Planning a narrative in five minutes
A short plan protects you from running out of story halfway through. Decide the problem and the ending before you write a word.
Four notes, five minutes
Decide four things before you start: who the character is, what goes wrong, how they respond, and how it ends.
Four short notes are enough. You are not writing the story yet — you are making sure there is one.
The important one is the last. Knowing the ending is what stops a story wandering.
Something has to go wrong
A story where nothing goes wrong is a description, and it runs out of road fast.
The problem does not have to be big. A lost key, a friend who will not talk, a power cut at bedtime. What matters is that the character has to do something about it.
Show, do not announce
Instead of writing "she was nervous", write "her hands would not keep still".
Announcing a feeling tells the reader something. Showing it lets them work it out, and a reader who works something out believes it.
This is what markers are looking for, and it is the difference between a competent story and a good one.
Do not spend the whole time planning
Five minutes. Then start writing.
A perfect plan and two paragraphs scores worse than a rough plan and a finished story. The plan exists to serve the writing, not to replace it.
The plan is four notes, not a paragraph
Who and where. What goes wrong. The worst moment. How it ends.
Four short notes, a few words each, down the margin. That is the entire plan, and it should take about five minutes of a forty minute task.
Writing full sentences in the planning box is the commonest way to run out of time. You will write those sentences properly in a moment — the plan only has to remind you where you are going.
Write the ending before you start
Knowing the last beat is what stops a story wandering. It gives every paragraph somewhere to be heading.
It does not have to be clever. It has to exist. A story that arrives somewhere ordinary beats one that stops mid-scene because the time ran out.
If your ending note and your opening note have nothing to do with each other, change one of them now. That is far cheaper than discovering it in the last paragraph.
Worked examples
Turn "he was scared of the dark" into a plan in four notes.
Who: a boy who is scared of the dark. What goes wrong: the power cuts out at bedtime. What he does: finds a torch and goes to check on his little sister. How it ends: the lights come back, and he is a bit less afraid than he was.
Notice the ending changes him. That is usually what makes an ending feel finished.
Answer: Who, what goes wrong, what they do, how it ends
Rewrite "Ben was excited" so that it shows instead of announcing.
Ask what excitement makes a body do. It makes you fast and fidgety and unable to wait. So: "Ben was already at the door with his shoes on the wrong feet." The word excited never appears, and the reader knows.
Answer: Show it through what he does
Your plan says the story ends happily, but you are running out of time. What should you do?
Write the ending, even if it is short. An unfinished story cannot score for structure. Two rushed sentences that land the ending beat a beautiful paragraph that stops in the middle.
Answer: Write the ending, even briefly
Turn this into a four-note plan: a child finds a key in the garden.
Who and where: Ana, back garden, after rain. What goes wrong: the key fits the neighbour’s padlocked shed. Worst moment: the neighbour comes home while she is inside. How it ends: she owns up and he shows her what it holds.
Answer: Four notes, under six words each
Your plan says "the dog runs away" and your ending note says "she wins the race". What is wrong?
The two notes belong to different stories. Change one now, while it costs seconds, rather than discovering the mismatch in the final paragraph.
Answer: The ending does not follow from the problem
You have spent twelve minutes planning a forty minute task. What should you do?
Stop and write. A good plan you have no time to use is worth less than a rough plan with thirty minutes of writing behind it.
Answer: Stop planning and start writing
kalvy.io/learn/planning-a-narrative
Ready to try it?
Practice questions on Narrative Writing, with instant feedback. Free account.
Already have an account? Sign in to practise.