I haven’t planned a novel yet. I like to marinate it in my head, and then plan it when I have enough. I love never had enough, so that hasn’t worked for me
Plan is a really strong word for what I'm currently doing. I open a scrivener document and make a folder or scene card for each save the cat beats. I know my MC and what he/she wants and needs, a basic premise, and sort of the villain/main conflict and just kindof see what happens. I fill in an outline as I'm writing and as ideas come to me. I haven't finished the projects Ive started this way just yet, but I am enjoying it and I think it's a tighter drafting method than my formerly pure pantsing habit.
Well after 17 years of notetaking, 80,000 words that go no where this is how I would plan my novel. 1. Determine the message I want my readers to come away with. 2. Decide how that message would come across. Define the circumstances/events that would be most suitable to demonstrate that message 3. Create the characters, their backstories, and devise a plot that will illustrate the process of acquiring the knowledge and life lessons. That is what I have come away with. Hope this helps you on your way.☺️
This is a great video… As you know, the story I am writing is based upon real life events of my grandmother who was a very outspoken and opinionated woman in the early 1900s in rural Texas. I started off with transcribing all of her cassette tapes of her stories. Then I’ll put them in the chronological order. I have continued the writing process riding around all of the stories, adding dialogue etc. I have found some years where there is space and I have to create an avenue to get to the next point/story in her life. What I am finding is it it is giving me a fabulous opportunity to get to know her as a young person. Where I know what’s coming I have to build something to get there. That’s where my imagination has to come in. When I first started this project, I had no idea what her conflict might be or what her needs were. I have discovered them along the way to where I have a much better idea now how to project her opinions and wants/needs.
That's amazing, Marva! I think it's so fascinating that you're writing a sort of hybrid fiction-biography. (Also, I don't think I knew this was in rural Texas! I have a feeling I would've liked your grandmother very much :)
Ooooo! That wants and needs chart reminded me of my favorite writing book: Blueprint your Bestseller. It's basically that JKR chart where you have your plot points vertically and the instances where they happen horizontally, and where several plot points intercept is where the most interesting scenes are. It's more intended for revision or if you have a lot of loose material but not a finished first draft, but it's a really interesting alternative way to think about plot in a non-"formulaic" way. It really helps with keeping track of your themes and your promises to the reader.
Love the simplicity of the want, need, secret, fear chart. Thanks for all the useful tips. This is a topic that rarely gets discussed with so much nuance.
Great video!!! Sure, now that I've succumbed to the lure of outlining, you present a list of ways to avoid doing so. LOL Very clever! Love your stuff. Hearts and hugs.
As a mom who was stuck with her kids doing virtual learning for the last year and a half I've lost my creative mojo and drive. I haven't written in so long I wouldn't know where to start until today when I watched this video. I love the thought of brainstorming and even writing in detail about characters backstories and scenes without having the pressure of it actually going into the final novel. There's something freeing about that. Thank you very much.
Oh gosh, Dorothy - I'm so happy to hear you're feeling motivated again. Last year was brutal, especially for parents. I hope you can go easy on yourself and have fun writing with no pressure (something that's been a challenge for me too, lately). Keep me posted on your progress!
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor that's so sweet of you. And yes. Mentally it's all been such a challenge. I never thought I would say I'm glad I don't have an agent or book deal but I've followed a lot of moms on Instagram who do and it's been so hard for them.
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor that's so sweet of you. And yes. Mentally it's all been such a challenge. I never thought I would say I'm glad I don't have an agent or book deal but I've followed a lot of moms on Instagram who do and it's been so hard for them.
Love this video. When I first started, I dove right in. That lead to first drafts that took years and years to write, followed by years and years to edit because they were so messy. Now I plan before I start. I have nothing set in stone and it changes from story to story. But planning reduced how long it takes me to draft a story.
Thanks so much, Carrie! That kind of discovery writing/drafting can be so fun - but I'm with you. The one time I tried it, the result was a book I tried to fix for years and could never get right.
