How to Develop Your Story Idea Into an Entire Novel

hello everyone so have you got an idea for your novel but you're just not sure where you need to take it and I've got a solution for you well a few more like a few tips but I had a few folks you know who you are asking me about how to develop your cutting outline and I honestly can't believe it hasn't occurred to me to do this before I'm gonna use lists of videos and somehow this wasn't one of them so in my outlining video I basically said first step is the brainstorm or the word vomit what if you don't have very many ideas or you're just kind of stuck developing your story so today I will be talking about missing pieces to step one of my outline video in other words I'm gonna go into more depth about brainstorming alright so the first topic is the initial word vomit so say this wonderful idea pops into your mind and you got down a few quick things and then that it's your engine sputters and you don't know where else to go this initial phase doesn't have to be too in-depth though so it's okay you only have a handful of bullet points because you're gonna have plenty of time to develop it later on likely it's something you're gonna be doing for a couple months or maybe even a couple years but my tip is to not get discouraged in this initial phase there are so many of us out there that have an idea for a novel we never do anything about it we all get stuck in your story silly or it's just not good enough don't fall into that trap every novel out there started out as a simple plot line and then eventually grew into a beauty of a world and a little Lord of the Rings in other words a seed won't grow into a flower unless you water it your novel idea is worthy of your time if it's something that makes you happy and I'm convinced that any story can be made into a great one well how do you go about making you great the next thing I wanted to talk about was analyzing the elements of a good story so that you can make your story that good story once you've got all your initial brainstorming down think about all the different elements that go into a story it's not just one plot point be to death for 300 pages those diverse characters and action and drama and tension there's subplots there's many plots there's even a whole world this is a very next thing I think about when brainstorming and some authors call this the what-if phase so you have a romance novel well what if your characters deadbeat dad all of a sudden shows up at the heightened tension of the book what if the witches in your fantasy novel are rebelling against their supreme leader which for your main character is little T don't be afraid to branch out and write down some things that might be crazy usually you'll end up throwing some of these ideas out but others you'll keep and you'll end up living so those of you that don't know I'm an engineer one of the things that I learned in engineering school is that you don't hold back in the brainstorming phase if you're on a team everyone blurts out possibilities and then you just write them down no one argues why one would be stupid or one would be really awesome each person brainstorms until the entire team is satisfied then you analyze each one now why do you go through all of this because you need to get creative even if one of your ideas isn't right maybe it could spark the correct idea in another one of your team members or even in yourself someone could have a part of the correct answer but if they're fearful of being judged they might not ever even say it so write down all of the ideas and see which ones you like so a concern for us writers is making the challenges that your character faces seem genuine or realistic you want them all to make sense to your entire plotline you don't want random things happening just so that your character has problems you can get around this by introducing the problem before it becomes the hurdle for your character the deadbeat dad example that I talked about just a second ago and choose that backstory early on in your novel and it's gonna seem like a genuine issue when it comes up don't just Adam show up out of nowhere hit you do the same as far as magic is concerned in fantasy novels don't suddenly make a character capable of blowing people's heads up and they get into a bind your readers will think it's a cop-out the next topic or hint I have is to get inspired now how I get my inspiration is from everyday things so this part takes a long long time for me because it's passively developing your novel I do this all the time no matter what stage in my writing I'm in force yourself to put your novel on the back burner in your mind but think about it throughout the day and just go about your regular day then keep a lookout for material that you can reimagine into your novel see a funny person that sparks a comedian in your novel then use it while watching a movie you might like the tension that a sibling rivalry brings to the table is it keep a lookout for things that pull out your heartstrings or make it angry or evoke any kind of emotion those are the things that you want your readers to feel so those are the things that you need to recreate in your story I have these aha moments maybe once a week so it's not that often but when you have them they are big aha moments I'm usually incoherent for a minute or two while I'm trying to scramble to get something to write with yes this can be embarrassing when you're in a nice restaurant and suddenly you can't see anything intelligible oh I uh what is you're scrambling to get your phone to write it down that's okay we're creative people and we have the right to be weird sometimes look at what those cool ideas that you can use for your novel but do not steal ideas don't make your antagonist named Waldo Moore and have him love snakes and live killing people using the general idea of something will keep you from getting too close to what you originally got your inspiration from like Harry Potter keep the magic but ditch the particulars Quidditch muggles etc it's illegal to steal ideas and none of your readers will like you for it trust me they'll be the first ones to throw another plagiarism bus my next tip is to develop a hell out of everything note this kind of applies more towards fantasy or science fiction novels but you get the idea one of the reasons readers love books or movies like Harry Potter Lord of the Rings and any superhero movie comes down to two major things the characters and the world that they live in because that's what these novels are they are worlds they each have very intricate details that don't necessarily affect your storyline right away is it important that Thor comes from a shiny city no but it paints the fine details of your story what about the fact that hobbits like to eat all day so it's just something that people will find unique and quirky and they'll be interested in it all of these things are normal and everyday for the character so it makes it more believable for the reader so explain use elements of your story Neely's and prophecy has an island where new recruits will go for training am I going to leave it at that nope I've got into foods that they eat the futuristic technology that they have where the kids go to hang out their library system their curriculum what everything looks like how their magic works now all of these things will be immediately important to your novel but they could come up should you choose to do a series so after all of that my next fit is super mega ultra important and should never be skipped focus on your people sure your plot line is important but how your characters react what happens in the novel is equally important what if mouth was the one that survived Voldemort as a baby totally different story it's the same plot point so shouldn't the stories be the same no we're not stupid because Malfoy is obviously nothing like Harry Potter I'm all about pausing my brainstorming and development in lieu of character development once I get to be main chunky ideas of my plot I'll actually switch over to take a look at my characters basically to understand how they will affect and be affected by the storyline back to the deadbeat dad example what if that character finds him on the jury for a case all about a father abusing his son he would react understandably different from the woman to his right we had an awesome childhood I mean I hope they would both see the wrong in that but you get the idea to get readers to connect to your novel you need to get them to connect with your characters making them diverse an intricate emulates what we see in reality and this allows the reader to believe in your protagonist yes there are main character types that most almost have like the best friend the Canadian the mentor and the British villain shout-out to Deadpool but their backstories are different and hence their reactions are different so don't just peg one of your characters as a villain and be done with it don't make him mean for no reason when you give a reason for your character being so evil the readers will believe it what made them evil a horrible event took away their compassion plus I mean who doesn't like developing their villain it's kind of the coolest thing ever all right so I hope this short little video of tips was really helpful for you guys the brainstorming and developing stages can be the best part of actually writing your novel it's just fun to play around with things so let yourself be creative with it go crazy a lot of times one specific idea will ring out ahead of all the others and then dictate where your novel goes from there what these ideas come no matter how silly they may seem in the beginning and remember don't take the stage so seriously because really it's your world what do you want to see in it alright so make sure you subscribe to my channel if you already have it I post new writing videos every Wednesday if you ever have any questions or suggestions for my new videos be sure to tweet me at Vivienne Reece or just write it down in the comment section below that's kind of the easiest thing bye guys alright so be sure to subscribe the little dome

Channel: Vivien Reis

Views: 193,966

Keywords: how to, how to write a book, how to outline, novel, book, writing, writing tips, writing advice, brainstorming, developing, author, how to outline your novel, brainstorming a novel, how to brainstorm an idea, turn an idea into a book, idea to novel, going from idea to finished novel

Id: YmcNryiQpYo

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 13 2016