Start Writing Your Book With...Math??

This week, in an exclusive special article just for you blog readers, I'm going to share some specific details about how I wrote the Joel Suzuki series!

And it all starts with...math.

Not because I'm Asian, mind you - I actually didn't like math as a subject in school. I think it might have more to do with my neurology.

But anyway, after Volume Two (that book and Volume One had their own somewhat messy origin stories) I had not only finalized my characters, themes, and worldbuilding, but I'd also arrived at a system for starting a book that I applied to the rest of the series.

It goes something like this: I'm a plotter, not a pantser, which means I outline my books before I start writing them, as opposed to authors who just dive in and see where the story takes them (looking at you, Stephen King. I have no idea how you do it). So when building my outline, I begin with a target word count, and then I break it down from there, using a structure that combines concepts from both Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell and Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder.

So, say you want to make your book 75,000 words, or roughly 300 pages (assuming that a page is around 250 words, which is pretty standard). You then want break it up into Acts, which, because each Act should land at a particular point, leads you to this outline (this is an actual example from an early outline for Volume Three):

Act I: pages 1-60

Act IIa: pages 60-150

Act IIb: pages 150-225

Act III: page 225-300

Then, decide how long you want each chapter to be. I like my chapters to be around ten pages each, or 2500 words. So based on the above outline, I now have this structure:

Act I: Chapters 1 through 6

Act IIa: Chapters 7 through 15

Act IIb: Chapters 16 through 22

Act III: Chapters 23 through 30 (I know, the math isn't perfect)

Then you want to break that down further into Story Beats. I won't get into that here, but you can learn all about them from the two resources I mentioned earlier (the Save the Cat! franchise even has this handy free tool on their website that will do the Acts & Beats math for you).

After that, you'll want to write short summaries of each chapter. There's always a chance that things will change as you write - Joel and Felicity would often take matters into their own hands once I got into the weeds with them - but it's good to have a general idea of what should be happening and where you want to go. Think of it as a travel itinerary that leaves room for on-the-fly detours and alternative plans (which, if you've ever traveled, you know there almost always are).

If you're starting out with your first book (or a new book, not a continuation of a series), you'll want to establish things like character, arc, theme, and worldbuilding before you do this. But once you do that, it's time to crunch some numbers! Personally, I found this method to be very helpful in getting started and staying on track, as opposed to just opening a blank page and trying to spit out words (again, Stephen King, you are amazing).

Hope you found that helpful, aspiring authors!