Day One - Plot Your Book's Demise

Ohoho. See what I did there?
The plot. It's probably- hopefully- the first thing on your mind when you want to write a book. It's the most important part of any good story, the metaphorical backbone of your novel.
Because it's so important, this is one of the things you want to spend the most amount of time working on, but you'd be surprised how many people overlook it.


The first thing you need to do that I've done is come up with an idea, and then turn it into an elevator statement. Imagine you’ve just stepped into an elevator, and the person next to you is the editor of a publishing house. You have about five seconds to explain your book, and a rambling, babbling mess won't cut it. You need a clear statement describing the plot and purpose of the book. Once you have this, you can move on to the plot diagram.




The plot diagram will help you refine your idea, and help you to plan your book, beginning-to-end. Most people just start writing and hope they get a few chapters done, but that can easily lead you off in tangents.


A basic plot diagram looks like the image to the right. Note how basic this diagram is. Now, unless you're writing a children's book, your story is probably not this simple. Instead of this one, which I was taught in English and Drama class, I use one that I've tweaked a little.




The one that I've used isn't exactly a diagram, but it does get the job done. Feel free to tweak it as needed, since that's all I've done.


-Set up (Introduce main characters, begin to set the scene)
-Initial Event (Intro the character or event that first triggers the conflict, continue to set scene)
-Three Rising Actions (These can be small internal conflicts, external conflicts, a combination, anything. But a novel is too big to just have one.)
-Climax (Obvious)
-Falling Action (Initial result of the climax)
-Resolution (And reactions)


Like I said, edit this skeleton as you wish to fit your story a little better. But make good, clear notes about your plot, because tomorrow we're going to completely forget about it for the day.


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