Welcome to my Preptober series on planning and outlining a novel! My plan is to post a blog once or twice a week and develop an outline for a fantasy novel (genre chosen by poll in the last blog – thanks to all who voted!) over the course of the month. I’ll be using this calendar from Writing.com as a starting point, as I’ve used it in the past, but adding a few of my own twists and updates.

No one part of the outlining process is easier than another for me. The beginning is just as hard as t...