Planning

Shamiko

Ur resident demon gurl <333
Joined
Sep 20, 2022
Messages
56
Points
48
Ello!

Just wanted to ask experienced authors how you started planning your own stories!
I have a clear idea in mind but I don't really know where to start.
So ya, that's my question! If you could give me some advice, I would really appreciate it!


For any of you that are curious, the story is most likely going to be called "Life as the God of Reincarnations", and it's basically about a person that can reincarnate other beings. That's the whole idea.
 
Last edited:

Prince_Azmiran_Myrian

🐉Burns you with his Love🐉
Joined
Aug 23, 2022
Messages
1,827
Points
128
What I would do is first summarize the main idea/theme/meaning of the overall story into one sentence. You can then use that to keep it more coherent from beginning to end.

I would also write a summary of the critical points or a barebones outline.

Alternatively instead of planning it out, you could just do discovery writing and make it up as you go.
 

K5Rakitan

Level 34 👪 💍 Pronouns: she/whore ♀
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
8,162
Points
233
I mainly just wrote because I couldn't sleep with all the ideas dancing in my head. Now, my toddler dances on my tummy after sucking on my nipples.
 
D

Deleted member 54065

Guest
I'm a planner of stories. This is how I plan...

First, I answer these questions:
  • What is the story all about? (Basically, a short description of what it is.)
  • What is the theme/focus? (Where the story should head)
  • What is the genre? (So you won't lose sight of your story's mood/atmosphere)
Once I got the answers here, I proceed to the next:
  • What is the main problem of the story?
  • What did the characters/people do to solve it?
  • Any arising problems after the solving/trying to solve the first one?
Now let me explain the second set of questions. The first is for setting the 'direction' of your story. It has a connection in the ultimate ending of your work. The second can apply for the final ending (if it's a one book/arc novel), or you can use it as a setting for the actual story (if you plan volume by volumes of books, like mine).

The third question is optional. It's usually for giving directions to the 'arcs' or 'volumes' of your story, should you decided to chop your novel into several arcs/seasons/volumes.

After that, I get into the plot details. You know the usual:
  1. Introduction
  2. Rising Action
  3. Climax
  4. Falling Tension
  5. End
Once I laid down these parts (for the entire story, and by arc/volume), I proceed to create the setting (world, time, culture, etc.) and the characters. I don't create a world and character before the story; it's the other way around.

Final note: all of these plans will be for naught if I didn't mix in a sliver of self-discipline and focus. As such, I just finished my 15th volume a couple of days ago, with plans for the 16th starting on March.

(I started my main project last May 2019. Currently, I'm on my 16th volume, having recently finished writing the 15th. Each of the books I wrote for that story has an average of 55k-65k words, with the longest volume having 83k words and the shortest at 34k.)

ADDENDUM: Now that I've just arrive home, here are the additional suggestions if you're a planner...
  • In connection to the questions in my earlier reply, I suggest you plan your story from start to finish. Like even before you write down the first chapter, you already know the fate of your main characters. The reason? So that you won't 'lose focus' once you get bombarded with reader feedback demanding 'this change', demanding 'that change'.
  • You can also do the 'per chapter' planning of your story. You don't have to follow it to the dot, but at least, you have an idea of how to proceed with your novel.
  • Definitely you have to write this information. This is so you have a reference whenever you get lost in your work.
You'll surely 'develop' your story the more you write it. There are times you'd find 'better ideas' than the ones you have written in your plans, that's why you really need to have it written, so you can weigh your options whether to implement those 'better' concepts, or leave it for another story.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

NotOriginal

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 8, 2019
Messages
86
Points
58
Basically I think of the ending of the story and the beginning, then I just sorta work my way to the ending.
My story was inspired by Mushoku Tensei in how's it's structured a bit, each volume ends with the MC getting older, each one has their enemies that set up for the next volume.
Of course when I did published the very first chapter I had basically already almost-kinda finished the story and had rewritten parts of it to make it all make sense to have build up to parts and hints to future events.
 

Syringe

Bluetooth 7 Enabled Holy Blade w/ Red Dot Sight
Joined
Jul 17, 2019
Messages
454
Points
133
From the start to finish for mine:

1. Title
- Brainstorm the title. This took an absurdly long time for me, because this was really the wrong way to go about it. The title should have come last in the planning stage in my opinion.

