I mention my writing process in my FAQ, but for aspiring authors, here’s a longer breakdown of how I take a fleeting idea and turn it into a published novel!
1- Start with an idea. This seems so straightforward but I cannot tell you how many times someone has said “I’m writing a book” and I ask “What’s it about?” And they can’t even give me a basic plot idea. It doesn’t have to be a fleshed out, grand idea, with every plot twist and subplot all scoped out– but you should know the bare minimum. What is your Genre? This is where I usually start, and the answer is almost invariably Romance, even if the romantic plot is only a subplot. Who are your Characters? I like to have both of my leads at least in a stereotype that I can build off of, for example: Grumpy Introvert falls in love with Bubbly Ray of Sunshine. I can adjust their personalities based on whatever trope pairing I’ve selected, or sometimes I think about one character and then research pairings to decide who the other is. If you’re writing a mystery, who’s your culprit? Who’s your investigator/detective? If it’s horror, who or what is the villain, monster, horror icon, etc? If you have at least these two aspects in mind, you have an Idea.
2- Story Arc. So you have your idea– next come up with a vague, over-arcing plot. As I mentioned in the last step, I usually start with a trope pairing. We’ll stick with Grumpy Introvert and Bubbly Ray of Sunshine, henceforth known as Grump and Sunshine. I know that, in the end, they will fall in love. That’s a vague, over-arcing plot. Often I start this with an idea for my Conflict, but you can design or decide on yours once you have the overall plot and genre. Let’s say Grump and Sunshine have a miscommunication– He thinks She’s in love with someone else, She thinks He’s in love with someone else, and as it turns out, Both of them are in love with Each Other. That’s a conflict! You can milk that beauty throughout the entire book, and the climax/resolution comes from them finally addressing the conflict– in this case, realizing their miscommunication and clearing it up. You don’t have to know the how or the why yet, but you’ve got a decent foundation to build upon.
3- Essential Plot Points. We’ve all seen that little pulse looking thing English teachers use to teach us how to build a story line. If you haven’t, it’s just a visual representation of the rising action, the climax, and the falling action. That’s what we’re looking at now. Starting with your basic plot from the last step, you’re gonna figure out what Plot Points you need and where they go. For our Grump and Sunshine duo, we need a few scenes to happen BEFORE the climax, so we’ll list “Start”, then list each scene that needs to lead to the conflict. Obviously, our characters either need to meet, or we need to see their current relationship. That goes next to “Start.” Next, we need to show their developing feelings for one another. One essential plot point is the establishment of the conflict, so you’d list that as “Miscommunication.” Maybe put a little blurb in about how it goes down. Then we need them to have a couple of scenes where they’re alone to further the miscommunication and pine for one another. Select a few scenes that help build up your conflict, build your characters, and build their relationships with one another (this doesn’t necessarily mean romantically!), and list the important scenes. List everything you can think of. HINT: these don’t have to be in order!! We can sort that out later! Once you’re done with the rising action points, write “Climax” and a little blurb about how that goes down and gets resolved. Afterward, you can have your falling action. Tie up loose ends that the climax didn’t touch on, show the aftermath of the climax, show how your characters have changed and grown. Grump and Sunshine may have a scene where we see them nice and cozy in their newly shared space, or we may have an epilogue of a proposal/wedding/baby. List a point or two showing the resolution/aftermath of your climax, and voila! You’ve got your essential plot points.
4- Outlining. This is where things get a little more organized. I like to use a method I learned from Bookishdiplodocus on Tumblr/ Larry Brooks (credited in their post), and have since saved to a Pinterest Board for reference each time I reach this step. You basically create a fill-in-the-blanks outline and go from there. It goes like this:
- Inciting Incident
- World Building
- Point of No Return
- Rising Action 1
- First Pinch Point
- Rising Action 2
- Midpoint
- Rising Action 3
- Second Pinch Point
- Rising Action 4
- Climax
- Resolution
- Falling Action
- End
You’ve got the list– fill in the blanks. The Inciting Incident, PONR, Pinch Points, Climax, Resolution, and End should be once scene each. The World Building, Rising Action, and Falling Action should all be a few scenes each– as many as it takes. They don’t necessarily have to be even between each point, but it should be roughly even.
The Alternate Version:
I sometimes like to write in mini arcs that all tie together into the major plot, kind of like episodes of a TV show’s full season. Each arc lasts one to three chapters, and will get referenced again later, but they’re mostly individual vignettes with their own mini versions of the plot listed above. I find this system much more attainable with Romance writing than the Hero’s Journey style arc referenced above!
