agenda:

in this chapter, i'll give you guys insight into how i plan my stories and chapters

before we began, let's get one thing straight,
there are two kinds of writers - planners and pantsers.

planners are the ones who actually plan their stories. be it background information, characters, plot, research - they've done everything. and as you guys know, i am a serious-ass planner through and through.

pantsers, on the other hand, just go with the flow. those last minute ideas, them thinking while writing - it's their niche.

and in the end, both produce wonderful stories. but this chapter is dedicated solely to planning so...

PLAN. YOUR. STORIES. GIRL.

writing a novel is like entering into a war zone - you. have. to. be. prepared. and in this specific case, your ammunition's gonna be your research.

unplanned stories can be a mess (especially if you don't know how to do them) so in this chapter, we're gonna be rectifying the mess.

all of the future pieces of advice, they're from experience and have helped me A LOT soo, here it is.

‣  google and doodle

well, it was obvious.

google is your no. 1 friend. and i know, i know, google is huge. but you gotta learn to stick to your research because it's so easy to get lost in that world wide web (it really is a web!!)

when you first hit across some crazy idea, the first thing you should do is search it on google. find whatever you can about it - articles, books, reports, reviews and what not.

now you ask, ree, but my story is just a normal girl-next-door story, who's gonna write any article about this genre?  guess what, my friend, some people do.

just google hard and you'll find it. and well, if you don't, REVIEWS OF THE BOOKS OF THE SAME GENRE are lifesavers!! if you don't have time to read the whole book, read their reviews so you know what people don't like to read in that particular genre.

for example,

glory is a cliche, through and through. a typical, muslim story. i couldn't have added some deep, dark mystery, some mafia gang even if I wanted to - people didn't sign up for it.

‣ character checklist

now, there's this thing i like to call character checklist. in this, you just try to understand your main characters better or just every character if you want to.

there are tens of hundreds of ways you can do that and in this particular thing, pinterest is your bff. find a picture that has a lot of questions and answer it the way your character would and voilaa!! you have a new character at your disposal.

save the answers for future references, just in case you're writing and suddenly forget what is the eye colour of your main character so instead of reading through the previous text to see if you've mentioned it before, open the character checklist and confirm it.

it's as easy as it gets.

for starters, i have added a checklist which i generally use but there are a lot of others available too on pinterest.

the world is yours, my friend!

‣ culture calls

now, my friend, you don't want to get a culture wrong. or religion, for that matter.

if you're writing your own culture or religion, some people might still give you shit because well, there are contradictions. but writing someone else's culture or religion, you have to be very, very cautious.

And honestly, the excuse that you just didn't know doesn't work anymore because well, what is google there for? if you don't know about a culture, research on it, get your facts straight and then write. it's a sensitive thing for some people, and well, disrespectful at your par too.

so, GET. YOUR. FACTS. STRAIGHT.

how to do that?

i found this mind map on pinterest and i know that it's extensive and deep but nobody's asking you to know EVERYTHING about a culture. just know the basics, okay? and don't be disrespectful when you're writing it.

there's a difference between freedom of speech and disrespecting someone's opinions - learn it.

you can also talk to a friend of that culture and if you don't have one, you can always make one. good thing about wattpad, there are people here from every culture and religion so i don't think it will be that hard.

‣ twists

i'm not gonna go in detail about this one because i extensively explained how to do plot twists in the previous chapter but yeah,

PLAN YOUR TWISTS.

‣ chapters

not every chapter needs to be planned down to the very detail but at least know what you're gonna write in a chapter at least 3-4 updates back.

this way, you have plenty of time to plan your twists, remove loop holes, develop characters and stuff.

what i do is write out some words that will remind me the scenes and then i pen them down. IT. REALLY. HELPS.

‣ scenes and inspiration

this one is my one true love.

you know, when you're randomly walking and even eating and suddenly this scene comes to you - write it down somewhere because honey, we all know you're gonna forget it after a while.

i have four word documents dedicated to just scenes i wanna add in my novel - random, romance, fights, talks, sentences - they're all there.

they actually help you in a lot of ways and i know that some might not even make it to your actual story but you can always use it in some other one.

THEY ARE LOVEE.

i can't add a picture here because there will be just too many spoilers but you get me, na?

‣ endings

take my word, little fellas', and don't plan your endings.

not only do they limit your imagination, they keep you restricted to a plot that you can dwell from and create something magical.

you want magic?

don't plan your endings.

innovation is good, thinking outside the box is good. as long as proper planning goes into it, it's good.

‣ aesthetics

i don't know about you but they help me a great deal.

finding pictures, bringing them together, making a collage - it just helps you understand your character better. moreover, it helps you add shades and complications to your character.

le me and my head:

me: i can't find a last picture to complete my aesthetic!
brain: oh, hey, look. there's a picture of paints and brushes...
me: but my character is not an artist!!
brain: well, now he is, honey. *checks nails*

you understand, now?

‣ pinterest

if i'm dedicating a whole point writing about this particular app, you can dedicate a bit of your time to it too.

download the app, login, type writing tips and girl, you're good to go. there are sooo many pictures, sheets, tips, charts, inspiration - that app is my life.

i have a whole private board about writing and it helps me - it really does.

(btw, follow me there too. i'm rameesharants)

conclusion:

all in all, plan your stories. they might take a bit of your time in the start but once you're done and dusted with it, you won't have to come back and edit it.

also, once you're done, that piece of work is a finished project. (can there be any other satisfactory feeling?)