Lance Hunter's guide to plotting a novel
"This is how S.H.I.E.L.D. works. You make a plan, plan turns to rubbish, we make a new plan. Oh, just to be crystal clear, this is the part where the plan turns to rubbish." - Lance Hunter Ep. 3.10
Plotting is hard. Outlining is hard. WRITING is HARD. However this is life, and in life most things worth doing are hard. Thane and I are in a major time of turmoil at the moment, and like Lance said this is the part where all our plans turn to rubbish. Thane is moving, hence her inability to post recently, and we’re both swamped with schoolwork. So when we decided that we needed to re-outline the Sordian Chronicles it truly felt as if the entire world we created was falling to pieces. We finally realized that we didn’t need an in-depth outline, but rather one that started the chapter, gave us the point of the chapter, and helped us figure out what I like to call a “Fluid” cliffhanger (I’ll get into that definition later). So we created an outline that looked like this:
Book title:
Chapter count:
Chapter word count:
Chapter number: chapter name (optional)
Initial activity -
Main conflict -
Fluid cliffhanger -
Let’s unpack this a little.
Book Title - Naming your book is one of the most difficult things to do. Some people, like me, need to have their book named before they start writing it. Other people, like Thane, don’t really care when they title their book as long as it gets done at some point. This section doesn’t have to be repeated at the beginning of every chapter, it simply sits at the beginning of your outline to make sure you know what the heck you’re writing about.
Chapter Count - Depending on your genre and the size of book you’re going for your Chapter Count will vary drastically. A novel like Rick Riordan’s “House of Hades” will contain somewhere around 70 chapters. However a smaller novel, such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Hound of the Baskervilles” will contain around 25 chapters. Again, this is just an example. Your book can be as long or as short as you want it to be.
Chapter Word Count - Again varying from genre to genre your Chapter Word Count is important so that you know how much you can tell in one chapter. My chapters tend to be somewhere between 3,000 and 6,000 words long, just a smidgen longer then the average chapter length of 2,000-5,000 words. Fantasy books, like many of my novels, tend to contain chapters of anywhere from 3,000 words to 10,000 words. Personally I think that’s just a little too long. But whatever floats your goat (yes I meant to say goat).
{Your Chapter Count and Chapter Word Count depend heavily on how long you have decided to make your novel. Check out one of my previous posts, 1 word 2 word 3 word 4, to learn more about what you might your novel’s word count to look like}
Chapter Number - This one is pretty self explanatory. Just slap on the corresponding number and you’re good!
Chapter Name - Trying to name a chapter sucks, and a lot of people simply don’t do it. However, I have found that having a chapter name can actually be a huge benefit to the reader. I’ll try to write a post on this for you guys sometime soon.
Initial Activity - This doesn’t necessarily have to be anything big or dramatic. It’s simply writing down a few key words about what’s going on in your opening scene. For example: “Initial activity - [Redacted] arrive at the port.” Now to someone who doesn’t know anything about what book or chapter this is from has absolutely no idea what port they arrive at. However, as the author I know exactly what is going on. That’s the key you want. It can be more detailed if you need, or maybe even less (though i’m not quite sure how you’d pull that off).
Main Conflict - Throughout every chapter there is normally some new sort of challenge that arises. It can be something as simple as “Gaining trust. Not getting killed by soldiers.” which would span the entirety of the chapter. Or as complex as "[Redacted] stumbles across a large ‘holding pen’ filled with prisoners that have been taken recently. [Redacted] witnesses [Redacted]. Confronts him. Get into a physical fight with [Redacted]. Is arrested.” which may only come in somewhere in the middle of the chapter.
{Sorry for all the [Redacted] stuff. all of these examples are taken directly out of our working outline so I don’t want to give too many spoilers.}
Fluid Cliffhanger - Unlike the cliffhangers at the ends of books, (what I call) fluid cliffhangers merely create a small amount of suspense to keep your reader turning the page. It can be as dramatic as “[Redacted] takes her scouts out, they’re ambushed. [Redacted] recognizes [Redacted]. They lose 5. [Redacted] is injured.” or as dull as “[Redacted] arrives.” It’s only requirement is that it draws your reader further into the story and keeps them turning the page.
Then you simply Copy, Paste, and Repeat. Good Luck!