So, you have an idea for a novel. Now what? The most popular advice I found growing up was “just start writing,” but if you want to improve your chances of finishing while wasting less time running into probable dead ends, the best advice I can give you based on my own experiences is make a plan.
At this stage, I don’t expect you to work out every chapter, and every twist and turn in the plot line (although I strongly encourage you to take down bullet notes for every idea that you do have). Ideas are the easy part. To use those ideas, they need to be applied in some fashion to the story arch of the main characters, and the all-encompassing overall plot.
So, to start out, the best thing you can do is identify your main character, who they are at the beginning, what their climactic end goal is, and possible inciting incidents to set them on that path. Depending on the nature of the conflict in the story, adjust the terminology as necessary, but to climax is still a climax, and their agency will need to drive them there.
Here are a list of questions to consider while you flesh out the main character, and their objectives. There are many more that you will have to ask yourself along the way, but this is just a skeleton to get started.
Who is your MC?
What is their starting status quo?
What is the inciting incident?
What does the MC want?
Who or what stands in the way of what they want?
What is the climactic event or resolution?
No matter what you come up with now, don’t stress yourself over the idea that you are engraving this in stone. Once you begin, if you have a major epiphany that requires you to change some of your character history, by all means, accommodate this epiphany if it serves the story better. The point of this exercise is to ensure that you do in fact have an end goal in mind when you start out. Having something to work towards makes it easier to negotiate the route along the way.
Now, if you write epic fantasy with sprawling political structures and centuries of world history, you might be wondering why it is so important to establish the MC if your story is more plot-based…
It’s because the reader needs to identify, or at the very least, experience the plot and your world through the eyes of a character. The more depth you add to the characters, the more interesting and compelling they will be for the reader. Without a character with which to experience the events of the world, it runs the risk of reading like a world history textbook. Give the reader a “ride or die” main character, and they will devour the pages.