How does one plan before writing a novel?

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You don't.

Real writers don't plan. It's spontaneous.

I see.

Makes sense.

research, notes, thoughts, a couple of scenes and dive in,

>think of an idea
>outline it in the shower
>write it

Step 1: Brainstorm

Writing with a plan is for genre fiction writers
Most important part is remembering your themes and being able to cement those themes with good symbols. Come up with a few things that might be symbolic for your character or the theme you're trying to get across, but not too many; some will come as you're writing. Take a sheet of paper and sketch a very loose scene diagram; fill in holes as you go along. Remember that if it's shit in the first draft it can be saved in the next few so don't worry if you've accidentally written too much
The main piece of advice is have a bunch of thematic elements already planned out but that's about it, a good writer can come up with them on the spot just in their imagination of the scene. For example, in The Stranger, promise you that Camus didn't fucking think of the Czech newspaper before he started writing; guarantee it came naturally through brainstorming about themes and envisioning a scene and thinking of ways to hammer home your point. Remember to know when to let a description be a description and when to let it have meaning.
This is all bullshit by the way if it doesn't work for you throw it out there's not real way man just fucking write you hack

well meme'd

A serious answer to OP would be: outlines. Many writers make outlines and plan what will happen in each chapter via an outline that might be up to 1/3 as long as the actual novel. Writing an outline is its own art and learning how to do so could involve googling or reading certain books depending on how you want to do it, further info required.

I used to believe I didn't need an outline before I STEM'd the fuck up and realized I was being an idiot. Not every writer nor project needs an outline, but you are doing yourself a major favor using one. You wouldn't develop software without a design document. You wouldn't build a house without a blueprint. So what on earth possesses you to believe you could just wing it writing a novel? I think this attitude comes from amateur hours who have never completed any long term goals in their lives, so they take this bait from their chosen old guard who say outlines are for squares. They selectively listen to the three Artistes™ who don't use outlines and ignore the ten professionals who do.

Also you will save yourself some time by writing about something you know. It's much easier to write a story related to your own skills instead of starting with a court scene then realizing you have no idea how the law works and will have to spend forever researching what lawyers and judges really say, only to maybe massively screw up anyway because the lawyer you had proofread it is full of shit. So basically write what you know or prepare to add a few months of research before you even start writing. "B-But that's bullshit you don't have to do that! Look at [muh favorite author.]" Yeah well, I'm skeptical of your novel if you don't.

>STEMautist has to come and tell everyone how much smarter he is that everyone else
Gas the STEMfags discipline war now

but that'll make my paper soggy.

the most correct person on Veeky Forums today.

statisticbrain.com/iq-estimates-by-intended-college-major/

I've always been puzzled by the fact that philosophy has been second place for a while, but most of the other top 50% majors are STEM. Maths are a lot more impressive than reading a bunch of books and spouting hot opinions about shit. Besides all the useful humanities are heavily integrated with STEM anyway, if it aint logic or some type of analytic autism that can produce then it's trash. Fite me.

kudos

>statisticbrain.com/iq-estimates-by-intended-college-major/

i dont know, i think that literature/reading is just as important as science/math/whathaveyou. thinking about life, thinking critically, logically, with emotion, these are all important facets of life. Just cause they don't commonly pay X number of dollars doesn't mean they're less important. That's just societal bullshit to me. grain of salt, though.

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Just try and work out the "why" of the book- if you don't have something to say or a particular story you want to tell the end result will be hollow and empty.

Why fight you when you've already played yourself?

I use a program called Keynote, to keep notes of everything related to the novel:
-characters
-geography
-dialogues
-scenes order and specific scenes
-concepts
-history
-relationships
-ideas
-reference photos (because you need them if you want to describe something well)
-unsorted/unused lines/charcters to be used in future
etc.

Screen is like 1/10th of the notes for current work - each line being a document, that can be either short note as line itself, or whole articles about character/location/dialogue etc. Also had a big paper notebook that write notes at. I usually keep paper and pen near place i sleep and notebook in my bag if i go somewhere - so that if idea suddenly comes up, i can write it down and then add to notebook. Then working on the book, i browse through the ideas/notes i have, select the ones i want and expand and refine them and integrate in the novel.

Before i wrote "stream of concious" and it worked surprisingly well, as long as you could sit later and adjust story so that it makes sense and proceed further accordingly.

However wanted to write the story i always wanted "properly", so started "preparation" for it, doing proper character study, planning etc. It allows to create truly more deep and refined things than you can come up with "on the spot".

One HUGE advice i would give, if time allows you and you are not a contract writer that has to churn a new novel every 3 months - TAKE YOUR TIME.

No matter how hard you brainstorm and how much effort you put immidiately - there is only so much of your imagination and ability to create. Give a time for idea and story to develop. Note main concepts, characters, story turns and just let it rest - keeping it in mind, thinking about it and accumulating inspirations - you get them from litterally everywhere: watching TV, reading news, seeing artwork somewhere, just randomly out of the blue as you do normal activities: you get constant stream of information, and all you have to do is put it through filter of the book you plan to write. You`ll be rewarded with great character, interesting concepts and tweests, deep detail adding to the world, things that fit so well yet you nevere would have though about them otherwise since you need outside factor to "inspire them".

So for works you really care about, writing pretty much encoclopedy about book you want to write would be ok. I cant see it applied to all novels though - since takes time and effort, unless you want to release just few major works in lifetime.

For "side" novels, short stories etc. - same method is used, but with less effort and less "saturation time", though its still very useful.

Wrong on every account. Real writers plan for years, work like artists - writing concepts and studies, discarding them, writing again refining every aspect. Take years for some to create a single novel.

There is a difference between "Writers" with capital letter and belletrists.

Same applies to poets by the way. While creating on the spot under inspiration is common, serious poetry usually has a lot of work put into it, with it being refined and redesigned over and over and over or discarded once lines and pieces redesigned to become great later.

My first three novels didn't require research so, after my initial premise was laid down, I went straight to the outlining phase. I structured these books as a series of bullet points in Word until they were done. Then I started writing.

This fourth book requires research and that's what I'm doing now. I'm making shitloads of notes from a couple of history books, then I'll condense the notes, from there I'll form my bullet point structure (which is skeletal in nature because sometimes I'll have an impromptu idea that has lasting effects within the existing plot), and when that's all wrapped up I'll start writing.

Three novels, huh? This has my attention. Got an Amazon link/other link to those books?

lol I wish I was published. I don't self-publish either. The first book was a series of novellas that I wrote as exercises for the main event, I'm currently submitting my second to literary agents (to rejections, but with occasional good feedback), and I finished my third a few weeks back. I'm having a break before I start editing that one.

>spend forever researching what lawyers and judges really say, only to maybe massively screw up anyway because the lawyer you had proofread it is full of shit.
I can sense your salt

solid advice, desu

Keynote? Isn't that just Apple's equivalent of Powerpoint?