase you'll be taken to a page where you can download instantly. • Download them as many times as you like by going to You > Purchases and reviews ♡ PRINTING • You can print as many as you need and fill them in by hand. Colors may vary according to your printer. ♡ TERMS OF USE • These files are for your personal use only. They may not be sold, copied, distributed, shared or altered in any way. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) starts today, and while I plan to continue blogging throughout NaNo, I wanted to make sure I gave you something good to keep you happy during my crazy month. *smile* Of course, whether or not you’d define today’s post as anything good might depend […]
Notion template
Are you tired of beginning each school year with the same ol’ “Elements of Plot” lesson? The initial vocabulary and concepts related to “Plot” can be kind of “dry” and “boring”, especially if you’re a student in grades 7th-10th! You know what I’m talking about because we’ve all been there ;) I took some time […]
For all the writers reading this blog, here’s my cheat sheet for the Plotting Board Method of plotting, which I learned from Cherry Adair. The Cherry Plo...
Every writer has their own process, and apparently J. K. Rowling is a meticulous plotter. This hand-written spreadsheet from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix plots out everything from the month a chapter takes place to what is happening on or off screen in each subplot: The first few columns are pretty simple: chapter […]
A few weeks ago, I was at the half-way point of my first draft and having trouble with my plot. After ten months of steadily pounding away at the keyboard and chipping at the word count, I was incr…
These methods of outlining will help you create a novel outline that makes writing your first draft a breeze, whether it's your 1st or 10th time writing a book.
Have you ever had the vibes of your story figured out but no plot? This post gives you an easy process to find out what actually happens in yor novel
