As I mentioned in my last post, Why You Should Plan Your NaNo in Advance,  I believe planning the key elements is a fool-proof way to develop a novel that is big enough to last 50,000 words, and offers you the best inspiration to make it to the end before November is  over.

Today I’ll give you an overview of my process and let you download the Story Planning Worksheets I use in my book How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner (available in e-book and Kindle Unlimited and in print. )

Here are my 11 steps. Other writing instructors use from 4 to 22, but these are the ones I use for every single story I write: novel, novella, even a short story, though I don’t write many of those any more. I find my characters and themes are too complex for a short piece. And that’s fine. I love exploring the characters in more depth.

Step 1: Premise

Step 2: Evaluate the Premise

Step 3: Needs and Wants

Step 4: Character Arc

Step 5: The Villain/Opponent

Step 6: Character Web

Step 7: Reaching for the Desire

Step 8: Battle/Climax

Step 9: Self-Revelation

Step 10: The Ending

Step 11: Revisiting the Premise

Step 1: Premise         

Premise is a concept that comes from screenwriting. In Hollywood, studios and producers want the whole story summed up in a single sentence. Everyone is Hollywood busy, and apparently they don’t have time for a whole paragraph, much less a page about the story.

The advantage of developing a premise sentence is that it forces the writer to get to the point, to boil the story down to its pure essence. That’s the premise. It’s the theme, conflict, character and outcome all in one heavy-hitting sentence. My screenwriting instructor expected us to keep this all to 40 words. Even if you can’t get it all in that space,  you’ll find that distilling your story idea as early as possible forces you to keep to the plan.

It probably sounds like a tall order, since you haven’t worked on your characters, plot, or anything at this point. How can you possibly come up with a winning premise first? And that’s a great question. You don’t have to. You can skip to the storyline development brainstorming, then come back and write your draft premise.

I have a set of brainstorming exercises to choose a set of characters, conflicts, and circumstances first, then help you develop the draft premise.

The premise will be revised and refined as we work through the planning exercises to develop the larger themes.

Step 2: Evaluate the Premise

We’ll take a look at the main storyline and see whether it’s enough to develop into a novel-length story. If not, there are ways to add interest and secondary plotlines. If you find the premise is lacking after working through the next set of exercises, it’s probably more suited to a novella-length or possibly even a short story.

Don’t let the emphasis on premise scare you away. It’s not set in stone, but it helps you make sure you have a compelling story idea before you start writing. Avoid the dangers of discovering that after you’ve already written 10,000 words (or more). It’s much easier to tweak your idea during the planning stage than to try and rework the basics on the fly, especially if this is your first NaNo or you don’t have a lot of experience in rewriting.

Keep working and we’ll get your NaNo premise whipped into shape.

Step 3: Character Needs and Wants

These are the key factors in developing layered characters who your readers will care about. You can see from the popularity of series—some with over 20 books—that readers enjoy spending time with certain characters, and no matter how crappy some of the plots are, people keep pushing their favorite series back onto the bestseller lists.

You don’t need to think in terms of series, but you want to think what drives this character and is it interesting enough that you want to spend 50,000+ words on him (or her) and will a reader care enough to keep turning pages?

We’ll look at the two kinds of hidden needs, in addition to the external want or desire. What your characters think they want is different from what they really want or need, and that is going to set the stage for some amazing conflict.

SECRET: Once you develop a set of character traits, needs, wants and goals, your characters really will come alive and start writing much of the plot for you. It takes the pressure off you, and it keeps you from trying to make them jump through hoops that don’t work for the character.

Step 4: Character Arc

Define the path your hero takes by how he deals with his internal weaknesses, and how you envision him at the end of the story. Once you settle on a character arc, overlay the needs and wants, and you’ll have a robust premise that makes the plotting easy. It’s as simple as knowing how the weakness keeps the character from his goal, and how he will be challenged along the way until he over comes the weakness.

Step 5: The Villain/Opponent

Remember: the opponent or antagonist is not always a bad guy or villain. Sometimes is just another nice guy who wants the same thing your hero or heroine wants. He’s still in the way, and the more work you put into the opponent the harder you make it for your protagonist, and that will make your story stand out.

Does your opponent should have his own set of needs, wants, strengths and weaknesses?

Selecting an interesting and appropriately matched opponent for your hero and his goals is the key to keeping tension and conflict high. We’ll discover the villains own strengths and weaknesses, where he overlaps with the hero, how he pushes the hero’s buttons, and how the opponent actually drives the hero’s resolution.

Without a well-developed opponent, or set of opponents, you won’t have enough action and conflict to support a novel through the middle. With the right bad guy, it won’t feel like you’re wandering in the desert in search of a plot. Your villain will hand it right to you.

In a romance, the second main character is both the main opponent and the love interest. Defining those interactions sets up the two conflicts (romantic and external), and keeps both stories on track.

Step 6: Character Web

This is one of my favorite parts of planning. The character web sets up a cast of supporting characters based on how they interact with the hero and the opponent. Some characters are allies, others opponents, some are both. With a romance, if you have a character who is an ally to one main character and an opponent to the other, it really adds another level of complexity to the story, and a lot of fun to the planning and writing process.

I’ll help you select a set of characters who create and exacerbate conflict and tension where the story needs it. And these are the same characters who will be pushing the hero through his arc to the resolution of the novel.

