How To Write A Novel – Your Book Plot When it comes to writing a novel, your book plot will play a major part in its success or lack of it. Book plots or book outlines as they are sometimes known, help you keep your story on track, stop you from losing your way amongst a sea of confused detail and when done well, will help you to write a highquality book synopsis which you will need when submitting your manuscript for publication. Here are 7 good reasons why plotting your novel should not be skipped and some ideas on how to create and develop your book’s plot. 1. A good book outline will help you to keep your story clear in your mind and stop you making fundamental blunders such as having one character in two different places. Start small with just a basic idea, e.g. a man comes upon a road accident and finds his wife dead at the wheel of one of the cars. Not only is the car not hers, but she cannot drive. 2. As you develop this basic novel outline, you will amass more and more information. A lot will be background information which you won’t use. Add this as notes to your central plot so it can be referenced, but does not intrude on the action. 3. Your plot should consist of major points which progress the story. Taking our road accident example, the first of these points will commence with the accident. (You might have a preamble to this, but the accident will be the first major plot point). The other key plot points in your novel’s outline should be added as soon as you know where the story is going. It is best to keep this as brief as possible. The art of plotting is to start with a very basic book outline and flesh it out with more detail once you are happy with your concept. 4. Characters tend to take on a life of their own which means you
must keep them under strict control without stifling creativity! Your plot will help you to do this by reminding you where they should be at any given time and with whom. HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL – YOUR BOOK PLOT
5. Location, location, location! Your plot setting is important
whether whole universes are involved or just the layout of a country house. Use your plot to keep the scene of action clear. 6. Once the basic plot is established to your satisfaction, you can then start the fun part which is adding the detail. Select appropriate names for your characters and draw up some personality profiles. Give them problems and have at least two facing conflicts of some kind, preferably with each other! 7. Write some location descriptions so you can clearly visualise where the action is taking place. 8. The problem many authors have with their novels is they know all
the answers and often assume the reader knows them as well, thinking they have made it clear as the story unfolds. Often this is not the case! Check your plot to ensure all the questions posed in your story are answered correctly. Think about our road accident example, it is vital the reader knows why the woman is at the wheel of a car that is not her own and which she doesn’t have the skills to drive! Answering this question would be a major point in this novel’s plot. 9. Use your plot to spark creativity. The very act of putting even the
simplest plot down on paper can open up new avenues of thought which may not originally have occurred to you. Mind mapping is a great, see at a glance way of doing this. 10. Use your plot to write your novel synopsis. This is sometimes
referred to as a novel outline, book outline or novel summary. To better your chances of publishing success you really do need to know how to write good book summaries. These are basically your sales pitches to publishers. If they are not gripped by your book’s plot then it’s unlikely that they will bother reading your sample chapters. If you have plotted your novel well, writing a good book outline should not present any problems. HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL – YOUR BOOK PLOT
I mentioned earlier that mind mapping is an excellent way of developing your book plot. If you have never used this method before you will find, How to Write Your Novel – Mind Mapping an excellent guide to the whole process. If you would like some more advice on taking the sweat out of writing a novel, there is a free ebook called How to Write and Finish Your Novel available from the Writelink online creative writing community.
HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL – YOUR BOOK PLOT