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Foundations of Fiction #1
Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure
Please Formally titled "Planning Your Ideas and Structure"Do you have a great story idea? Do you want to turn it into a novel?Award-winning author Janice Hardy (and founder of the popular writing site, Fiction University) takes you step-by-step through plotting and writing a novel with her book Plotting Your Ideas and Structure. She'll show you how to find and develop ideas, brainstorm stories from that first spark of inspiration to a complete story, develop the right characters, setting, plot, as well as teach you how to identify where your novel fits in the market, and if your idea has what it takes to be a series.With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Plotting Your Ideas and Structure offers ten self-guided workshops with more than 100 different exercises to help you craft a solid novel. Each workshop builds upon the other to flesh out your idea as much or as little as you need to start writing (useful for both plotters and pantsers). You'll find multiple options that allow you to find the right process that works for you.Learn how compelling characters readers will loveChoose the right point of view for your storyDetermine the conflicts that will drive your plot (and keep readers hooked!)Find the best writing process for your writing styleCreate a solid plot from the spark of your ideaPlotting Your Ideas and Structure also helps you develop the critical elements for submitting and selling your novel once it's finished. You'll find exercises on how your one-sentence pitch Create your summary hook blurb (which makes writing query letters and cover copy easier)Develop a solid working synopsisPlotting Your Ideas and Structure is an easy-to-follow guide to planning and writing your novel, or fixing a novel that isn't quite working.For those who like a hands-on approach with easy-to-use worksheets, a companion guide, Plotting Your Novel Workbook is also available in paperback.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 27, 2014
146 people are currently reading
436 people want to read
About the author
Janice Hardy
28 books360 followersJanice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins.
She also writes the Grace Harper series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.
When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series.
She also writes the Grace Harper series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.
When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 5, 2014
I'll write a review on this later, but honestly - one of the best writing guides I've picked up in quite some time. It's easy to understand, comprehensive with the different types of writers as well as writing for working on a project - just a lot of good stuff here. Review to come. :)
August 18, 2022
I finally finished working through this book and it has been invaluable. So much was missing from my initial drafts that I had no clue was a problem before this. The brainstorm activities are highly helpful, and I recommend this to anyone who wants to write a novel but has no idea how to go about it. Janice Hardy clearly walks you through every single step for planning a compelling story. Tell me how it works for you!
July 11, 2025
The first 34 pages of “Plotting your Novel: Ideas and Structure” flipped my world upside down. Specifically, this occurred in the first six pages of the third chapter, Developing Your Idea, where author Janice Hardy explains the difference between an idea, the premise, the plot, and the story. Working my way through those pages not only helped me to establish a firm base for the rewrite of a draft, but the confidence that I was on the correct path to success. What’s exciting is that I still have another 270 pages to read!
{NOTE: I chose to read this book while at the same time using the “Plotting Your Novel Workbook.” Do you need both? If you are new to the world of writing I would encourage you to read the book, as all the ideas/explanations are contained there. At that point, whether or not you use the workbook is up to you, as all the questions in the workbook are included in the PYN book, and you can always write your answers in a notebook. The downside? For clarity’s sake, you may find yourself writing Ms. Hardy’s questions in that notebook along with your answers. I originally considered doing this (using a spiral notebook)with my current and future novels, but decided the time saved by not having to write down every question is worth the price of purchasing an inexpensive workbook dedicated to each novel}.the
Ms. Hardy breaks her explanations of plotting a novel into ten chapters. If you do decide to purchase both the PYN book and the PYN Notebook, the notebook contains page numbers to link you to the exact page in PYN, just in case you need a refresher on that chapter’s subject.
The ultimate goal? To end up with a working synopsis of your novel. Throughout the book, Ms. Hardy lets you know this synopsis can be as vague or thorough as you wish. For instance, pantsers might have nothing more than road signs to use, while outliners have certain scenes written out as part of their synopsis. In other words, your completed synopsis will fit your style of writing.
By the way, if you’ve never read one of Janice Hardy’s instructional books, you will find that her explanations are quite thorough and extremely understandable. If you like her teaching method, I encourage you to check out her other books. As for Plotting Your Novel and the Plotting Your Novel Workbook, 5 stars for each.
