Plot & Publish Studio: Start Here Articles

The Five Stages of Writing and Publishing a Book

Jennette — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:53:39 GMT

When you sit down to write a book you realize pretty quick that no one prepared you for everything it actually involves.

You could have a story idea you love, but no earthly idea how to develop it into a full-length novel that readers would also love. Maybe you’ve been writing the same chapters over and over again, polishing sentences in a story you haven’t finished. Maybe you finished a draft and now you’re staring at it, wondering what should be revised and edited—or if you should hire someone to do that. And what happens after your manuscript is done—what’s involved in getting your book published?

If you’re not sure what to do next, you’re not alone.

Personal Example

My first book, The Commander’s Desire, was published by a small press in 2008. I wrote the story and then took months to edit it as best I could. After all of that, I crossed my fingers and sent it off to a small press. Over the years I’ve submitted books to traditional publishers and every single one was rejected. So when I submitted it to the small press, I didn’t expect much.

But to my astonishment, they loved it! And they wanted to publish it. I was given a fantastic editor, and Pam helped me make the book so much better. The small press also provided a wonderful cover for my book and eventually published it. At last! I’d finally achieved my dream.

Then I dove headlong into marketing my book. Everything was new. The best part about being published with the small press was the camaraderie with the other authors, who were also trying to market their books. We hosted author interviews and giveaways on our websites and helped each other market to our small audiences.

After two years with the press, I’d sold a lot of books but hadn’t made much money. I realized the press was getting most of my profits. So I decided to take back my rights in 2010 and publish the book on my own—I entered indie publishing.

At the time, I didn’t have any clue about the steep learning curve that lay ahead. I had no idea whatsoever how to publish a book on my own. It is a lot, I’ll just tell you. But this Substack is here to pave the way for you. You don’t need to go through the trials and errors I went through. The map is here.

Stages of Writing and Publishing a Book

For example, designing a story asks you to think big and explore characters, conflicts, and what the story is really about. Writing a first draft asks you to keep moving, to get the story onto the page without stopping to perfect it. Revision and editing ask you to slow down and look more critically at what you’ve built. And publishing introduces an entirely new set of tasks — formatting, cover design, distribution — that have nothing to do with writing at all.

One of the most common places writers stall is in the writing stage. Many writers edit as they write — I did. I stopped every few paragraphs to rework sentences and paragraphs, trying to get them to sound just right before I moved on.

I didn’t realize that writing and editing use different parts of the brain. One part is creative and the other is analytical. Repeatedly switching between them interrupted my creative flow and slowed down my writing process.

Knowing that the stages of writing and publishing are separate — and that each one deserves its own attention — changes how we can approach and work through each stage of the process.

If you’re not sure where you are in the process, a few questions can help

Ask yourself:

Do you have a clear story idea and a central conflict?
Have you written a complete draft yet?
Are you trying to revise a manuscript that isn’t actually finished?
Do you have a finished manuscript but no idea what publishing involves?

Most writers find they’re stuck at one specific stage. Recognizing that stage is usually the first step toward making real progress.

The Five Stages of Writing and Publishing a Book

Stage 1 — Story Design. Build the foundation in this stage. Develop your central character, clarify what they want, identify the obstacles in their way, and establish what’s at stake. The goal is to create a story strong enough to sustain a full novel. If you are a planner and outliner, you would create your outline now.

Stage 2 — Writing the Draft. Once the story framework is clear, the next goal is simple: finish the manuscript. Momentum matters more than perfection here. Scenes will develop, characters will surprise you, and the story may move in unexpected directions. That’s normal. The milestone here is a completed draft. Not a perfect draft.

Stage 3 — Revision and Editing. This stage has two separate steps. Revision comes first. This is also called developmental editing—you can hire a specialized editor to do this, if needed. Look at the story’s big picture. Is the development clear and strong? Is the conflict sustained? Is the pacing consistent throughout the book?

Fix those larger structural issues. When you’re finished, move on to the second stage: line editing. Focus on clarity, language, sentence and paragraph level improvements, and maintaining consistent of story details (if Jack has blue eyes in the beginning of the book, make sure they’re not brown at the end). Trying to line edit before revising is a great way to waste time. (Many writing professionals suggest you send your manuscript to a developmental and/or line editor for a final edit if you plan to indie publish your book.)

