Tag Archives: plotting a novel

December 1, 2025 · 6:00 am

#NovelNovember has ended, my book isn’t done, and once again, I’m clueless #writing

Today is the first day of December 2025. Over the last 30 days, I have written more than 50,000 words to finish the plot of a novel that is ½ of a duology. The story is too big and would make a giant doorstop of a book, so I am splitting it.

Book one is a complete first draft and desperately needs revising, but book two has barely begun. Here is the screenshot of my ProWritingAid’s NovelNovember dashboard yesterday, after I added my final wordcount for November.

I feel good about this experience, and I’ll probably do it again if they offer it next year.

As to my novel, I know how this story is supposed to end, as it is canon. The history mentioned in the series tells us that my protagonist is the founder of the Temple, and the College of Mages and Healers. The story told in these two books will end once my lovebirds clear the final hurdle to achieving those goals.

I have written the first draft of six complete chapters. It’s a good start in the main manuscript, so that is now at 16,010 words. I am now brainstorming the middle section in a separate manuscript. As of the time I am writing this post, that involves 39,112 words of thinking aloud and going back to the other books to ensure I don’t contradict myself.

Since I am rereading the main series that was published in my early days as a writer, I have found much that needs re-editing. Because I am an Indie, I can (and will) re-edit the entire series. I will do that whenever I am stalled on my current manuscript.

Unfortunately, the results of my written thinking aloud are good ideas that often don’t work for what I envision as the final product.

But they may become short stories set in that world. In the meantime, I have to make the answers to these two questions drive the plot:

This is a continuation of the story that began in the previous book, so what do the characters want now that some of their goals have been achieved?
What stands in the way of their achieving the final goal of defeating the Bull God’s stolen champion?

Thus, the background writing is moving along. I now have two major events to choreograph plot arcs for, and then I can connect the dots between my chosen scenes and give it an upbeat ending.

I do my mind-wandering in a separate document until I have concrete scenes. That brainstorming is productive because some of those rambles will become chapters.

The premise of books set in this world is that the gods are at war, and the world of Neveyah is the battleground. The gods cannot interact directly with each other or undo another god’s work, so the people of their worlds are the playing pieces, albeit pawns with free will and the option to struggle against their fate.My heroes and villains both see themselves as the protagonist because the fate of their world is at stake. There must be one god for each world, and the Bull God has imprisoned his brother in an attempt to steal his brother’s wife. He can’t kill Ariend but intends to claim Aeos and add their worlds to his. That was the Sundering of the Worlds, a catastrophic event nearly destroying three of the eleven worlds.

Now, a thousand years have passed and he is once again on the move. If the protagonist wins, the Goddess of Hearth and Home will retain control of Ariend’s prison and the world Aeos created. Conversely, if the antagonist wins, the Bull God will claim it all, and the imbalance of the worlds will once again threaten the stability of their universe.

So, now I’m plotting the midpoint crisis. An important festival and a council of elders is held. My protagonist must work to sway the skeptics in his direction. In their personal arcs, he and his wife must overcome their own doubts and fears and make themselves stronger.

Then I must work on fleshing out the enemy. This mage is not a terrible person. Once a devoted follower of Aeos, he triggered a mage trap and was forcibly converted to the enemy’s side.

Now he is under an unbreakable spell and his loyalty is given to the Bull God, the Breaker of the Worlds. The god manipulates him. My antagonist’s motives stem from his imposed conviction that the Goddess is weak and that the tribes have strayed from the traditions that made them strong.

My antagonist is featured three times briefly in the first half of this tale. That story is devoted to the protagonist surviving several events that give rise to the tales that turn an ordinary warrior-shaman into the legendary hero the children’s books say he was. Now, I must write my antagonist with empathy because his fall from grace was a tragedy and a terrible personal loss to our protagonist.

