Before you start writing, decide on these ten things:
- Who you will be writing for – age, gender, and any other characteristics.
- How long your story is going to be, and how many chapters you will split it into.
- What will be happening in the beginning of your story.
- What will happen at the end.
- What conflicts will take place during the story.
- Who your protagonist will be, and their character arc.
- What other characters you will need.
- Where you will set your story – time and place.
- Your narrative voice.
- Your theme, subject and reason for writing.
Putting these down into words on a page, at the beginning of your document, will clarify everything you need to know.
Overwhelm is the biggest cause of us not finishing our stories. But if we have this all written down, we can keep writing with confidence.
Can we change what we have written? Of course we can! But it’s much better to have as many things nailed down as possible before you start writing, to save you false starts, having to re-write scenes, and many other time-wasting problems!
Let me know if you find this useful,
Janet