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Foundations of Fiction #2
Plotting Your Novel Workbook
A Hands-On Workbook for Plotting Your Novel!
Award-winning author Janice Hardy guided writers through the often challenging process of planning a novel with her book, Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure. At reader request, she created this workbook as a companion guide. Its larger workbook format is perfect for writers who enjoy brainstorming on paper and developing their novels in an organized and guided format.
No more searching for ideas jotted down on bits of paper No more losing notes just when you need them most Keep all your thoughts in one, easy-to-use workbook The Plotting Your Novel Workbook contains more than 100 exercises for the novel-planning process. Plus Bonus Questions! The Plotting Your Novel Workbook offers writers additional exercise questions not found in Plotting Your Novel. Work through the exercises of ten workshops that build upon each other to flesh out your idea as much or as little as you need to start writing. Find exercises on:
Creating Characters Choosing Point of View Determining the Conflict Finding Your Process Developing Your Plot Start writing your novel today! The Plotting Your Novel Workbook was created to be used with Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure. It contains only the exercises and assignments.
Award-winning author Janice Hardy guided writers through the often challenging process of planning a novel with her book, Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure. At reader request, she created this workbook as a companion guide. Its larger workbook format is perfect for writers who enjoy brainstorming on paper and developing their novels in an organized and guided format.
No more searching for ideas jotted down on bits of paper No more losing notes just when you need them most Keep all your thoughts in one, easy-to-use workbook The Plotting Your Novel Workbook contains more than 100 exercises for the novel-planning process. Plus Bonus Questions! The Plotting Your Novel Workbook offers writers additional exercise questions not found in Plotting Your Novel. Work through the exercises of ten workshops that build upon each other to flesh out your idea as much or as little as you need to start writing. Find exercises on:
Creating Characters Choosing Point of View Determining the Conflict Finding Your Process Developing Your Plot Start writing your novel today! The Plotting Your Novel Workbook was created to be used with Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure. It contains only the exercises and assignments.
140 pages, Paperback
Published May 16, 2016
5 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Janice Hardy
25 books359 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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July 11, 2025The 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.
December 17, 2017
This is great resource for a fiction writer who likes to write out brainstorming, character, and plot development in longhand. For someone who has the companion book, but prefers to type those things into a file, the main value is that each section, in addition to the same questions that the companion book has, usually has one or more bonus questions not in the companion book for generating additional/deeper ideas. If you are NOT a beginner and are familiar with most writing craft terms, you might be able to use this workbook without the companion book as there are some explanations and limited examples of the different elements to crafting a novel. For beginners, or those who like more detailed explanations and examples, you will probably think it's worth it to have the companion. If you only want to buy one or the other, I'd recommend the companion over this, but I did think it was worth buying even though I chose to type everything into a computer file rather than write in the workbook.
May 22, 2020
Asks the right questions to help you form a storyline, character arcs, and even a plot, and includes help for writing a blurb and synopsis. Terrific guide for anyone writing a novel or who has a story idea and isn't sure how to make it into a novel.
July 21, 2024
Very clear. Very interesting. Very useful.
December 18, 2024
Useful workbook to accompany the book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews