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Oh, the thrill of jumping into a new book! All those characters to meet,
all those fun stories to tell. As writers we often want to jump right in and
start writing that story.
But sometimes you can jump right in and find yourself up to your
eyebrows in a mess, which is why I’m a big believer in pre-planning. This is
not to say you need to map out your entire book before you can start on Chapter
One, but it is a caution that a little bit of preparation ahead of time can leave
you with a stronger story and character arc.
Here’s how I pre-plan a book.
First, I begin with my basic idea. What, in a sentence or two, is this
book going to be about? Sometimes I’ll have a simple tag line. When I wrote my
novel “On Strike for Christmas” it was “What happens when the women go on
strike for the holidays and leave the men in charge?” That gave me my jumping
off point. For my current novel, I knew that I wanted the theme to revolve
around simplifying one’s life. One that basic idea is in place, I can then go
in search of characters to support it.
Which brings me to Step Two: creating characters. Plot grows out of
character. As happens to us in real life, the decisions your characters make
will affect how their stories play out. (A great example of this in literature
is Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” – if you haven’t read that novel in
a while I strongly encourage you to.) To know what kind of decisions your
characters are going to make you’ll have to know what kind of people they are.
What motivates your hero or heroine? What does he or she want more than
anything? What is blocking him/her from achieving those goals? How is he/she
wired? Stubborn? Good at coming up with creative solutions to the problem at
hand? What kind of character growth does this character need? Don’t be afraid
to interview your characters. Find out their hobbies, favorite foods, what
they’re most afraid of. Then you can start building their stories by tailoring
challenges specific to them.
And that brings us to the story itself. I always work off a synopsis. It
may not be my final synopsis. In fact, chances are the story will take some
unexpected turns as I play with it. But I will know where I’m beginning and
where I’m headed and I will have down my important plot turning points. What’s
the advantage to pre-planning my plot like this? I can look at it and see ahead
of times any plot holes or inconsistencies. I can make changes without loses
pages and hours of work. Pre-planning is working smarter.
I would encourage you to take some time up front with your magnum opus.
Getting to know your characters before you begin their story, figuring out
their challenges, seeing how their lives will unfold, will make your writing
experience much more satisfying.
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| Sheila Roberts |
Sheila Roberts is married and has three children. She
lives on a lake in the Pacific Northwest . Her
novels have appeared in Readers Digest Condensed books and have been published
in several languages. Her holiday perennial, On Strike for Christmas, was made
into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network and her her novel The Nine Lives of
Christmas has been optioned for film. When she’s not writing songs, hanging out
with her girlfriends or trying to beat her husband at tennis, she can be found
writing about those things dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and
chocolate.
Readers can find me on:
http://www.sheilasplace.com
GIVEAWAY
Sheila will be awarding a $25 B & N gift card and an eCopy of The Cottage on Juniper Ridge to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, so I encourage you to follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
