"How do you write a novel?"

It's a question I've been asked a few times, and not just by people who want to write a novel. Several indie authors have asked me the same question. Well, there isn't a 'set of rules' you must adhere to, that I am aware of. Most writers of fiction stories, novellas and novels usually class themselves as either a plotter or a panster. 

Plotters

A plotter speaks for itself. This is where the writer plots out the story, characters, chapters, scenes and pretty much the entire book, before they write a word.

Pantsers

This is a reference to writing by the seat of your pants. The pantser will sit down at their chosen form of writing, notepad and pencil, typewriter or computer, and start writing. The book flows (or doesn't) and the story has a life of its own in many ways. No plotting, just go with the flow.

Me? I don't do either of these. I have my own, I think, unique style.

A Unique Style

1. The story idea and title pops into my head. This could come from anywhere. Sometimes when I'm reading a booking, sometimes watching the TV or a movie, but generally just pops into my head.
2. The concept for the cover again pops into my head, (There's a lot of stuff popping into my head at this stage) and that cover I must design first, if my system is to work. With the cover initially designed, the story idea in my head and the novel's title there as well, I have something for me to aim at.
3. I write about 40 chapter titles. In the finished novel, my chapters always have a chapter number followed by the title. The chapter titles act as stepping stones, eventually, for the reader, but also as stepping stones for me, a sort of rudimentary guide.
4. I write one sentence or a paragraph for each chapter, a sort of mini scene synopsis.
5. With all that completed, I then write the chapters, but, I don't always write the chapters in a linear sequence. I may write chapter one first, then two, then seven and maybe nine-teen. I know, slightly crazy. I have to write the chapters as they pop into my head. I cannot do it in a linear manner, it doesn't work. As I'm writing one chapter, an idea will pop into my head for a scene way down the line. It's just the way my brain works. Am I a bit bizarre? Probably.
6. By the time I've got a beginning, a middle and an end and about 50-60k words written, the story is pretty higgledy-piggledy. But, I have my 1st draft and then the magic happens.
7. I read my 1st draft to both edit and proof it, but also to ensure the story runs in a logical manner. But I never write anything down, never make notes. All of this is done in my 70 year-old head and it stays in my head until I've finished writing and I'm ready to publish.

Somehow, I will have managed to write a novel, with no notes, no planning and in a non-linear way, and yet, it comes out as a well ordered book that seems to please most people who read my work.

I know, sounds weird and wonderful and it is, but it works.

In this manner, I have written The Brittle Saga Trilogy and am writing The Midnight Series, which is nine novels. And I am writing The Ragged Time Trilogy And I'm planning a nine novel Tudor/Elizabethan spy novel series.

You would be quite right to think I'm crazy, and I suspect you have to be a little crazy to write a novel in the first place. I'm just a little crazier than most.

Copyright © Tom Kane October 2025
Brittle Media Ltd.