Novel Planning and Drafting

About this course

Who this course is for

What you'll learn

• Define a novel premise, reader promise, and manageable project scope.
• Connect a protagonist's pursuit, opposition, and developing character arc.
• Set research boundaries that support credible fiction without delaying drafting.
• Build and adapt a flexible outline around consequential story changes.
• Plan scenes and chapters with clear functions and meaningful transitions.
• Track subplots, chronology, knowledge, and other continuity constraints.
• Establish a sustainable drafting practice and respond productively to discoveries.
• Diagnose middle-draft problems and complete an earned ending.
• Evaluate a complete draft structurally and create a prioritized next-draft plan.

Course details

Level

beginner

What's included

• 12 lessons
• Twelve substantive lessons with original worked examples and practical writing exercises.
• Project-brief, character-pressure, and bounded-research procedures.
• Flexible-outline, scene-card, subplot, and continuity planning methods.
• Drafting-session, discovery-log, and stalled-middle diagnostic procedures.
• Full-draft evaluation and prioritized next-draft planning methods.
• Progress tracking
• Certificate of completion

Requirements

• Ability to read and write in English.
• A notebook or document editor for planning and drafting original fiction.
• An existing novel idea is helpful but not required.
• No completed manuscript or previous outlining experience is required.

Curriculum

1. 01

   Lesson 1: Define Premise, Promise, and Scope

   Develop a premise that supports sustained conflict, identify the experience readers are invited to expect, and set boundaries that make the novel manageable.

   12m
2. 02

   Lesson 2: Connect Protagonist, Conflict, and Arc

   Design a protagonist whose goals create meaningful action, whose conflicts expose competing values, and whose developing responses provide an observable character arc.

   12m
3. 03

   Lesson 3: Set Research Boundaries

   Identify the knowledge your novel genuinely needs, prioritize high-consequence uncertainties, and use a bounded research process that supports drafting without replacing it.

   12m
4. 04

   Lesson 4: Build a Flexible Outline

   Create a provisional sequence of consequential developments, use structural landmarks without rigid formulas, and preserve useful uncertainty while maintaining a clear drafting direction.

   12m
5. 05

   Lesson 5: Plan Scenes and Shape Chapters

   Translate outline developments into scenes with immediate objectives and meaningful changes, then group scenes into chapters that support emphasis, pacing, and reader orientation.

   12m
6. 06

   Lesson 6: Track Subplots and Continuity

   Integrate secondary storylines with the central pursuit and maintain reliable records of chronology, character knowledge, physical details, and consequences across the developing manuscript.

   12m
7. 07

   Lesson 7: Build a Sustainable Drafting Practice

   Create realistic writing commitments, reduce session-start friction, distinguish drafting from revision, and use progress records that support steady work without punishing unavoidable interruptions.

   12m
8. 08

   Lesson 8: Revise the Plan Through Discovery

   Evaluate unexpected developments during drafting, distinguish productive discoveries from distracting detours, and update outlines and continuity records without repeatedly abandoning the manuscript.

   12m
9. 09

   Lesson 9: Diagnose a Stalled Middle

   Identify whether a stalled draft suffers from unclear goals, repetitive attempts, missing consequences, or writer uncertainty, then test targeted repairs before adding more events.

   12m
10. 10

    Lesson 10: Write the Ending and Complete the Draft

    Develop a resolution from established pressures and choices, provide proportionate aftermath, and define practical completion criteria that prevent endless postponement of the full draft.

    12m
11. 11

    Lesson 11: Evaluate the Draft Structurally

    Read the completed manuscript for causal development, character movement, pacing, and promise fulfillment, using evidence-based notes rather than immediately rewriting isolated sentences.

    12m
12. 12

    Lesson 12: Create a Purposeful Next-Draft Plan

    Convert structural findings into prioritized revision tasks, sequence dependent changes, define evidence of success, and establish a manageable process for producing the next manuscript version.

    12m