Both intend to prevail at any cost. What is the final hurdle, and what will the characters lose in the process? Is the price physical suffering or emotional? Or both? This is an origin story, so history tells me who succeeds. But what is the personal cost of that success?

I know my protagonist and antagonist will meet in a large battle, face to face. Several people we love will die, enabling the desired ending. I know who must die, and I have an idea of where that will happen, because whenever I have a thought about any aspect of this story, I write it down.

By the end of this book, all the threads that began in book one will have been drawn together and resolved for better or worse.

In real life, people live happily, but no one lives a deliriously happy-ever-after. Thus, the ending must be finite and wrap up the conflict. The future must look rosy for my protagonist and his companions.

Thank you all for listening to me rant about my work. What is your project and how is it progressing? What has been your greatest struggle?

Sometimes writing is a lonely craft. It helps to have a writing group to talk to. They help me reframe ideas in a way that works better than my original plan. And when it gets to the beta reading stage, they will be there with good suggestions.

5 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as Novel November, plotting a novel, writer life, writing

August 18, 2025 · 6:00 am

Action, reaction, and consequences #writing

Some of my writing projects start with an idea for a good plot or character. Others are inspired by something I see or witness in my daily perambulations around town. But no matter how my ideas arrive, they all boil down to “what if….”

On rare occasions, usually at the midpoint of a story that I didn’t outline, it felt as if I was looking for water in the desert, as the ideas were few and far between. That’s when I used to find myself trying to make a novel out of a manuscript rife with unplanned stupidity.

I no longer force my brain to work when it’s on its last legs.

For me, the first stages of laying down a story are more like creating an extensive and detailed outline. This method helps me build an overall logic into the story as it evolves.

At every story’s outset, we meet our protagonist and see them in their familiar surroundings. The inciting incident occurs once we have met them, whether they are ready for it or not. At that point, we must take them to the next stumbling block. But what is that impediment, and how do we overcome it?

And, just as importantly, what repercussions will they face for having crossed that barrier?

Answering that question isn’t always easy. The place where writing becomes work is a hurdle that the majority of people who “always wanted to be an author” can’t leap. Their talents lie elsewhere, and that is okay.

Fortunately, I know what must happen next in my current work in progress because the story is already canon, a historical side note in Mountains of the Moon. At this point, I am brainstorming the characters’ motivations that lead to the desired ending.

I have found it helps to write the last chapter first – in other words, start with the ending. My first NaNoWriMo novel in 2010 began with the final chapter. I managed to write 68,000 words in 30 days thanks to my great characters, whom I wanted to learn more about. I was desperate to know how they arrived at that ending.

What happens when the first lull in creativity occurs? It often happens within the first ten pages. But no matter where it happens, we need to remember that an imbalance of power drives plots, and knowledge is power.

The dark corners of the story are illuminated by the characters who have critical knowledge. This is called asymmetric information, and the enemy should have more of that commodity than our protagonist.

The enemy puts their plan in motion, and we have action. The protagonists are moved to react. The characters must work with a limited understanding of the situation because asymmetric information creates tension. A lack of knowledge creates a crisis.

Plots are comprised of action, reaction, and consequences. I must place events in their path so the plot keeps moving forward. These events will be turning points, places where the characters must re-examine their motives and goals, and how much they are willing to endure to achieve them.

At several points in this process, I will stop and think about the characters. What do they want? How motivated are they to get it? If they aren’t motivated, why are they there?

Answering a few questions about your characters can kick the plot back into motion. Start with the antagonist because his actions force our characters to react:

Why does the enemy have the upper hand?
- How does the protagonist react to pressure from the antagonist?
- What are the consequences of this reaction for both characters?
- How does the struggle affect the relationships between the protagonist and their cohorts/romantic interests?
- What complications arise from a lack of information?
- How will the characters acquire that necessary information?

Our characters are unreliable witnesses. The way they tell us the story will gloss over their failings. We can accidentally make them into Penny Perfects if we aren’t careful. The story takes shape as the characters are compelled to overcome their weaknesses and confront their deepest fears.

