Crafting a Compelling Narrative: Tips for Planning Your Story's Layout

For most readers, after the cover the blurb represents the most important part of your book. The blurb is the summary on the back of the book cover. It’s the read-on hook for the reader.

It’s got to show the lay of the land, draw the battle lines, identify the key protagonists, and set the lines of conflict. It’s where the plot of your story is presented to the world. Those ley-lines have to be clearly laid out:

1.  Where is the story set e.g. time, country, era?

2.  Who is the main character?

3.  What's their general perspective?

4.  What is the issue at hand?

Is there Conflict?

There certainly should be, or there are going to be very few sparks in your story, especially if it is a romance. Identify and introduce conflict as early as possible. The murder trial, the bank job, the alien in hiding, the presumed affair, the separation, the court trial, the false accusation. In short the fall out.

Clarify for your reader what this is, making sure there is no confusion or tangled bits so that people are saying, "Wait, I thought that the dispute was with..."

The reader has to sympathise with the hero or heroine in some way.

How do you Start Writing your Story?

Usually one idea comes to me; but sometimes another one barges in. I like to stick with the most persistent one; it helps me to concentrate better. This will usually be your central idea and it could pop up at any time.

One of my novels began as a flash-fiction in my head and was indeed written as such. I put it on Scribd when it was in its infancy and it got a lot of great comments. Then I deleted it by mistake. After weeks of despairing, I was forced to rewrite it. It ended up turning into a 137k romance. Both versions started with a woman by a lake waiting for a man That central theme refused to go away and embedded itself as the central vehicle for the story.

Too Much, too Soon?

If you get too many ideas in one go, you can either sort through them to see how they work together. Alternatively, you can decide which to discard or put in your 'later ideas' box. Similarly, questions about your character or the plot may turn up as you're writing. Who? Why? How? When?

You can unravel the answers to all these questions in a paragraph, in a setting or—as I prefer—roll them out through the storyline. In my opinion, that makes for a much better story. Remember that most readers prefer to be to be intrigued a little, rather than being blinded with facts and data up front.

You don't have to list what your characters do in one go simply because they all happen to be in the same room. Some background can be provided in narrative; some as dialogue.

If the idea isn’t working for you, it’s time to reach for that circular file: the bin. Or if you’re stuck for an idea, try and think about the outline of a story; any story.

Practice with what you Know

If you're really stuck, you can try reviewing something you're familiar with. Practice first with classic stories or movies that you already know: a strange young boy discovered in a crater by an old couple turns out to have superpowers.

Start writing a summary. Let your imagination flow. How would you have told the tale of Superman? Spiderman? Batman? Each superhero touches on on different genres: sci-fi; trans-human, and Gothic. So there's plenty of material to work fro different angles. If you prefer, you can try practising with a different type of a story altogether.

Once you've tried out these tips you'll be surprised at what develops from your imagination. There's a lot more creativity stored in there than you realise. We're only afraid to use it because of The Box. Step out of it and see what you can see on the horizon.