When it comes to writing books, I am very much an architect. I need to plan everything out before I start writing. I’m not the sort of person who can write without an outline – I’ve tried and it often ends with me running out of steam halfway through because I don’t know where I’m going with my ideas.

After 10 years of serious writing, I’ve got my book planning progress down to a pat. Now this method won’t work for everyone. You have to find your own process, and that can sometimes mean a few false starts and failed attempts. But you’ll find your ideal method in the end.

So this is how I go from that initial idea unto the moment where I’m ready to start touching my fingers to the keyboard. If you want to read about my editing process, I’ve written a separate post on that here.

The Idea

Before I even start planning my book, I need to get my book idea together. For the purposes of this blog, I will use the YA otaku book as the example. The idea for that was a combination of wanting a book about a contemporary teenager living in the countryside, and also wanting to write a book about nerdy friendship.

I needed the book to have a theme – I don’t want to say morale, because I think we were told at uni not to write books that had morales since teenagers can smell those a mile off, but I wanted my book to make a statement. Drawing on my own experiences of being a nerd who likes Japanese media, and reading about the experiences of other people who are also into the same things as me, I wanted the book to be about not being ashamed of what you like. So the book was also going to be about self discovery.

The Characters

I always plan my characters first. Always. Because plot comes from character. The choices and decisions your characters make drive the plot forward. Therefore it’s really important to know what your characters would do in any given situation, because you shouldn’t make them do something that doesn’t fit with their character profile.

To plan out my characters, I use a character template I created after listening to a podcast when I was a teenager. The template looks like this. That template is by no means exhaustive, and you should adapt it to fit the type of book you are writing. For example, if you are writing a fantasy or a sci-fi there will be world building things you need to think about with regards to your characters, such as magical powers.

Your characters should also have changed by the end of your book. How have the events of the book shaped them? How and why are the not the same person they were at the start of the book? This is in regards to physical appearance, their mental wellbeing and also their personality. You may wish to update your character template each time your character undergoes a change, or create a new one, especially if you are writing a series.

When I’m planning my characters, I think about their conflicts – the conflict they are facing with other characters, with themselves and with any other factors. These conflicts go onto shape my story. When I was planning the YA otaku book, the conflicts my characters were facing were those with each other as the two main characters resented each other at first, then became friends after discovering they shared a similar interest, and then split apart when their shame in their interests made the conflict reach its climax. There were other conflicts to think about, such as the main characters’ indecision about what they wanted to do after school, family tensions, and conflicts with adjusting to their new surroundings.

The Setting

For the YA otaku book I didn’t have to plan out the settings, because they were based on places in my life that I knew very well. But for something like Six Hands of Fate, a fantasy book, I did a lot of world planning before I started writing the book.

I don’t want to go into too much about fantasy world planning in this post, mostly because I haven’t done it in so long that I don’t think I can remember how to do it myself, but also because I have already written a short post about here. But it is very important that you do some planning for your fantasy world before you start writing – it will make your world appear more authentic and give it depth.

I think it’s also really important to do research and planning for historical settings. For The Blood Twins, which is set in 1880s America, I want to do some more research before I go back to working on that book. When I wrote the first draft back in 2012, I did some quick research into guns, but very little about the Old West, which meant I likely missed out a lot of stuff that was going on at the time. I also kept calling Arizona a state, when it didn’t actually become a state until after the events of the book… Whoops!

For contemporary settings, it depends on where I am setting the book as to whether I do any research or setting planning. As I said, for the YA otaku book, I didn’t do any planning because the setting was one I knew all too well. But if I decided to set a contemporary book in another location that I didn’t know well, I would definitely visit that place before I started writing to take photos and notes.

The Plot

Once you’ve got your characters and conflicts figured out, it’s onto the plot. As I said before plot should come from character. Some people might skip this section completely and just plan out their characters, trusting themselves and their characters to shape the plot as they write the book. I can’t do that. I need a plan so I know where the story is going, otherwise I get stuck and lost on my way to the end post.

I use the 3 arc structure to plan out my books. I’ve already written a blog post on this method – which you can find here – so I won’t go into too much detail. But I use that three act structure graph to plot where each turning point is and what needs to happen in order for that point in the story to be reached. The plots on that graph are determined by the conflicts I plan out when I am thinking about my characters.

For the YA otaku book, the change at the start of the book is Rose’s arrival to the village and Clover hating that her estranged cousin is invading her house. The first act is them not liking each other, and Rose hating living away from London and her friends. The second act begins with Clover and Rose accidentally discovering that they both like anime and manga, which leads to the second act where they start to get to know each other and enjoying each other’s company. The third act begins with them having an argument and not speaking to each other for 2 weeks. The resolution begins when they reconcile and go to Comic Con together.

Chapter planning

Most writers, once they have reached this stage will start writing. I don’t. Even though I have the story plotted out, I like to rough write before I actually start for real. This means I write out the whole book like I might have written a book when I was in primary school – with no description, just this happens, and then this happens, and this character says this and this character says that. This is where most of my brain work happens! When I actually write the first draft of anything, I just have to follow the rough outline and add in more detail.

Again, because my brain can often get stuck when it’s writing something and I’m not good at impromptu stuff, this means I have the whole book mapped out before I start writing it. Helps me not get stuck in that pesky middle section. Also, mapping your book out in rough means it is easier to go back and dump missed out bits in – much easier than when you are actually writing the thing.

And that’s it! That’s my book planning process. I think it’s my favourite part of writing! I like getting to know my characters, thinking about what they’re going to change over the course of the book and writing the rough outline. It’s the funniest part, because it feels so new and exciting. And it makes writing that first draft so much easier and quicker.

What is your book planning process like? Comment down below. Let me know.