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:
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!