how i write my books 🌟 step-by-step writing process breakdown + tips

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Hello, welcome back to my channel. My name is Chris. I am a science fiction fantasy author and today I kind of wanted to make an updated video writing chat about my novel writing process. So the most viewed video was my how I brainstorm and outline my books video and I think I made that like two years ago now. I don't want to say that video isn't accurate anymore. It's still a reflection of how I approach planning, but my writing process is something that changes with every book that I write. I think that video, it was very much reflective of how I approached writing that specific book, which was a fantasy novel. It's It's very much evolved over the last two years. That process, the reason it was so in-depth was because it was It had a very big cast. It had a world that I really needed to figure out. It just required me to do a lot of planning. So that was the the first reason why it was so in-depth with all of the, you know, different stages that I did. But I think the other reason that I outlined that book so intensely, I think I also had this um this very intense outlining process with Local Heavens as well, which is my debut novel. I think really the reason is just that I was still learning how to write.

[00:01:15]I think I saw outlining as a way for me to feel less afraid of the draft because I always had this feeling of like once I start writing, once there are are words on the page, it's so serious, you know? So I think I always spent a lot of time in phase because I was always scared to like mess it up once I actually started drafting. And I I guess I just don't really feel that way about my writing as much anymore. You know, obviously the more that you write, the more that you get more comfortable, the more you start to figure out your process and the more that your intuition starts to sharpen, I guess. Local Heavens was like the third manuscript that I finished. It became my debut novel. Providence was the fourth manuscript that I finished. Like you start to learn things. I've started a fresh draft. I have realized that I the the brainstorming and outlining phase for me kind of shortened, I guess, and I'm I definitely jumped into actually drafting a lot quicker than I did the first four times around. And I think the main reason is just that I I sort of know in intuitively now how I like to write and I'm not as scared of starting.

[00:02:18]I do think there's a confidence element to it as well, but it's not because I'm I'm starting the draft and suddenly like the words are just like they come out really clean and perfect. Number one, trust my editing and revision skills.

[00:02:30]And number two, I am not as like hard on myself. Perfectionism is something that I definitely still struggle with. It doesn't affect me as much. And I will say that a lot of the things that I mentioned in that initial video, I do think a lot of that is still accurate.

[00:02:44]Um just like some of the stuff that maybe I'm not doing this time around is spending so much time in kind of the brainstorming, planning, note-taking phase. I definitely go from ideation to outline to drafting faster. Outlines are like a little bit more condensed, I guess, this time around. Step one, the brain dump phase. This is definitely still the same. I don't think that much has changed with this initial step. The brain dump phase is something that can last a very long time. A lot of times what I'll do is I'll just throw something into a notes app. Just let it simmer. I'll just leave it there for a while and I usually just compile a lot of ideas over that time. And sometimes those things are completely disconnected. sometimes I get an idea for a world-building detail or a magic system, a character, or even if it's just something like a theme or a trope.

[00:03:36]Over time, sometimes a premise sort of starts to like bubble up out of the surface. And the brain dump phase, I always have to emphasize, is very, very messy. I really just allow my thoughts to just go in unfiltered and I don't really care about whether or not it makes sense. I don't care if it ends up leading to nothing. Just like to make sure that I'm constantly writing down things that I find interesting in the moment. If weeks or months later I still find myself drawn to those ideas, that's when I kind of know that there might be a story sitting there and I don't quite know what it is yet. Hello. Hi. So there's a huge part of this step, the brain dump step, that I forgot to talk about. I think I just forgot to add it into my notes. My whole like brain dump phase, a huge part of this is research.