My first drafts are just the skeleton of the tale, an expanded outline. I flesh out what I can as I write, and that first draft will still be somewhat thin with significant gaps.

Once the first draft is finished, I add visuals, action, and reactions. I may have gotten the large things down, but much will evade my imagination. To resolve that problem, I insert notes to myself, such as:

Fend off the attack here.
Shouldn’t they plan an assault here? Or are they just going to defend forever? Make them do something!
Contrast tranquil scenery with turbulent emotions here.

We all know that arcs of action drive plots. Every reader knows this, too. Unfortunately, when I’m tired, random, disconnected events that have no value will seem like good ideas. Action inserted for shock value can derail what might have been a good plot.

I never show my first drafts to anyone because the manuscript is more like a series of disjointed events and conversations than a novel. I save that file as a first draft once I have written the ending, because if (deities forbid) something should happen to a later draft, I will need that original file, despite it being not much more than a long and fluffy outline. The file name might be: my_novel_fst_draft

I then resave the manuscript as a second draft and begin stitching it all together, focusing on worldbuilding, expanding on scenes, and filling in the plot holes: my_novel_snd_draft

I must be honest. It usually takes five or six drafts and several years for me to make a coherent story with a complete plot arc and interesting characters with logical actions and reactions.

I am not able to churn out novels the way some prolific authors have done over the years. I write for fun and don’t worry about deadlines, which, in my opinion, is the sole reason for pursuing any art form.

2 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as action and consequences in the story, plotting a novel, writing the first draft

November 25, 2024 · 6:00 am

When the Plot Loses Its Way #writing

We have arrived at the final week of November. Storms here in the Pacific Northwest have created havoc for some, and despite that, the season of parties has begun. My neighborhood escaped the storm damage, but many others are still without power. Also, Thanksgiving is upon us and cooking abounds. I carve out my writing time in the early morning and sometimes in the evening. Sometimes, the writing flows well, and other times it’s like trying to give the dog a pill.

MyWritingLife2021 For the last few weeks, many writers have been pouring the words onto paper, trying to get 50,000 words in 30 days. Some have written themselves into a corner and have discovered there is no graceful way out.

This happened to me in 2019 and again in 2023. In 2019, I took one of my works in progress back from 90,000 words to 12,000. I did pretty much the same thing in 2023.

Everything I cut was saved into a separate file, as those scenes weren’t terrible and could be the seeds of a new novel. They just didn’t work in the story I was attempting to write at that time.

Epic Fails meme2 I hate it when I find myself at the point where I am fighting the story, forcing it onto paper. It feels like admitting defeat to confess that my story has taken a wrong turn so early on, and I hate that feeling. Fortunately, I knew by the 40,000-word point that last year’s story arc had gone so far off the rails that there was no rescuing it.

I’m crazy, but I’m no quitter. So, in 2019 I wasted several weeks writing more words and refusing to admit the story was no longer enjoyable. On the good side, I had accomplished many important things with the 3 months of work I had cut from that novel.

The world was solidly built, so the first part of the rewrite went quickly.
The characters were firmly in my head, so their interactions made sense in the new context.
Some sections that had been cut were recycled back into the new version.

800px-Singapore_Road_Signs_-_Temporary_Sign_-_Detour.svg The sections I cut weren’t a waste, they were a detour. In so many ways, that sort of thing is why it takes me so long to write a book—each story contains the seeds of more stories.

If this happens to you, I suggest taking a month or so away from this project. When I return to a manuscript that was set aside, I will spend several days visualizing the goal, the final scene, mind-wandering on paper until I have a concrete objective for my characters. Then I will write a synopsis of what needs to happen, and each paragraph of that synopsis will contain the seeds of a chapter.

Beginning a novel with half an outline and only a vague idea of the ending is why I sometimes lose my way in a first draft.

