How to Plan and Write Multiple Books in a Year

Do you want to be able to plan and write your crime fiction novels quickly, cleanly and more intentionally?

So far during 2022, I have written one psychological suspense book from scratch, and completely rewritten another two that I had previously abandoned. I have since self published two of those books and recently signed a publishing deal with Bloodhound Books for the third! I have also ghostwritten two other books for author clients. In total, that’s five books written in less than one year (while also running my editing and formatting business). And I plan to write at least as many, if not more, next year too. If you also want to learn how to plan and write multiple crime fiction books in a year, carry on reading!

Let me start off by saying this: I am a planner through and through. I plan everything. Lists and methods and processes and blueprints are my ‘thing’. I always try to find the most logical and systematic way to do something, and this definitely applies to writing books too. But when I started writing my first full length novel in early 2019, I didn’t plan or plot or outline to the extent I do now, and it showed! I wrote myself into plot holes, my characters were two dimensional, and I included too many extraneous details. Although I could solve some/all of those issues after writing the first draft, it was just so overwhelming. I wanted a way to prevent the issues from happening in the first place!

Simplifying the Novel Planning Process

I wanted – and needed – to simplify my novel writing process which meant deep-diving into planning! Novel planners were too basic and/or generic and/or caused more procrastination! Combining notebooks and whiteboards and big sheets of paper with sticky notes felt too messy and confusing for my desperate-for-order brain. Using Word tables and spreadsheets meant even more screen time and resulted in endless variations of desktop files, most of which I ended up completely forgetting about. I wanted logic and structure and a methodical system that I could hold in my hands. So I created one! An amalgamation of everything I’ve learnt from my English and creative writing degree, many years of writing my own stories, ghostwriting books, editing books for fellow indie authors, and all the writing and editing courses and story craft books I’ve heavily invested in…

Introducing the Crime Novel Planner so you too can learn how to plan and write multiple books in a year!

Who is the Crime Novel Planner Ideal For?

This Crime Novel Planner is ideal for you if:

• You’re a crime novelist who loves (or wants to start/get better at) plotting your books (especially ahead of NaNoWriMo!).
• You want a professional editor and ghostwriter’s guidelines to refer to, to help you structure a story that meets readers’ expectations.
• You wish you had a guided planner to jot down all your ideas, flesh out your characters and follow a step-by-step story plotting process.
• You start off with good intentions but struggle to keep track of your ideas on sticky notes, on your notes app, and in a variety of random notebooks – you need everything in one place!
• You want to feel more organised and in control of your writing process by using a dedicated novel planner for every work in progress.

The Crime Novel Planner is split into six main sections to help you plan the big picture overview of your story before zooming in for a closer inspection of each and every chapter.

The six main sections are:

• The Big Picture
• The Big Decisions
• The Main Characters
• The Side Characters
• The Three Acts
• Chapter By Chapter Breakdown

Starting from the outside (the big picture) and gradually working your way inside the story (chapter by chapter breakdown) is such a logical, focused, structured way of harnessing all of your ideas into a detailed novel outline that will ultimately transform your book into a page-turning read.

Including word count trackers and notes/brainstorm pages, this Crime Novel Planner is designed to help you plan and plot your story easily, quickly and more intentionally, all in one place.

What are the Benefits of the Crime Novel Planner?

As I said before, I have already written three new books and completely rewritten two others during 2022 using my Crime Novel Planner. Although I used it to restructure and rewrite two of my abandoned novels too, it is intended as a tool to use before opening that blank Word document or Scrivener project. However, because my two abandoned novels were in such bad shape, going back to the planning stage meant I could outline them again before ruthlessly hacking through the disordered drafts with clear intent!

It has streamlined and speeded up my planning process, meaning I can quickly and easily convert my detailed novel outlines into clean, well structured first drafts without plot holes, character inconsistencies, and unnecessary padding. If it works for me it can work for you too!

• Because it’s a step-by-step planner, it helps you create a detailed, structured, skeleton outline which just needs fleshing out once you start typing your novel.
• As it contains guidelines in every section, it helps you create a tighter plot, which means less chance of slower paced chapters or the dreaded ‘saggy middle’!
• Due to it being a dedicated one-novel-at-a-time planner, you can write down and keep all your ideas in one place, creating a scrapbook style keepsake to add to your bookshelf after you have written the book.
• And last but not least, writing ideas down by hand often aids creativity and conceptual development, cuts down on screen time, and means you get to use beautiful pens!

So, if you’re a crime fiction novelist (or an aspiring crime fiction writer) and you want to learn how to plan and write multiple books in a year, get your Crime Novel Planner now by clicking the image below!