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    Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir
    Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir
    Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir

    By Hank Quense

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    About this ebook

    This book describes a process to plan your story project prior to writing the first draft. The purpose of the plan is to allow the author to concentrate on the important elements of the story such as character development, plots and scene design. Other sections in the book address story setting, character arc and emotional arc.
    Charts depict how the emotional arc is used to develop tension in the reader leading up to the story’s climax.
    A separate chapter describes how to use mind-maps to help develop and control the story project.

    Written to keep your book on track, this guide provides proven methods to develop your project from inception to completion.
    Whether you are writing a novel, a script, a play or a memoir, the building blocks are all the same. This guide breaks down the essential elements of a story and focuses on each individually. This is the road map you need to develop your story.

    This innovative book contains a wealth of advice to keep your story project on track and focused on the important story elements.

    The author has written ten fictional works and uses the process described in the book for every story he writes.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHank Quense
    Release dateMay 10, 2015
    ISBN9780985779184
    Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir
    Author

    Hank Quense

    Hank Quense writes humorous and satiric sci-fi and fantasy stories. He also writes and lectures about fiction writing and self-publishing.  He and his wife Pat usually vacation in another galaxy or parallel universe. They also time travel occasionally when Hank is searching for new story ideas. Other books by Hank Quense Fiction: Gundarland Stories Tales From Gundarland Falstaff’s Big Gamble Wotan’s Dilemma The King Who Disappeared Princess Moxie Series Moxie’s Problem Moxie’s Decision Queen Moxie Zaftan Troubles Series Contact Confusion Combat Convolution Sam Klatze Gongeblazn Non-fiction: The Author Blueprint Series of books is written to assist writers and authors in getting the job done. Creating Stories: Book 1 How to Self-publish and Market a Book: Book 2 Book Marketing Fundamentals: Book 3 Business Basics for Authors: Book 4 Fiction Writing Workshops for Kids: Book 5 Writing Stories: Book 7 Publication date to be announced Links? You want links? Here you go: Hank’s website: http://hankquense.org Hank's Facebook fiction page: https://www.facebook.com/StrangeWorldsOnline?ref=hl Twitter: https://twitter.com/hanque99 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanque/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hankquense/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3002079.Hank_Quense Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/hank-quense

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      Book preview

      Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir - Hank Quense

      Planning a Novel,Script or Memoir

      By Hank Quense

      © 2015 Hank Quense

      All Rights Reserved

      License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ISBN: 978-0985779184

      Published in the United States of America.

      Published by Strange Worlds Publishing

      http://strangeworldsonline.com/wp

      Table of Contents

      Forward

      Chapter 1: General Topics

      Chapter 2: Developing Characters

      Chapter 3:Plotting

      Chapter 4: Story Structure

      Chapter 5: Mind-mapping

      Chapter 6: Conclusions

      Chapter 7: Appendices

      Chapter 8: About the Author

      Foreword

      (back to the Table of Contents)

      Writing a long story such as a novel, a script or a memoir requires a great deal of dedication, hard work, belief in yourself and belief in your story.

      What's the difference between a novel and a script? Only the output. These manuscripts are very much different from one another. Other than that, the design stages are identical. Both fiction forms require the author to develop characters, build a plot, design scenes, come up with a character arc and other story elements.

      What's the difference between a novel and a memoir? Not much. The novel is a creation of the author's mind. In the memoir, the characters and events are based on real life. The author of the memoir still has to develop the characters, build a plot by selecting a portion of the character's life to emphasize, figure out a character arc and design the scenes.

      I submit the difference between planning a novel, a script and a memoir are minor. I believe in planning my novels, in detail, and that is what this book is about: my way of planning a novel. I think my planning process will benefit fiction and memoir writers of all types.

      I know some people say they just wing the whole thing, from initial concept to writing The End. I can't do that. I have to have the entire story planned out. This includes the character development, the settings, the plot and most importantly, the ending. I also need to know how I can get the characters from the story opening to the final climax. Until I know all this about the novel, I don't write the first draft. In fact, if I can't figure this stuff out, the novel won't get written and will get dumped into a desk drawer to be looked at some day in the future. Maybe.

      To begin, let's define what a story is: A story is a narrative description of a character struggling to solve a problem. Nothing more than that. And nothing less. That's by Ben Bova and it's from his book The Craft of Writing Science Fiction

      Notice the definition doesn't mention fictional stories. The definition is valid for fiction and non-fiction stories such as a memoir.

      This is the definition we will use in this book. The book will take you through the steps I use to plan and develop a novel. Granted, not everything I do will resonate with all writers. What you have to do is figure out what stuff in here will make it easier for you to plan your novel and then use it. Feel free to discard the remaining stuff. If you want to use my entire process, that works for me.

      Some of the material in this book has been adapted from my Build a Better Story.

      I write parodies and my novels are scifi and fantasy adventure stories. Consequently, my focus in this book is on those types of stories, possibly slighting other genres and types of stories.

      Before you ask, yes, I do all the design work I mention in this book and I do it before I start to write the first draft. And I do all of this stuff every time.

      Chapter 1: General Topics

      (back to the Table of Contents)

      Reasons to Write a book

      There are good reasons and bad reasons to write a book. Ask yourself; What is your reason or reasons? Let's take a look at a few

      To make money? Bummer. As a self-published author, your title will bleed money from you in most cases. While this situation may change over time, initially you won't be rolling in royalty payments. If you're fortunate enough to have a major publisher behind you, the odds are you still won't make a lot of money.

      To impress your friends and family? Another bummer. No one in my family has ever read one of my books. Actually, until you get some stuff published and start to bring in money, your family probably thinks you're in your office playing computer games.

      Author and lecturer Guy Kawaski gives a talk on this subject. His wrong reasons: To make money; to increase consulting (jobs); to increase speeches. Guy's right reasons: to enrich people's lives; further a cause; meet an intellectual challenge.

      I write

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