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I have not gone over every worksheet featured in Book in a Month; I’ve just provided the essential tools to plot your NaNoWriMo novel, or any novel, for that matter.

Though the worksheets I haven’t gone over are, essentially, self-explanatory, I strongly encourage everyone to purchase Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. You can purchase it from Barnes and Noble for $22.99, for your Kindle for $13.79, or from Amazon.com for $14.78. The tips you can learn from the book can be applied to every novel you write from here-on-out.

Research is an important aspect in many novels. The Research Tracker is on page 252 in this PDF.

The Research Tracker keeps track of what topic you’re going to research, what you’re looking for, and what you learn about the topic. This seemingly simple worksheet may be one of the most important in Book in a Month.

Here are just a few examples of what you can use your research tracker for:

• the setting of a novel that is a real place, but one you’ve never been to before

• a type of weapon your characters use

• types of gang violence in your setting

• information on Nazi Germany

• the effects heroin has on someone who has been using for 20 years

The uses of the research tracker are seemingly endless, and the way the worksheet is formatted will keep all your research organized.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Theme is actually very relevant to a story, even if you only believe that it was invented by English teachers as a painful way to make students think about what a story means.

Whether or not you work towards a specific theme when you’re writing your novel, there’s always going to be something a reader takes away from what you’ve written.

If you’re planning on writing with a specific theme in mind, use the Theme Spider (page 273), and the Theme Revelation Check (page 285), which can be found in this PDF.

The Theme Spider may seem complex and nerve-wracking, but it’s rather simple. First and foremost, your actual theme goes in the middle. Each of the surrounding blocks will tell you a little bit about the theme, and it will help you form your theme. You may not be able to complete all of this before you start writing, but you’re more than welcome to fill it in as you write your novel.

The Theme Revelation Check is a place to organize where in your acts the theme will be reinforced. While readers may pick up on themes you didn’t have in mind when you were writing, a good percentage will pick up on the theme you specifically wrote if you make sure you have theme-enforcing moments scattered throughout the novel.

In the final Book in a Month post, I’ll briefly discuss how research is important to certain novels.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Novels are made up of three different things: an idea, words, and scenes. Without scenes, nothing will happen in your novel; then how would you be able to write anything?

Worksheets on scenes in Book in a Month are the Scene Cards (page 236), the Character Revealing Scenes (page 258), the Plot Snapshot (page 262), and the Scene Sequencer (274), which can be found in this PDF.

There are ten Scene Cards that you can print out to keep track of the scenes in your novel. A novel should have at least ten scenes, but you can certainly have more. The scene cards allow you to keep track of the characters that appear in the scene, where the scene takes place, the mood or tone of the scene, and the reason you have the scene in there.

In Damien Grimm’s Literature Info Sheets, you will find the last sheet entitled Plot. The same things covered in the scene cards are covered in the plot sheets, but there is extensive space to list what happens in the scene as well as vital information that is learned in the scene.

The worksheet for Character Revealing Scenes is set up a bit differently than other worksheets. You’ll need to fill out a few of these, depending on how many characters you reveal information for throughout the novel. In this worksheet, you’ll note scenes where you reveal appearance, quirks, skills/weaknesses, trauma, motivation and the lessons they learn. Some of what you reveal will be backstory – now aren’t you glad you already listed that in the Backstory Brainstorm?

To write a good novel, you should plan to have at least three major events happen. You’ll plan these out in the Plot Snapshot. Basic information is needed – the setting, the characters that will be involved, and the conflicts that arise and their effects. Then you’ll describe the events, what they accomplish, and how these new conflicts will affect your novel, in both the short- and long-term.

Sometimes, you’ll need to use sequences in your scenes to begin them. You can plan these out in the Scene Sequencer. A sequence of a scene usually happens quickly, so you’ll need to pick and choose only the basic elements to focus on. Once you’ve done your sequence, you can then write about the after-effects of the sequence in more detail. This is like a summary, if you will, of something that you feel will take too much time to write out, yet you still want to include it.

We’ll next be discussing a story’s theme.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Every story has at least one protagonist – the main character of the story. However, a story’s antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a person. It could be an object, or nature, or even God.