Step 7: Reaching for the Desire

In other words: what the hell happens in the middle? Beginnings are usually easy, when your energy and creativity are high. Endings, well, if you get that far, you think you’ll figure it out. But how to get through the soggy middle?

We’ll plan how the hero tries to get his goals, who tries to stop him and how, and how the rest of the web helps or hinders the process. All along, it’s key to escalate the tension by raising the stakes for each subsequent disaster that takes the hero further from his desire.

Step 8: Battle/Climax

This is the point then it looks like all is lost. He’ll never get what he wants, and certainly not what he needs (if he’s even figured that out). Throw the worst at the hero and he’ll tell you how he’ll deal with it—if you’ve set up his strengths, weaknesses, and traits, you know what that worst will be and how he’ll turn everything around.

We’ll make sure to put the conflicts in the correct order so this really is the darkest day.

Step 9: Self-Revelation

Like Step 8, this all depends on how you’ve developed the character, not the plot points. If you know how the hero is going to change—how he absolutely must change—to win his battle with the opponent, then you have a beacon to write towards from the first word. Planning this step is critical in making sure it is fully supported by the rest of the book.

Even more critical is setting up the character’s transformation properly so you don’t have readers throwing your book across the room in frustration at a ridiculous solution to everything they’ve been stressing over for nearly 50,000 words.

SECRET: When you’re stuck for what happens next somewhere around Day 8, knowing what has to happen in Step 9 is going to offer a lot of motivation and inspiration. You can see that light at the end of the tunnel, the lighthouse beam, however it looks to you. You don’t have to stare at an empty page when you know exactly what needs to happen (plus a well-developed set of characters will always tell you!)

Step 10: The Ending

What follows on Step 9? How does the hero’s world look after he’s overcome his weakness, his opponents and figured out who or what he should be? You still have options here, and will work through some of the possibilities, and how to resolve the story after the self-revelation.

Step 11: Revisiting the Premise

After we have planned out the major elements of the story, we’ll refine the premise. You’ll get a lot of mileage out of your premise. It masquerades as an elevator pitch if you happen to run into a publisher or agent. It also works as a logline or tagline you can even put on your book cover.

The cool thing about a premise is that while it tells you what happens, it doesn’t give away any plot spoilers. In fact, a good premise isn’t about the plot at all. That’s why planning your story doesn’t stifle your creativity. It’s not about what happens at the micro level. It’s about the larger themes and character transitions, which is what will attract your readers in the first place.

I hope you’ll find my planning process useful. I’ve employed it for every book I’ve written for the past couple of years, and it has allowed me to write more quickly and waste less time wondering what should happen next. I also create more interesting and layered characters than ever before.

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It’s November 6. Just past the 20% mark for the month.

How are you doing?

If you’re getting in your 1667 words per day, you should have hit 10,000 words yesterday.

Maybe you haven’t quite gotten there. I give you a huge congratulations if you have written anything!

For some of you, this may be the first time you’ve gotten a lot of words down in a concerted effort. For others this is old hat.

Let’s take a step back and see what we’ve written and what we’re planning over the next few days.

How Bad is Your Big Bad?

For a story to keep readers reading, it needs a constant level of tension, conflict or worry. What’s going to happen? Will the hero avoid disaster? Will he achieve his goal? Will the right two people get together?

If your story doesn’t have you excited to write what’s next, chances are the reader isn’t going to be on the edge of his seat to turn the page (or screen) either.

Let’s take a look at the villain or opponent.

If he/she/it isn’t a big enough concern, then let’s find a way to make it bigger and badder.

4 Elements Every Opponent MUST Have

It has to be bigger and badder than your hero.

The hero and the reader should constantly be afraid of this opponent. If not, then there’s not much tension. Of course, readers are going to know your hero wins in the end, but you need to make that hero work for that win.

The opponent must hurt the hero or someone/something he loves

The opponent has to make his life hell in the meantime. Whether it’s physical pain or emotional pain, the opponent must have the power to inflict it and you must show this in the story. The pain or damage must escalate up to the final battle/conflict scene where it’s do or die.

The stakes must be high

If your hero’s goal is wimpy, the reader isn’t going to be engaged while he fights for it. Make sure the consequences of not getting the goal or high.

Death should be a real and overwhelming possibility. Whether it’s physical or emotional death, make it seem real to the characters and the reader.

The opponent must believe he is right or justified in his pursuit of the goal or hero

Unless you’re writing a James Bond novel, the opponent has to have a goal that can be justified to the point where the reader might believe it too. Making your opponent some psycho with no reason for his behavior isn’t something the reader can get behind and feel some inner conflict.

Of course, you don’t want the reader on the villain’s side, but if the villain’s goal is so outrageous, your reader is not going to necessarily believe the worst will actually happen. Give the opponent a goal and an appropriate motivation.

Now take a look at what you’ve written and what you’ve got planned for future scenes. Take a look at your character sheets, including your opponent sheet. (If you don’t have an opponent sheet, make one today!)

Ask yourself these questions:

What are the stakes here? What kind of death does that opponent threaten? Loss of a loved one, a job, his own death, a planet dies or explodes…

You get the idea. If your hero isn’t concerned about some type of death, find something to scare him with. Right now. Write it on a Post-it.

• Joe’s biggest fear is that Henry is going to kill him.
• Fred’s biggest fear is that Rachel is going to get the promotion and ruin his career.
• Senator Nolan is afraid of losing the election to his opponent who will put forward terrible legislation.