Stage 4 — Preparing for Publication. With a finished, edited manuscript, you’re ready to think about publishing your book, if you’re an indie author. If you’d rather submit to a traditional publisher, then query them and submit it if they invite you to send in the manuscript. But if you’re going the indie publishing route, now you need to think about presentation. Specifically, how the book will look and also appeal to readers. You will need to format the book’s interior, get a book cover (a reasonably priced professional cover is worth paying for, if you’re not a graphic designer). Then you’ll need to select categories and keywords for your book’s metadata and obtain ISBNs if needed. The goal is to produce a book that looks professional.

Stage 5 — Publishing and Distribution. The final stage is making the book available to readers. You’ll choose platforms, such as Amazon’s KDP, choose book formats (ebook, print, perhaps audio), and set pricing. The technical details may feel confusing at first, but most platforms make the upload process fairly easy.

Marketing. Technically, marketing should begin before (or while) you’re writing your book. But at the very least, develop a marketing plan that will go into motion the moment your book is available to the public.

Plan of Action

Most writers struggle because no one ever handed them a clear roadmap of what the process actually involves.

Once you see the stages of writing and publishing a book, hopefully things will begin to make more sense and feel less overwhelming. You know what to focus on, and what to set aside for later.

You don’t need to master all five stages today. You only need to focus on the one you’re in.

If you’re designing your story, concentrate on character and conflict. If you’re writing your first draft, focus on finishing. If you’re revising, look at the structure before you edit the sentences. The stages build on each other, and progress at one stage makes the next one easier.

This Substack follows that same structure — articles on story design, writing, revision, and publishing, in the order you’ll actually need them.

The next article is a good place to continue if you’re at the very beginning: How to Turn a Story Idea Into a Novel Premise walks through how to take an idea you’re excited about and shape it into a story foundation strong enough to build on.

If you’d like future articles on story design, writing, and publishing as they’re released, you can subscribe below. I’ll send them directly to your inbox.

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If You’d Like to Continue

If this article helped clarify where to begin, the next step is learning how to shape the core of your story.

How to Start Writing a Book When You Feel Completely Lost

Jennette — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:27:59 GMT

• Why writing a book can feel overwhelming
• How to figure out what kind of “lost” you are
• One simple way to start planning your story

Many writers who want to write a book have plenty of ideas but don’t know where to start.

When I first started writing, I had notebooks full of ideas and finished (but mostly unfinished) stories. I knew the stories I wanted to tell, but didn’t know how to construct that idea into a full story arc which would lead to a satisfying ending.

So I would get bored with the current story and start a new one.

Maybe this is how you feel, too—you know what story you want to tell, but you don’t know exactly how to create all the pieces so they fit together and create a compelling story.

Some advice says you should outline the whole story before you start writing. Other, contradictory advice, warns that outlining will destroy your creativity and that you should follow the characters and plot wherever they happen to go.

Writers who outline are called “plotters,” and writers who discover the story as they write are called “pantsers.”

Both methods work, which is why it is so confusing. For example, well-known plotters are J.K. Rowling and John Grisham, and famous “pantsers” are Stephen King and Margaret Atwood.

If you’ve here because you want to write a book but aren’t sure where to begin, articles here can help. They’re designed to help make the steps of writing a story clear and understandable.

In this article, we’ll talk about why writers often feel stuck at the beginning. Believe it or not, there is a simple way to fix that problem.

Reasons Why Writers Feel Stuck

Writing advice often focuses on problems that occur several steps into the writing process.

For example, it may presume the writer already has a clear premise, well-rounded characters, stakes that matter, and a main conflict. So the advice focuses on structure, pacing, revision, editing, and so on. But many writers are still at an earlier stage, trying to figure out how to create the basic elements of the story itself.

Writing a novel is a big job.

A book has a lot of moving parts: characters, theme, plot, subplot, stakes, structure, pacing, scenes, etc. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you believe all of these issues should be solved before you can write the first page.

That expectation can make a writer feel paralyzed.

Fear and perfectionism

Writing can expose our ideas and sometimes even parts of our heart to judgment. Perfectionism can be a way to protect ourselves from criticism. If you don’t write the story, it can never fail.

Feeling “ready” to write

If all of these problems weren’t enough, here is another one:

Many writers think that being ready to write will correspond with feeling ready to write. They expect that when they feel ready to write the story will flow perfectly, with well-rounded characters, a dynamic, page-turning plot, and perfect scenes ready to be written.

Unfortunately, that rarely happens.

I’ve felt stuck many, many times in my writing career…

A Quick Example

In the past, (as a “pantser”) I would start with a great premise and a general sense of how I wanted the book to end, but it was fairly fuzzy. As a result, the path to get there was fuzzy, too.