The antagonist worksheets can be used even if your antagonist isn’t a person.

The worksheets for your protagonist and antagonist are the Hero’s Story Compass (page 279), the Hero Reward Glance (page 280), the Villain Brainstorm (page 277), and the Villain Reward Glance (page 281), which can be found in this PDF.

Four things are mapped out in the Hero’s Story Compass: what will happen if the protagonist obtains the goal, tries but fails to achieve the goal, gives up, or abandons the goal for a new one. By planning out these four courses of action for the protagonist, you will be able to see which ending you prefer; then you can plot your story around one of the endings you’ve chosen, or all four if you aren’t quite sure which you’d prefer to happen.

The Hero Reward Glance is used to give you an in-depth look at what your character will get as a reward for the ending you chose above. You’ll list the obstacles your protagonist has overcome, any obstacles that may still come, and three reward options for your character. For example, if the protagonist is a commoner searching for a princess that has been kidnapped by an evil wizard, the rewards may be fame and riches.

Every good story has some kind of antagonist, or villain, in it. In the Villain Brainstorm, you’ll write down what the antagonist’s redeeming qualities are as well as his or her skills and weaknesses. It’s important to know how your antagonist ticks, as your protagonist may use some of the weaknesses to his or her advantage.

Finally, in the Villain Reward Glance, you will list things similar to those that you listed in the Villain Brainstorm as well as things you listed in the Hero Reward Glance, but for your antagonist. The goal of this worksheet is to list what will happen should the antagonist win. In the above example, if the commoner wasn’t able to find where the evil wizard was keeping the princess, what would have happened to the princess? The commoner? The wizard?

Everything you need to know about scene will be featured next.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Every novel has at least one character, and it’s important for an author to know things about this character. It is also important to have those facts about your characters written down in a handy sheet so you’re able to use it as a reference.

Think about it: In chapter two, you describe your character’s eyes as blue. Then, in the tenth chapter, you mention that the same character has green eyes. Unless your character is wearing color contacts, you’ve made a mistake, and readers will pick up on something like that.

Having character reference sheets is a smart move so you don’t confuse different traits of your characters.

The character worksheets that are essential for all of your major characters and some, if not most, of your minor characters are the Character Story Sketch (page 253), the Character Snapshot (255), the Backstory Brainstorm (page 260), and the Character Motivators worksheet (page 261), which can be found in this PDF.

The Character Story Sketch and the Character Snapshot go hand-in-hand. In the Character Story Sketch, you will record all of the general facts about the character: name, age, height, weight, etc. “Just The Facts” dives a little deeper into the life of the character; children, pets and fears are just some of the topics covered. “Going Deeper” is a plot-oriented section, talking about things you’ve decided in the character must do during the novel.

The Character Snapshot asks for some of the same basic information about the character, but the rest is meant so you get to the heart of the characters. You’ll pick the psychology of the character – what makes him or her tick mentally – as well as their accomplishments, motivations and character arc. At the end of the worksheet, there is a section for you to list important notes about the character.

Even if it’s something simple, such as a character’s family history of high blood pressure, there is backstory for every character. In the Backstory Brainstorm, you will list the different backstories for your characters. In this worksheet, you’ll list more backstory than you need, then trim it down in the next column to what you’ll need for the story. The information about a character’s past you include in your story must be relevant, and you’ll have to predict where you’ll put the backstory; both of these are covered in the worksheet.

Just like backstory, characters also have motivation. Character Motivators covers the motivation a character has in any given scene to act a certain way. You’ll be able to keep track of the scene, the character, their flaws and goals, the resistance they meet because of their actions as well as the direct motivation they will face in your story.

You can find a host of other character reference sheets on the Internet. A few in particular that I find especially useful are the Literature Info Sheets that Damien Grimm, known as *fenris242 on deviantART. This is a .zip file that must be downloaded to your computer, but it is completely worth it.

In the first sheet for Major Characters, you will write an in-depth analysis of your character so that you can get to know the basic facts about your character. In the second, you will only include the character’s name, age, gender and race before deeply describing their physical description and how that character acts in a nutshell. There is also an opportunity to sketch the character out.

The sheet for Minor Characters is like a combination of the sheets for major characters: you will write the major details of the character and how the character acts in a nutshell, and you will be able to sketch the character out.

