
Hitting these “beats” gives your story a rhythm while leaving the details open to your imagination. Remember learning in school that all stories should have a beginning, middle, and end? This classic, logical method of storytelling takes you from your story’s initial setup and inciting incident through rising action, turning points, and resolution.Īdapted from the world of screenwriting, this popular method replaces the concept of acts with a set of milestones that commonly appear in many kinds of stories. The end product is a concise, two-sentence explanation of what your story is about. With this step-by-step guide, you’ll think about who your protagonist is, what he or she wants, and the problems or conflicts they must overcome. Your premise is the foundation on which the entire novel is built. Choose the one that fits your personal style: There are a lot of different ways to get there, so we’ve made templates to walk you through several of the most popular plotting methods. Learn more » The game is afoot: Plotting and outliningĪre you the sort of writer who wants a solid plan in place before typing “Chapter 1?” You’ll need a roadmap that begins with a premise and culminates in an outline.

You can then copy, move, rename, and edit the note to suit your needs. TIP: To use any of the note templates mentioned in this article, click the “Get it »” link and then click “Save to Evernote.” The template will be added to your Evernote account in the notebook of your choice (we recommend setting up a new notebook just for templates). Start filling them out today and they’ll keep you anchored while you write your 30-day masterpiece.
CHART FOR GOOD STORYWRITING FREE
Many of them include questions or prompts to get you started, but you can feel free to replace those with inventions of your own. With that in mind, we’ve created a dozen note templates to help you collect and structure your thoughts in Evernote. If you’re going to write a novel in November, the time to plan is now. Only you can answer those questions, but it helps to figure them out early. But as any fiction writer knows, the hardest part of any new work is figuring out what to write about in the first place: What happens next? What motivates these characters? What’s this story about, anyway?

We’ve met a lot of writers who use Evernote to plan, brainstorm (and sometimes even draft) their novels, so we are proud to be a corporate sponsor of NaNoWriMo for the fourth consecutive year.

We’re talking about National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo), and the challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create a 50,000-word story from scratch in just 30 days, from November 1–30. It’s that time of year when thousands of writers around the world prepare to type faster than a speeding bullet, drink coffee more powerful than a locomotive, and leap tall deadlines in a single bound. Visit our template gallery to browse pre-made templates you can add to your Evernote account. There’s a new way to find, manage, and use note templates in Evernote.
