I used to consider myself a slow writer. Whenever I heard about authors who finish their novels in less than a month, I was skeptical. Surely such a feat requires exceptional skill… and maybe a few sleepless nights. Not for me, thanks very much.
I’m no writing machine, I told myself. I need inspiration. I need time to mature my story outline, find my characters’ voices, and redraft the first chapter a dozen times for good measure.
Yet, as an experiment, I applied the writing method I’m about to present and… to my surprise, it worked. Instead of a full year, I drafted a novel in just a few weeks. And you know what? The book turned out quite well. It garnered good reviews and sold decently.
Any author can learn to write faster with the right techniques. In fact, drafting quickly can improve your story and your prose, for reasons I explain in my article about Stephen King’s routine. Give it a read.
But this post is about another author, a highly successful one: Brandon Sanderson. Whatever one might think of his books, we can’t deny their popular appeal. In 2023, he raised a record‑breaking $41.7 million on Kickstarter for four new novels. Some readers pledged hundreds of dollars for a single campaign.
George R. R. Martin divides writers into two camps: architects, who design an outline before drafting, and gardeners, who plant the seed of a story and discover its shape as it grows. Sanderson outlines extensively.
I’m (usually) an architect. I’ve found that the best way to get the kinds of endings I like, I have to know where I’m going before I start.
He needs to know the story’s conclusion before drafting. He admits, “I write for endings.” His outlines are engineered so every plotline converges toward a single climactic moment. He dislikes rewriting and wants his first draft to be as close to final as possible, in contrast to discovery writers like Martin or King, who revise heavily.
That said, Sanderson balances planning with improvisation through what he calls a “floating outline.” His “Points on the Map” philosophy gives him enough structure to avoid getting lost, yet enough freedom to invent along the way. I analyzed his method and broke his process into seven steps.
Step 1. Imagine major scenes
Once you have a story idea, visualize the big moments, like emotional climaxes, plot turns, major character revelations. Some writers start with themes; others begin with the mood and core emotions of their story‑in‑the‑making. Either way is fine. Use whatever method drives your imagination.
These major scenes become the “points” your story must reach. To ensure your story engages your audience, define the main conflict as early as possible. It can be external, like an existential threat or a major challenge for the protagonist, internal, or both.
Sanderson does his worldbuilding before drafting, and that’s a wise approach. Drafting and worldbuilding at the same time will slow you down. You don’t need a full compendium before writing, just enough information about the key elements, like the main conflict and character arcs. The world exists to support the narrative, so resist the temptation to invest too much time in aspects that won’t matter to the plot.
Step 2. Divide the book into broad parts
Some writers prefer the three‑act structure; others lean toward its five‑act cousin, the Hero’s Journey, or different frameworks entirely. This technique works regardless of the number of acts. Think of your plot as a living organism and don’t force it into a rigid template just to follow convention. You might end up with three acts, four, or even six. Don’t worry about the number at the start, you can adjust later as your outline develops.
Regardless of structure, every story needs a few essential elements: setup, inciting incident, rising action, crisis, climax, and resolution. You can add optional beats like a midpoint, falling action, or denouement. But your first task is to visualize the overall shape of your story and identify its key turning points, the moments that define the emotional arc.
For more details on story structure and outlining methods, check out my guide The Natural Laws of Story. You’ll find plenty of examples from famous works and exercises to help you practice.
Step 3. Map out the scenes into an outline
The order of your scenes and where they fall in the novel matters. You want to create an addictive experience for your readers, where every setup leads to a buildup and resolves with a satisfying payoff. Your most dramatic scene should be the climax, usually toward the end of the story, in the final act.
Make sure all your scenes follow a logical progression. One proven method is to raise the stakes progressively. Each act ends with its own climax, a moment of heightened dramatic intensity that leads naturally into the next act, where the stakes escalate again.
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Step 4. Build bullet‑point lists for each story beat
These bullet points include:
- Plot steps that must happen beforehand
- Character progression beats
- Foreshadowing or mystery‑setup beats
These points are reminders, not commandments. They exist to keep you oriented, not to constrain you. Your outline is a living structure meant to evolve as you develop it and draft your manuscript.
The early acts of your book will usually have more bullet points than the later ones. That’s normal. Even if you’re an architect, you should leave yourself and your characters room for discovery and exploration. As you draft, revisit your outline regularly and add new bullet points.
These new points help you map out subplots, secondary character arcs, and—importantly—build connections between all the elements of your story.
Step 5. Outline every chapter before drafting
This step is optional, but it will dramatically speed up your drafting. Truly. It’s the difference between writing a novel in three months and writing one in a single month. The secret? Granular outlining.
The fastest, most productive writers outline not only every act but every chapter. Each chapter is a mini‑story with its own setup, conflict, rising action, and climax. Outline each chapter with a few bullet points, just as you did for the acts in the previous steps. These points will act as road posts and guide you during drafting.
If you’d like to support my work and see more articles and videos like this, check out my books, for example the story about a disastrously misguided debut novelist.
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Step 6. The ending grows more powerful during drafting
Everything you do should contribute to building dramatic tension that releases during the climax. Even if you had a strong ending in mind back in Step 1, you can always strengthen it while drafting.
Imagine the plot as an elastic band, the band representing the tension and suspense in your story. As the narrative progresses and conflicts intensify, the elastic stretches further. The audience becomes more invested, anticipating the release of that tension. The climax is the moment when the band reaches its limit and snaps back. This release provides a powerful emotional payoff as the tension built throughout the story resolves. The snap mirrors the falling action and resolution that follow, as the characters and narrative return to equilibrium.
Step 7. Revise the manuscript
Like many writers, I used to dread revisions. Now I enjoy them. This is where you turn a rough diamond into something that shines… or at least something you’re not embarrassed to share.
Every writer develops their own revision method. It’s a topic I discuss in other posts, so I’ll be brief here. If you’ve followed all the previous steps, you already have a functioning structure, so revisions focus more on pacing, style, and polish rather than fixing character arcs or rebuilding the plot from scratch.
If you’ve done your job well, you don’t need to “kill your darlings.” No grim task required. That famous advice applies mostly to discovery writers like Stephen King, or gardeners, as GRRM calls them.
But what do you do if you find plot holes? Well, that topic deserves its own article. Stay tuned, and don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss important updates.