{NOTE: I chose to read this book while at the same time using the “Plotting Your Novel Workbook.” Do you need both? If you are new to the world of writing I would encourage you to read the book, as all the ideas/explanations are contained there. At that point, whether or not you use the workbook is up to you, as all the questions in the workbook are included in the PYN book, and you can always write your answers in a notebook. The downside? For clarity’s sake, you may find yourself writing Ms. Hardy’s questions in that notebook along with your answers. I originally considered doing this (using a spiral notebook)with my current and future novels, but decided the time saved by not having to write down every question is worth the price of purchasing an inexpensive workbook dedicated to each novel}.the
Ms. Hardy breaks her explanations of plotting a novel into ten chapters. If you do decide to purchase both the PYN book and the PYN Notebook, the notebook contains page numbers to link you to the exact page in PYN, just in case you need a refresher on that chapter’s subject.
The ultimate goal? To end up with a working synopsis of your novel. Throughout the book, Ms. Hardy lets you know this synopsis can be as vague or thorough as you wish. For instance, pantsers might have nothing more than road signs to use, while outliners have certain scenes written out as part of their synopsis. In other words, your completed synopsis will fit your style of writing.
By the way, if you’ve never read one of Janice Hardy’s instructional books, you will find that her explanations are quite thorough and extremely understandable. If you like her teaching method, I encourage you to check out her other books. As for Plotting Your Novel and the Plotting Your Novel Workbook, 5 stars for each.
February 13, 2016
Planning Your Novel:Ideas and Structure, is a book for writers who want to learn more about planning. It will provide you with the knowledge you need to help you plan your novel.
The Bad Stuff: If you are an experienced writer, you will know most of the information within this book, however it may help to solidify the steps and technique used in planning and you may even pick up one or two new things.
The Good Stuff: If you are new to writing, I strongly recommend you read this book. It gives an in depth insight into how to plan and structure a novel, come up with ideas, write a synopsis and more. I wish I had read this book when I started out, it would have jump started my writing skills. While I knew a lot of the information between the pages, I have learnt from this book and it has helped me gain a better understanding of what I already knew. Janice Hardy shares the knowledge she has acquired over years of writing and explains it all in easy to understand terms.
For the value this book offers to new writers, I am giving this one 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.
The Bad Stuff: If you are an experienced writer, you will know most of the information within this book, however it may help to solidify the steps and technique used in planning and you may even pick up one or two new things.
The Good Stuff: If you are new to writing, I strongly recommend you read this book. It gives an in depth insight into how to plan and structure a novel, come up with ideas, write a synopsis and more. I wish I had read this book when I started out, it would have jump started my writing skills. While I knew a lot of the information between the pages, I have learnt from this book and it has helped me gain a better understanding of what I already knew. Janice Hardy shares the knowledge she has acquired over years of writing and explains it all in easy to understand terms.
For the value this book offers to new writers, I am giving this one 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks.
October 24, 2015
This is one of the best writing planning books I've read. Hardy sets out to do something that a lot of writing books try to do, but don't quite manage: tell you exactly how to plan a book. A lot of books tell you what you should do, but this book has numerous exercises that allow you to build up to the synopsis. This book is intended to take you from earliest idea through to a synopsis you can work from, but it will be useful even if you are further along in the planning process. I had an idea with partially-developed characters and a basic plot, and used the book to flesh everything out and get that synopsis I can use to actually write the novel.
June 17, 2022
This book is filled with good advice and good questions to help writers develop their story ideas.
The best chapter is Workshop 9 on writing a summary blurb. It says that authors should know their 1) protagonist, 2) antagonist, 3) story goal, 4) core conflict, 5) stakes, 6) inciting event, and 7) how the novel's core conflict is resolved. If you don't know those seven things, Hardy says you're likely to run into trouble writing the novel. I agree 100%! Most of the authors who come to me for editing have a problem with one or more of these seven items and they've often gotten stuck somewhere in the middle of writing a manuscript.
I think the sheer number of questions could be overwhelming to writers whose challenge is having too many ideas and not knowing how to choose which ones to pursue. There's some guidance on how to choose wisely in this book and excellent examples. However, I think many authors will need more examples to really master the concepts described in the book. But one book can only cover so much ground.