What’s the worst thing that will happen if the opponent wins?

Can the opponent actually achieve these things and how?

Make some of those fears come close to happening. Give the hero a few close shaves. His car is run off the road. The senator’s opponent runs a negative campaign full of lies. The boss gives Rachel an important project while Fred has to deal with some BS.

How will he hurt the hero or his loved ones in the process? Make a list. Really. Write them down and place them in the story, whether it’s your outline or scene list.

What is driving the opponent?

Revenge, money, love? All those familiar motivations for crimes and misdeeds. Pick one.

If you don’t have a character sheet for the opponent, make one right now. Even if it’s an organization or nebulous concept. Ideally, you should know your villain as well as you know  the hero. Why? Because you need for the hero to know and fear the villain for his own legitimate and overwhelming reasons.

Give your opponent a backstory and dig into not only his goal and motivation, but how far he’ll go to achieve it. Who or what will he destroy? Why does he do it? How would he explain it if Anderson Cooper interviewed him? Why is the hero in his way? How will he get around the hero?

An opponent who has his own strengths and weaknesses can make a more complicated and interesting story. What if the opponent is the hero’s childhood friend? What if he wants the exact same thing the hero wants? What inner conflict can the villain cause for the hero? Would the hero ever want the other guy to win? If you’re writing a romance, you may have the hero doubt himself when he compares himself with a rival.

All of these techniques add layers to the opponent, the hero, and to the conflict between them. They will keep readers reading. They will also add many new ideas for scenes for you to write!

If you cannot answer those questions, then sit down for a while until you can.

Unless your opponent or his actions are an overwhelming and constantly overhanging fear, there’s not enough for the hero to worry about.

If you already have answers to all of those questions, ask yourself:

How can I make it even worse, scarier, more likely?

Bump up the stakes and you’ll keep the hero and the reader constantly worried, which moves the story forward and drags the reader right along with it.

It’s the end of September. You’ve got about a month until NaNoWriMo starts. Seems like plenty of time, right? Some of you are wondering why I’m already talking about NaNo when it doesn’t even start until November 1.

Because writing and finishing a book takes more than just the 30 days you’re planning to spend working on it during November. If this is your first time considering doing NaNoWriMo, or you’ve tried before and didn’t quite make your 50k, stay tuned because I’ll be sharing with you my tips, advice and some tricks to help you be ready to start writing on November 1, and to get 50k (or a finished story) by November 30.

Take the quick poll below so I can see what your biggest concerns are about participating. I’ll be addressing as many of these as I can before and during November, to help you hit 50k.

What makes me an expert, you may be asking. And that’s a great question. I’ve been doing NaNo for about ten years now, and have hit the 50k goal every year. Most years I’ve finished an even longer novel by November 30. And these novels have been contracted and released by a publisher—not self-published. (Bound for Trouble was my 2013 NaNo project.)

I’ve collected the worksheets and techniques I use for developing a novel into an easy-to-use novel planning kit, How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner.

Giveaway: Leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of my book How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner

Creative Commons License. Source GRANDVILLE Jean, illustration from the 1855 edition of La Fontaine’s Fables

In my survey of your biggest rewriting challenges, many of you indicated pacing of your story among the most difficult.

What is Pacing?

Pacing refers to how slowly or quickly time passes in the story: the pace of time’s passage.

It’s important to realize that pacing is not constant over the course of a story or novel. You may want to speed up time in some places or slow it down in others. The first challenge is knowing where to do so. The second challenge is showing the correct pacing.

Fast Pacing

You’ve certainly read a book that kept you glued to the page, barely able to turn pages fast enough to keep up with the action. Some authors keep the frenetic pacing across chapters so you can barely find a place to breathe, take a break or relax.

If you’re writing an action/thriller that’s all well and good, but fast pacing doesn’t give you much time to analyze the thoughts, feelings or reactions of your characters. Fast pacing focuses on a rapid-fire series of events. It’s all about the action.

Slow Pacing

You’ve also read books were it seems nothing ever happens. The characters wander through the story having feelings, emotions and inner monologues. You know them extremely well, but they don’t do anything.

Of if the characters are doing something, the POV character spends so much time analyzing every single motion, every grain of sand on the beach or every polka dot on someone’s dress, that the details may overwhelm the action.

Slow pacing lets you explore characterization, emotions and reactions. It also lets you include more setting and description.

Creative Commons License

The Right Mix

Very few stories are all action or all reaction and description. A well-paced story includes sections of both fast- and slow-paced scenes. How do you choose which scenes should be fast, and which slow?

Let’s separate scenes into two kinds: action and reaction. Some writers call these scene and sequel. The first type is faster-paced, full of action and moves the plot of the story along. The sequel or reaction is a slower-paced scene that allows your characters to reflect or react to the previous action or plot development. In such scenes, you can take more time with thoughts and emotions.

Think about a roller coaster. It inches up the first hill, giving you time to anticipate the thrill of that first big hill. The contrast between the slow and the fast sections of the ride–or your story–will add to the reader’s enjoyment. For example you may find that slowing the pace down just before a big scene will add to the suspense and to the effect of the action or revelation in the big scene.

How to Speed the Pace

Use punctuation and sentence structure to increase the pace of the action. Shorter sentences, fewer details and more dialogue can convey a fast pace. Watch that you don’t use too many short or one-word sentences. Vary the sentence style and length or you can over do the speed and lose some clarity.

