Ever find yourself drowning in a sea of scattered plot points, character snippets and a patchwork of world building that is difficult to keep track of, desperately trying to birth that novel idea into a cohesive masterpiece? You are not alone! It happens to all of us.

Crafting a story can often feel like herding cats! Ideas stray everywhere and don’t listen to their owner when you try to keep them moving in the right direction in an organised way. And let's not even talk about the mid-novel slump – it's like a cat (you) chasing a mouse (the opening chapters) but running into a dog (the middle), turning tail and running off in the opposite direction! (That’s you, cowering from the really tough part. A.K.A. Procrastination.) Maybe this has happened more than once.

Before I understood how stories work, my writing area resembled a mad cat person’s house: the walls covered in sticky notes; the desk full of half-empty tea cups; my characters crapped out useless dialogue and wandered aimlessly among junk-strewn settings on some pages and completely blank rooms on others; and the curtains were tightly closed, so no one could look in and judge me on my madness. The mid-novel slump hit hard, leaving me utterly confused. What happens in the middle? How do I get to the end or the climax, at least? Then I’d write something, in the hope of regaining my mojo, only to find that the prose lacked any true purpose, and my plot lacked direction.

Yes.

I lost the plot.

After many years of studying and practising the art of writing fiction, subsequently leading me into editing work, I thankfully found it.

Through years of dissecting published stories, and breaking down other people’s manuscripts and putting them back together again, I finally worked out what makes the middle work, and how character and world building play their roles in making the middle just as intriguing and entertaining as the beginning. Believe it or not, there is a method to it. A method that gives it structure and purpose while leaving you with the creative freedom to make it your own.

I began teaching this method online and in my local writing groups, but one thing I lacked was a system for my students to put all the elements together. Something they could easily follow and refer to when they came to writing the actual body of the work, so I created some class documents to help them organise their classroom projects. I soon realised how much of a shortcut I was providing them in novel writing by giving them these templates to work with.

That’s why I created this ultimate book writing kit – four game-changing templates to help you jump ahead in the process in a way I wish I’d known much earlier than I came to. I’ll have you exploring your story world and its key players to create a cohesive plot. The character profile worksheet breathes life into your protagonists by making you consider them in unorthodox ways; the world-building workbook helps you characterise your settings in much the same way; the plotting workbook keeps your story events on track with the emotional stakes at the heart of your narrative; topped with the guide on crafting a killer novel synopsis for when you are ready to submit the manuscript to agents and publishers. All of them are fillable PDFs, so you can use them on the move on your laptop or phone.

Fast track your novel by getting all these elements in place beforehand, then you can focus on writing quality prose that packs purpose. 

You can take down the curtains, let the light shine onto your writing space, and know that the cats are all lying quietly in their beds, awaiting your signal for when they must pounce.

Testimonials:

'[Charlie] ... has so much knowledge of craft and the inside-out of how stories work. Highly recommended.'

Clare Weze - award-winning short story author and author of debut children's novel The Lightning Catcher.

Reviews of my online classes, from which the worksheets are adapted:

“Have taken actual college classes that don't explain it this well. Got lots of new ideas. ”

 ~ Felisia Ferreira ~

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