1. To plan, or not to plan? That is the question, and one which befuddles emerging writers everywhere. It may seem like a waste of time to sit down and plan what happens in your novel, as some writers like to let the story flow out of their brain, through their fingertips and onto the page, but to other scribes it is absolutely necessary. Plotting your novel is a judgement call, and one which you may have to experiment with to see which works for you.
If you decide to think your novel through completely before committing pen to paper, then congratulations, you're a plotter, and this may stand you in good stead. It is a particularly good technique to employ if your novel is to be complicated or convoluted, such as a crime or thriller, but it can be equally as rewarding if you're writing a more literary tome, such as an epic or family saga.
2. There is a distinction between story and plot. Story is the term for what happens in the novel, while plot is the order of the events which are told in the book. For instance, the plot of The Great Gatsby starts with Nick Carraway taking a job in New York in 1922, but the story started long before, with Jay Gatz meeting the love of his life in 1917. This is only revealed later in the plot. Scarlett Thomas explains this distinction well in her book Monkeys With Typewriters, and I refer you to her greater knowledge, should you want to know more.
3. When deciding what happens in your book, you really only need to remember one thing - CHARACTER DICTATES PLOT. That is, what happens in the plot should be driven by the decisions the character makes. It is also important that any decision should be true to the character. If your protagonist is a mild mannered accountant, s/he's hardly likely to storm the Whitehouse with a machine gun to save the president. Likewise, a tough, angry ex-marine isn't going to apologise when somebody spills his pint in the pub.
4. You can allow your protagonist to do maybe one thing out of character, and this could be the inciting incident which sets the story into motion. In Parade's End, the normally prim and proper Christopher Tietjens has wild sex on a train which results in a pregnancy, which forces a marriage to the wicked Sylvia, and then onwards, to a life of misery. Without that one out-of-character moment, the whole story would be null and void.
5. Methods of plotting differ - some write longhand, with crossings out and amendments, some prefer index cards which they can move about to re-order the plot to their whim. Other digital methods are available, such as writing tool Scrivener, but I have limited knowledge of these, and would love to hear alternative in the comments if anyone has them.
6. Always remind yourself what is at stake, and this should maintain your focus when plotting your novel. And ENJOY IT! After all, it's what writing is all about.
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