Gosh, so many great ideas in this video! Thanks for doing this, Michelle! That composer analogy was especially poignant and so relatable for me. Case in point: I attend a Write Fight gameshow on Around the Campfire's YT channel every other Monday where we get the same writing prompt but end up with vastly different stories! Def gonna rewatch this multiple times in the future for my diff projects. Enjoy your week, Michelle! Hi Rosa :-) P.S. Was FINALLY able to discover the last scene in my WIP rewrites. Now I can write towards the tangible end instead of meandering around. 4th draft btw but initial endings werent working. I think I was inflexible to change it since I drafted book 2 and half of book 3. Although book's 1 ending will affect books 2 & 3, Im excited that the story is the BEST Ive ever written! (Sorry for the tangent lolz).
Thanks Sio! Wasn't that composer/jazz band analogy great? (His whole MasterClass has been awesome so far.) HOORAY, so excited to hear about your WIP progress!! Figuring out the ending is maybe the most satisfying feeling in the world. :D
My novel is based on about 100 letters that I possess from the early 1800s. The events are already there as are the characters, and the story is engrossing but I feel like I'm betraying them if I stray from reality. I have done tons of historical research to build their world and just thinking about this story excites me. I feel limited given that I need to contort the events somewhat to create a typical plot and the character traits aren't as easy to develop when they are already real people, but I want it to be readable for a wider audience than history buffs. Thank you for your videos - they are helping me a lot.
I've done the character journal method without knowing the name of it. I also make some random tweets in the voice of one of my main characters. I of course include the name so people know that's not me tweeting. (It's technically me, I know).
Tarot for writers is an interesting idea. I don't actually know how to read tarots, but I've considered picking up a how-to book for variety's sake. I also backed the Kickstarter of The Story Engine, as well as the upcoming setting/world decks for next year. While I have no shortage of ideas for long-form, my goal is to personally use those for rapid fire short story concepts that hopefully won't _all_ suffer scope creep on me. Shorts really are great for marketing purposes, I just struggle to write anything small unless it is already attached to a larger existing setting.
That's so cool, JS! And yeah, the thing I love about that book is that you don't have to know how to read tarot. It includes interpretations, and also specific exercises for writers!
Great video! I especially love the idea of writing journal entries from the character's POV. Maybe you could also combine that with the tarot idea and draw a card as inspiration for the journal entry.
Thank you for this. As always I appreciate your advice and tips. For my latest story My character voice popped up early, although this has never happened in the past. I love the character journal method. That’s a cool idea and I’m definitely going to try this. Love the idea of throwing problems at the character. Love the character charts. One of the workshops I took with the St Louis Writers Guild pre-panini used this method. I found it so helpful and use it with every story. I haven’t had a story on a “tight timeline” yet. But I see this happening in the future. I really need to read Pros of Cons. Like the idea of, and then things got worse. Gravity is a great example of, “it kept getting worse.” Love this method. Can’t believe I haven’t run across it in a workshop over the years. Can’t wait to give this tip a spin. Love the relationship tree. That’s a really cool idea and I’m going to try it.
Love Laura Nettles and her tip! Tarot is a great idea and one we use on a few livestreams over on our little corner of AuthorTube. Never heard of Tarot for Writers, thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the helpful advice, Michelle. I usually start with the character's voices, or draft a spider diagram narrowing down all of their key traits, to gain a better insight into their minds.
I love this! I used to explore my story ideas using a spiral-bound notebook but started using journals instead. I write my character bios, timeline information, worldbuilding ideas, maybe even a map, plotting points, research, and so on. Keeping it all together nice and neat. I've been known to paste photos in there for the character bios too. I'm a journal junkie anyway. I don't know what it is but I just love having a book to write in I guess instead of a notebook. It sets the creative mood for me. I design and publish blank-lined journals too. If allowed, I will share a link to my author page on amazon. I don't want to spam the comment section with a link drop so I'll ask permission first. If it's okay, I'll post it as a reply to this comment. I love your videos! Thanks!
That sounds awesome, Marlee! I absolutely love notebooks and journals but never had the patience to use them for my books. Now that I'm trying it, I'm addicted!! Please feel free to post a link to your journals here!
