It has been a long time since I've done one of these so I decided to do one again. I don't even plan them before I do them so I have no idea what I'm going to write. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Know your character A character is useless if you don't know them on a personal level. It doesn't matter whether you love them or hate them, they are you new best friends and you have to know them that way. You can't afford to NOT know their eye colour or their hair colour. Every element of their physical appearance, health, personality, trauma and growth/arc must be fresh in your mind every single time you start to write. 2. Magic/society systems If you are writing a fantasy novel with magic and society and heirarchy, then you need to know the systems and 'tiers' of that society. Are there different districts for 'upper-class' citizens? How are you considered upper-class? If your story has magic then how do people access magic? Are there different types? I'd also advise that the magic in your story isn't easy to access, or, if it is, then you can't just learn it in the blink of an eye. 3. GIVE ME THIS KIND OF VILLAIN a) Give me a villain who loves what they are doing and 100% believes in their cause. They aren't doing it for spite and there are no team ups, no soft moments and no compromises. b) Give me a villain who is just bad for the fun of it. Give me a villain who just wants to destroy the world because they can and because it's a thrill to them. 4. GIVE ME THIS KIND OF HERO Give me a hero whose intrusive thoughts are about ending the world. They have a traumatic past and they pretend to be good and true when really they want to crush everything and then they slowly go to the dark side. And the person that saves them is a former villain that is trying to be better and is crushed seeing this hero that is turning into a version of them. 5. Starting off a writing piece Be prepared to write C R A P. Write down all of your ideas in the worst possible way and then just analyse, remove, add and edit. Basically start with a more formatted brain dump and then actually use that to write something decent. No one ever published their first draft, I can tell you that much.