“What was that?”

“A car back–”

Bang!

“That was not a car.”

“Tom, someone’s shooting at us!”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her down, away from the window.

“Call the cops, Mary. Now.” Tom let go and raced toward the door. His heart pounded.

There’s not much description here, but you get the idea of what’s going on pretty well without it.

How to Slow the Pace

When you use longer sentences, more complex sentences, emotion and reactions, you will slow the pace down. Let’s revisit the scene above where Tom left Mary after they heard shots outside the house.

Mary watched Tom go out the back door. Who was shooting at them and why? What had Tom gotten himself into this time around? Since he’d quite the force and set up shop as a private investigator, it had been one problem after another. At this point, Mary was never sure whether he’d come home each evening. She lay awake every night wondering whether she’d get a call or a knock at the door to let her know he wouldn’t be coming home again. Ever.

Two more shots rang out and echoed around the room. Tom had flipped the lights off as he left and Mary sat on the floor near the window in the dark, cold from the tiled floor seeping into her body and leaving her shivering with fear and dread. Her fingers trembled as she played with the hem of her dress. She bit her lip until she tasted blood.

Making Choices

Have you read a story where you knew more about what kind of wallpaper there was in the character’s kitchen than you did about how she felt when her husband left her? What about a story that seems to be a list of everything the character did from the moment she woke up until she fell asleep that night?

Another aspect of pacing involves deciding what scenes or actions you can leave out of a story. This will vary by genre, but in general it’s not necessary to include every movement and detail in a story and you don’t need to go completely linearly and chronologically.

You’ll want to be sure to include more details only if they 1) add to the story and 2) work for that particular character’s POV. You can absolutely bring in characterization by what details a character notices, and how he responds to them.

For example, if your MC is a police detective in pursuit of a speeding car, he’s not going to notice the landscaping of the houses they drive past, unless of course the fleeing suspect drives into the middle of a neighbor’s lawn and ends up in the fountain.

If someone’s dress or perfume or some other seemingly insignificant detail reminds your MC of a past event or brings out some characterization, then include them—sparingly.

He entered the house and the aroma of gingerbread made him feel like he was five years old again, walking into his grandmother’s kitchen.

You can and should skip any details—description or action—that doesn’t add to the story or characterization. When finishing a scene or chapter, ask yourself, what’s the next important thing that happens to this character? If it happens to be a day or a week later, then there’s no reason to include the intervening time frame—at least for him. If something important happens to another character, then include the scene, in that other character’s POV.

I’ll revisit the issue of pacing later, but I hope that this helps you make some important decisions about when to speed or slow the passage of time. Feel free to ask questions, or bring up specific examples where you’re not sure about how to pace a scene or chapter.

EM Lynley runs Smooth Draft Editing. She has worked in high-tech and high-finance and is now a full-time writer and editor. She has written and had published over 20 titles of fiction. Visit her Amazon Bookshelf.

The holidays are over and you’ve probably made a bunch of writing-related resolutions you’ve already given up on.

If one of those is whipping your NaNo novel into good enough shape to publish, you’re in the right place.

By now, NaNoWriMos fall into a few different categories:

1. You haven’t looked at your story since November 30.

2. You’ve been tearing your hair out since December 1 and you still aren’t happy with the story after multiple rounds of revisions.

3. You started reading it again and gave up after a few pages or chapters because you think it’s awful.

4. You don’t have a clue what to do with it now.

5. You already revised your story and sent it off to at least one publisher or agent.

No matter which category you find yourself, I’ve got some tips and tricks to help you out. (Unless you are in #5 and already have a contract, you can still benefit from what I’m going to share with you).

Before I even get into how to revise, I’m going to let you in on a secret. I love sharing secrets because when I first started writing, I didn’t have a clue that everyone—even multi-published authors—struggle with the exact same problems I had. I’m not a perfect writer, even after years of writing and experience editing other writers’ work. In fact, it’s because I’m not perfect that I have developed a lot of strategies to work with what I’ve written, hoping to turn it into what I hoped it would be when I first started thinking about the story.

Which leads me to today’s true confession: I absolutely hate revising my work. Hate it with a passion I can’t put into words. It makes me get sweaty and dry-mouthed to think about reading the whole novel I just wrote and trying to shape into something good enough to publish. I’d rather vacuum, clean the toilet or run stadiums than tackle the seemingly overwhelming task of fixing everything I know is wrong after the first draft.

But I also love revising, at least the results. It’s so satisfying to finish a revision and realize the book is so much better now that I did clean it up. The fact is that no matter how good the first draft is—and there are many writers who end up with really solid first drafts—the second draft is always better. That means you can improve what you already have with a 100 percent guarantee, just but giving it even one revision pass.

It’s a myth that really good writers or experienced writers get it right the first time around, or even the second time around. Even someone who spent a year on their first draft and not just 30 days, is going to want and need some revision. And if you only spent 30 days on it, you’re going to need a revision.

There’s a bit of magic that happens between draft one and two that doesn’t happen any other time. All the while you’re writing the first draft, especially during NaNo when you’re trying to get your word count down, you don’t know exactly how and where the story is going. You don’t know precisely who your characters and what drives them or what they love and fear and hate. Even if you outlined within an inch of your life, the finished product is going to have some unexpected elements.

