7 WAYS TO PLOT YOUR NOVEL –

While you may feel like outlining or plotting your novel is to reduce an artistic creation to a parochial method of organization, you shouldn’t. Plotting your ideas can help you brainstorm and prepare your novel before you take it in to the book binding services that will immortalize it. So read on and learn about how to make your book the best it can be.

1. Chapterize: For each chapter, you should be able to write one sentence about the plot. You may want to expand, and turn that one sentence into a few paragraphs or a couple of pages, but ideally you should have a clear idea of how each vignette will further the narration of your story.

2. Reasons: After you have an idea of how the plot will move along, you should next understand why it does. Describe why an episode happens where it does. Is it to introduce a character? Provide back story? Give the reader information they will need for the next chapter? If you can’t articulate the answers clearly, you should omit or rearrange it.

3. Sub Plots: Do the same thing with your sub plots, or minor themes. Remember, however, that before you take your book to the book binding services, all the loose ends should tie together by the end of the story.

4. The Villain: Plot essentially means tension, and it’s hard to have tension without an antagonist. The risks and dangers your protagonist will face come from the villain(s) of your story. Think about the consequences of how your protagonist will interact with your villain. How will this affect the protagonist? What would make it even more dramatic? The answer to this question is a good way to trim your plot and make it more interesting.

5. The Climax: This is the most important part of your novel. It should be surprising, yet inevitable. One of the best ways to write your climax is to understand what kind of ending you’re creating. Is it happy, sad, or bittersweet?

6. The Resolution: This part of the novel is when your protagonist wins, or loses. In either case, there must be some kind of lesson the reader can take away. By this time you should know if your character is static or dynamic and if the resolution will be good or bad for him or her.

7. Characters: Along the journey there should be characters who perform archetypal binaries to propel or stunt your protagonist. For example, there should be characters who support something your protagonist does, and those who oppose it as well; those who prefer logic, and those who prefer feeling; those who side with control, and those who side with no control – you get the idea.

If you follow these seven steps, you should have a pretty good idea of how your novel is going to pan out. Now, before you start thinking about binding books and book binding services, all you have to do is write it!

Mark Etinger

The Print House provides online printing services with a quick turnaround time. Whether you’re thinking about binding books, direct mailings, or commercial color printing

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