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor well you can find me on Amazon. I publish under the name Imagination Muscle. A search will bring up my journals after the sponsored listings.
That tarot one interests me, but I think I'd have to make my own cards to give it a try. It definitely would help, I think, in getting your brain working. Even if it's just to critique why what the tarot cards came up with wouldn't work as a plausible story line/scene. 😂 It feels kinda like a version of me just drawing scenes I have that come to mind, ones that's I need to see to understand. (Writing "they hugged" as a scene reminder differs each time you read it compared to seeing your characters gripping each other in agonizing sadness.) Then, as I draw, I come up with all what's happening in the scene both before and after that image and write it all out around them, which helps more than just words on a page or an image alone does. Some stories of mine need many drawings to help put scenes in their place (shuffling them around to see what fits where at what point in the story) some need only a few just to keep the look if a character in mind. But I think I've already mentioned all this before a time or two. 😅 I think I'm going to have to research that tarot writers book. See if my library has it, and if so, we about drawing some cards. 🤔 Anyway, thank you for the video! It was so neat to see all the ways other people do things, and all the way things can be done to get a story in order. I know a few of them I'm going to have to revisit for a couple stories I set side a few years ago. (Ones where pantsing wasn't cutting it and plotting didn't help when I don't know the end goal, and my drawings only gave me scenes for it and future books)
Let me know if you find the book and/or draw those cards (which sounds like a ton of fun, btw - as does drawing your scenes! what an awesome exercise!)
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor had to order the book as in interlibrary loan, so we'll see if they get it in, or buy it like they did STC. I guess the wait will give me time to research the cards and make up a makeshift set. We'll see. I know for sure this really feels like a fun/exciting way of breaking out of writer's block. So I'm hoping it'll work out. 🤞
Great suggestions! I should really do the character thing, I have a tendency to have very large casts, and I feel like that chart of characters could help me, among other things, to figure out which characters I could remove or combine to tighten things up a bit 😅
Tarot is too visual. My solution? Runes for Writers. Yes, there's a book for that method too. Actually, two books. Runes for Writers and Storyteller Runes. The first one is a bit more complete but the second is quite helpful. :) I've always had an easier time with Runes since I started my studies of that method.
Really interesting suggestions!!! Cool that you used audience examples too. Will definitely try some of these! 👍🙏🍀 PS: I really don't get why plotting vs pantsing has to be a choose or die kind of question. Aargh. As you just proofed with this video: use the best of both! ✌
I need help with something. My character is going to romance someone while trying not to love the love interest. I don’t want a twilight problem where people like the boy that has no chance. But I also don’t want people to hate him, because I want to use him for a B plot romance in the rest of the series. How can I make it clear that he doesn’t work with her, but can still work for someone?
Interesting question! I think the most important thing is to make sure he's a well-developed character in his own right, and not just the guy your MC is trying to woo. What kinds of qualities/interests does he have that might make a reader both like him and also think he's not quite right for the MC?
Amazing content. Lots of insightful information. But am I the only one that writes purely from my imagination? My first three books of 100,000 words were not plotted or outlined, but I wrote them all from my imagination only and it turned out fine.
How do you plan your books?
I haven’t planned a novel yet. I like to marinate it in my head, and then plan it when I have enough. I love never had enough, so that hasn’t worked for me
Plan is a really strong word for what I'm currently doing. I open a scrivener document and make a folder or scene card for each save the cat beats. I know my MC and what he/she wants and needs, a basic premise, and sort of the villain/main conflict and just kindof see what happens. I fill in an outline as I'm writing and as ideas come to me. I haven't finished the projects Ive started this way just yet, but I am enjoying it and I think it's a tighter drafting method than my formerly pure pantsing habit.
Well after 17 years of notetaking, 80,000 words that go no where this is how I would plan my novel.
1. Determine the message I want my readers to come away with.
2. Decide how that message would come across. Define the circumstances/events that would be most suitable to demonstrate that message
3. Create the characters, their backstories, and devise a plot that will illustrate the process of acquiring the knowledge and life lessons.