The characters led me through the story, finding adventures and drama along the way. Often, I stared at a blank screen each morning, having no idea whatsoever what to write next.

Prayer is my go-to. After that, the ideas would flow again. But I didn’t have a plan, a theme, or a clear idea of all the pieces needed to make the story work.

It always seemed like a miracle when the story wrapped up as a fairly cohesive whole after weeks of writing… serendipity. But some pieces were usually missing, which meant going back to revise, which I don’t enjoy.

Early ideas often feel exciting. The concept seems promising until you get stuck.

That’s where the confusion usually begins.

How to Tell What Kind of “Lost” You Are

Idea overload

Do you have a lot of story ideas but don’t know which one to choose?

Do you start new stories instead of finishing old ones?

Idea uncertainty

Do you have a story idea but wonder if it is strong enough to write a whole book?

Are you worried you’ll start but won’t want to finish the story?

If so, the problem is usually not the idea. It’s that the idea hasn’t been developed into a clear premise with meaningful stakes and conflict.

Unclear story direction

Do you know the characters but not the plot?

Or the beginning of the story but not what happens in the middle?

This often happens when the story’s central goal/obstacle isn’t clear. Once those ideas come into focus, the next steps will be easier.

Overwhelm

Do you feel like you need to learn everything about storytelling before you begin?

Writing involves multiple different skills. Facing them all at the same time can make writing a book feel much more complicated than it really is. This can cause “writer’s block.” Psychologists suggest that writer’s block isn’t a mysterious creative condition. Writing requires intense mental effort. When too many decisions compete for your attention at once, you can feel overwhelmed. And that can grind your creativity to a halt.

Feeling stuck can be a sign that your story needs to become clearer. It’s not a sign that you lack creativity.

If any of these patterns feel familiar, you’re not alone. Most writers experience some (or many) of these problems when writing a story.

A Simple Way to Begin

Eventually, I realized that most stories don’t unfold perfectly formed, without effort. They become clear when you begin asking the right questions.

When you wonder how to start writing a book, the answer is usually simple.

Start by answering four questions:

• Who is the story about?
• What do they want?
• What stands in their way?
• Why does it matter—to them?

These questions create the foundation for everything that follows.

Characters need clear desires, because those desires drive action. Once you know what the character wants, you can begin imagining the obstacles that make the goal difficult to achieve. Those obstacles create conflict, and conflict powers the story engine and momentum.

This is the vital question:

Why does it matter?

That answer = the story stakes. If it really doesn’t matter if the character gets what they want, then the story will be emotionally flat. Boring, in other words. Readers won’t care and they will put down your book, probably for good.

Without clear wants, needs, fears, stakes and obstacles, writers don’t know what to put their characters through, because they don’t fully understand who their characters are yet.

An additional benefit comes from clarifying these points. Research has shown that writers who develop even a simple plan for their book are much more likely to finish it. The plan doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to provide direction for your story.

A Small Example

Think about the difference between these two starting points:

“I want to write a romance.”

This idea has potential, but it doesn’t give any information about the story.

Now here is the expanded version:

A shy bookstore owner trying to save the town’s historic library is forced to work with the developer whose project would replace it.

Now we can see the core elements of the story.

The protagonist: a shy bookstore owner.
The goal: saving the library.
The obstacle: working with the developer whose project threatens it.
Why it matters to the protagonist: the developer’s project would mean the end of the library

Once you know the answers to these basic questions, it becomes much easier to imagine scenes, complications, and character growth. The story begins to take shape because the central conflict is clear.

One Important Takeaway

Feeling lost at the beginning of a book is usually not a creativity problem.

It’s usually a plot clarity problem.

Once the central character, goal, obstacle, and stakes are defined, the story will have a solid foundation.

In the next articles, we’ll talk about simple ways to clarify those pieces so the story becomes easier to build.

What You’ll Find Here

This Substack is organized around the stages most writers move through while building a book:

• developing characters
• designing the story
• writing
• revising and editing
• preparing the manuscript for publication

A Note on Story Design

Some writers find it helpful to work through structured story questions while developing an idea. Guided prompts can help clarify characters, goals, conflicts, and turning points until the shape of the story becomes visible.

We’ll explore that process more in future articles.

If you’d like future articles on story design, writing, and publishing as they’re released, you can subscribe below. I’ll send them directly to your inbox.

Subscribe now

If You’d Like to Continue

If this article helped clarify where to begin, the next step is learning how to shape the core of your story.