SHERI SINGERLING

Image by congerdesign via Pixabay

This topic is a big one, and I could go into way too much detail on how I, personally, approach the writing process for my novels. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today, I’ll give a macroscopic view. In later posts, I’ll do more of a deep dive into certain parts.

The Seed

In a previous post, I talked a bit about how I tend to get ideas for novels. Obviously, the seed of an idea has to come first. For me, it can come from anywhere and everywhere. For my novel Nytho, I got the seed of an idea from a creative writing class prompt. For the novel I’m currently writing the first draft of, it came from rediscovering my obsession with the lore of the video game Bloodborne and thinking too much about ionizing radiation while taking a radiation protection course for my day job.

The point is, I need that initial idea before I can even begin to contemplate what I want to write a novel about.

Drafting Notes

Okay, say I have the kernel of a premise for a novel floating around in my head. What’s next? Well, I actually tend to sit on it for a bit. I make ample use of the Notes app on my iPhone. Anytime I get more ideas related to this germinating novel, I write them down in no particular order on my phone. This is great because I always have my phone on me and can “work” on my novel anytime and anyplace (hello commuting).

At some point though, writing notes on my phone gets to be messy. When I have the time, I email myself the notes I’ve made and then copy and paste them into a Word document. This Word document becomes my essential tool in the writing process. I try to be consistent in how I lay out my notes so that I can more easily find information when I need it. When I start out, I typically create the following sections:

• World-building
• Characters
• Plot

Simple enough, no? The magic happens when I start working on subsections of these.

Again, I create these sections as needed. For example, I have a world-building subsection called “law/courts” in Nytho, but it’s not included for any of my other novels. That’s because there’s a pivotal trial that takes place in Nytho and Nytho alone.

World-Building

Some typical subsections I use for world-building are:

• History – pertinent events that happened before the story
• Settings – locations (especially important for stories that don’t take place on Earth)
• Society – politics, science/technology, language (good old slang hangs out here), architecture, fashion
• Genre elements – tropes I use from other genres such as cosmic horror, gothic horror, body horror, fantasy

Characters

For the characters, I write a bit about their past and present, how they look, and how they act. This is very useful for maintaining consistency in the small details.

For example, I used certain dialogue for two characters in Nytho that was similar but different. Given that I wrote that novel in first person with both characters serving as narrators, I had to make sure to get their language down. Both are hackers and so use hacker slang. For just one example of their differences, one of them uses “want to” whereas the other uses “wanna.” If I didn’t have this in my notes, I would waste precious time looking back in other parts of the manuscript to see which I used for which.

Plot

For the plot, I start with a big chunk of text separated into some bullet points for logical breaks in scenes. However, this isn’t useful when it comes time to start writing, at least past the first couple of scenes. I try to break up the plot into chapters based on what makes sense. If I’m using different narrators, that will play a role. If different scenes need to happen, those are natural breaking points.

I aim to plan out a story with a nice structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) that will run about 70,000–100,000 words. That seems to be the sweet spot for science fiction novels.

Timeline

After I have the plot down, I start working on the timeline of the action points. I use an Excel spreadsheet for this that includes the major events and the year (and date/day of the week if important). I find this to be so incredibly useful.

I didn’t do this for my first novel, delta t, when I wrote the first draft. So when I went back and revised it based on beta reader feedback, I realized that I couldn’t tell how much time had happened between key scenes. Should I say “last week” or “three days ago?” I didn’t know which it was, and it was just another place where inconsistencies could crop up.

Hence my decision to create a spreadsheet. Now, I make use of it from the very beginning. I go back into the past before the events of the story and also map out the general timing of the key moments in the story. Of course, this isn’t set in stone, and I constantly revise it based on how the story evolves as I write it. Still, it’s one of the most useful tools I’ve developed for myself.

Just Start Writing Already

So I have my novel planned, but how do I know when enough detail is enough? It depends. Sometimes, I plan a novel out way ahead of time in excruciating detail. This was true of delta t. But I’ve actually found that this approach can be almost paralyzing. I’m one of those people who needs a decent outline to write pretty much anything, and for the science papers I write, the more detail, the better.

Fiction is different though. I like to write organically. I come up with some of my best language and imagery on the fly. My current approach is to plan out the novel enough to know where it needs to go, who the major players are, what the world is like, and then let things evolve from there.

The Planning Never Ends

That being said, I still make a point of updating my notes as I write. This is essential for consistency. Over the lifetime of writing a novel from first draft to the completed manuscript, I take long breaks from it. The first happens after I finish the first draft. I let it sit for about a month, which enables me to edit it with fresh(er) eyes. Another break happens when it goes out to my beta readers. I usually give them a month to get feedback to me, during which I’m not touching the novel. Then there can be a super long break for when I’m querying the novel if I go the traditional publishing route. That’s a lot of time to forget about all the fine details, especially considering I start on the next project during these kinds of breaks.

In short, I don’t stop planning. Maybe a big part of that is also because my novels are all interconnected. Or maybe it’s just because I don’t like to let go of my beautiful little creations!

How do you approach planning, creative works or not? Let me know in a comment.