That is what I have come away with. Hope this helps you on your way.☺️
This is a great video… As you know, the story I am writing is based upon real life events of my grandmother who was a very outspoken and opinionated woman in the early 1900s in rural Texas. I started off with transcribing all of her cassette tapes of her stories. Then I’ll put them in the chronological order. I have continued the writing process riding around all of the stories, adding dialogue etc. I have found some years where there is space and I have to create an avenue to get to the next point/story in her life. What I am finding is it it is giving me a fabulous opportunity to get to know her as a young person. Where I know what’s coming I have to build something to get there. That’s where my imagination has to come in. When I first started this project, I had no idea what her conflict might be or what her needs were. I have discovered them along the way to where I have a much better idea now how to project her opinions and wants/needs.
That's amazing, Marva! I think it's so fascinating that you're writing a sort of hybrid fiction-biography. (Also, I don't think I knew this was in rural Texas! I have a feeling I would've liked your grandmother very much :)
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor i’m sure you would have. The story is centered in Lavaca County, specifically Moulton, Shiner, and Yoakum.
Ooooo! That wants and needs chart reminded me of my favorite writing book: Blueprint your Bestseller. It's basically that JKR chart where you have your plot points vertically and the instances where they happen horizontally, and where several plot points intercept is where the most interesting scenes are.
It's more intended for revision or if you have a lot of loose material but not a finished first draft, but it's a really interesting alternative way to think about plot in a non-"formulaic" way. It really helps with keeping track of your themes and your promises to the reader.
How have I never heard of that book?? I need to check it out! What a great idea.
Love the simplicity of the want, need, secret, fear chart. Thanks for all the useful tips. This is a topic that rarely gets discussed with so much nuance.
Thanks so much - glad it was helpful! I love the chart too. It's been working great for my current project!
Great video!!! Sure, now that I've succumbed to the lure of outlining, you present a list of ways to avoid doing so. LOL Very clever! Love your stuff. Hearts and hugs.
Thank you so much, Regina! And LOL fair enough - but hey, you can do both! Outline and journal/character chart/etc. Why not??
As a mom who was stuck with her kids doing virtual learning for the last year and a half I've lost my creative mojo and drive. I haven't written in so long I wouldn't know where to start until today when I watched this video. I love the thought of brainstorming and even writing in detail about characters backstories and scenes without having the pressure of it actually going into the final novel. There's something freeing about that. Thank you very much.
Oh gosh, Dorothy - I'm so happy to hear you're feeling motivated again. Last year was brutal, especially for parents. I hope you can go easy on yourself and have fun writing with no pressure (something that's been a challenge for me too, lately). Keep me posted on your progress!
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor that's so sweet of you. And yes. Mentally it's all been such a challenge. I never thought I would say I'm glad I don't have an agent or book deal but I've followed a lot of moms on Instagram who do and it's been so hard for them.
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor that's so sweet of you. And yes. Mentally it's all been such a challenge. I never thought I would say I'm glad I don't have an agent or book deal but I've followed a lot of moms on Instagram who do and it's been so hard for them.
Love this video.
When I first started, I dove right in. That lead to first drafts that took years and years to write, followed by years and years to edit because they were so messy. Now I plan before I start. I have nothing set in stone and it changes from story to story. But planning reduced how long it takes me to draft a story.
Thanks so much, Carrie! That kind of discovery writing/drafting can be so fun - but I'm with you. The one time I tried it, the result was a book I tried to fix for years and could never get right.
Gosh, so many great ideas in this video! Thanks for doing this, Michelle!
That composer analogy was especially poignant and so relatable for me. Case in point: I attend a Write Fight gameshow on Around the Campfire's YT channel every other Monday where we get the same writing prompt but end up with vastly different stories!
Def gonna rewatch this multiple times in the future for my diff projects.
Enjoy your week, Michelle! Hi Rosa :-)
P.S. Was FINALLY able to discover the last scene in my WIP rewrites. Now I can write towards the tangible end instead of meandering around.
4th draft btw but initial endings werent working. I think I was inflexible to change it since I drafted book 2 and half of book 3.
