How to Brainstorm Your Novel
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Do any of these things sound familiar?
You have an idea for a novel but it’s too short for its genre expectations;
Your plot has become so convoluted even you don’t know what it’s about anymore;
You’ve lost all control of your characters and they’ve run off-script and into the weeds;
Worst of all, you’re stuck on page one, paragraph one, and that cursor just keeps blinking at you…
If you’ve encountered (or are experiencing) any of these scenarios, you might need some help in how to brainstorm your novel.
Brainstorming can happen at any stage of writing (and usually happens repeatedly throughout the drafting process), so no matter if you’re just setting pen to paper for the first time or trying to untangle a messy first draft, we’re here to help.
Let’s dive into 5 key techniques to help kickstart your brainstorming so you can build momentum on your manuscript.
1. Establish a Foundational Outline
An outline is a roadmap for what happens in your book.
Writers who like to plot everything out (aptly named “plotters”) may have extensive outlines that break down every arc, chapter, and scene into what needs to happen and who’s present and where everyone is in their character arc.
Writers who prefer to discover their story as they write (“pantsers” who fly by the seat of their pants) may find such a rigid plan stifling or feel it takes all the discovery out of the drafting process. However, having no outline at all can lead to much longer drafting times and require more developmental editing during the revision process.
So, while the depth of your outline may vary, it’s still a good idea to have a foundational outline to guide you through the process. This foundation should capture the following key details so you can keep them straight:
WHO are your main characters (including the correct spelling of their names)?
Include key details like how old they are when the story starts vs when it ends (this will guide how quickly events need to unfold).
Describe their main motivation(s); what do they want and why do they want it? This will impact the tension and conflict in your plot.
Explore connections between the characters (how are they related, is there romance building or old animosity to overcome, are there secrets withheld that would impact other characters?).
WHERE is the story taking place?
Include key setting details like place names and descriptions.
Record any rules of this world that impact your character’s motivations or plot (such as laws, political tensions, environmental disasters, supply shortages, wars, magic systems, class or caste divides, etc.).
Consider what season the story starts in vs ends in. Are there any weather patterns or temperatures that will affect what characters wear, eat, or do? Do changes affect actions, travel, or behaviour? Can you use weather to create tension or affect the plot?
WHEN does the story take place?
Will a timeline be important to track (to the year, to the day, to the hour)?
Is the setting in a previous time period that might create anachronisms to speech patterns, technological developments, or communication methods?
Are there any key events that coincide with the plot (such as holidays, graduations, birthdays, births or deaths of your main cast, or historical events)?
HOW will your characters face the climax?
How does the story start? Note that this may change during revisions for pacing or thematic reasons.
What challenges stand in the character’s way? This will be your main source of conflict; it can be the character’s own inner doubts or fears, an external force like other characters or a societal expectation, or the world itself (such as a war or natural disaster).
Are there certain facts, skills, objects, etc., they need to acquire to solve the mystery, defeat the villain, or change (for now or forever)?
How will your character change between the start of the story and the end? Do they grow in skill and confidence? Find or lose love? Change perspective? Utterly fall apart? Note that certain genres expect certain kinds of change, i.e., a romance expects a happily ever after; a horror expects the character to be destroyed.
How does the story end? Do you want to set up a sequel?
WHY are you telling this story?
Do you have lived experience you can draw on?
Is there a theme or message you want to convey?
Is there a “what if?” question you are trying to answer?
How do you want the reader to feel reading this book (amused, comforted, frightened, thrilled, on the edge of their seat, warm and fuzzy, romantic, titillated)? You can combine multiple feelings for peaks and valleys across the story.
Your notes can be point form or you may write paragraphs for each section. You might find you know lots about your characters but nothing about your world, or that you’re inspired by why you’re writing it but not sure how it all needs to happen. Understanding which sections are harder to answer may mean you need to come back to these sections after some drafting, or it may flag places where you need to do more research.
2. Do Backstory Research
We recommend having a foundational outline first because it will guide the research you need to do. Seeking out new sources of information can help you find practical or inspired resolutions to the gaps you encountered in the outline phase.
If you need to flesh out your setting, you may read nonfiction on key topics to aid your worldbuilding, especially about specific time periods, influential people from that region/age, or skills that your character would know (like bow-hunting, watch-making, or baking). If you’ve decided on a place (Alaska) and a time of year for your story (December to February), you may need to research specific details, such as how cold and dark it is at that time of year and how frequently it snows. How do people there prepare for winter? In a blizzard, how do they access food, socialize with their community, or stay warm?
When tripping up on facts or context, you may want to search for tools that help you visualize distances, speeds of travel, or size comparisons. Consider looking up online museum catalogues, dictionaries, or local flora or fauna to ensure accuracy for key details. Having some quick bookmarks pre-saved can minimize distractions when drafting; just quickly check the information you want without needing to memorize every possible source. It will get you to writing faster and limit those time-consuming search-history sessions.
You may also want to have a list of novels that have a similar tone, plot structure, or voice that inspires you. It’s best to ensure any fiction examples come from a range of authors (not all books by your favourite writer!) to prevent you from unintentionally absorbing another writer’s style. When stuck, you can flip open to key passages to spark ideas on how to approach a conversation, fight scene, or bit of exposition.
3. Practise Voice Exercises
Some writers are chameleons, able to shift their tone and style to fit a range of genres and target audiences. Others have a very distinctive style that remains constant from book to book. Both are examples of “voice.” Voice is difficult to pin down because it’s often hard to spot at the sentence level, sometimes only noticeable in the way chapters open or close, in how characters speak, or in the ways plots twist.
