People who are struggling with starts on novels usually don’t put enough out on the table to eat. It might not feel like writing, but creating a book outline is as essential as silverware at each setting. Working from an outline, you can break it into a set of chapter summaries.
Sometimes you’ll want beats for special chapters. The key ones will have signal meetings: things are begun, are decided, or ended.
It’s also good table setting to have a list of characters with a short summary for each of the named ones. List each person’s hopes, fears, wants, problems, plus things that make them unique. this can unfold in a spreadsheet with columns. Or you can write it in narrative. A sentence of six words or less is helpful, or you can use fragments like Problems: Patience with the under-educated.
It’s fun to set out places where the story will unfold. Your settings should avoid cars, restaurants, offices, kitchens, and places anyone will be dreaming. If you must use these, make them distinctive in a quirkly way.
If you’re a fan of meta-writing, where you log how the work is going each day, you can set out a container with a description of your genre, tone, and writing style. This is a good place to take a crack at your bio. Write it so the world sees what sort of person you are while creating.
Comps to your book can be part of your meta course. Unlike with query letter comps, they can be older than two years back.
Your menu might have a main course of a synopsis. It’s richer than an outline, more descriptive and evocative of the book’s style than a “this happens, then that.” Character missions can come up in a synopsis. You reveal the ending in both synopsis and in an outline.
