5 Planning Tips! <3
Planning isn’t always easy depending on how much you want to do or the kind of writer you are. I personally like creating detailed plans and I tend to plan whole chapters. If I get a new idea, I jot it down on the way. If you're like this too, I suggest using my planning tips! I like handwriting my plans but you can use a word document or whatever if you want. 1. Plot planning. C'mon, you've gotta have at least an idea by now. Keep jotting down your ideas and you can organise them in a summary or using dot points later! Jot down the genre, the main idea/focus (is it romance or is that a sub-genre?), main complication, sub-complications that build up to that, et cetera. Don't leave anything out! (See 4. Chapter planning) 2. Character planning. Plan everything about your mc/mc's. Details are everything. You'll need to know what kind of person they are, how they look, hobbies, dislikes, triggers (if any), role (context is important), their purpose, gender identity, sexual orientation, the character growth/development they'll be seeing. You can lay off of the details for side characters (depending on how much insight they'll be getting and how relevant they are to the mc). Basically, write character profiles for each character and also make a note of how relevant they are/will be to your mc. 3. Relationship/dynamic planning. You've probably already touched on that if you've made a note on their relevancy to the entire plot. But yeah, write down who's related to each other, who are friends, who are lovers, all that jazz. 4. Chapter planning. So you've planned your plot, I assume, now it's time to organise those into chapters, given that your story does have chapters. Even if your narrative doesn't, I still reccommend reading this point because I'll include scaffolding that might be helpful! Always take notes on how everything goes. Always. - Earlier chapters (depending on their length and please remember never to write to a length in chapters) or the first section of your short story needs to introduce your most important characters (unless one of them need a dramatic entrance later on) and give insight on your mc. If it's a romance and one character's interest must become known, get that in early too. - Leave the past trauma dump for later on, and build up smaller complications that lead up to one main issue that will be resolved (or not if you're writing an angsty tragedy or a horror) - if you have a specific scenario or dialogue you want in a chapter that's a very small/insignificant detail, there's no harm in writing it down. Write down things that just come to mind even if they don't end up included in your narrative 5. Setting planning. I don't actually take many notes on setting. I just include this in chapter setting and make a small note of where I want things to take place. Honestly, I don't always plan before diving into writing. I don't have everything all layed out every time, sometimes just enough so I can go writing a while and planning future chapters in advanced. Say, I plan three chapters and know how my plot's going to go, then I'll write those three chapters and plan the next three while I do that, so on. However, I seriously reccommend character profiles before writing. It makes things easier. Hope I helped!
