Maybe you’ve decided you want to write a novel, but never have before and you don’t know where to begin. (That was me a few years ago). 

Or maybe you’re querying or out on submission and you’ve been told to “write the next thing” to keep busy while you wait (I did this, too.) 

Maybe you’ve had to shelve that latest manuscript and you’re looking to start something fresh. (Check.) 

Whatever your reason, starting something new is always exciting, but starting from page one—with hundreds of blank pages to fill ahead of you—can be daunting, too.

Where to begin? 

This is where I tell you I do not have an MFA. I am not claiming that my way of doing things is the right way of doing things. This is just a post about my writing process. 

This way of writing works for me. But maybe it won’t work for you. So try different things until you find what does. It might not be one method. It might change. I am currently working on my third novel, and the process for each book I’ve written so far has been different.  

So, let’s dive into my process for the book I’ve just started, shall we? 

The idea for this book has been floating around in my head for months and it’s stuck with me. That’s how I know it’s something I want to explore further. I have a working title, which I do find helpful for envisioning my work as a “real” book, but it’s not necessary to have one to begin. (Titles are hard!) For now, I’ll refer to it as AmbitiousWIP, because this is by far my most complicated and ambitious story to date (says the lady who wrote a time travel book). I think it’s going to take a lot of pre-planning to pull off on the page what I am currently imagining in my mind.

I’m starting this project a bit differently then my last two, because I now know what has worked for me with my past two projects and what hasn’t. I know I can’t cut corners on my pre-planning. If I do, I will hit a roadblock and have to go back to do it anyway, so this time, I’m doing it all up front. Will it help? Only one way to find out. 

I am a capital P Planner. I have been since I took my first screenwriting class. When I start a new novel, I use a mixture of what I learned in my college film classes, the book Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody, and the book Story Genius by Lisa Cron, plus some tips I picked up from other writers and a dash of things I have learned from good ol’ experience. 

For me, step one is setting up my story structure. To do this, I ask myself some questions first:

What genre am I writing in, and in what age category? 

This will give you the word count range you want to aim for (if your goal is to be traditionally published, it’s best to stick with the industry standard word count for your genre and category). For AmbitiousWIP, an adult fiction with speculative elements, threaded storytelling, and an alternate historical setting, I’m aiming for 96,000 words. I’m a little worried this might be low based on my project’s complexity, but I like to keep my goal under 100,000 words and this gives me some wiggle room. It’s a solid place to start, and I can always adjust as I start developing my ideas. 

Will it be a series or a stand alone novel?

This will affect how you structure your scenes and chapters. AmbitiousWIP is a planned standalone, and everything I have written so far has also been a standalone, so that’s what I’ll be discussing going forward. 

How long will my chapters be? 

Again, this is not set in stone, but a number I use as a guide. My last novels had chapters that were longer and chapters that were shorter, but on average they were about 2,000 words each. So, if my goal is to write a 96,000 word book, then I would need to write forty-eight 2,000 word chapters. These are the numbers I used to set up my initial framework.  

With these numbers in mind, I set up my notecards on my bulletin board, as seen on the top of this post. (Yes, I know, I can’t make a straight line to save my life!) The board itself is actually a piece of foam board insulation that I upholstered in a fun fabric and my husband bolted to the wall. It is way, way lighter than cork board and was a breeze to install. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a really large bulletin board to work on. 

I use the Save The Cat structure for my notecard setup, with the addition of two pinch points to keep me on track with pacing in the middle of my novel. I will be using some of the terms from Save the Cat Writes a Novel in my explanation. I recommend checking it out if you are interested in this type of novel structure and looking for a deeper dive. 

I aim for my first act to be 20-25% of the book. (Save the Cat recommends 20%, but I never hit that), with the catalyst or inciting incident half way through the first act (my first orange card in the photo). The second orange card marks my Break Into Act II, where your main character enters their new world, embarks on their adventure, etc. 

Act II is long, so I like to add two “pinch points” (the pink cards) into the Save the Cat structure to remind myself to up the stakes, one halfway through the long run of Act II (Part One) and the other halfway through the long run of Act II (Part Two). The orange card separating these two parts of Act II is the midpoint (literally the middle point) and should land halfway through your word count. 

The next orange card is the “All is Lost” moment, your main character’s rock bottom. It should hit around the 75% mark of your word count. The final orange card is your Break Into III moment at 80%, the first scene in the final act of the story, the beginning of the end. Just like Act I, Act III would be about 20% of your word count, though I am of the opinion that shorter is better than stretching it out just to hit a magic number. You don’t want your finale to drag. 

I don’t think of this method as an exact science, and I use the cards as a blueprint more than a rigid structure. They make it easy to see when your story is veering off course. 

When I’m brainstorming my scenes and plotting my ideas, the Catalyst, Break into II, and Midpoint are the three cards I pay the most attention to, as I feel it really helps me set the structure and pace for the first half of the novel. The next moment I focus on is the All is Lost, to make sure it really is my character’s rock bottom, the biggest worst moment of the book. For me, if I have spent the time setting up the first half of my book and followed through with my midpoint to the lowest low of the All is Lost, by the time I get to the Break into III, it should feel inevitable. 

What this structuring does is break down your story into more manageable chunks. With that in mind, I don’t fill my cards out in order. I always brainstorm my opening scene first. With this project, I plan on figuring out my ending next. (A new part of the process I am trying after not doing that on my last two books and discovering how very hard endings are). Then, I will fill in the orange cards, my big turning points. Once I’ve set those, I’ll go back and fill in the first four cards to get me to my Catalyst. Then, the next four to get me from my Catalyst to my Break Into II. 

I keep going like this until all my cards are full. I add cards if I need them. I take away cards if I don’t. But I try to keep this basic framework. I don’t want to add another five or six cards before I hit my Catalyst. If I am, then maybe my story isn’t starting in the right place. I don’t want to add another five or six cards after my Midpoint, or the second half of the book will drag. The cards aren’t set in stone, but they do help you visualize the pace of your novel. 

After I set up my board, I don’t fill out the cards right away. I don’t have a story to put on them yet. To find that, I need to turn to my characters. 

I hope you found this helpful! Let me know with a comment if you have any questions. Next time, I’ll dive into how I’m exploring and developing characters from multiple timelines for AmbitiousWIP.