As a result, this step was combined with step 2.


2. Major Themes and Tone
- This is the big picture. Before your world building and characters, you need to ask yourself, "What is the story going to be about?" The recurring theme? The overall big picture? Drab? Upbeat? Happy? The TONE!

Snippet from my 1k word initial brainstorm word doc:

LitRPG Isekai – Betrayal - Title suggestion
Only human gender bender - Title suggestion
Only healer? - Title suggestion
Wholesome, fun, entertaining, etc but also serious undertone, dark at times, etc. - Major tome and theme
Tower climbing?
Intensify the dark tones. Use the super happy and weird beginning to lead up to a horror-esque revelation.



3. The World/Worldbuilding
- Not necessary or recommended to go into world building this early unless you already have a firm grasp of what you want to write.

You really don't have to go crazy, but this is where I spent 90% of my story planning. That way, I was able to know what to put in at early arc, when and where to set up major revelations in future arcs. At least understanding some processes, functions and rules of the world will help guide you in how you set up the story characters and plot.

For reference:

1674886130548.png


This is ONE of several collections for my story's world building. Another few dozen are sitting on the desktop.
While it seems unnecessarily massive, this is what I need. Your needs might be much, much lower than mine or higher depending on how ambitious your story is.

As a rule of thumb - please write down anything interesting that comes to mind!

The first step for me was determining just what sort world we were dealing with. Medieval-esque? Futuristic? Sort of - Bit of the two, but then I had to explain why. Not really necessary, but it keeps things from looking like it's all abirtrary, when there's actually purpose and intention behind every decision you make.

4. Give Weight To Each Decision
There is a process I use from my profession as a Nurse where every decision made needs a proper rationale, have all alternate options considered, and an evaluation.

For example - Simply making a person speak in a certain way gives hints to their character (or what they really are e.g, a Mimic taken over a person's body). The rationale would be exactly that. They're a mimic or I just wanted to convey something through them.

I check alternate methods and ensure this is the right way to go about it, and the evaluation process comes after in the narration or character interactions (do they pick up on it? Is there enough information for them to know about it? Should the readers be aware of this before the characters are at this point in time? Will it make sense in the future?).


4. The Big Picture
- With the title, tone and world set, the next thing I moved onto was what exactly the story was going to be about. From start to finish, I at least had the general flow of events in mind, but was aware that it would easily change depending on how things progressed.

From there, I condensed this into arcs. Generally speaking, you will want a clear beginning and end with your arcs, or at least some kind of subplot or theme running throughout it (could very well be as simple as a chill, relaxed, fun arc after for example an intense one).


5. Genre
This is pretty much self-explanatory, but I also spent a long time here. In the beginning, my story wasn't going to be a LitRPG or Genderbender for that matter. But it was something I wanted to write, despite the stigma and relative hate these two genres get.

Don't be afraid to write what you like.

I spent over 1,000,000 words on a fkin Minecraft fanficiton for an audience of 50 people, and 650k words on my previous story that barely got over 25k veiws after 2 years.

But I thoroughly enjoyed every damned moment of it!



6. Fleshing Things Out
- This is where the world building part would come in, because depending on where your character starts, you really want to know the general gist of things.

I recommend making a mock map just to get a grasp on the world size/geography/topology

- Wonderdraft is a premium but an absolutely awesome map maker. But there are really good alternatives online if you're just making a mock one.

7. Characters
The soul of your story. This took a considerable amount of time for me, but going off my past works I figured out how to streamline the process. Usually, I define characters by their wants, needs, aspirations, manner of speech, motivations, hates and certain quirks over just appearance. This stops them from being too one dimensional.

Ensure they are consistent, and make sure they react accordingly when they meet something that grates their moral code. Dabbling in the psychology of the characters will help!

For instance, there is one obnoxious character in my story. She tries to be funny and robs the spotlight every now and again, but there are moments where she opens up and admits that she's self aware, but not really aware herself that it's a coping mechanism.

8. Your villains/conflicts
Not every story needs them, but it's good to be aware of this and have at least motivations behind them. I knew my story would begin with a betrayal by one of the most trusted people in my setting, and I needed to have a really good reason for them to throw everything away just to get at the MC who literally just arrived into the world.