[00:04:28]Research can look like many different things depending on the story that I'm writing. My fantasy book that I just finished, usually it's a lot of like historical research and that can take a long time. I think the reason I spend many weeks, if not months, is for me I don't feel like I can jump headfirst into a story without any kind of research. And usually I spend at minimum a few weeks figuring out what kind of aspects of history interest me and what what kind of things do I think would would make sense to explore in whatever story I'm trying to write. So obviously when I was writing Providence, my fantasy book, a lot of the research that I did was related like broadly to Philippine history, the Spanish-American War. And And research is the kind of thing where I don't know exactly what I'm looking for. I'm just looking to learn. Sometimes the things that I'm researching have nothing to do with the book ultimately. Maybe there's a thematic thread that um starts to come up. I usually don't go into research with any with any specific intentions other than to just gain inspiration, try to learn something, and figure out what would be meaningful to recontextualize through the lens of like my own experience, but also um through the lens of like a fantasy novel, through, you know, speculative fiction. When you're setting out to write a book, you get very antsy and you're like, I just want to skip right to the part where I'm actually writing, but it can be very valuable to just like let your curiosity take you places. Step two is the organization phase and this is, like I was mentioning before, when I start to see some connected ideas coming out of the brain dump, that is when I will move things into an actual structured document. So in the past, this used to be a Microsoft Word document. Uh for a long time, I would dump things into Google Doc. I'm now moving away from Google Docs as much as I can. So the writing software that I am using right now for my note-taking kind of needs is called Ellipses and it is a free writing software. The main reason that I made the switch is because it does all the things that I would want a Google Doc to do. It is also stored in the cloud. I can also access it from uh and the team is very, very anti-AI. I've really been enjoying using it for the reasons that I would use Google Docs for. However, I do not draft my books in Ellipses just because I am so committed to Scrivener and I think there's so many functionalities that I've gotten used to with Scrivener that I have a very hard time doing any kind of novel drafting outside of Scrivener. So I haven't been able to make that switch over, but for everything else, I have a very much been enjoying Ellipses and this is not sponsored or anything like that. If you want to check it out, it is free currently. So the organization phase is basically when I start taking all of the random ideas that I had and I start fleshing them out in a document. And this again looks different for every single book. Usually what I'll do is I will ideate like sectioning off my ideas into main categories. So I'll start main characters, secondary characters. I'll start brainstorming different world-building things. Usually if it's a fantasy, I am starting to get ideas for um a magic system and how the magic operates within the world. If it's a sci-fi, the starting point is usually some kind of technology or some kind of like world event. As I am brainstorming characters and world-building things, I will start getting ideas for scenes.

[00:08:04]That is when a premise will start to kind of rise out of the surface. So one book idea that I was drafting, this is not something that I'm actively working on anymore, the premise has changed significantly, but just to give you an example of like how this process would usually go for me, a couple years ago I was brainstorming a contemporary fantasy, like an urban fantasy. I think when I was brainstorming this, I would have like my brain dump consisted of like a lot of media that I was inspired by, some of like my favorite uh urban fantasies like JJ K, Chainsaw Man, something sort of X-Files adjacent.

[00:08:39]Eventually when I moved that idea into a Google Doc and I was organizing my thoughts around it, I started um thinking about like a supernatural investigation bureau type of situation.

[00:08:49]What does this supernatural investigative bureau do within this world? I wanted it to be set in Toronto.

