Do You Need To Plan A Novel Before You Write It?

Everybody has a different way of writing yet most authors do find it easier to plan their novel before they start writing it. In fact, some may say that planning is everything when it comes to novel writing but generally it all depends upon your personal preferences.

When it comes to the actual planning there are a few ways in which you can go about it. You could either plan the story first without building up your characters, or you could build up your characters and then focus on the story. Also, most writers like to have an idea of where there story starts, what happens in the middle and what will eventually happen at the end. However, you do not have to follow that theme you can always just start writing the story with no idea as to where you will end up. Overall writing a novel should be fun and unique to you.

Some writers can manage to construct their work on a random level and when they have finished putting all their ideas down they then start to construct a plan .

Sometimes working as expalined above can give more flexibilty as things can be altered added and taken away as the work progresses.

Most writers have a good idea of what they want their novel to be in the finished form but may develop ideas as the work progresses.
It's always a good idea to have some structure in pale with alot of flexibility.
You find that you want to add characters and develop others and create sub-plots.
Obviously no  two writers work in the same way and if this is a first novel you need to get a 'feel' for whatis right for you, you can change your ideas as you progress.
There are plans and software available via the internet which help you create a structure and it might be worth looking at Google under construct a novel or similar for some ideas.