To develop your own author voice (either in general or for this specific project), it helps to practise. Pick a scene from your outline (it can be the next unwritten one if you are a linear writer, or the scene you’re most excited for if you aren’t a linear writer). Try writing this scene from a different character’s perspective (keep going for at least a few paragraphs). What different details do they notice or ignore? Do they feel differently about the situation than another character; if so, why? Is their approach different: more cautious, more impulsive, more haughty, more compassionate?
Now review what you’ve written and ask why it’s important to have your normal protagonist’s perspective here. Are there insights you as the author know, that you can play on to create miscommunications, revelations, or secrets to tease the reader with? If you’re writing a book with multiple points of view (POV), assess which POV delivers the tone, information, and emotional beats you need for this scene. Don’t be afraid to rewrite and save those exercises for your own inspiration, even if they don’t make it into the finished book.
Finally, when writing from another POV, did your writing “sound” different? If it did, you may have uncovered the difference between your characters’ voices. If you’re working with a single POV, perhaps there are stylistic elements you liked that you might want to incorporate into your novel overall.
Some elements of voice you can look for in your exercises:
Changes in the average length of sentences, rhythm, or flow of ideas.
Balance of exposition, narrative, interiority, and dialogue (some characters might be more chatty, while others have a lot more direct thought).
Use of vocabulary, complexity of sentence structure, how florrid/sparse the writing is.
Frequency of metaphor, simile, alliteration, and other poetic tools.
Overall pace, length of chapters, length of book (these should remain generally consistent across a book, even when playing with different character voices).
4. Create a Reverse Outline
If you’ve tried a variety of exercises and still find yourself getting stuck, a reverse outline could help you assess what you’ve written or see if your goals for the project have changed.
Here’s how a reverse outline works: write a summary of the chapters you already have (try for no more than a sentence per chapter). These should be factual, dry observations to boil down to the very bones of your story. If you haven’t finished your draft, also jot down a brief summary of how the story needs to end (with how the character is changed and/or how the plot is resolved). If you’re a pantser and don’t know, take a loose guess: “they defeat the villain” or “they fall in love” or “the house burns down.”
Then, work backwards from this proposed ending to where you are in the story. What needs to happen to get your characters from here to there? What lessons do they need to learn, obstacles to overcome, or journeys to make? If you’re not entirely sure how it ends, try mapping out multiple possible endings. How would things change if a different character makes a decision? If two friends have a falling out? If the object they need is destroyed?
If you write out of linear order, you can also use this technique to connect dots between scenes (or chapters) you’ve written. How do the characters need to feel for this conversation to take place? What knowledge or skills do they need to be able to face that challenge? This can help you generate obstacles, turning points, and character development, establishing a focal point for new scenes or chapters that will link the existing scenes together.
If you need more formulaic structure, you can also use plotting devices like the Three Act Structure, Hero’s Journey, Save the Cat, or Story Circle to map your scenes to established story beats. This approach can highlight when you might be missing an opportunity for tension, emotional engagement, or genre expectations that a reader will be looking for.
5. Chart Chapter Values
Once you have either a rough draft or a robust outline, you can also map your chapters with values. The entire span of your book is like a rollercoaster ride: it starts out lower in intensity (your inciting incident), builds up to a first peak (conflict), maybe includes some twisty loops (plot twists or red herrings), a final big high (climax), and then it drops off (denouement), bringing the reader to the end. The overall progression should always increase — but fluctuations in the values of the book are needed to ensure the story is engaging.
What these specific values are will change depending on your genre, but try for a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5. In a romance, these values might be communication, conflict, intimacy, and support. In a mystery, these values might be discovery, mystery, pressure, teamwork, and tension. A hard-boiled mystery might open with more of a bang (higher values), while a slow-burn romance might have more gradual momentum (lower values), but both build towards a climax that keeps the reader invested.
So, in a chart, notebook, or conspiracy theory-esque wall, assign the key values for your book. For each chapter, note which of your values applies with a scale of 1 to 5 for how much each value is the focus of that chapter. Pro Tip: Not all of your values necessarily appear in every chapter.
For instance, in our hypothetical mystery — discovery, mystery, pressure, teamwork, and tension.
1. The opening chapter may open on a murder scene. We have:
high discovery (5: a victim!)
medium-high mystery (4: whodunnit may have been hinted at by some glimpse of the attacker)
moderate teamwork (3: our lead characters, a detective and forensic scientist, search for clues).
There’s no real tension between them yet and no external pressure for them to solve the murder.
2. In the next chapter, to keep the reader’s engagement high, we should introduce other values; let’s let the discovery value drop because we haven’t got any new breaks in the case (discovery 1; mystery 5).
However, the detective and the forensic scientist disagree (teamwork 0) on the best lead to follow (tension 3) and reporters have leaked the story to the public (pressure 4) meaning there’s more demand for them to solve the crime.
3. And so on with the next chapter, until you reach your highest points for the most (if not all) values at the climax.
4. By the end of the book, there likely won’t be any more clues for discovery, while pressure and tension are likely resolved in the climax. This might mean your last chapter only has a high teamwork value (4) and lower mystery value (2) as everything is resolved.
By assigning values to each chapter, you can see if you have too many in a row with the same values and/or the same levels of values. Remember, you need to give your reader some breathing room, so you can’t just have a tension of 5 all the way across the plot — there’s nowhere for the plot to build and the reader soon gets desensitized (or too stressed out to keep reading!). Seeing these patterns can also help you identify if there’s a value you’re underusing. Maybe there could be more teamwork scattered throughout. Or maybe the pressure dropped off after chapter three and you need to bring it back to add to the tension around the climax.
We hope you’ll try all of these techniques and find the ones that work best for you. Feel free to mix up the order, or try them a little and come back to them later in your drafting or revisions process. There’s no wrong way to brainstorm, so long as it gets your story written.
