Day 4
Long Outline.
Develop a detailed outline of your book, including how many chapters you reckon your book will be. Expand the short outline and group events into chapters. Summarise the events that occur in every chapter. Don’t be concerned if you cannot decide on what happens in every chapter presently. Focus on including plot points, key developments and plot twists.
To-do list
Read the short outline you created on day 2.
Add more details to the short outline to create a long outline.
For Act 1, define the Introduction, Inciting Incident and the first Plot Point.
For Act 2, define the Rising Action, Midpoint and the second Plot Point.
For Act 3, define the Pre-climax, Climax and Resolution.
Day 5
Research and Worldbuilding.
Use the long outline you created on day 5 as a guide to gathering information about your world. Are there key locations in your story? What do they look like? What is the distance between the protagonist’s home and the new city they move to? How are older people addressed in your world?
Researching your novel is one of the most important aspects of writing. Consider researching organised blocks such as weather, cultural practices, governance, food and clothing.
Once again, focus on researching the most basic aspects of your world building and build from the ground up.
To-do list
Read your long outline and note things that need to be researched.
Make a list of key locations in your world and research each location, including details of what it looks like and how it plays a role in your story.
Research Society and Governance.
Research Technology/Magic.
Research Culture.
Research Weather and Holidays.
Research Flora and Fauna
Research Supernatural Elements.
Day 6
Worldbuilding and Character Profiles.
Continue researching. This time, focus on including more subtle details like accents, prejudices, religions, dressing and grooming.
This is when to research and note how the backgrounds and upbringing of your characters reflects in their behaviours, attitudes and motivations. Is your protagonist sexist because of his country and how their traditions influenced his opinions on women?
To-do list
Read your previous research notes and understand where details need to be filled in.
Make a list of subtle details that need to be added to your notes.
Research all details and add them to your notes.
Read your character profiles and update the sections: Background and Relationships, and Psychology.
Day 7
Complete Character Profiles
Complete your character profiles for your main characters. Study the information you’ve gathered and use that to complete your character profiles. The main characters should be your priority but make sure to also fill in information for your supporting characters as well, even if it is not to the same extent.
As this is the last day of the prewriting phase, it is necessary to set daily writing goals and create a tentative schedule.
This Notion template is specifically designed to help authors craft well-rounded characters, build believable worlds, plot their novels effortlessly and track beta reader feedback. It is a useful companion for the 90-day challenge.
To-do list
Read your research notes and your long outline.
Complete the character profile for your main characters.
Complete the character profile for your supporting characters.
Set daily writing goals.
Create a schedule for the next 51 days of the writing phase.
DAY 1-7: PRE-WRITING PHASE
Day one to seven of the challenge is the preparatory phase. We'll use these days to prep for the writing phase. We'll get the basics of our characters, worlds, and plot down.
If you need a comprehensive Notion template for authors, you can download it here.
Day 1
Choose your story.
Select a topic or story idea that you want to write about. It might be a new one or an idea you’ve wanted to write about forever but you’ve not gotten the chance to.
You can find inspiration from city maps, music playlists, photo exhibits, day-to-day experiences, and news articles.
Define the premise of your novel or story. Note down the themes, the target word count, the starting date and target ending date (ideally in 90 days time).
To-do list
Browse different sources of inspiration and select a story you want to write.
Define the premise of your novel or story.
List all applicable themes (at least 3).
Note down the target word count.
Record your first day of writing and when you plan to finish writing.
Day 2
Character names and short plot outline.
Give your characters names. It doesn’t have to be a full name (it can even be an initial) but it has to identify the character and differentiate them from others in your story. You can decide full names (and any potential meaning later). This is not final and can be changed as the story progresses so no pressure.
Develop the plot of your story and create a short outline. How to do this?
Summarise your story in three lines; one line for the beginning, the middle and the end. This might be hard to do but it is essential.
Expand on each of these lines (or acts) by writing one paragraph for each act.
To-do list
Give your characters names (or initials).
Summarise your story in three lines, with each line representing the beginning, the middle and the climax of the story.
Expand each line into a paragraph.
Day 3
Character Profiles.
Character profiles are the best way to store the most important information about your characters in one place. Profiles can be created on a piece of paper, in a digital document or in a note-taking app like Notion.
Create a rough character profile for your characters, main and otherwise. You don’t have to go into details at this time. Simply note down the basics like their physical features, their goals in life, the reason why they act the way they do.
When drafting characters, keep in mind how their attitudes, backgrounds and even physical features affect the plot. As the story progresses, it is not unusual for your character’s psychology to change so do not fixate on the details. It is only important that you understand your character’s most basic motivations at this time.
To-do list
Decide where you want to create your character profile.
Make a list of information you need to fill in.
Group the information into Basics, Physical attributes, Background and Relationships, Daily routine and Psychology.
Add information into the Basics, Physical attributes and the Psychology areas.
Good day everyone.
As part of my plan to be more consistent in my writing, I planned for a 90-day writing challenge. I've done this before when I was writing my first novel, and I realized it was one of the best ways to become consistent and disciplined.
The challenge is simple.
For the next 90 days, a list of tasks directly related to your writing are outlined and you do your best to meet up with the tasks, recording and tracking your progress as you go.
I usually do this by myself and a few other author friends. This year, however, I decided I wanted to reach out to more people to see if they were interested.
If you are interested, the challenge will start on the 22nd of April.
Every day, I will post a list of tasks and a simple paragraph explaining the tasks. The challenge comes with a 90-day writing guide and planner (both are FREE) if it will not be possible for you to perform the tasks on consecutive days.
You can download the guide and the planner for free here.
I'll update my social media and my website every day (hopefully). So follow me on Instagram.
Happy writing!