Author-thoughts Sometimes, something different happens. In 2019, I realized the novel I was writing is actually two books worth of story. The first half is the protagonist’s personal quest and is finished. The second half resolves the unfinished thread of what happened to the antagonist and is what I am currently working on. Both halves of the story have finite endings, so for the paperback version, I will break it into two novels. That will keep my costs down.

2019 and 2023 were not the only times when my plots went off the rails. While I no longer have anything to do with NaNoWriMo.org, I do participate in writing quests each November. In 2020, I was 4 days into NaNoWriMo when things got bad, and I switched to writing a completely different novel.

If you are a regular visitor here, you know what happened. In trying to resolve a twist of logic, I accidentally wrote an entirely different novel with a completely different cast of characters and plot. That manuscript is in the final stages of prepublication.

For those of you who are curious—I have the attention span of a sack full of squirrels. Proof of that can be found in the 4 novels currently in progress that are set in that world, each at different eras of the 3000-year timeline, each in various stages of completion.

And all of this happened because I had to write history in order to avoid contradicting myself in the modern story. In the process of writing that history, historical characters and their stories grabbed my attention.

All writing is good writing. The work I cut out of my failed manuscripts has generated several short stories and novellas, so nothing is wasted.

There are going to be times when writing is work. Sometimes, we must accept that we are forcing something and it’s not succeeding. That is when I take the storyline back to where it got out of hand.

The sections you cut might be the seeds of something wonderful, a short story or a novella that you can submit elsewhere for publication.

I TheNameoftheWind_cover think of Patrick Rothfuss and his struggle to write the books in his series, the Kingkiller Chronicle. The first two books, The Name of the Wind (2007) and The Wise Man’s Fear (2011), have sold over 10 million copies. Yet he is still struggling to turn out the third book in the trilogy.

Rothfuss’s work is original and powerful, but though it is highly regarded, he fights to put it on paper just as the rest of us do. His battle with mental health issues affects his ability to write the book he believes in. The fact that an author of his caliber also struggles to get the story down gives me permission to keep at it.

I believe in the joy of writing, in the joy of creating something powerful. If you lose your fire for a story because another has captured your imagination, set the first one aside and go for it.

We who are indies have the freedom to write what we have a passion for and take as long as we need to do it.

True inspiration is not an everlasting firehose of ideas. Sometimes, we experience dry spells. When I come back to the original work, I’ll see it with fresh eyes, and the passion will be reignited.

7 Comments

Filed under writing

Tagged as overcoming writer's block, plotting a novel, writing, writing tips

October 11, 2023 · 6:00 am

#NaNoPrep: The Heart of the Story #amwriting.

This is the fourth installment of our NaNoWriMo Prep series. (I’ve listed links to the previous posts down below.) We now have an idea of who our characters are. We also know a bit about the world in which our narrative will be set. We know the genre we’re writing in and what the story might be about. Now we’re going to take a closer look at the plot.

WritingCraft_NaNoPrep_101 I am the queen of front-loading too much history in my first drafts. Fortunately, my writer’s group has an unerring eye for where the story really begins.

I have to remind myself that the first draft is the thinking draft. It’s where we build worlds and flesh out characters and relationships. It’s also where the story grows as we add to it.

Let’s write a medieval fantasy:

Act 1: the beginning:

Setting: London in the year 1430. The weather is unseasonably cold. A bard is concealed amongst the filth and shadows in a dark, narrow alley. Tam hides from the soldiers of a prince he has unwisely humiliated in a comic song.

Opening plot point: the soldiers surround and capture Tam, hauling him before the angry prince. The trial is brief and painful. Beaten and bloody, Tam is thrown into prison and sentenced to be beheaded at dawn.

That moment of despair is the end of chapter one.

lute-clip-art You have done some prep work for character creation, so Tam is your friend. You know his backstory, who he is attracted to (men, women, none, or both), how handsome he is, and his personal history. But none of this matters to the reader in the opening pages. The reader only wants to know what will happen next.