Since this was all planned out, I've dropped hints and allowed readers to read between the lines, which eventually led to one of the first major revelations regarding the MC and the world they found themselves in. It makes for a good "ooooooh!" moment.

9. Be Inspired
Look at an anime. Read a book. Don't be afraid to take ideas when you get stuck. People say just write but I also have trouble 'just writing'. After watching something really good, it gets me pumped to crunch something out. But honestly, the 'just write' thing might work really well for you.

10. Write Like You're Reading
What do I mean by this? Imagine you're also a reader in for the ride of your story. You read as you write and want to see how things develop. This is the best way (at least for me) to stay motivated because I really want to get to the bottom of certain things, or see certain characters happy or developed. Seeing where beloved characters were verses where they are now is one of the best feelings an author and a reader can have.

11. Have Fun, Don't Stress, Writing is a Learning Experience
I've seen several authors here cycle over ideas after they don't gain any traction and delete them, which I think is the wrong way to go about writing. It shows that they weren't invested at all, or probably don't enjoy writing for what writing is. As long as YOU enjoy it and are PASSIONATE, then I think you'll do really well!

It took me 1.65 million words over the span of several YEARS before I finally started gaining traction!

But I loved every single second of it
, and appreciate all 50 of my viewers for the fanfic, and the literal dozen of my last story. I won't lie, it can be devastating when no one notices the hard work you put into your stories.

If you ever want a review or feedback for your story, then hit me up! I'll be more than happy to provide, because I really do understand that soul-crushing feeling!
 

LilRora

Mostly formless
Joined
Mar 27, 2022
Messages
844
Points
133
...Well. I read Azarinth Healer, proceeded to read Infrasound Berserker from the same author, then got an idea to try my hand at a similar story and wrote eighteen chapters (about 50k words) in two weeks without planning.

Seriously though, I generally just think about the story in my head. I really don't like planning, because I'm very bad with following plans, and instead I write one thing and think how I can develop it. For me it works very well, although I know many people would say it's a bad method.
 

J_Chemist

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 17, 2022
Messages
1,817
Points
128
A lot has been mentioned before but I tend to treat my story like I would treat an RPG video game I was making.

First step is the idea; a one sentence high level statement of what my story is going to be about and what it is. Then, I write a one paragraph summary of the same thing.

I then write what I want to happen at the end to give myself an end goal that I will constantly orient my story towards. Knowing how the story starts, how it ends, and what I want it to be will help me organize ideas and plan out the key details that I want to have happen.

Next, oddly enough, I write the characters. I don't go into detail but I do a bit of world building with this. Who will my key players be? Who is my MC? Antagonists? Who are the individuals that will bring forth plot changes? These individuals aren't set in stone but will help me sort of put the cast together.

Next, I go into detail with my MC. Who are they? Using this, I world build. I develop the world around the MC and plug my MC's details in to fit the place they live in. I tie in some of the characters from above if possible to add depth to them and I begin to create that spiderweb of interconnected social attributes.

Finally, once the floor plans for my characters, world, and story are filled out- I outline what challenges I want my MC to face. I know where they need to get to at the end of the story, what is required for them to achieve the end state. Now I brain storm how I can make their life as inhumanly difficult as possible. How many characters are expendable? How much trauma/harsh experiences can I apply to the story? Where should I turn up or turn down the difficulty? How often should I make them fail?

I make things difficult for my character because I have a philosophy that bad shit makes for better story. While not everything is actually hard, I force my characters to earn every thing they get. Nothing is given. But, nothing is impossible either.

After I have a few ideas in mind of what I want to do and I have the initial stepping stones in place, I start writing. As I go along, if I get new ideas or find inspiration, I make notes or talk with friends to get their opinions on scenarios and things. I don't plan every little bit of the story from start to finish, just enough to get the ball rolling and to know the end state. Everything else in the middle is on the fly and done along the way.

But, what I have learned is that making a world map is incredibly useful if you're writing an adventure or some kind of fantasy story. Having a visual of the world your characters are in that doesn't change willy-nilly in your head helps a lot when you're doing plot-planning.
 
Top