It’s only when you go back to the beginning, now with an absolute knowledge of where everything is leading, that you can objectively determine which story and plot elements work, which don’t work, and how to correct or improve both types. And that’s where the magic lies. Once you know how it ends, you can choose better how to get there.

Let’s say you’re taking a road trip from Los Angeles to New York. It’s a long road and you have lots of options to get there. Are you going to take Hwy 10 to 80 on a route through Wyoming and Colorado, or the southern route through New Mexico, Texas, and Missouri? When you write a novel, you literally have this many choices and possibilities to get from page 1 to the end.

Once you’ve driven from LA to NY, the next time you take that journey, you’ve got some experience. You may take the same route, and now you know not to stay at the Motel 6 in Amarillo, but to keep driving until you get into Oklahoma. You may decide to make a detour to a site or restaurant you missed the first time around or didn’t have time for, or arrived when it was closed.

You not only have your original experience, you can judge whether or not you made the best choices the first time around, and you can revise to incorporate things you didn’t even know until it was too late. Maybe your story would be better if the key supporting character wasn’t the MC’s sister, but his college roommate’s sister because that would allow you a little bit of a love triangle. Or your MC really needs to be from a different state, background, etc., to make the story work even better.

That’s the fun part of revising. You get to rewrite history the way you want it. The original story is not set in stone. It’s a living, breathing thing you can nurture and groom and train to do what you want it to do. It’s no longer a wild animal taking you on a runaway ride across the prairie while you hold on for dear life until you type THE END, which is how NaNoWriMo can feel, even for an experienced writer.

Hopefully, that has psyched you up for the revision process. In the next posting, I’ll talk about the difference between rewriting a story and editing a story. We’re going to take a long hard look at your novel, like a rough stone to polish into a glittering gem. It won’t be all fun and games, but I promise you’ll learn a lot about writing as you rewrite this time around.

I’d love for you to answer the poll about your biggest rewrite/revision concerns, so I can focus on the most common issues as we move through this process.

 

EM Lynley is a multi-published author of 9 novels and two dozen shorter works of fiction as well as How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner. Her 2013 NaNo Novel Bound for Trouble has been contracted by Dreamspinner Press for a July 2014 publication date. She also runs Smooth Draft Editing, offering a range of services from proofreading to developmental editing and coaching for writers. Visit her Amazon Author page, or contact her at em@emlynley.com

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Today I’ll remedy the situation. I am indeed going to participate—and WIN—at NaNo this year. I want to. I have to. I have a December 1 deadline with my publisher for a novel, so I damn well better get one written during November.

I have the luxury of being a full-time writer, though if you saw my tax returns “luxury” would be a drastic overstatement. While my lifestyle is not luxurious, I do have a lot of flexibility in how I allocate my time. During November my novel will be my top priority, and freelance or financial writing drops to the side until I get the NaNo word count down.

So what am I writing?

This year I intend to finish a novel I first started thinking about a few years ago. I got the idea while on a trip and spent most of the flight home scribbling ideas down on airline napkins. I lost the napkins ages ago, but thankfully I transferred most of the ideas into one of my braindump files with everything I needed to sketch out the story and characters. I haven’t looked at the file for a while , but it’s past time I did!

I even started working on it during NaNo three or four years ago, then lost interest when I wasn’t sure what would happen next. This year I’ve got the advantage of having perfecting my planning process and pre-writing character work so I can take the original ideas and shape them into something I can actually use this time around. I’m sure I’ll be able to finish once I get my own worksheets filled in.

What’s it all about?

It’s a bit of a genre jumble. It’s got elements of romance, mystery, suspense and a BDSM twist. If you’ve read my How to Blurb posting, you may recognize the story. It’s a gay romance, and here’s the blurb I am starting with. I expect a lot to change by the time I’m done. Especially the characters’ names. I haven’t yet decided on the right ones for them.

Thom Turner is a broken man, facing the end of his career in the FBI. He’s on desk duty after a botched drug raid left the suspects and two children dead. He’s got one chance to prove himself or the only thing he’ll be investigating is the Help Wanted ads.

Dane Monroe has been on the run for ten years. Forced onto the streets when his father kicked him out, Dane earned his living in other men’s beds. Finding his john dead in a hotel room forced him under the radar. Now his relatively stable new world shatters when Thom Turner catches up with him.

When Thom’s tasked to take down a drug dealer with terrorist ties and a taste for the dark side of BDSM, his only weapon to get close is the suspect’s interest in Dane. In return, Thom offers Dane immunity from his past. As Dane falls under the drug lord’s domination, Thom finds himself falling for Dane.

Now Thom has to choose between Dane’s safety and his own future.

Sound interesting? What are you writing? Let me know in the comment box below!

Would you like for me to post some of my worksheet entries for this story so you can follow along as I build the foundation and use the planning guide to start writing?

Plan Your NaNo Novel in as Little as One Day

  Now available in print and digital versions. Save 25% by downloading direct [use code NANO25OFF at Smooth Draft]

NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month is an annual event for writers around the world. It offers participants an opportunity to write a 50,000-word novel with the support of others. It may be just the motivation you need to get writing.

The key to NaNoWriMo is planning–not outlining–your book before you even write a single word.

• Have you been dreaming of writing a novel for years and didn’t know how to tackle the daunting task? This book is for you.
• Have you attempted NaNo and found your story and inspiration flagging long before you hit 50,000 words? This book is for you.
• Are you an experienced writer or published author who wants a comprehensive planning tool to enable you to plot, write and revise more quickly? This book is for you.

