You want more than just a map of your story — more than just a setting. Your story world stretches far beyond the majestic mountains or the five visible moons orbiting your character's home planet. Tracking how they all connect, what their relationships are and what tensions lie beneath the surface is difficult enough; knowing how those connections shape plot is something else entirely. And if contradictions ambush you in chapter twelve, it can mean having to entirely rethink vast scapes of written narrative.

AI can't rethink it for you. It only follows speech patterns; it cannot contextualise the past to speculate on the abstract nature of complex universes, cannot think of all the various plot threads that can make the difference between intricately interesting and clumsily considered. And this is where your superpower is: your uniquely human brain. Your imagination.

But 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 panic – 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.) The climax never gets written, and lots of exciting ideas end up in refuge, waiting to be rescued.

But, believe it or not, there is a method to constructing the middle, and as a fantasy, sci-fi or historical fiction author, a deep familiarity with the architecture of your fictional world is vital in structuring that method, in avoiding unexpected magic or technology clashes, and will generally shake the biscuit bag for all your strays to follow.

No need to lose the plot.

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 it's not something I've ever witnessed another writer, editor, guru or educator show any awareness of. It's not something that is taught in creative writing or in editing curricula. Yet, it's crucial to how character and world building play their roles in making the middle just as intriguing and entertaining as the beginning. It's 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 in my How to Plot Story Arcs online course 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. 

Let light shine into your imagination and know that the strays have settled, awaiting your signal for when they must pounce.

These workbooks are entirely human-made in concept, insight and design, drawn from twenty years' experience in writing and editing. All images, designs and formatting were pulled together and executed by me on my laptop. They took me months to make, not hours or weeks.



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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