Although book's 1 ending will affect books 2 & 3, Im excited that the story is the BEST Ive ever written! (Sorry for the tangent lolz).
Thanks Sio! Wasn't that composer/jazz band analogy great? (His whole MasterClass has been awesome so far.)
HOORAY, so excited to hear about your WIP progress!! Figuring out the ending is maybe the most satisfying feeling in the world. :D
My novel is based on about 100 letters that I possess from the early 1800s. The events are already there as are the characters, and the story is engrossing but I feel like I'm betraying them if I stray from reality. I have done tons of historical research to build their world and just thinking about this story excites me. I feel limited given that I need to contort the events somewhat to create a typical plot and the character traits aren't as easy to develop when they are already real people, but I want it to be readable for a wider audience than history buffs. Thank you for your videos - they are helping me a lot.
I really liked the different ways of doing this, like there's so much that goes into writimg but each person approaches it very differently!
Very true! :) Thanks Joey! Hope you're having a good week!
I've done the character journal method without knowing the name of it.
I also make some random tweets in the voice of one of my main characters. I of course include the name so people know that's not me tweeting. (It's technically me, I know).
That's such a fun idea!
Character sheets are always the hardest part of an outline for me so I love the idea of the character journal. Really useful video, thanks!
So glad this helped, and thank you for watching! :)
Tarot for writers is an interesting idea. I don't actually know how to read tarots, but I've considered picking up a how-to book for variety's sake. I also backed the Kickstarter of The Story Engine, as well as the upcoming setting/world decks for next year. While I have no shortage of ideas for long-form, my goal is to personally use those for rapid fire short story concepts that hopefully won't _all_ suffer scope creep on me. Shorts really are great for marketing purposes, I just struggle to write anything small unless it is already attached to a larger existing setting.
That's so cool, JS! And yeah, the thing I love about that book is that you don't have to know how to read tarot. It includes interpretations, and also specific exercises for writers!
I'll have to pick up that book for sure, then. 🙂
Great video! I especially love the idea of writing journal entries from the character's POV. Maybe you could also combine that with the tarot idea and draw a card as inspiration for the journal entry.
That's a great idea, Lee! Thank you! :)
Thank you for this. As always I appreciate your advice and tips. For my latest story My character voice popped up early, although this has never happened in the past.
I love the character journal method. That’s a cool idea and I’m definitely going to try this. Love the idea of throwing problems at the character.
Love the character charts. One of the workshops I took with the St Louis Writers Guild pre-panini used this method. I found it so helpful and use it with every story.
I haven’t had a story on a “tight timeline” yet. But I see this happening in the future. I really need to read Pros of Cons.
Like the idea of, and then things got worse. Gravity is a great example of, “it kept getting worse.” Love this method. Can’t believe I haven’t run across it in a workshop over the years. Can’t wait to give this tip a spin.
Love the relationship tree. That’s a really cool idea and I’m going to try it.
Love Laura Nettles and her tip! Tarot is a great idea and one we use on a few livestreams over on our little corner of AuthorTube. Never heard of Tarot for Writers, thanks for the tip!
@@BarrettLaurie Thanks so much, Barrett! I agree, Laura's tip was great. Definitely check that book out!
Thanks for the helpful advice, Michelle. I usually start with the character's voices, or draft a spider diagram narrowing down all of their key traits, to gain a better insight into their minds.
I love that, Trina! Great way to start a book.
Definitely saving this one to watch again later!
I love this! I used to explore my story ideas using a spiral-bound notebook but started using journals instead. I write my character bios, timeline information, worldbuilding ideas, maybe even a map, plotting points, research, and so on. Keeping it all together nice and neat. I've been known to paste photos in there for the character bios too. I'm a journal junkie anyway. I don't know what it is but I just love having a book to write in I guess instead of a notebook. It sets the creative mood for me. I design and publish blank-lined journals too. If allowed, I will share a link to my author page on amazon. I don't want to spam the comment section with a link drop so I'll ask permission first. If it's okay, I'll post it as a reply to this comment. I love your videos! Thanks!
