How to plan a novel

Plan in passes

A plan in Plotscribe is made of small records you can add at any time: characters and places, plot lines, chapters with a synopsis, and plot points. You do not need a finished outline before you write, and you do not need to follow the steps below in order. Plan as far ahead as helps, write, and come back.

Every step is optional. A writer who discovers the story while drafting might name two plot lines and stop; a writer who outlines might go through every pass before the first sentence. Either way, the plan describes what you intend. It never writes, suggests, or changes your prose.

1. Gather the cast and the places

1. Use the + beside the World heading in the sidebar and choose a type such as Character, or New entity. Start with the people and places the story cannot happen without; minor ones can wait.
2. Give each record its canonical name, and add other names it goes by under Also called on the Profile tab.
3. Write a short Overview: who they are, what they want, and what stands in their way. Add Details on the Profile tab for facts you will need to keep straight, such as an age or an eye color.

2. Name your plot lines

A plot line is a thread that runs through the book: the main plot, a subplot, a relationship, a mystery. Naming them first gives every later plot point somewhere to belong.

1. Open Plan from the sidebar (Ctrl/Cmd+2) and check the book named in the toolbar.
2. Choose By plot line in the toolbar’s view switch, then use Plot line to add a line.
3. Name each line for what it tracks, such as The missing pages or Wren and Tobias, rather than Subplot 1. Three to six lines is plenty for most novels.

3. Sketch the chapters

1. Hover the Manuscript heading in the sidebar and choose New chapter for each chapter you can already see. Drag them into the order the reader should meet them.
2. Open each chapter’s Chapter context and write a one- or two-sentence Synopsis of what happens in it. The Outline view on the Plan board shows these synopses chapter by chapter.
3. Set Status to Stub for chapters that exist only as a plan, so the board shows how much is still to write. If the book has movements, group chapters into Parts.

4. Place the plot points

A plot point is something that happens, or should happen: a discovery, a decision, a reversal. Each one sits in a chapter and on a plot line, so the board shows what every chapter carries and how each thread moves.

1. In By plot line, hover the empty cell where a chapter meets a line and choose Plot point. Give it a short title and a sentence about what happens.
2. When you have an idea but not its chapter, keep it under Unassigned plot points and drag it onto a chapter once the story has a place for it.
3. Aim for the turns, not every scene. A plot point per line per chapter is a ceiling, not a target.

5. Check the shape against a framework

A framework is a story pattern, a named list of beats. Use one to see where your turns fall, not to decide what your story must do.

1. In Plan, choose Frameworks… in the More (⋯) menu in the toolbar.
2. Under Start from, pick Three-Act Novel, Save the Cat, or Hero’s Journey, or create your own. The copy belongs to your World and you can edit its beats.
3. Choose the framework from a plot line’s menu beside its name. Different lines can follow different patterns, and each chapter’s cell on that line can be placed in a section.
4. Look for beats with no chapter and long runs of chapters with no turn. Then decide whether the gap is a problem or a choice.

6. Put the story in time

If the book moves around in time, with flashbacks, parallel timelines, or a story told out of order, date the chapters in story time. Reading order stays as it is.

1. On the Plan board, open a chapter’s actions menu (… on its row, or right-click) and choose Set when it happens….
2. Turn on Order by story time in the More (⋯) menu to read the book in the order events happen.
3. Review chapters marked Reads out of order. A flashback is meant to; anything else may be a slip.

7. Read the plan back

Each view on the Plan board answers a different question. Read the plan in all three before you draft, and again after.

• Outline reads the book chapter by chapter. Does each chapter’s synopsis follow from the last?
• By plot line shows each thread across the chapters. Does every line begin, turn, and end? Does one vanish for too long?
• By entity shows where each character and place appears. Does someone important disappear for half the book?
• Plan connections, the panel on the right, shows the plot line, beat, and chapters of whatever you select.

8. Write from the plan

Open a chapter and show Chapter context. Its Chapter plan section lists that chapter’s plot points with their descriptions, read from the same records as the board. Show beside the prose, or Ctrl/Cmd+backslash, opens the whole outline next to the page.

The draft will change your mind. When it does, move the plot point, rewrite its description, or mark the chapter Draft, Revised, or Final as it progresses. Moves on the board can be undone from the feedback that reports them; before a large rearrangement, export a copy of the World as a checkpoint.