How does one start a new book? Do writers just sit down and start writing? I was asked to share my process on starting a new book. This is rather loaded because there are so many components to this.

Whenever I’d get an idea in my head, I used to just start writing scenes – favorite ones or whatever came to my mind, and it was never in order. I guess you could call me a pantser. I never knew where the story was going until I was about halfway through the writing and had gotten to know my characters. That has since changed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this tactic, but I feel the book can be much stronger with a plan.

When I was in grad school, I took a screenwriting class which was completely out of my realm. I had never written a screenplay in my life. Screenwriting is VERY different than novel writing. But I was up for the challenge and learned quite a bit.

My professor had us read Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat! This book focuses on planning out the story by having scenes meet the beats of the story. Every movie follows the formula. But What about novels? Well… Jessica Brody created Save the Cat! Writes a Novel which is based on Snyder’s book. Like screenplays, novels follows a pattern. A blueprint for your novel by way of a beat sheet.

The pattern* in a nutshell goes like this:

Act 1

Opening ImageTheme StatedSetupCatalystDebate

Act 2

Break into 2B StoryFun & GamesMidpointBad Guys Close InAll is LostDark Night of the Soul

Act 3

Break into 3FinaleFinal Image

*Please note, this is taken from the YA version of Save the Cat!

Once I have my idea, I fill out the template or blueprint. Basically, if I don’t know what will happen in that particular beat, I give a summation of what might happen. Sometimes the scenes come to me. Sometimes it takes a little while. Once I have a rough draft of the beat sheet, I start writing. I still pick my favorite scenes or whatever comes to me first because those are at the forefront of my mind and ones, I’m most excited to write about.

The outline almost always changes as does my story once I start writing and that’s okay. For me, the characters tell the story and sometimes they change what I originally planned.

Another HUGE component to my novel writing (and starting a book) is research. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a horror or science fiction or fantasy or a memoir. Research is VITAL to your book and writing process. Plus, you will gain tons of new ideas for your novel or perhaps something to use in another novel.

So that’s my process!

I highly recommend Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! books. They are incredibly helpful. Below are some other amazing books that help me.

These are my favorite books and I highly recommend them.

Happy writing!

Carrigan