- \n
- what their story is<\/em> and what that story is about<\/em> (two different things, though related),<\/li>\n
- who<\/em> the story is about<\/em>, and<\/li>\n
- where<\/em> the story is going and will wind up<\/em> (terminate).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
You also should know the main conflict<\/em> and pretty well understand how the plot will flow<\/em> (the overall plot mechanism to be utilized). \u00a0\u00a0Most importantly, though, you must know your ending<\/em> \u2026usually. (Don\u2019t you just love exceptions? We\u2019re going to proceed without discussing those exceptions, though, because they so very rarely apply to such a very few writers.)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Further, you really should know your main character(s), their vulnerabilities and strengths<\/em>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What you don\u2019t have to know is the how<\/em> of where the story is going to go next and next and next as you write it through, not unless you\u2019re a died-in-the-wool plotter.\u00a0 If you are a plotter, then, yes, you will need to know exactly or all but exactly where your story and its plot are going next and next and next through every moment of every scene.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My main complaint about plotting is that there\u2019s absolutely no excitement or real joy in writing a novel via the plotting method.\u00a0 It\u2019s pure labor.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve dryly outlined the whole of it, it\u2019s a matter of padding it out so it holds reader interest.\u00a0 My brain goes cold and my eyes dry up doing that, so that method is absolutely not something I advocate for anyone who isn\u2019t writing pot boilers for minimum wage income.\u00a0 And nothing really genius usually<\/em> happens unless the character really takes it off script\u2014those extreme left, right, or even U turns organic novelists regularly can experience, twists and turns that often lead to surprising, even brilliant results, but sometimes lead to complete disaster.\u00a0 Nice thing about disasters is that, as the creator, you can go back to the fork in the road that leads to it and try again, over and over, taking yet another pathway until you find the one that\u2019s perfect.\u00a0 Of course, that means that writing without plotting can take regrettably longer to complete.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Disasters like this rarely happen to me, and there\u2019s a very good reason.\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u2018know your story\u2019.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For those of you who read my How to Write a Good Book in 17 Days<\/em>, you\u2019ve already seen a crash course that employs this technique.\u00a0 In this book, though, I\u2019m going to elaborate on the process and start from inception and conception, then walk you through execution.\u00a0 Let\u2019s begin.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Every Story has a Beginning that is the Result of a Previous Ending<\/strong><\/p>\n
Every story has a beginning, but that beginning is actually the result of an ending.\u00a0 You\u2019ll often see me end a novel or short story with \u2018The Beginning\u2019 instead of \u2018The End\u2019.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason for that.\u00a0 Because the story\u2019s culmination is actually the beginning of the next story.\u00a0 This is true of every cherished novel I\u2019ve ever read, be it something by Mark Twain, Conrad Richter, Ursula Le Guinn, Kim Stanley Robinson, Greg Bear, Charles Todd, Prestin and Child, or any of the other many authors I enjoy reading, a list way too long to present unless you\u2019re the kind of person who enjoys reading through the begats in the Bible\u2019s Old Testament. \u00a0If you check your own list of favorite novels and novelists, though, I think you, too, will find the same to be true of your favorite author\u2019s novels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The end of one novel can beget a new unwritten novel\u2019s beginning.\u00a0 And therein lies a clue to effectively starting your novel….<\/p>\n
END EXCERPT<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/book-open-pages-lit_11-18-2017-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In case you think I’m fooling with you, I thought I’d share the draft first chapter of one of the non-fiction books I’m working on. Here ya go. Tell me what you think over on my DLKeur Writing As page on Facebook. WORKING TITLE:\u00a0Writing Your Novel \u2013 The Very Best, Easiest, Fastest, Least Frustrating Way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[123,139,194,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dlkeur.com\/dlkeur-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- who<\/em> the story is about<\/em>, and<\/li>\n