Getting Started

I talk to so many people who say that writing a book (novel, memoir, non-fiction) is a goal or theirs but they don’t necessarily know where to start, or if their story is interesting enough. So, I thought I would share how I get started on a project.

I’m a plotter. Always have been. I could use the MS Word outline formatting in my sleep. I even outline blog posts. I do scene by scene outlines of my novels, because with all the distractions of motherhood, and the internet I need a road map to be able to jump back into my fictional world. I’m not a slave to my outline. I take detours. Just like the GPS on your phone, I can reroute as needed. But I still need that map,.

So, when folks tell me they want to write but; they don’t know how to get started, or they have an idea but can’t seem to get it from their brains to paper, or they started but faded or lost the plot. I frequently recommend that they try brainstorming and outlining. It’s hard to lose your way with a road map.

Fortunately, I have some experience helping people draw out what’s in their minds. For years as an instructional designer, I had to ask the right questions to find out what skills managers needed their teams to have and what business processes they needed to learn. Over time, I developed a set of questions that I asked each manager who requested training. What does success look like? What behaviors do we want from your team members? Where do you see room for improvement? I got pretty good at helping people suss out what was in their heads and figuring out how to make it into training. That’s very much what happens when you set about pulling a book idea out of your head and organizing it into that road map that I mentioned.

I thought I would give you all a peek at my pre-writing process. I encourage every writer or would-be writer to explore lots of processes to find what works best for them. This is what works for me.

In this post, I’ll tackle the first three steps of this process. The test scene, brainstorming, and prioritizing. These are the steps that are the jump start for getting what starts as the germ of an idea in your brain, out onto some other medium so that you can start playing around with it to see if it will make a book.

The Test Scene

Note the Lamy Fountain Pen. The best pen I’ve ever owned and I’m super picky about pens.

Every project idea starts with a scene. It comes into my head and there is usually something about the character’s voice or situation that I find compelling to the point that I sometimes can’t get it out of my head. So, I write it down, usually long hand. I find that writing longhand is more immersive when I’m trying to find the right voice and tone. Typing on the computer is fine for working on the main project, but first I like to find the voice with pen and paper. This scene is like a test for where the project might go. After writing that scene, I can usually tell if there is enough there for a novel, or if it’s a short story or if it’s not just going anywhere.

I do have felted journal covers in my etsy store, but this one is only mine.

I will often buy a new journal for this purpose. For the last year or so, I have been favoring Extra Larger Moleskine Cahiers. I use an extra large Traveler’s notebook style cover that I made myself so that I can carry multiple notebooks easily. This will become my notebook for the project. After that initial scene, I use the journal for jotting down research notes, character sketches, scraps of dialog that pop into my head…anything related to the project. I am currently trying out a new journal that is designed specifically for this purpose, and I’ll let you know how it works out.

Brainstorming

If I feel like that test scene is going to lead to more, I start brainstorming about the plot and theme of the book. What am I trying to say? Who are these characters? What is this character’s journey? What needs to happen to make this character choose to go where I want them to go? There are so many questions to be answered, and things very rarely come out in an organized way. There are a number of methods for brainstorming. Here is a great explanation of it as well as a breakdown of techniques from the Writing Center at UNC. The best tool I have found for working on a novel is the snowflake diagram. I like the snowflake because it helps me brainstorm multiple plot lines at once and works on multiple levels to help me prioritize items.

small corner of the snowflake diagram for the Haverhill project

Now, in our old house, I had a chalkboard wall that I used for this purpose. I made the wall with two inexpensive chalkboard wall decals that I got on Amazon. There are also white board decals, if you prefer that. If you have a wall that you can devote to this purpose, I highly recommend it. Maybe it’s because I was a trainer, or I wanted to be a teacher when I was little, but there’s something so satisfying about writing the diagram out on a board and being able to step back and review it. That diagram is like getting a birds eye view of the what’s spilling out of your brain. It can show you where your ideas are more complete, and where they might need more fleshing out.

Sadly, my office in the new house doesn’t have a wall that I can use for this. It’s above the garage and has a lower ceiling that slopes. I tried using the whiteboard decals on the ceiling, but all i got was a sore neck. So I have had to content myself with whiteboards propped on a chair. It’s not ideal, but it’ll work for now. I know that there are software programs for brainstorming. I used some when I was creating training material in my previous career. But I seem to focus more when I’m on my feet.

I miss my wall <sniff>

Prioritize

Of course this diagram is just a step in the pre-writing process. I still need to translate this diagram to a story outline. I start by making a prioritized list of the points on my snowflake. This is not a plot outline. This is a list of the basic themes and high level plot points. If you are using the snowflake diagram or another layered brainstorming technique, you should be partially prioritized already. This step gives you an opportunity to narrow down the main theme of the project as well as the sorting out what might be the main plot versus subplots.

It also gives you a chance to start thinking about the order in which the plot points you just brainstormed might need to happen. Not so much how to get your main character from Point A to Point B, but what needs to happen to make your character move themselves from A to B. What motivates your character through the story and how do those story physics work?

This prioritized list will inform the next steps in the process starting with the Beat Sheet, which I will talk about in my next post.