If you’re writing science fiction, Damien also includes a sheet for Creatures you create. After writing down the details of the creature – different from what you’ve written down for any human characters – you’ll also be able to sketch the creature so you have an idea of what it looks like.

Next, we will still be talking about developing your characters, but we will be focusing on specific details for protagonists and antagonists.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Now that you have a basic idea for a plot, it’s time to expand your ideas to form your story.

We’ll be jumping around from here on out with our worksheet reviews. This time, we’ll be looking at the Conflict Brainstorm (page 269), the Subplot Brainstorm (page 271), the Climax Brainstorm (page 284), and the Resolution Brainstorm (page 286), which can be found in this PDF.

To review, there can be two kinds of conflict in a story: internal conflict and external conflict. Internal conflict refers to character vs. character, where the character battles his or her inner thoughts and feelings. External conflict has three main branches: character vs. character – when one character faces a problem with another character, character vs. society – when a character has a problem with society, and character vs. nature – when a character is bogged down due to something going on in his or her natural surroundings.

There are also conflicts that are less common but can also add an interesting spin to your story. Your character can have a conflict with technology, fate, a supernatural force, or a higher power, depending on what your story is about.

In the Conflict Brainstorm, all aspects of conflict are discussed. You will discuss the scene in which the conflict happens, the characters involved, and the results of the conflict.

The worksheet also discusses barriers, complications, and situations. Barriers are when “the character tries something that doesn’t work” (142); complications are “action points that don’t pay off immediately” (143); situations often add tension and “use one of the dramatic predicaments to move the story forward” (143).

As mentioned earlier, leaving out subplots is sometimes easier when you’re on a strict deadline, such as 50,000 words by November 30th. The Subplot Brainstorm allows you to put down all your ideas for subplots into this handy little chart. You’ll note what the subplot itself is, its function, the characters that are involved in it and how the subplot gets resolved.

(Personally, I’m able to write subplots into my stories, but this subplot worksheet will be helpful to those that are strapped for time and can only get the bare essentials down.)

The Climax Brainstorm is where you can plan out the aspects of the major moment in your story. The brainstorm has spaces where you can list different options for the climactic scene, as it’s always good to have a few different options so, once you’ve written a portion of your novel, you’ll know exactly what you want for that scene.

The Resolution Brainstorm focuses on three aspects: plot resolution, subplot resolution, and character resolution. Subplot resolution isn’t particularly needed because you already have that listed in your subplot brainstorm, but it’s good to know the outcome of your characters and your plot.

Always plot an ending. I can’t stress that enough. Even if it’s rough, make sure you plot some type of end result. It’s something to work towards, and it’s always something you can change as you develop your novel.

In our next plotting guide, I’ll tell you every (general) thing you must do for your character, whether it’s protagonist or antagonist.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Before you even begin plotting, write a one-sentence summary of your story. That’s all you get – one sentence to tell the premise of the story.

Here are two classic examples of one-sentence summaries:

• A rich girl and a poor boy meet and fall in love on the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic (75).

• A Hobbit named Frodo, entrusted with an ancient ring, must now embark on an epic quest to destroy it (76).

These are almost like thesis statements for Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: the stories are much more complicated than what is given here, but you get the idea of what everything is going to be about.

Submit your one-sentence summary to my ask box (link to the right); I’d love to hear what your stories are going to be about.

We will be focusing on the Story Idea Map (page 234), and the At-A-Glance Outline (page 246), which can be found in this PDF.

The purpose of the Story Idea Map is to plan out what’s going to happen just in the beginning. There will be plenty of time to plot the entire thing, but to get anywhere, a beginning is needed.

Schmidt points out that you shouldn’t censor yourself (77). Put any ideas about the characters, setting, or events that pop into your mind down in this. It doesn’t mean that everything you write down will make it in the novel, but it’s better to put all your ideas down so you don’t forget when you’re writing.

If your goal is to not only have 50,000 words by the end of November, but also have your first draft completed from start to finish, then the At-A-Glance Outline is especially important. The At-A-G-lance Outline is useful in the sense that it allows you to break down what you should be writing by week.

