I figured it would probably be easiest just to pull everything together in one place, also, the more I added, the more I realized this should probably just be a page on my website. So this is also a draft of that. šŸ˜‚ (I have a page already, but it doesnā€™t have all the added tips or the insights into my process.)

Oh, and thereā€™s lots of links to files in my OneDrive. Feel free to copy whatever youā€™d like your own copy of!

ā¬‡ļø Click on a listing in the Table of Contents to jump to the relevant section.

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General Advice

  1. Most writing advice works fine for the one single individual person giving it. Take everything with a grain or two of salt.
  2. That said, people give advice because it worked for them. So try a variety of things until you find a) something that works, or b) pieces of different things you can put together into something that works.

Pre-Writing

When it comes to longer-form writing, Iā€™m a planner. What works for me is a combination of a few different methods (Iā€™ll link to all the original things, then provide my amalgamation):

  1. The Smarter Artistā€™s 40-Scene Template [Word] from Sterling and Stone. (These guys donā€™t do the teaching and advising anymore, but they left the Smarter Artist blog up, and Iā€™ll have more for you from them later.)
  2. Reverse engineering [PDF]. I took Screenwriting 101 from Great Courses ($ or free trial; theyā€™re now Wondrium) and the professorā€™s whole deal is starting with how you want the story to end, then work backwards.
  3. James Scott Bellā€™s Signpost Scenes [PDF]. Basically, the 14 scenes that need to show up in a book. Anything else you put in is gravy (ideally) (you know, in a figurative way).

I learned about 2 & 3 after I had published the first edition of Through the Mirrah (TTM), so I used just the 40 Scenes for that. But this is what I used to plan books 2 and 3 (and what Iā€™m using to re-plan book 2) (and probably book 3): Reverse Engineered Signpost Scenes [Word].

The template starts out with two rules, and theyā€™re really the only rules you need for filling it out.

ā€œCognitive effectā€ refers to the emotions you want your reader to feel at the end of the book. (The Screenwriting 101 PDF linked above has more on this, with a lot of great examples.)

Iā€™ve only used the ā€œScenes in Betweenā€ portion (thus far) as more of a checklist. Once Iā€™ve written a draft, Iā€™ll go through and see if Iā€™ve included those things. I donā€™t really use it as part of my planning.

What I like to do is fill out as much of the template (up to that last part) as I can with the ideas Iā€™ve already had. Then I look back through to see what Iā€™m missing and focus my brainstorming on those parts.

Other Helpful Pre-Writing/Writing Resources

Another gift from the Sterling & Stone guys was the Smarter Artist pack [PDF], which has a bunch of helpful one-sheets, but the Planning Your Novel section (2 pages) is a great round-up of things that are good to know going into writing (though some of it wonā€™t come to you until later, and thatā€™s okay!)