5- Scene List. Now we get REALLY in depth. You’re gonna list each scene, in order (or in a relative order– I often renumber and rearrange as I write when I realize something needs to move). Include a vague synopsis of the scene, so that you know what’s happening in it. That’s it! Easy Peasy. You’ve got the Outline to work from, use it as a springboard. If you’re stuck on a scene, you can plot it out the long way (or if you’re that kind of person, you can do that for every scene) by doing a full scene synopsis, a few paragraphs to a page for each scene. (I find this tedious and time consuming, personally, unless I get SERIOUSLY stuck).
6- First Draft. Follow your scene list. Go scene by scene, either in order or starting with the most important plot points and circling back to filler scenes (my usual go-to). This draft will be beautiful in that it exists. That’s all it has to do. Let it be short or long, blunt or rambly, vague or excessively detailed. You can start with just the dialogue, or just the action, and leave notes to yourself to fill whatever’s missing in later (I love doing this with filler scenes, especially). Just let it happen. You have a map. Use it. Most importantly, though, HAVE FUN. This is the most fun part of the writing adventure! Enjoy yourself!
Note: Some people start here. Just seat-of-the-pants writing. That’s perfectly fine! If you get stuck, you can make an outline, or just figure out what you want your next scene to accomplish as you get to it. It does help to at least have a general idea of where you’re going, like in steps 1 and 2. The excessive planning is preferential.
7- Read Through. This one might hurt. Your baby will be so bizarre; you’ll notice plot holes and inconsistencies in your characters. Some scenes are going to need moving, scrapping, or rewriting. Everything feels messy and disjointed. Fear not! This is perfectly normal! If you have a first draft, you have the skeleton of a full story.
8- Rewrite. You read that right. Don’t edit this one– Rewrite it completely, from start to finish. Print it out if you must, to make notes on when you edit in step 7; use two monitors or two different windows, whatever works. I know it sucks, it’ll suck no matter what. But when it’s done, your story will be more recognizable as a fully fleshed out book. This is where the most work happens; it gets easier from here.
9- Beta and Edit. This is where you get more eyes on your project. A few people you trust with varying opinions should do the trick! I have a nit-picky friend, an indulgent friend, and one who reads the manuscript like an actual editor. The differences in their feedback tell me what’s missing from the story. Aim within your target audience for Beta readers, though; too wide of a gap between each reader, and your feedback will be too contradictory to work with. Also, remember, you make the executive decisions. If there’s something that a Beta says that goes against the goal of the story, you have the right to ignore that feedback.
10- Final Edits. I think we went through my books about six times, together, between my initial read through, my editor’s read through, my Betas’ read throughs, my group read through, and all the times I re-read it myself before I chose a publisher. I polished the manuscript until we all agreed on it, and then created a pdf version of the document. It’s good to go through it multiple times, but it’s also important to take breaks between each reading, if you can. If someone professionally edits your manuscript, you’ll probably have to pay, but I find feeding my friends and book-clubbing the manuscript works for me.
This is where things differ between self publishing and mainstream publishing. If you’re publishing mainstream, this is where you get an agent, an editor, and a publisher interested in your work. Alas, I can’t be much help with that line of publishing.
11- Covers. A friend of mine created my first covers with Photoshop, some royalty free images, and me breathing down his neck for three hours. You can pay to have someone make your cover, but if you make it yourself, be sure to do your research. I ended up switching up my covers on my own because I wanted a different, more genre-savvy style than what we’d originally come up with– and that’s okay! Book covers in our industry change weirdly often, and we’ve just gotta stick with them. I use Canva, but you can hire someone on Upwork or Fiverr to get yours done, if you prefer. Or pull out the big guns with Photoshop or another professional art software.
12- Author’s notes, Dedications, etc. This is a place for you to really speak from the heart, should you wish to include either of these. I had my dedication and my author’s note written right into the manuscript, though the author’s note went through a little revision after the editing process to thank my Betas and editor.
13- Typesetting. I use Reedsy for my writing, and then their website can transport the entire manuscript in the correct format to publish. There are layout options, aesthetic options, so many options to choose from. I’m a big fan of their Romantic format, personally.
14- Publishing. Please do your research. Publishing should be a one-time cost and it shouldn’t be an arm and a leg. Learn from my mistakes and stick with Kindle or IngramSpark. Their websites have the instructions for publishing, but essentially, you upload the manuscript as a .mobi file, then upload the cover as a pdf, choose your printing settings, set the price, and voila, you have yourself a book! Ingramspark can provide you an ISBN, and a barcode, so you don’t have to purchase those separately unless you want to be credited as the publisher (note that you need a different ISBN for every format of the book you plan to sell). I would suggest publishing on both, and possibly even Barnes And Noble’s online option, with the rise of shady AI books on KDP, just to protect yourself and your brainchild.
And that’s it! It seems so big and scary when you sit down to write, but really, it’s just a step by step process. It takes a lot of hard work, but the end result is so worth it.
Go forth! Write that project of yours! And have so much fun doing so!
Stephanie C Surma 