Grow Your Story Tree
I think of a story as a tree.
You’ve got the roots, trunk, branches and leaves.
But if you want your tree to thrive, you’ve got to grow it in the right order.
When I coach writers, we work through three phases of story development: discovery, planning, and writing. Change the order up, and the process gets a lot harder.
The Story Tree
Here’s a closer look at each phase.
PHASE ONE - Embrace Your Story
You are the roots of your story.
Every piece of your novel comes from you, so you’ve got to embrace yourself, because you can only be as honest with the reader as you are with yourself.
The first thing I help writers do is discover the unique gifts, passions, and goals they bring to their writing.
What life events most influenced who you are?
What’s your Enneagram Type?
What are your values?
How do you want your writing to impact yourself, your reader, and the world?
Once we’ve got a solid root system, we grow a sturdy trunk by figuring out what the hell you’re trying to say through your novel.
What worldview does your book convey?
What message do you want the reader to come away with?
What’s the point of your novel?
Your tree trunk—the novel’s point—is what all the other story elements grow from.
PHASE TWO - Plan Your Story
Once we know the story’s point, we grow your story branches:
Protagonist
Antagonist
Conflict
Cast
World
Plot
All of the story elements grow from and are determined by the point.
A strong connection between trunk and branches ensures that all book elements work together to tell one story.
It ensures that the novel you write is actually about something, that it goes somewhere and means something.
Phase Two is not fast.
It can take months to complete, sometimes even a year if you’re writing a multi-book series with an expansive world.
But that work pays off.
Because impactful fiction doesn’t happen by accident, it happens on purpose.
And the Story Tree ensures you write with purpose.
PHASE THREE - Write Your Story
Now, and only now, is it time to write your novel.
With a thriving root system, a strong trunk, and healthy branches, you can add the color, movement, and life to your tree’s leaves.
Because you’ve done the work of Phases One and Two, you can draft (or revise) knowing that the 100k words you put down are doing what you want them to do.
When you get to the end of your draft, you won’t end up with a pile of crunchy, brown leaves, you’ll have a vibrant and lush canopy to delight your reader.
So how healthy is your story tree?
Is your story rooted in your own identity, passions, and goals?
Do you know your novel’s point?
Does each story element connect to that point?
Is your manuscript telling the story you really want to tell?
If you’ve got a pile of leaves, don’t despair.
It’s never too late to grow your story tree.
Grow Your Story Tree
The three phases of the Story Tree are the foundation of my group writing program, The Rooted Writers Mentorship.
This program is designed to help you embrace, plan, and write the story you really want to tell, the one you need to tell.
It’s a perfect fit for writers who want to learn more about themselves, desire a supportive writing community, and want to make the world a better place, one reader at a time.