Writer's Fallout Shelter

Ok, I think this is my first time posting here, although I've been reading for a while. (So, hey everybody!)

I would say that you need more structure. I don't use as much structure as a lot of people seem to do, but plotting out the whole story chapter by chapter, knowing exactly where you want the story to go, does help. I would suggest breaking it up into chapters, for your sake as much as your readers. I believe about 4000 words is a good length for novel chapters. Take your story from the begining, and write a basic outline of what you want to happen in that chapter. It doesn't need to be detailed, you add that later, but just the general shape of the chapter. You're pretty much just saying, 'he goes over here and does this while she's doing that, then they meet up and do this,' etc. Now, this is only how I do it, I'm sure there are endless ways to write a novel, but this seems to work for me.

As for not knowing when to break it into chapters, here's some suggestions. Think of your book like a movie. You switch the point of view to someone in another room/town/world/etc, and it becomes a new scene, i.e., chapter. Also, having that 4000 word giudeline helps, it allows you to build your story around the chapters. So you start to think, 'well, this scene will probably take about 500 words, and those two will take 3000, so then there'll be a little bit left for this short scene here.' And it doesn't have to be exactly 4000, that's just a good number, you could 5000, or 3000, whatever feels best for you.

I was afraid to become too structured myself, afraid that I would lose the spontaneity. But I've come to learn that one can't write a novel on spontaneity alone (or at least, I can't!), you need to have it planned out, so that when the spontaneity, the inspiration fades, you can push through.

I hope that helped, I have a tendency to run my mouth until I don't know what I'm saying anymore!

Darrn

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