Any tips for those new writers who want to write an entire story but aren’t sure how to plan them out?

Yes! So - when I have an idea for a story I like to make a document on my phone and keep all my ideas/snippets/head-canons in there. It can take a while for a plot to form. That’s fine. Just keep adding inspiration to it. For example, this is what Phantomhive Baby looks like right now:

Doesn’t have to make sense or be in order. Just ideas for now. I will keep adding to this document until I have a few thousand words. A plot will start to show itself in time and that’s when I start to make a skeleton. 

When I have a skeleton I start to copy/paste these head-canons into a chronological order and make rough parts between them where a chapter break should be. Arcs, if you will. I continue to add ideas to this skeleton over time until it gets chunky. Eventually it is full enough to start writing a very basic skeleton per chapter.

For example, this is what the next chapter of Kiss & Cry looks like right now:

As you can see, it is very rough. Basically a script? Dialogue and essential information. Once I have this mapped out it is very easy for me to go in and add ‘meat’ to the skeleton. Then I have a chapter!

So in conclusion, you should have a rough idea of where you want your story to go before you even upload/write the first chapter. If you know how your story is going to end you can go through and put in “plot points” very early on. Even though Kiss & Cry is a baby there are already details in the first 3 chapters that elude to bigger things that will happen later on. This way when my “plot twists” come along - they are exciting for the reader but not unrealistic.

I also found this is the most effective way to have a nicely rounded, 3D story - adding ideas to the document for weeks and weeks. If I were to have an idea and write it immediately? The story would be lacking. A great example of this is Adrian!! He was not in the original LPM and he only eventuated in later chapters. Obviously I have gone back and written him into scenes he wasn’t previously in, to make LPM seamless, but I wish I had spent more time in planning LPM. I am constantly having to go back and change details just to match my new ideas!! It must be confusing for my long-time readers ahah.

So, I hope this helps. I really love writing about this sort of thing. Please let me know if you need me to clarify or elaborate my dude.