Are You Ready to Start Writing?
Planning your non-negotiables for a draft
Everyone needs something different in place before they put pen to paper to start a new story. Some people — ones I envy, honestly — can get started with nothing but the spark of an idea and wings on the seat of their pants (so they can fly by them, of course). Others need a whole story bible full before they’re prepared to draft. I’m somewhere in between, and I bet a lot of people are too.
Here are some of my non-negotiables before I start a draft, plus some ideas of things I’m okay not knowing. As of right now, I’m set for my next project and ready to start writing when November hits.
Character
If I don’t have a general idea of my main characters and their relationship dynamics, I’m not ready to write. But what I find non-negotiable in writing characters might be different than what you do. I need to know:
- the main character’s lie and truth
- the character arc — especially its trajectory (positive? negative? disillusionment?)
- an idea of personality based on the enneagram, Meyers-Briggs, or ideally both
- how the character approaches the theme
- an idea of their voice, especially if it’s a POV character
What I don’t need to know are things like their favorite food, the outfits they wear, or even what they look like. I’m okay pantsing a lot of that, seeing how the character shakes out on the page, even if it’s inconsistent at first.
Main Beats
I need to know at least eight major turning points in the story before I can write it, although ideally I’d like to know twelve. In a decade of writing and seven finished books, I’ve never once kept all of these the same throughout revisions, but having a shape, even if it turns out to not be the perfect shape, has been vital.
For me, if I can find the turning points and set it to a beat sheet, it’s proof there is a story to tell there. I don’t mind if it’s the wrong story — in fact, having more than one way I could make a novel out of my idea is proof, to me, that I’m not going to run out of content 30,000 words in.
I tend to plot to Save the Cat mixed with K.M. Weiland’s plot and, sometimes, Truby’s 22 points. As of right now (early on October 31st), I don’t have all of these worked out for my next novel, but because I’m working on a retelling, I’m less concerned than I would otherwise be. Plus, the day is young.
Subplots/Minor Characters
I’ll start here by saying that I’m least concerned about this when I get started. Some of my favorite characters over the years have been ones that simply showed up when I needed them, and I didn’t plan them out beforehand.
However, like with the main plot, I like to know there are possibilities here. Do I have an idea of how a subplot could tie in with the main theme? Are there opportunities to meet minor characters? Knowing these are true helps separate a novel idea from a short story idea in my head.
For my current book, the minor characters are only just starting to pop into my head, but I’m seeing how they’ll find their way into the story, and how their own lives will impact my main characters. So even though it’s a bit fuzzy, there are definitely a novel’s worth of words floating around in my brain right now.
Cookie Scenes
This is a term I learned from Susan Dennard ages ago. Basically, these are the reasons you want to write the book. The scenes that play out in your mind every time you daydream about it. The goal in the posted link is to make every scene into a magical cookie scene eventually. But as far as my checklist for being ready to write goes, I just need to have some things I’m looking forward to writing.
The moment the characters finally kiss. The poignant argument. The rant about Facebook moms I definitely have planned for scene one. Including song lyrics. The insults!
I have my fair share of cookie scenes for this book, that’s for sure. What are you most looking forward to writing in your book?
A Title and/or a First Line
For whatever reason, books don’t feel real to me until I have a working title for them, even if they eventually change. The second novel I wrote felt dead to me for most of Preptober. I didn’t think I could do it. Then, a few days before NaNo, I wrote down:
My best friend’s funeral is so predictable, I shouldn’t have bothered coming.
That stayed the first line through every draft. The book after that, a few days before NaNo, I had,
The last day it rained, Emma Gladstone, my second-best friend in the world, stood at the base of my tree house and begged me to drive her to Hainsville.
This year, I don’t have a first line, not exactly. But I do have an opening image: a character standing in her very empty apartment trying to figure out why she said no when her long-time boyfriend proposed. I do have a title, though, and the title clicking made a huge difference on tone for me.
So for me, non-negotiables are:
- a main character with a lie, a truth, and an arc
- the major turning points of the story
- ideas for how subplots and minor characters could play out
- scenes I’m excited to write
- a title and/or a first line
What are yours?
If you like my work and would like to read more of it, consider joining Medium with my referral link to get full access to every article on Medium. Using my referral link doesn’t cost you anything, but half of the fee goes directly to supporting me each month.