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This step-by-step method will enable you to build the foundation for a complex novel, with engaging characters and an emotional journey that will keep your readers turning pages. Accompanying worksheets and full instructions make the process almost foolproof.

Author EM Lynley has used this technique for more than five books, and shares her proven method with you.

Available from Amazon, Smashwords and ARe/Omni. Or download direct from Smooth Draft. [Save 25% use code NANO25OFF at checkout]

As I mentioned in my last post, Why You Should Plan Your NaNo in Advance,  I believe planning the key elements is a fool-proof way to develop a novel that is big enough to last 50,000 words, and offers you the best inspiration to make it to the end before November is  over.

Today I’ll give you an overview of my process and let you download the Story Planning Worksheets I use in my book How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner (available directly from my website, Amazon, Smashwords and ARe/Omni.)

Here are my 11 steps. Other writing instructors use from 4 to 22, but these are the ones I use for every single story I write: novel, novella, even a short story, though I don’t write many of those any more. I find  my characters and themes are too complex for a short piece. And that’s fine. I love exploring the characters in more depth.

Step 1: Premise

Step 2: Evaluate the Premise

Step 3: Needs and Wants

Step 4: Character Arc

Step 5: The Villain/Opponent

Step 6: Character Web

Step 7: Reaching for the Desire

Step 8: Battle/Climax

Step 9: Self-Revelation

Step 10: The Ending

Step 11: Revisiting the Premise

Step 1: Premise         

Premise is a concept that comes from screenwriting. In Hollywood, studios and producers want the whole story summed up in a single sentence. Everyone is Hollywood busy, and apparently they don’t have time for a whole paragraph, much less a page about the story.

The advantage of developing a premise sentence is that it forces the writer to get to the point, to boil the story down to its pure essence. That’s the premise. It’s the theme, conflict, character and outcome all in one heavy-hitting sentence.

It probably sounds like a tall order, since you haven’t worked on your characters, plot, or anything at this point. How can you possibly come up with a winning premise first? And that’s a great question. You don’t have to. You can skip to the storyline development brainstorming, then come back and write your draft premise.

I have a set of brainstorming exercises to choose a set of characters, conflicts, and circumstances first, then help you develop the draft premise.

The premise will be revised and refined as we work through the planning exercises to develop the larger themes.

Step 2: Evaluate the Premise

We’ll take a look at the main storyline and see whether it’s enough to develop into a novel-length story. If not, there are ways to add interest and secondary plotlines. If you find the premise is lacking after working through the next set of exercises, it’s probably more suited to a novella-length or possibly even a short story. Keep working and we’ll get your NaNo premise whipped into shape.

Step 3: Character Needs and Wants

These are the key factors in developing layered characters who your readers will care about. You can see from the popularity of series—some with over 20 books—that readers enjoy spending time with certain characters, and no matter how crappy some of the plots are, people keep pushing their favorite series back onto the bestseller lists.

You don’t need to think in terms of series, but you want to think what drives this character and is it interesting enough that you want to spend 50,000+ words on him (or her) and will a reader care enough to keep turning pages?

We’ll look at the two kinds of hidden needs, in addition to the external want or desire. What your characters think they want is different from what they really want or need, and that is going to set the stage for some amazing conflict.

SECRET: Once you develop a set of character traits, needs, wants and goals, your characters really will come alive and start writing much of the plot for you. It takes the pressure off you, and it keeps you from trying to make them jump through hoops that don’t work for the character.

Step 4: Character Arc

Define the path your hero takes by how he deals with his internal weaknesses, and how you envision him at the end of the story. Once you settle on a character arc, overlay the needs and wants, and you’ll have a robust premise that makes the plotting easy. It’s as simple as knowing how the weakness keeps the character from his goal, and how he will be challenged along the way until he over comes the weakness.

Step 5: The Villain/Opponent

Does your villain should have his own set of needs, wants, strengths and weaknesses?

Selecting an interesting and appropriately matched opponent for your hero and his goals is the key to keeping tension and conflict high. We’ll discover the villains own strengths and weaknesses, where he overlaps with the hero, how he pushes the hero’s buttons, and how the opponent actually drives the hero’s resolution.

Without a well-developed opponent, or set of opponents, you won’t have enough action and conflict to support a novel through the middle. With the right bad guy, it won’t feel like you’re wandering in the desert in search of a plot. Your villain will hand it right to you.

In a romance, the second main character is both the main opponent and the love interest. Defining those interactions sets up the two conflicts (romantic and external), and keeps both stories on track.

Step 6: Character Web

This is one of my favorite parts of planning. The character web sets up a cast of supporting characters based on how they interact with the hero and the opponent. Some characters are allies, others opponents, some are both. With a romance, if you have a character who is an ally to one main character and an opponent to the other, it really adds another level of complexity to the story, and a lot of fun to the planning and writing process.

I’ll help you select a set of characters who create and exacerbate conflict and tension where the story needs it. And these are the same characters who will be pushing the hero through his arc to the resolution of the novel.

Step 7: Reaching for the Desire

In other words: what the hell happens in the middle? Beginnings are usually easy, when your energy and creativity are high. Endings, well, if you get that far, you think you’ll figure it out. But how to get through the soggy middle?

