Creating a Plot for a Novel

There really is no magical way that authors come up with their plots. To be sure, they all have their way of plotting their novels, but no one way is the right way. The right way is what works for you. That's easy enough to say though. But what if you don't know what your way of plotting a novel is yet? Here are a few things that I do for short stories and novels.

First, I would start brainstorming scenes that I would want to write. This will get the juices flowing and get me thinking about different aspects of the story. For example, say I'm writing a story about a detective who is looking for a murderer. I'm going to start writing on paper, which is how I do my best thinking, scenes that I'm excited about now. This would be roughly one to two sentences. Nothing elaborate here in my notes, just something that I will remember for when I'm ready to start working on the outline.

So I have my detective and he is in an alley. He sees a few kids, probably dealing drugs. What does he do? Is he the type that wouldn't be concerned with this since it isn't his main priority right now, or would he nab the kids to teach them a lesson?

See how thinking through scenes lends to asking questions. It can be questions concerning the characters, the world that they live in, the motivations for those involved in the story and it could lead to other scenes and ideas for the overall plot of the story.

Okay, so now you have some scenes, but scenes alone don't make a plot. What's next?

Second, is looping all these scenes together, and you may find that after developing so many scenes that some are better then others, or they take off in a direction that wasn't necessarily where you had planned to go. This is okay. Go with it for now. This time is all about brainstorming and coming up with ideas for scenes and plots; you just never know where the next idea is going to come from so don't stiffle yourself.

If after you have created a bunch of scenes and you still haven't figured out a strong plot, then put it down for awhile. I find that my subconsious will actually do a lot of the work for me when I'm off doing something else. I know...it sounds a little cliched to do this, but trust me it will work.

Try working on a different project. If your brainstorming this idea do something unrelated like editing a different story. In time, something will spark in your imagination that will give you the 'Aha!' moment that you have been waiting for that will tie your whole novel together.

Good luck on plotting your novel and I hope this blog helped.

How to write through the middle of your book

For many people, starting and ending a novel is the easier part of writing. That is, if there really is an easy part to writing a novel! However, the middle of the book is where things start to bog down for many writers. I know I have had my share of slogging through the marshy wetlands of the second act.

So how do you get through writing the middle of your book?

I think it all boils down to having a good idea of what the story is about. If you have a solid story line, you should be able to work from that. Think about the character motivations, which should follow along with the story line. Then expand out from there.

What you are trying to achieve here are smaller sub plots to fill in the gaps when the main story line is slogging down and you don't know where to go with it quite yet. Here are a few things to think about.

What does character x want out of life?
What is their main passion?
Do they want to improve something in their life?

Aside from the main story line, what does x want to achieve within the context of this story.
As you can see, having a healthy idea of what and who your character is all about will benefit you greatly when trying to come up with sub plots.

To sum up: When the story seems to slow down, shift gears and punch it up with a sub plot. Just be sure to tie up this sub plot somewhere before the end of the book.

Be sure to check out this program where you will get an ebook on how to write sell and promote your book showing online places that review your book for free, 14 places to submit your book to win awards, 17 ebook directories that will send readers to your website, put two more free ebooks. Click Here to get jump start your novel writing career.