Bob was a building contractor, not a writer, so when he began his novel, he just started writing from the beginning, assuming everything would come out well at the end. After six months of hard work, his chapters were filled with details, action, and dialogue in a jumbled mess, as if someone had dumped building materials onto a vacant lot, expecting a luxurious house to develop on its own.
He started over, this time with a plan:
- To whom am I writing? Describe the single person—age, sex, social status, and worldview—who best represents your target audience.
- What is the premise of my story?—the compelling condition or problem that would make readers want to read it.
- What is the theme of my story?—what the story will mean to the reader at the end, which was unknown at the beginning.
- From the perspective of the hero (the protagonist), write the story’s SCOOP IT UP information: List the Situation, Character, Objective, Obstacle, and Plight across the scope of the entire book. List the character’s Insight, Transformation, and Unresolved Problem.
- Complete a Character chart.
- Do items 4 and 5 from the perspective of opposing character or force (the antagonist).
- Allocate the anticipated word count to the number of chapters. Suppose the goal is 45,000 words for the novel. At 250 words per double-spaced 12-pt type page, that’s 180 pages, or 18 chapters averaging 10 pages in length.
- From the hero’s perspective, write a SCOOP summary for the opening chapter. Identify how the main character changes in this chapter.
- From the hero’s perspective, write a SCOOP summary for the ending chapter. Identify how the main character changes in this chapter.
- From the main character’s perspective, SCOOP every chapter in between, showing how the character changes.
- Write a one-paragraph summary of every chapter.
- Write the first draft of all chapters.
- Rewrite the first and last chapters.
- Edit and rewrite all the chapters.
When a writing plan identifies all the materials and where they are to be placed, the story builds with much greater efficiency.
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