Project Planning
So you now have an idea of what you are going to write but now you have to come up with a plan. If you are going to attempt all the standards that are on offer for this course then you should plan for writing articles and marketing as well as the writing of your novel part.
Project planning
Once you have decided what genre you are going to write in you need to set yourself a goal. This program can be completed in a year if you are really focused and I promise it is worth the journey. But you can also work on this over a longer period of time. Up to three years would be the recommended amount of time.
Timeline is very important when it comes to planning a novel. Start by giving yourself a date that you would like to publish your work. This can be on platforms like Wattpad but if you are brave there is no reason why you can’t go for something like Amazon. But we will get to that at a later date. The first thing is to decide on a launch date. Once you have decided that you need to figure out what else is needed. In your diary make a list of all the things you will need to do to write a book. I have included my own list for reference.
My List
Plot out story
Write draft
Design the cover
Create a media release pack
Create a website
Write articles on the website
Write a reader magnet
Edit reader magnet
Cover for the reader magnet
Self-edit
Create newsletters
Beta reading
Another self-edit
Line edit/copy edit
Proofread
Write blurb
Plan launch party
Now decide when all of these need to be done by. I recommend reading through this whole program before you put all the dates in. This is your production schedule. Things to keep in mind is that it is better to self-edit a book after you have let it sit for a while. I’ll be adding in steps like website design and content creation that needs to go between your draft being completed and the rest so plan for that as well. You should create a detailed plan in your diary. You should include how many words need to be written to hit the dates you have decided on. If you don’t think you can complete a full novel then start with just a couple of chapters. It only means that your options for publication will be different at the end of the process.
I recommend keeping everything together in something called a Bullet Journal.
Here are a couple of sites that are good to use for organising a project but you can just write this up in your diary.
I realised the other day while I was nitpicking my way through an exemplar and trying to see how it would fit with a novel that it might be worth it to have an exemplar specifically for novels. My alter ego is Nix Whittaker. I write fiction as a side hustle and this is what my process would look like within the standard. This is a novel I'm currently working on. So if you read my books - warning - spoilers.
Concept design - based on the SNOWFLAKE METHOD
(Keep in mind that all of this is usually done in my head so this is more like a flow of consciousness.)
I started off with a character from the previous book in the series. (you can do character profiles) Katherine is the daughter of a Duke in the 1880's. There are dragons who hold a higher position in society so she doesn't see her rank in society as anything to set herself above others instead it has allowed her to pursue a career that would have been closed to women of a lower rank. With an indulgent father, she studied many of the sciences but settled on being a doctor after she saw how it could help people when she used a cadaver to save her sister's husband - this was written about in the first novel. In this book which is the last book in the series, Katherine is looking for someone to help her create a new mechanical heart for her mother. Something like what Christiaan Bernard created. But all of this with a steampunk aesthetic. I want her to have a dragon help her as the last book only had dragons on the peripherals and I want a dragon protagonist again as I like the dynamics of an alien race engaging with humans. Since dragons are scientists and more advanced in technology I'll have her go to one to help her.
My brother has one of these cool watches that doesn't have a battery and just movement charges it. This to me is very steampunk so I wanted that to be part of the story. So the dragon is a watchmaker. Since Katherine is on a mission and I didn't want the story to be around putting the heart into her mother as I couldn't think of anything that engaged me I knew I had to have something happen between where the dragon lived and home in Londinium. I decided I didn't want to stay too long in his home town so I decided on a 'lust to love' trope between her and the dragon. This means the love interest/romantic element develops very quickly and then settles down to a slow burn. With both of them being of a scientific bent they would go into it more as an experiment and then fall in love over time.
If the dragon flew her back it would also be too easy and by adding in the flaw that she is afraid of heights I could then force the dragon out of his comfort zone and this can lead to humour with the dragon being forced into a situation where he is no longer skilled. So I've made him a recluse to exacerbate this 'fish out of water' trope that will be his main arc.
Kidnapped - stalker trope has been done in my stories but I needed something that forced her from her mission. I didn't want someone to steal the heart for the heart's sake as that felt too much like the stalker trope. I'm trying to either subvert or avoid tropes that use women as victims for the sake of progressing the plot as this can come across as sexist. In a brainstorming session with some of my critique partners I decided on a train robbery. Westerns is another genre I like to explore and even though this is set in England I liked the idea of a western. So I needed a train. The best known one is the Flying Scotsman and if I have a recluse; where better to put them than in the Scottish highlands or the Hebrides. So the setting will be on the Flying Scotsman as it travels from Scotland towards the main centres where she'll be able to take another train to Londinium. To help with the 'lust to love' trope I will need to show that she is impulsive and to cement the train as a motif I will start the story with her getting off the train and introduce the antagonists who will later rob the train.