If you're in the middle of writing a novel, I recommend reading this book and paying special attention to Workshop 9.
The best chapter is Workshop 9 on writing a summary blurb. It says that authors should know their 1) protagonist, 2) antagonist, 3) story goal, 4) core conflict, 5) stakes, 6) inciting event, and 7) how the novel's core conflict is resolved. If you don't know those seven things, Hardy says you're likely to run into trouble writing the novel. I agree 100%! Most of the authors who come to me for editing have a problem with one or more of these seven items and they've often gotten stuck somewhere in the middle of writing a manuscript.
I think the sheer number of questions could be overwhelming to writers whose challenge is having too many ideas and not knowing how to choose which ones to pursue. There's some guidance on how to choose wisely in this book and excellent examples. However, I think many authors will need more examples to really master the concepts described in the book. But one book can only cover so much ground.
If you're in the middle of writing a novel, I recommend reading this book and paying special attention to Workshop 9.
December 17, 2017
This is an all-in-one, step-by-step reference for writing fiction by Janice Hardy, whose Fiction University is an awesome website with writing tips. Lots of this info is free on the website, but having an organized physical reference is very handy from the initial stage of generating ideas through writing a rough draft along with many questions to work on both plot and character development. Highly recommended for beginners who want an inexpensive way to learn writing craft, or for experienced writers who need help refining the writing process.
October 22, 2016
More of a work-through-as-useful-for-a-project rather than a read-from-cover-to-cover book; I've worked through it on a couple of projects now - a revision and a new concept - and I'm impressed with its versatility and usefulness. There's a lot to offer both planners and pantsers - the former in building before writing, and the latter in regrouping for efficient revisions - in terms of pragmatic approaches to solid fiction concepts that will give strong bones to a project.
June 15, 2017
Expected a little bit more. It helped to asked some interesting questions about the plot and characters, but nothing I couldn't find on the web. It may be more useful if you don't have any ideas on what to write about.
October 13, 2018
Awesome book for tips on planning and organizing your story.
February 2, 2020
Este libro es espectacular, realmente te ayuda a organizar las ideas. Además te proporciona herramientas sumamente útiles. Lo recomiendo totalmente!
July 8, 2024
Excellent resource. Highly recommend.
August 5, 2014
I've been reading Janice Hardy's blog, The Other Side of the Story (now Fiction University) off and on for a while now, and I've found her advice and discussions easy to understand. Janice Hardy has a knack for explaining what is often said but not really understood. I've been hoping she would eventually compile her writing tips into a book, and I was ecstatic when I learned that she had written this book.
I picked up the print edition, which came with the free kindle matchbook option, so I started reading the ebook while waiting for the print version to arrive. Quite handy to have, though I must say that I love the formatting of the print book so much more. Due to the nature of ebooks, the print book formatting is much easier to follow through the charts.
As for the content itself, everything is really easy to understand, and helps further clarify what's already on her blog. Some of the information is a bit repetitive, but I honestly found that it helped reinforce the various lessons learned from each chapter. Those lessons became easier to remember as she went, and lessons from earlier chapters came back later to help push you forward. Plus, if you've been following her story with Bob and the zombies (which she uses to illustrate points occasionally), this book continues that story and uses it to illustrate how structuring a novel can work.
I highly recommend Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure by Janice Hardy. Her points are easy to follow, regardless of whether you're cobbling together a first draft or evaluating a later draft to make sure all the pieces are in place. I anticipate reading through this again as I work through other drafts and stories, and I look forward to the future books in this series.
I picked up the print edition, which came with the free kindle matchbook option, so I started reading the ebook while waiting for the print version to arrive. Quite handy to have, though I must say that I love the formatting of the print book so much more. Due to the nature of ebooks, the print book formatting is much easier to follow through the charts.
As for the content itself, everything is really easy to understand, and helps further clarify what's already on her blog. Some of the information is a bit repetitive, but I honestly found that it helped reinforce the various lessons learned from each chapter. Those lessons became easier to remember as she went, and lessons from earlier chapters came back later to help push you forward. Plus, if you've been following her story with Bob and the zombies (which she uses to illustrate points occasionally), this book continues that story and uses it to illustrate how structuring a novel can work.