We’ll plan how the hero tries to get his goals, who tries to stop him and how, and how the rest of the web helps or hinders the process. All along, it’s key to escalate the tension by raising the stakes for each subsequent disaster that takes the hero further from his desire.

Step 8: Battle/Climax

This is the point then it looks like all is lost. He’ll never get what he wants, and certainly not what he needs (if he’s even figured that out). Throw the worst at the hero and he’ll tell you how he’ll deal with it—if you’ve set up his strengths, weaknesses, and traits, you know what that worst will be and how he’ll turn everything around.

We’ll make sure to put the conflicts in the correct order so this really is the darkest day.

Step 9: Self-Revelation

Like Step 8, this all depends on how you’ve developed the character, not the plot points. If you know how the hero is going to change—how he absolutely must change—to win his battle with the opponent, then you have a beacon to write towards from the first word. Planning this step is critical in making sure it is fully supported by the rest of the book.

Even more critical is setting up the character’s transformation properly so you don’t have readers throwing your book across the room in frustration at a ridiculous solution to everything they’ve been stressing over for nearly 50,000 words.

SECRET: When you’re stuck for what happens next somewhere around Day 8, knowing what has to happen in Step 9 is going to offer a lot of motivation and inspiration. You can see that light at the end of the tunnel, the lighthouse beam, however it looks to you. You don’t have to stare at an empty page when you know exactly what needs to happen (plus a well-developed set of characters will always tell you!)

Step 10: The Ending

What follows on Step 9? How does the hero’s world look after he’s overcome his weakness, his opponents and figured out who or what he should be? You still have options here, and will work through some of the possibilities, and how to resolve the story after the self-revelation.

Step 11: Revisiting the Premise

After we have planned out the major elements of the story, we’ll refine the premise. You’ll get a lot of mileage out of your premise. It masquerades as an elevator pitch if you happen to run into a publisher or agent. It also works as a logline or tagline you can even put on your book cover.

The cool thing about a premise is that while it tells you what happens, it doesn’t give away any plot spoilers. In fact, a good premise isn’t about the plot at all. That’s why planning your story doesn’t stifle your creativity. It’s not about what happens at the micro level. It’s about the larger themes and character transitions, which is what will attract your readers in the first place.

I hope you’ll find my planning process useful. I’ve employed it for every book I’ve written for the past couple of years, and it has allowed me to write more quickly and waste less time wondering what should happen next. I also create more interesting and layered characters than ever before.

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As an editor I see a lot of blurbs come across my desk. As a reader I see even more. And as an author, I have written plenty of them myself. I don’t particularly like to write them, but I know how vital blurbs are to marketing your book.

So what is a blurb and how do you write one?

First, let’s make the distinction between a blurb and a synopsis.

In fiction writing, a blurb is targeted to readers, to encourage them to buy the book. A synopsis is written for a publisher, agent or acquisitions editor to tell your story in a concentrated format, saving busy publishing professionals from having to read a whole book in order to find out two-thirds of the way through that the whole plot falls apart. If you send a publisher a blurb when they expect a synopsis, you won’t be considered a professional, and they may just dump you into the slush pile and never even read page one of your manuscript. (I’ll do another post on writing a synopsis later.)

So the first element of a blurb is knowing your target audience: readers, not publishers

Blurbs are a marketing tool.

Repeat that after me: Blurbs are a marketing tool.

The intention is to get a reader to buy the book, plain and simple.

So how do you do that?

By making readers want to read the book. It’s really that simple.

What makes someone want to read a book?

• Intriguing characters with strong desires, a clear obstacle to achieving the goal and weaknesses we identify with.
• A compelling conflict between the main character(s) that keeps one or both from their goal and high stakes at risk if they don’t achieve their goal.
• (Romance) A secondary or related conflict that keeps the main characters from becoming a couple.
• Unanswered questions the reader is dying to learn the answers to.

Notice I did not mention the plot. You don’t need to tell the reader what happens in the blurb. If she wants to know, she will buy your book. Your goal is to make people want to know what happens.

Sell the characters and conflict, not the plot. Yet many of the blurbs I see are just a rehash of the plot. They don’t pique my curiosity to learn about the characters enough to want to buy the book. If you tell too much plot and it doesn’t engage a reader’s interest, she will never buy the book. If you tease just enough to show who and what the book is about (there is a difference), you will have a more compelling pitch.

How to intrigue the reader

The basic blurb formula includes these elements:

• Main character 1’s goal and problem/challenge keeping him from the goal.
• Main character 2’s goal and problem/challenge
• Description of the conflict that arises between the two main characters and the stakes involved with failure.
• An unanswered question to tease the reader

Write two or three sentences about the first character’s desire, what’s holding him back, and the consequences of failure.

Then write a second paragraph about the other main character.

Your third paragraph should put these two into direct conflict over the same goal, or show that their desires are not both attainable, and how that makes trouble for both of them. What dilemma do they face?  Emphasize what’s at stake if these characters don’t achieve their goals.

Then, end with a final tease about something that will be revealed or resolved, without giving the resolution. You don’t need to use an actual question; in fact it’s somewhat of a cliché to ask a question, but you can certainly tell the reader what needs to happen to get a happily ever after.

Let’s take an example.

I have two characters: Thom Turner, an FBI agent who’s about to get the boot, and Dane Monroe, a former rent boy who thinks he may have killed a client and has been hiding under a series of aliases since.  From the blurb you know what each man wants, and what’s holding him back. And you see how their needs and goals are in direct conflict.