[00:08:55]Who are the characters that work within the bureau? From that, I start to come up with a plot. These are the types of supernatural things that they're investigating and why. Once I start thinking about where does it go wrong, who benefits {slash} gets affected by this thing going wrong, that's when I start to have a premise. The book that I'm starting to redraft right now is a sci-fi book. Um that is very much how my thought process went with this book. I came up with this like initial idea. I started to think about this is where the world is at the moment. This is where it goes wrong and this is why it goes wrong and that's when I figured out what my premise was. Usually as I'm figuring that all out, I start getting ideas for themes. I'm a very theme-driven writer, so when I'm trying to figure out what the general premise or plot would be, why I find it interesting, theme is something that I I start thinking about very early. Local Heavens was a retelling, so it was a lot of this the themes that we see in The Great Gatsby and how they overlap with a lot of the common themes in cyberpunk, class and wealth, the role that technology plays in all of that, late-stage capitalism, these sorts of things. Provenance, my adult fantasy book, it was memory, intergenerational trauma, lost history, reclaimed history. There was another book that I started planning and brainstorming, not the one I'm writing right now, but a lot of the things that I was really interested in when I was planning out that book was about climate migration. That book is very much like supernatural thing as an analogy for climate migration. And that's kind of when I knew that I was interested in that book idea. This stage is obviously still very messy. I'm still figuring things out, but I'm kind of asking myself what are the things that I'm really interested in as I am coming up with ideas, what things really excite me, and I try to highlight that in my notes. Okay, if this is the character that I'm writing, this is like maybe one kind of archetype that I want them to fall under. And usually around this time, I am also sometimes coming up with different scene ideas. Like even before I even have a full plot. At some point, I will have 2,000 to 5,000 words of notes. So, the next stage of the writing process for me, I do recommend this for writers like generally, but I think I especially recommend it if you are someone who's thinking of pursuing traditional publishing, kind of want to figure out how would you actually pitch this book. I know a lot of writers will give the advice about like you don't need to think about publishing while you're writing, and I do agree that that is great advice, but I also think when I was writing my first book, I never did this. I did all of the world building, I did all of the outlining, but I never sat down and asked myself, "If I were to distill what is happening in this book into one sentence, what would that even look like?" Because I didn't do that, I didn't really understand what I was writing or what the focus of the book is. And and I do this before I outline.

[00:11:49]That way, when I go into writing my outline, I know that this is the expectation that I will set for the reader. This is what the book is going to be, quote-unquote, about. And I kind of use that as like a grounding focus for when I'm actually outlining, so I can make sure that the the promise of that premise will be fulfilled as I'm writing. This can change, and the blurb and the logline is something that I I tweak alongside me writing the outline.

[00:12:15]Because I understand that sometimes when you're coming up with different ideas, maybe you want to pursue different things, maybe you want to highlight different things. Doing this really early allows me to have a sense of direction so that I'm not just writing and outlining very, very aimlessly.

[00:12:30]Other reason that I do this really early is also because I have to. If I start getting really, really serious about writing a book, at some point I'm going to have to tell my agent about it if I'm interested in in publishing the manuscript, obviously. I I need to have a premise for her to read. That premise needs to be something that she can be convinced will sell. An example of this, Local Heavens, logline would be a queer Cyberpunk reimagining of The Great Gatsby following a Filipino-American corporate hacker who is assigned to investigate the secrets and identity of a new money billionaire. It takes place in New York City 2075. Um that was not >> [laughter] >> logline was not structured well, but that is like an example of what a logline would be. You have the very, very, very basic premise down pat, and that's how you would talk about it if someone were to ask you, "What's the book that you're writing?" Um a blurb would be something a lot longer. It would be like the actual 250 to 300 words of what what you would pitch the book as. So, here's an example of that.

[00:13:32]Okay, then we move on to the outline {slash} beat sheet. So, again, I am not outlining as intensely as I used to. At the start of this video, I talked a little bit about why. I just don't feel like I have to, but I also find that once I get into like past the midpoint of a book into the third, fourth act, I am not really referencing my outlines anymore anyway because the plot changes so much as I write. So, when I was drafting like the first draft of Provenance, I had really outlined that book to the end, but once I was past the 60,000 word mark of the is like halfway through, I really was not looking at the outline anymore. And so, a lot of the stuff that you see me doing it in my initial video where I was like going through my process for brainstorming that book, it helped me in the moment when I was sorting out my thoughts and and all that, but once it actually got to writing the book, the plot really changed. And, you know, that was something that I knew would happen.

[00:14:33]I have found with this current book that I'm writing that I didn't even attempt to do like a chapter-by-chapter outline for anything but the first act. What my outlining process looks like right now is for act one, I will do a chapter-by-chapter outline because I can see what the first act of the story will be very, very clearly. So, I knew exactly like this is what the prologue has to be, this is what the opening scene is going to be, this is what the end of act one cliffhanger is going to be. And I will put on screen the general plot outline that I like to follow, and I have used this for basically every book that I've written because allows me to get a sense of pacing. And it's just something that works for me. Again, it might not work for everyone. Try on different ones and see which one you like best. But for me, this kind of general four-act story structure has really helped me with my outlining.

