Plotting and planning a novel

Today I've been out for my daily walk, baked a chicken pie and cleaned the kitchen. And I've also plotted my novel.

It's a rough plot and plan at this stage, nothing more than the synopsis broken down into plot points and spread over 16 chapters.

Why 16 chapters?

Because 16 sheets of A4 fit perfectly onto the carpet in my writing room leaving me enough space to walk around them, and in and out of the room while the chapter plans remain where they are while I think.

I'll be doing a lot of thinking in the coming days because plotting and planning is about more than making lists and spreadsheets and sticking post-it notes onto bits of paper. It's about thinking and creating and seeing where your characters will face obstacles that will hinder them or where they meet characters who might help them. Or kill them.  It's about making sure that your plot points work, that they're dramatic or emotional enough to carry the reader through, involving them in the story. More importantly, it's about getting the reader on your character's side from your very first word. That's all in the planning and plotting, the thinking and doing.

No matter what works for you - post-it notes and blank sheets work for me - let it excite you and get you fired up and ready for writing. Because if you don't feel the excitement, energy and emotion of writing your novel, then your reader won't either.

By the end of this week, I hope to have my chapter plans written up. It'll just be a few lines for each chapter, nothing more than say 200 words. But it'll be a guide to writing each chapter, so that when I sit down to write, I'm not staring at a blank screen with an empty mind. I'll know where I'm going and where I want to take the reader with me every step of the way.

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Glenda Young
Author of historical novels with Headline
Twitter: @Flaming_Nora
Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor