Writing The Wedding that Changed Everything: Planning

I kept a little diary while writing my eighth book, The Wedding That Changed Everything, which I'll be sharing on the blog over the next few weeks.

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I'm a bit of a planner when it comes to writing books. The degree of my planning really depends on the book I'm writing at the time; A Beginner's Guide To Salad has three POVs with some overlapping scenes and quite a structured timeline, so I did a LOT of planning beforehand, right down to individual scenes, whereas I set off writing The Little Bed & Breakfast by the Sea with little more than a detailed synopsis (this too has three POVs, but it felt right to just go with the flow more).

I started off by plotting out my initial ideas for the book - the book's characters, themes, bits of storyline - using a spider diagram. My youngest daughter's book was the inspiration for the book and so the theme of fairytales runs throughout and a pink book of fairytales is important to the plot.

While I was putting my initial ideas down on paper, I heard about Take Off Your Pants by author Libbie Hawker, which helps you to outline your books. I ordered a copy and it really helped me to fine tune the ideas in my head and develop them further into a basic plot. I used this to help write a synopsis, which I sent off to my editor. She loved the concept so, using Take Off Your Pants, I expanded on my notes to create an outline, broken down into chapters and individual scenes.

So now I'm ready to go! Although I have a full-on outline, there is still so much to discover and during the first draft I'll really get to know my characters, so I'm excited about getting stuck in!

Things I Have Learned This Week

How to structure a novel for better pacing

Other Things I Have Learned This Week

Britain can be warm. We've had some gorgeous weather over the past few days, so I've been sitting in the garden for the non-laptop-requiring parts of plotting and outlining.

Word Count

0 - soon to change!

Love happens when you least expect it…

Emily Atkinson stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago! She’s fed up of dating frogs in order to track down her very own Prince Charming, despite the best efforts of her matchmaking best friend…

But now she’s been invited to the wedding of the year at the enchanting Durban Castle, and perhaps bumping into a knight in shining armour isn’t as far away as she thought!

Will Emily survive the wedding and walk away an unscathed singleton – or finally find her own happily-ever-after?





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