Audience and tone
Since this is the third book in the series and the eighth book set in this world I have already worked on a world bible and the audience. Here is the character list so far for this series. My ideal reader is female and any age who likes relationships over description. Who likes the by-play between characters rather than the description of intimacy as I write clean romance as my sub-plot. To research this and to make sure I stick to this audience I am part of groups like Flinch-free fiction which is a group of authors and readers who like fiction that has little gore, no swearing and fade to black sex scenes.
Though it is predominately a steampunk genre with trains and travelling chests that are made of mechanical gears, as the dragons use science to come to earth and do the things they are able to do, there are also gaslamp aspects as dragons are often considered mythical. In this particular book I am also looking towards Westerns. Some tropes from the western will be gunslingers and outlaws. These will be disenfranchised miners from Scotland who have decided that instead of sending gold away to feed others they would take it for themselves. This allows us to be sympathetic with the antagonists while firmly setting them in the wrong when they harass and steal from women and children on the train as well as the gold. I'm also going to have a mother on the train alone with lots of kids which is typical of western tropes. The typical interaction between our hero and one of the kids: doll in hand and sad puppy dog eyes. Since this is a mixture of genres it could really be called cattle punk but those are usually set in America. Instead I will be using the elemental genre as a sub-plot. Writing excuses does explain this very well. Where I will have tropes that are familiar to westerns set in a steampunk story.
The story will be told in dual POV in third past tense swapping between Katherine the doctor and McKinnon the dragon. This will allow me to show the development of feelings in both and appeal to a wider audience as both characters will have different but distinct personalities. I will be able to showcase the development of feelings in two people who are closed off. There will be elements of autism in both characters and how they overcome the miscommunication that can often happen in autistic characters. The third POV often creates distance but I will be using a close or deep POV which should overcome some of the negatives of a third person POV. The rest of the series is like this. This is more due to my style as I decided against first person even though the first story in this series was a mystery and most mysteries are first person. But I wanted a more fantasy feel to this series and that meant a third person POV. I also think that doing a first person with autistic characters might be disingenuous while a third person POV can actually add to the reality of it by creating a disconnect with the reader in some situations where personal cues are misread.
I hope to confront the audience with their assumptions around female doctors and also autism. As most autistic characters are portrayed as self absorbed instead of showing how they are bombarded with too much information. I'll have her be aware of things but unsure how to interact with people. In particular with other women. I make sure to be able to pass the Bechdal test and have at least two female characters. I will have Katherine but also two other female characters. One is Mary the housekeeper and the mother on the train. I will make sure that the mother is shown as strong and feminine and proud to be a mother but also overwhelmed. I want to show that you can still be a good mother but not have to perform for people. I'm not a fan of mommy shamers so I will make sure to point out the issues around shaming women for trying their best.
Production
I do writing sprints or pomodoro sprints and keep a count of the words. This can be done in Nanowrimo but I've found that just a simple grid and coloured in for the word count works for me. This is useful as I can start on the editing while I'm still writing as I'm more of writing into the dark kind of writer. This way I can record the first edit while I'm still trying to reach my word count. This also allows me to vary my timetable as I find if I am rushed I write less. If I don't take any breaks this should take me two months to do. Writing between 500 and 1000 words in a day four days out of the week. I started this one on the 15th August and hope to have it all completed to go out in November. Ironically as I write this I've had a laptop die on me. Thankfully, I use cloud storage for all my stories so no matter where I am I can still access my stories. But I had to replace my laptop and looked at the practicalities for that. I needed something that had a wide keyboard otherwise I have issues with overuse syndrome. But since I also do design work I went with a Surface Pro that means with a pen I can draw directly onto the touch screen.
I then leave the book for at least a month. In the meantime, I'm working on the cover design. That I will place below. And the blurb, which is surprisingly tricky.
I will then work on a second edit before I'll send it off to beta readers. I get these from Facebook groups and they are made up of authors and readers who read in the steampunk genre or the romance genre. Once back from beta readers I'll have the last edits done before I'll send it to an editor who will do line edits. I have an editor but I found them through research online and through Facebook groups. I usually do the proofreading with the help of programmes like Prowitingaid and Grammarly before I put it up on Amazon. I'll leave out my marketing plan as that isn't important to the standard.
I use the opening scene to get a feel for the characters and then I go back and plan the rest though there will always be gaps as I am a pantser instead of a planner.
Make a plan for your novel.