That sounds awesome, Marlee! I absolutely love notebooks and journals but never had the patience to use them for my books. Now that I'm trying it, I'm addicted!! Please feel free to post a link to your journals here!
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I’ve tried to share my link twice now and it’s not showing up as posted on my end. Bizarre.
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor well you can find me on Amazon. I publish under the name Imagination Muscle. A search will bring up my journals after the sponsored listings.
Thank you for sharing all these different methods! So helpful!
Anytime! :) Thanks for watching, Eunice!
That tarot one interests me, but I think I'd have to make my own cards to give it a try. It definitely would help, I think, in getting your brain working. Even if it's just to critique why what the tarot cards came up with wouldn't work as a plausible story line/scene. 😂
It feels kinda like a version of me just drawing scenes I have that come to mind, ones that's I need to see to understand. (Writing "they hugged" as a scene reminder differs each time you read it compared to seeing your characters gripping each other in agonizing sadness.) Then, as I draw, I come up with all what's happening in the scene both before and after that image and write it all out around them, which helps more than just words on a page or an image alone does.
Some stories of mine need many drawings to help put scenes in their place (shuffling them around to see what fits where at what point in the story) some need only a few just to keep the look if a character in mind.
But I think I've already mentioned all this before a time or two. 😅
I think I'm going to have to research that tarot writers book. See if my library has it, and if so, we about drawing some cards. 🤔
Anyway, thank you for the video! It was so neat to see all the ways other people do things, and all the way things can be done to get a story in order. I know a few of them I'm going to have to revisit for a couple stories I set side a few years ago. (Ones where pantsing wasn't cutting it and plotting didn't help when I don't know the end goal, and my drawings only gave me scenes for it and future books)
Let me know if you find the book and/or draw those cards (which sounds like a ton of fun, btw - as does drawing your scenes! what an awesome exercise!)
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor had to order the book as in interlibrary loan, so we'll see if they get it in, or buy it like they did STC.
I guess the wait will give me time to research the cards and make up a makeshift set. We'll see.
I know for sure this really feels like a fun/exciting way of breaking out of writer's block. So I'm hoping it'll work out. 🤞
@@kanashiiookami6537 I so hope your library can get it!!
Great suggestions! I should really do the character thing, I have a tendency to have very large casts, and I feel like that chart of characters could help me, among other things, to figure out which characters I could remove or combine to tighten things up a bit 😅
Thanks Markus! And that's such a good point -- I actually did figure out that two characters could be combined when I made my chart a few weeks ago!
Tarot is too visual. My solution? Runes for Writers. Yes, there's a book for that method too. Actually, two books. Runes for Writers and Storyteller Runes. The first one is a bit more complete but the second is quite helpful. :)
I've always had an easier time with Runes since I started my studies of that method.
Oh that's so cool, Dal! Great suggestion!
Really interesting suggestions!!! Cool that you used audience examples too. Will definitely try some of these! 👍🙏🍀
PS: I really don't get why plotting vs pantsing has to be a choose or die kind of question. Aargh. As you just proofed with this video: use the best of both! ✌
Thanks so much, Sam! Yup, I totally agree. I think maybe we writers just like to argue. 😂
I need help with something. My character is going to romance someone while trying not to love the love interest. I don’t want a twilight problem where people like the boy that has no chance. But I also don’t want people to hate him, because I want to use him for a B plot romance in the rest of the series. How can I make it clear that he doesn’t work with her, but can still work for someone?
Interesting question! I think the most important thing is to make sure he's a well-developed character in his own right, and not just the guy your MC is trying to woo. What kinds of qualities/interests does he have that might make a reader both like him and also think he's not quite right for the MC?
Amazing content. Lots of insightful information. But am I the only one that writes purely from my imagination? My first three books of 100,000 words were not plotted or outlined, but I wrote them all from my imagination only and it turned out fine.
Hmm, I listen to jazz when I write... wonder if I subconsciously write like a jazz riff!
Oh awesome! I bet that does have some sort of effect. (What kind of jazz??)
@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor "Hard bop" -- I want something with no lyrics but a strong beat and most 'study' jazz puts me to sleep!
@@DaisyXMachina NICE. Love it.