I highly recommend Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structure by Janice Hardy. Her points are easy to follow, regardless of whether you're cobbling together a first draft or evaluating a later draft to make sure all the pieces are in place. I anticipate reading through this again as I work through other drafts and stories, and I look forward to the future books in this series.
April 6, 2021
I've read a lot of books on writing over the last 3 years, including a few on outlining. This is one of the few writing books that have been a breakthrough for me. My second novel was stuck in nebulous idea mode, even after reading other books on outlining or plot/structure, and now it's a complete fleshed-out synopsis. (Still a couple undecided details, but that's okay. Planning Your Novel is for plotters, pantsers, and plantsers alike.)
The first outlining book I read was pretty good, with helpful suggestions on types of brainstorming. The second book seemed to assume you already knew the whole story, you just needed to solidify it a little.
But this one takes you through the whole process of idea -> brainstorming -> fleshing out a full synopsis. You see examples of the brainstorming steps for 3 (made-up) novels, and the whole fleshed out synopsis for one of them.
If you combined a book on outlining + one on plot structure + one on character arc, you'd get this book.
The first outlining book I read was pretty good, with helpful suggestions on types of brainstorming. The second book seemed to assume you already knew the whole story, you just needed to solidify it a little.
But this one takes you through the whole process of idea -> brainstorming -> fleshing out a full synopsis. You see examples of the brainstorming steps for 3 (made-up) novels, and the whole fleshed out synopsis for one of them.
If you combined a book on outlining + one on plot structure + one on character arc, you'd get this book.
April 5, 2019
Hardy leaves no stone unturned in her working through from the most basic elements of putting a story together right up to the last chapter in which she goes thoroughly through a synopsis (outline) that will stand the writer in good stead for putting together their first draft.
For some more experienced writers there will parts that you can skim or skip. It's that kind of book, but her helpful brainstorming questions are always useful for making the procrastinating writer (me) work harder at teasing out interesting angles on what's already known. I defy anyone to work through this book and not produce a better novel.
For some more experienced writers there will parts that you can skim or skip. It's that kind of book, but her helpful brainstorming questions are always useful for making the procrastinating writer (me) work harder at teasing out interesting angles on what's already known. I defy anyone to work through this book and not produce a better novel.
October 6, 2014
This book is full of helpful advice for writers of all persuasions. Easy to follow, with exercises at the end of each chapter, writers could find themselves bursting with ideas. Whether you are about to begin your first draft or have already written it, Planning Your Novel helps you maintain both structure and focus. A comprehensive guide for writers, this is a book to come back to again and again.
December 6, 2020
After an initial read, I’m super impressed! I will definitely use Janice Hardy’s Planning Your Novel to write one of my future novels. I love the format with the chapters as workshops, each one building on the previous ones. Completing all the exercises and answering the brainstorming questions should provide you with a solid synopsis to work from before you actually start writing your novel. There are lots of helpful examples to illustrate various topics, too.
April 22, 2017
Guide for beginners
The questions asked by Hardy will give you a great deal to work with and allow for easy development of a novel's first draft.
Covering all the basics you won't be disappointed even if challenged by Hardy approach.
I recommend this if you're stuck with how to "get something on the page", not if you need revision help.
The questions asked by Hardy will give you a great deal to work with and allow for easy development of a novel's first draft.
Covering all the basics you won't be disappointed even if challenged by Hardy approach.
I recommend this if you're stuck with how to "get something on the page", not if you need revision help.
April 12, 2014
I religiously follow Janice Hardy's blog, and appreciate her writing wisdom. "Planning Your Novel" compiles great advice, plus adds brainstorming questions and writing exercises at the end of each chapter. A must-read for writers who want to dig deeper and push their craft to the next level.
June 7, 2015
This is a great book if you are stalled on your story. This books provides a lot of brainstorming questions. It's pretty comprehensive and detailed but can work for pantser and plotters and anyone inbetween.
July 17, 2016
This book contains great information for the new writer and brainstorming exercises ideal for the seasoned one.
December 13, 2015
GREAT for getting your "constructive" brain juices flowing:) Highly recommend...all of those little hints and reminders to help keep your writing on track can be invaluable!
August 31, 2023
As an author, this book is SO helpful! I refer to it often. Great resource.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews