Talk:Into the Shadows/@comment-1452857-20140119183947/@comment-1452857-20140119195508

The first thing you should probably do is make sure you have all your main characters planned out. Not in depth, but you know what they look like, how they act, and have a vague idea of what their histories are. You can add the side/supporting characters later if you need to. And if people are going to die you should plan exactly how and when they are going to die. This is important in making sure their deaths have a significant impact on the reader.

The next thing you should do is make sure you have an idea of what the world it like. Is it post-apocalyptic? If so, is it a dystopian style government or is it more of a zombie-apocalypse-on-the-run kind of situation? It seems like you've got that part down, so now you might want to flesh it out some more if you're still coming to grips with the world. You can always figure out the location, too. This isn't really a requirement but it helps with writing scenery and buildings.

Once you have these sorted out and as you're building upon the characters and world, you should start figuring out a plot. Obviously this is the more difficult part. I would say you should have a solid idea of how it begins and how it ends while the middle should be vague. This doesn't work for everyone so you just kind of have to figure out what you're good at, but I'm better at planning out a story if I know exactly how it's going to end even if I don't completely know how to get there. The middle is easy to change while the beginning and ending aren't, so that's why I say this.

Those are the most important steps (if there are any more). You can really go about planning the story in whichever order feels right, but that's usually the order that works best for me. Of course even as I write I still tweak stuff and flesh out the characters and/or world. That isn't bad either, you just have to make sure you aren't making any drastic changes while you do that.