4 Steps to Writing a Novel in 2 Weeks

 

I don’t know about you, but I have to plan out every inch of my manuscript. For me, outlining a work in progress is a four-stage process. First, there is the spider outline. Second comes the murder board. Third, comes the Book Bible. Last, but not least, is the chapter outline. These steps help to flesh out the concept, theme, and characters.

The spider outline is fairly simple. In the middle I layout the main character and answer a few questions. Who are they? What’s their name? Where do they live?  Do they have a significant other? Then I create those other characters and branch them to the main character. For instance, in my latest book, Onyx, the main character is Raven Sinclair. She has a girlfriend named Grace Trudeau. They live together in a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. So, I would string together Raven and Grace’s bubbles. I repeat that step with all the characters in the book.

The murder board is key when writing a murder mystery or thriller novel. I use a dry erase board to map out who the killer is, what they want and their victims. Using the dry erase board, I can layout questions that need answering, then erase the question once the answer surfaces. For Onyx, just to keep things linear and because it is fresh in my mind, I made three columns: Killer, Victims, and Common Ground. I abbreviate victims as V1, V2, V3 etc.

Next comes the Book Bible. I break these down in two steps. First, are the character note cards. Things written on the cards are the character’s appearance, age, sexuality, likes and dislikes. The final step in the Book Bible is the world building. There is so much detail in the bible that will not wind up in the final draft but is necessary to get the theme and voice of the project. This also helps if you decide to make a standalone book a series. You won’t have to reread the first book to know what you wrote in order to get a detail correct in the sequels.

The last step is the chapter outline. This I do bullet point style.

Chapter 1: The Phone Call

·         Describe a normal day in Raven’s life

·         Introduce Grace

·         Receive the phone call that alters Raven’s life forever.

It isn’t complicated. I leave wiggle room for the characters to fight back against the outline, but for the most part I have a well-defined novel waiting to be written.

You may find these techniques useful for your own writing. I hope you do. Since mastering this process, I have successfully written 50,000-word novels in two weeks. Which is perfect for romance or cozy mysteries.