The section for week one helps you identify key story elements for Act I, as well as things to remember about your protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters and setting. Weeks two and three, where you will write the second act, have sections for you to record more events in the story as well as any new characters and settings you may include. Finally, in the section for week four, you will discuss the final story events as well as how you think the story should end and what the story’s theme will be.

We will be looking at plot-specific aides next.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

Shakespeare wrote in the five-act structure, a form that was easy to lay out in the classic plot diagram – exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement.

Using the Book in a Month system, you’ll encounter the three-act structure – beginning, middle, and end. Act I is the beginning; Act II is the middle (broken down into two parts); Act III is the end. For a more detailed explanation of the three-act structure, click here for a detailed tutorial by Charlotte Hillebrand, known as *PaperDart on deviantART.

In this post, we will be focusing on the Story Tracker (page 227), the Writing Time Tracker (page 230) and the Goal Tracker (page 232), which can be found in this PDF.

The Story Tracker is helpful for those details you’ve suddenly decided to change a quarter of the way through the novel. Schmidt writes, “You cannot write and rewrite at the same time if you want to finish a book in 30 days” (10). By using the story tracker, you can keep track of changing your protagonist’s mother’s name from Mary-Beth to JoAnne on page 57, and that you need to go back and change the name once you’ve finished writing. Then continue writing using the new name.

Record all sudden changes to plot, character, subplot, setting and anything else that you will need to go back and fix in your story tracker. Be sure to include what the change used to be and what you’ve decided it should be, and on which page you made this change.

The Writing Time Tracker is useful to keep track of how much time per day you spend writing. It’s broken down into 4 weeks (there are 4 weeks in the month of November), and it helps you see how many hours you spend writing miscellaneous things related to your novel, the outline, the actual writing of the act and the time you spend rewriting (which should ultimately be 0, but there may be times when you’re ahead on your word count and would like to go back and revise what you’ve already written), as what your word count is and the amount of distractions you faced.

Keeping track of how much time you spend writing is essential for time management, which we will get into very soon.

It’s always beneficial to make goals for yourself, as it can keep you motivated. The Goals Tracker allows you to write down all your goals for the month and how you plan on achieving those goals.

Last year, here were my goals:

1. Win NaNoWriMo – 50,000 words by November 30^th

2. 50,000 words by November 30^th – write at least 1,667 words per day

3. Stay on track – utilize days off and weekends

4. Take time for myself – keep and follow a tight schedule

Next, we will focus on the Story Idea Map and the At-A-Glance Outline.

Schmidt, Victoria L. Book in a Month: the Foolproof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest, 2008.

I don’t know about you guys, but I am extremely excited to begin National Novel Writing Month in November!

The scary thing is that there are only 18 days left in October, which means you have 18 days to plot your novel.

Before you begin to panic, I want to assure you that 18 days is plenty of time to plot your novel. Last year, I plotted for 3 days (October 28th-30th) and took Halloween off before starting off on the journey, and I was able to make a very detailed plot in that short amount of time.

That isn’t to say that you aren’t going to have to work at it. However, I have many tools that will help you, tools that I am going to provide for you.

Book in a Month, written by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, is exactly what it sounds like – a book that provides you with tons of information on how to plot a novel. The advice is presented in a way that suggests you need to do every single worksheet as you’re writing your novel, but it’s perfectly acceptable to pick and choose which ones will work best for you and complete them before you start writing.

(Personally, I would fill most – if not all – of the sheets in before I start writing.)

I encourage everyone to go out and purchase Book in a Month if you like what you sound. It is available at Barnes and Noble for $22.99, or you can purchase it for your Kindle through Amazon.com for $13.79; if you’re like me and prefer to have a copy of the book sitting in your hands, you can also purchase the spiral-bound book through Amazon for $14.78.

If you’re strapped for cash, aren’t allowed to buy from Amazon, or anything else, don’t fret.

With permission from the author herself, I will be featuring some of the tips and tricks she shares in the book; I will also provide a link to the PDF of the worksheets from the book, which is available on her website, and review the worksheets in increments, offering suggestions and even examples.

As frightening as NaNoWriMo seems, just relax. You will find time to write, and you can accomplish this goal.