This checklist is going to mainly be for my personal use, but I thought I’d post it for others. You don’t have to use it for a novel necessarily, so feel free to apply it to a short story, flash fiction, or even an epic poem. I personally will apply this list to writing my novel, but I’ll be also be using it as a rough schedule of blog post ideas. If anyone has anything to add or suggest for this list, please feel free to message me! Also, if anyone ever wants me to beta read anything, message me the link!
Characters (because let’s be honest, they’re the best part to write and it’s always been all about them).
Character “police sketch“ - appearance, age, a few important details.
Your Character’s Tragic Backstory - short character bio, what memories shaped them to be who they are, their family/friends
Getting in your Character’s Head - character questionnaires, finding their voice, flaws and strengths
How the world sees your Character - describing them from an outside POV.
World Building (the 2nd best part)
The basics - when and where
Map-making (if necessary) - important landmarks/places, climate/weather, how to draw a map for personal reference
Detailed work - governments/social classes, religion, plant life/food, architecture, clothing/appearances, traditions, holidays (am I missing anything?)
Novel Outline (this is about where I start pulling hair out)
Idea summary - one to two sentences describing plot
Writing the ending first - know what your end goal will be
The snowflake outline, or other outlining techniques
(Finally) Writing Your Novel
Draft 1 - just getting it down on paper
Beta-reading/readers - giving and getting advice
Revision - may involve a draft 2, 3, even a draft 4 and repeating step 2 as necessary. Focuses on making large changes to content
Editing - grammar, word economy, language.
It doesn’t look so bad when it’d broken down this way, does it? Hopefully this will be helpful to the writers out there. I know it will certainly be helpful to me.
