Fiction Builder! Outlining and Plotting Your Novel in Three Constructive Steps

By Eva Kattz and Maria Staal

Are you always getting stuck in the middle when writing a story? Are those endless rewrites giving you a headache? Or are you struggling to put all your different story ideas together? In Fiction Builder! Eva Kattz and Maria Staal show you a way out of the most common writer traps and put the fun back into writing.

Now a developmental editor and a cosy mystery writer respectively, Eva and Maria developed a new writing technique that can help you gain control over your own writing. Through three easy, practical steps, plotting and outlining will become creative and inspirational again.

In this book, you will learn how to:

•Use story structure to your best advantage
•Keep an overview of all your plot ideas
•Plot your story in three practical steps

Outlining is not a secret rite of passage that you need to go through to become a ‘real’ writer. Outlining is a craft that you can learn to help you produce the best stories you have ever written. If you’re ready to unleash your inner plot-machine, this book is for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: FTK Publishing
• Release date: Mar 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370815791

Book preview

Fiction Builder!

Outlining and Plotting your Novel

in Three Constructive Steps

Eva Kattz & Maria Staal

Copyright Eva Kattz and Maria Staal 2018

All rights reserved

Published by FTK Publishing

Cover design and formatting by Indie Designz

Smashwords Edition

British English is used throughout this book. Please note that some spelling, grammar and word usage will vary from US English.

www.evakattz.com and www.mariastaal.com

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 What this book is about (and what it is not)

1.2 Welcome to the Writer Trap

1.3 On Writing Software

1.4 Plotters and Pantsers

1.5 Who are we?

Chapter 2. Crash Course

2.1 World Building

2.2 Creating Characters

2.3 Genre Conventions

2.4 Story Promise

2.5 Writer’s Block

Chapter 3. The Method

3.1 Overview

3.2 Structure

3.3 The Method

Chapter 4. Blueprint

4.1 Let’s get started!

4.1.1 The Four Cornerstones

4.1.2 Set-Up

4.1.3 Fill each act with bullet points

4.1.4 Divide into chapters

4.1.5 More basic truths about chapters

4.1.6 Divide chapters into scenes

4.1.7 Add Importance Column

4.1.8 Make the plot flow logically

4.1.9 Exception to the rule!

4.2 From theory to practice

4.3 Recap

Chapter 5. Framework

5.1 Let’s get started!

5.2 Major pitfall alert

5.3 Recap

Chapter 6. Construction

6.1 The Story so Far: what the Blueprint and Framework can do for you

6.2 The First Draft

6.3 Writing a series

Chapter 7. Editing

7.1 Types of edits

7.2 How to edit

7.3 Beginning writers vs experienced writers

7.4 How many drafts?

7.5 Recap

Bonus Chapter

Questions & Answers

Recommended Reading

A tiny bit more about the authors

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1:

Introduction

1.1 What this book is about (and what it is not)

This book will provide you with the tools and the insight to tackle that pesky outline and create a step-by-step plan that is going to serve as your guide during the actual writing of your novel. It doesn’t require special skills or expensive software and can be repeated over and over again.

Many (if not all) of the other methods out there sooner or later give you the advice to ‘start outlining’. That’s where we pick up the challenge.

Where the book you’re holding differs from others of its kind is that we generally assume you’ve already set foot on the path to becoming a writer and are at least familiar with other story-elements such as world building, creating characters and the concept of story structure. These are all the things you can find in other books in great detail. Although we will address a few of the most common pitfalls associated with outlining, we didn’t want to see the actual plotting delegated to the final chapter again.

Outlining has been made into an afterthought far too often.

It has been our experience that developing a craft (like so many other things) comes in various stages of understanding and certainly not in a linear fashion. Mastering the art of writing doesn’t come with a syllabus you can work through from A–Z. For this reason we believe that you do not have to know every element of novel-writing in detail before you can even begin to think about plotting your own stories. All that is required is a head full of ideas and the willingness to dive in.

We are completely confident that you will be able to work through this book successfully, without first having to obtain a degree in creative writing. However, even if you do feel you lack the confidence to just ‘dive in’, don’t put this book down right away. Simply read on and we’ll provide you with the necessary pointers should you need them.

1.2 Welcome to the Writer Trap

Picture this: you’ve always wanted to become a writer. The idea of turning all those wonderful ideas in your mind into written words feels exhilarating. Perhaps you’ve been writing for years; first in school and later in the precious free hours between jobs and taking care of a family. But you wanted more, so one day you picked up one of those How-To books online or in the local bookstore. It taught you how to create better characters and loads more about writing excellent dialogue. Perhaps you dabbled in story structure as well; all vital elements of writing good fiction.

You learned that, beside the need to be ultimately creative, there are also some rules to follow – on peril of losing readers and your book becoming a ‘wall banger’. You struggled between remembering and balancing all these rules and at the same time retaining your creativity and the sense of excitement of creating a story. Last but not least, you’ve been told to outline your story. You’ve been given all sorts of choices and are generally advised to ‘do what works best for you’. And now you’ve come to the point where all these lessons have somehow taken root in your mind and you’re ready to pour that knowledge into your pending masterpiece.

BUT… suddenly ‘doing what works best for you’ is not as easy as it sounded.

You begin to wonder, did you do something wrong? After all, you’ve read all the How-To books and you’ve learned SO much. Perhaps you can even critique the work of other writers because you just know where the mistakes are and how to fix them.

BUT… when it comes to bringing together all these elements in your own work, something falters.

You try to create an outline, even though you really have no idea what an outline really entails. You try loads of different systems but you keep tripping over that final hurdle.

At this point you may also have tried your hand at some nifty piece of creative writing software that promised to give you an overview of all the story-elements that you so painstakingly crafted.

But even the software didn’t live up to its promise.

You begin to lose faith in your project and doubts are creeping in. Maybe you’re not a real writer after all. Maybe you’re just not talented enough. If Stephen King can simply sit down and write four novels a year, it has to be doable, right? Right?!

Problem is, there are literally thousands of books out there telling you how to put all your story-elements together, but none of these tell you what to do when you get stuck during outlining.

For some reason this part of the writing process often feels like some Great Test writers have to go through to prove they are worthy of calling themselves an Author. Except, the rules are only for insiders, those who have already triumphantly reached the finish line. And you as a mere amateur will never reach their lofty heights.

We say: UTTER NONSENSE.

Okay, now sit up, shift all those notes into a big pile, put them aside and try to forget your doubts for a moment. There is good news.

NO, you’re not a bad writer.

YES, you will be able to finish your project and publish your novel.

Talent is not something that can be defined by the number of How-To books you’ve read or how well you know your grammar rules. Neither is success in writing reserved for the Lucky Few.

There are MANY technical aspects of writing that you can learn, practise and apply, including the crucial final stages of outlining.

1.3 On Writing Software

To kick down the door right away: we are not a fan of creative writing software. Far too often the package promises a lot more than it delivers, or worse, it can become a straitjacket.

After all, it’s the software developers who decide what is important to your writing process, not you, the Actual Author. That’s the part that can