This week I came up with a fantastic idea for a new novel.  The basic premise revolves around space vikings, but I’ll refrain from going any further into detail for fear of giving too much away.

Now that I’ve been focusing on writing a lot more, I find the process much easier to wrap my head (and skills) around.  At first, I’d just write, letting the story and characters go where they wanted to.  Now, I have a firm grasp on how to outline my story and characters.

This is how I do it:

First, I’ll write the general premise of the story.  Think a book blurb, but a bit longer than what you’d find on amazon or the back cover of a paperback.  After this, I’ll do character biographies for each of the major characters in the work, making sure I have a little bit of background, current events, and motivation for each character.  Just enough to help define who they should be when I start to write, but not enough to define their personalities before I’ve put a single word to paper.

Next, I’ll start working on the first chapter of the novel.  Typically, I’ll put enough down to get a general feel for what style I plan on sticking to as well as a basic introduction to a character or two.  Sometimes there’s some elements of the larger story arc, but many times there aren’t.  In the case of my latest work in progress, I set the stage for a homecoming, using that as a reference that the reader can use to garner greater insight into who the main character is.  I hope the tactic works.  We’ll see, I guess.

Finally, once those things are done, I return to the outline.  At this point, I typically have enough put down that I can outline the greater arc of the story.  Usually, I’ll write paragraphs about what I plan to do with the main conflict.  To that, I’ll gradually add sub plots (if there are any) and other things.  If the outline is coming together well enough, I’ll start to go chapter by chapter, outlining what will happen in each.  Sometimes this works and others it doesn’t.  The biggest thing I keep in mind is that the chapter by chapter outline will typically change as I reach the halfway point.  That’s where extra twists or major changes can typically be made to spice up the story, but not destroy the arc that’s already been created.

Right now, I’m on the second step, working to put the first chapter to paper.  I’m pretty happy with what I have so far, but want to see where things go after I close the first chapter.  Hopefully, everything goes well.