[00:15:28]Introduction to characters, inciting incident, end of act one will be something that would heighten the stakes of the inciting incident and push you into act two. Act two would be sort of the exploration of the book where the world opens up and you build on some of the world building ideas that you maybe introduced in act one. I don't like to do too much exposition in act one, which is why I usually like save it for the beginning of act two. And then the midpoint of the book will be uh some kind of twist. It could be a plot twist, it could be a cliffhanger, whatever. And then going into act three would be your rising action, climax, and then your act four would be your denouement. That is the general plot beats that I follow.

[00:16:09]Until I actually write the story and the characters, I can't say for sure what I want everything in the middle of the book to be. So, what I usually do is I will do a chapter-by-chapter outline for act one. And then for act two, I will uh brainstorm sort of the major expository things that I want to explore in the book. Again, this will be like world building and also character arcs, like how do I generally want the character arcs to develop, how do I want the characters to be challenged in that middle section of the book. And then for act three, I will usually have an idea or brainstorm an idea for the climax of the book, what I want like the major like life-shattering event to be. Um how do I want the characters to be like pushed to the absolute limit. And then I will have like a note for act four about how I ultimately want the book to end. I will kind of look over that beat sheet, then fill in the blanks if there is anything. Usually Sometimes I'll I'll have an idea for like what I want the rising action into the climax to be, but basically everything after act one, I am not doing a chapter-by-chapter outline anymore. I think this is me realizing that I like to merge outliner, plotter side of me with more of like a free-spirited pancer side. I think this is like the happy middle ground that I have found allowing my gut to fill in the blanks. You know, when you when you're writing a book, I think there are are ideas and and details and scenes that you can really only come up with once you're actually writing them. When you're trying to follow an outline so rigidly, I think that can stop you from exploring avenues in a story that you maybe never thought you could. So, for me, this process of planning out the major beats, but allowing myself to figure out the in-between scenes that get me to those beats, that has really made like I think that has like taken off a lot of pressure as I'm writing.

[00:18:12]Because then I can I don't have to feel like I'm spending so much time in that outlining phase. Like I said, I think I I trust myself to figure out who the characters are. So, the next step, this is something that I will do basically while I am still writing out the major beats of act two, three, and four, I just start writing out scenes. I make a draft or sometimes I just make a document, like I don't even make a full Scrivener file for it yet. And I will start writing scenes that are like coming to my head. This is something that I used to never let myself do. Like I I used to be so precious about I cannot start writing the draft until like the beats are there and the outline is there. I have actually been having a lot of fun with working on the outline and starting to just write scenes out.

[00:19:00]And I think a lot of this goes back to the fact that again, I just don't feel like I'm as much of a perfectionist as I used to be, and I know that I can edit things really heavily with this book that I started writing before I even had the the exact ending figured out.

[00:19:15]Because I had the prologue and the first chapter so clear in my head, I just started writing it. It actually made me a lot more excited to outline the rest of the book. I think doing this also let me figure out what the voice of the character was going to be because that really can help me determine like who is this character, how are they interacting with the world, how do I want them to sound. That really helps me inform what their actions are going to be for the rest of the book. All right, so that's basically all I wanted to share for this video. I hope that was helpful. I was like on the fence about whether or not this video was worth making because I don't think there's like a lot I can say about like specifically the books that I'm writing right now, but I also feel like just because that other video that I made a couple years ago about my writing process, people are always asking about my writing process. I don't want that to ever seem like that is the way that I write all my books because the approach to our books can change.

[00:20:10]The past few years that I've been writing really think about how I'm evolving, I guess, in my process. As always, you can also follow me on all my other social media platforms. Thank you for watching. I hope all your writing projects are going [music] well, and I will see you guys in the next video.

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