You know who Tam will meet in prison, someone who will help him escape. Depending on Tam’s romantic preference, Dagger (an assassin’s professional name) will be male or female and will dislike the bard on sight. Still, Dagger needs Tam’s help to escape as they too are scheduled to die at dawn.

You have decided that the prince is a dark-path warlock. His close friend is a highly placed cardinal who uses his authority to conceal the prince’s nefarious deeds.

Now we will think about Tam and Dagger’s escape, the first pinch point. The information they learn from each other while quarrelling in prison fuels a quest: killing the Warlock Prince. Each will have different reasons for this, but despite their inability to get along, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

The escape is successful. Now they are on the run and have no idea how to accomplish their mutual goal. They don’t trust each other, but are forced to work together despite their clash of personalities.

And we all know how friction heats things up. Romance or no romance, this interpersonal tension is crucial.

We (the author) know the Warlock Prince must die if Tam and Dagger are to save London, but who will be willing to help them? What roadblocks stand in their way? The people you need to help them past these hurdles will emerge as you write the first draft.

You might have had an idea for the ending and may have written it down. If you did, you have a goal to write to. If not, perhaps the ending is beginning to show itself. Either way, at this point, the middle of the story is a work in progress.

Tam and Dagger will tell you what events and roadblocks must happen to them between their arrests and the final victory. This knowledge will emerge from your imagination as you write your way through this first draft.

But the opening moment, the scene showing a lowly bard hiding behind a rubbish heap, is the moment in Tam’s life where the story the reader wants to hear starts.

That scene is where this story begins, regardless of how fascinating Tam’s backstory, London’s history, or the Warlock Prince’s backstory was before that day. It is the beginning because this is the point where all the essential characters are in one place and are introduced.

The reader meets the villain and sees him in all his power
Tam can sink no lower—he has hit bottom and can only go up from there.
Dagger is in the same low emotional place, but this mysterious character has an escape plan.

The story kicks into gear at this pinch point because the assassin is at risk on two fronts, which means Tam is, too. Dagger’s original task of killing the prince has failed, so now they must avoid both the prince’s soldiers and the mysterious employer’s goons.

For Dagger, the original commission must be fulfilled despite the fact there will be no payment. It’s more than merely a matter of pride, but the secret that drives them will slowly emerge as we write the first draft.

Tam agrees to help ensure it happens because he has a conscience and wants to protect the people of London.

Attraction often grows in the most unlikely of places. Will it blossom into romance? It’s London, a city filled with romance and intrigue. But you’re the author, so only you know how their relationship grows as you write their adventure.

What will emerge in bits and pieces over the following 40,000 or more words?

We will learn who Dagger’s employer is.
We will learn who Dagger really is and how they became an assassin.

Tam will find this information out as the story progresses and we will learn it as he does. With that knowledge, he will realize his fate is sealed—he’s doomed no matter what. But it fires him with the determination that if he goes down, he will take the Warlock Prince and his corrupt Cardinal, with him.

The backstory behind the song that precipitated Tam’s arrest, the assassin’s employer, and the enraged prince who intends a lingering, painful death for him must come out gradually.

If we dump Tam and Dagger’s history at the beginning, the reader has no reason to go any further. We’ll have wasted words on something that doesn’t advance the plot.

The people who will help our hapless protagonist will enter the story as he needs them. Each person will add information the reader wants, but only when Tam requires it. Some characters who can offer the most help will be held back until the final half of the story.

By the end, the reader will know everything about the relationship between Dagger and the Warlock Prince. With that information, the final pieces of the puzzle will fall into place.

The reader will follow the breadcrumbs of information. That desire to know all the secrets will be the carrot that keeps the reader turning the pages.

And making that trail into a logical story arc is why I do a certain amount of prewriting and outlining.

storyArcLIRF10032021