Thom Turner is a broken man, facing the end of his career in the FBI. He’s on desk duty after a botched drug raid left the suspects and two children dead. He’s got one chance to prove himself or the only thing he’ll be investigating is the Help Wanted ads.

 

Dane Monroe has been on the run for ten years. Forced onto the streets when his father kicked him out, Dane earned his living in other men’s beds. Finding his john dead in a hotel room forced him under the radar. Now his relatively stable new world shatters when Thom Turner catches up with him.

 

When Thom’s tasked to take down a drug dealer with terrorist ties and a taste for the dark side of BDSM, his only weapon to get close is the suspect’s interest in Dane.  In return, Tom offers Dane immunity from his past. As Dane falls under the drug lord’s domination, Tom finds himself falling for Dane.

 

Now Thom has to choose between Dane’s safety and his own future.

Are you intrigued by how these three men will come into conflict? Do you want to know what happens to them?

If I just listed some of the plot, would you still want to know more?

I just put that together in about ten minutes. It’s what I consider a first draft, and I’d tweak the wording and use better verbs to ramp up the excitement, danger, etc. But it’s an example of what you can do to make more impact with the content of your blurbs.

Why or why not?  Got a question?

I’ll be running a Blurb Repair Workshop in the beginning of November. I’ll give more examples, talk about word choices, and critique your blurbs. Stay tuned for more information, or sign up for my Smooth Draft Writing Tips Newsletter to get full details and a special discount on the class.

Over the years I’ve discovered the hard way that planning a story is the difference between a smooth writing experience and one where I’m pulling my hair, digging into a tub of Ben & Jerry’s, or deciding to watch re-runs of Law & Order instead of staring at a blank page. Even worse, the pressure of needing to get a certain word count each day made it all even worse.

“I’m never going to finish this,” I used to tell myself, and if you say that enough, you will start to believe it.

But the key to winning is having something to write every single time you sit down at the computer, or notebook. It’s not just the security of having an idea where the whole story is heading, but when you’re not writing, you will find yourself thinking ahead to the next section you’ll be writing, synthesizing what you’ve just written, and figuring out scenes and plot points you never dreamed of before.

Far from cramping your writing style, planning—not outlining—actually can free your brain up to be more creative. You’ve already made some of the big decisions in the story, so your creativity can focus on the details.

I know a lot of you are ready to write off the rest of this article. My suggestion is for you to at least work through the planning tools and character building tips I’ve already got here, and fill in some of the worksheets I’ll be sharing during October. Once you see how powerful even a little planning can be, you’ll find the task of writing that much easier and more fun.

The NaNo rules only say you can’t start writing the story until November 1, but there’s nothing to stop you from planning the story earlier. In fact, if you wait until November 1 to start thinking about the story, you are almost guaranteed to fail.

Why?

Because a good story has layers characters and plot. Some of these layers come from a familiarity with the characters. It’s not a matter of knowing what high school she went to or whether he wears boxers or briefs. It’s about knowing what the characters are going to do in particular situations, how they speak, and how they interact with other characters. Most of all, it’s about what forces drive them, and how those forces will affect them throughout the course of the book, as the plot unfolds.

Like many writers, I know the characters better as I write. By the end of the manuscript, I know a lot more than at the beginning, and sometimes I have to go back and rewrite a scene or change early dialog because the character wasn’t fully formed in my brain.

A little planning can minimize how much of that extra work is required, and the more you know the characters, the better you can mess with them by knowing what events will result in the most conflict and tension, which is what makes a great story.

Look at the film Vertigo. Most people can manage to overcome even a fear of heights to save a person on a roof or ledge, which happens in a scene late in the film. However, James Stewart’s character has more than a fear of heights. He failed to save someone in the past, so he’s got a huge emotional challenge, as well as the psychological one. You can build in this kind of huge emotional impact on your characters—and readers—when you know what makes the characters tick at their deepest levels.

There are as many plot-related reasons to start planning in advance. If you happen to be working with a complicated story with subplots or a mystery, you will have a lot of details and threads to keep track of. You will also need to work hard to make sure everything fits together and makes sense.

Starting that process in October means you will already know where you’re going to hit the snag and come up with a solution before the NaNo clock starts ticking.

I was writing a book dealing with smugglers. I had sketched out the key plot events and sequence, but I was stuck trying to figure out how the contraband items got from point A to point B. I put the story on hold for over a month while I bounced ideas off friends and tried to make them work with the rest of the story.

You want to minimize or avoid the chance of unexpected plot problems during November. In fact, if you’re a new writer, I don’t suggest a mystery/suspense plot unless you have lots of time to figure out how connect the dots.

But we’re getting off track.

You can see how planning your NaNo book in advance is only going to increase the chances of:

• Finishing a novel, not just hitting your 50,000-word goal
• Having a more intricate, layered story
• Not finding out in the middle that your plot isn’t working
• Deeper, multi-dimensional characters
• A first draft that won’t need as much revision
• A less stressful NaNo experience

What has helped you during NaNoWriMo in the past? What were the biggest challenges?

Stay tuned for more excerpts from my upcoming book “How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner.” Subscribe to the Smooth Draft newsletter for exclusive NaNo and other writing tips, and a chance to order the book at a discount direct from Smooth Draft.