How to Storyboard a Novel

Step 1

1. Prep your template

It’s best to start by formatting your storyboard book template in a visual way you’re comfortable with. With our novel storyboard example, we’re using 16:9 panels (a standard panel size for most storyboards) and 6 panels per page so our visuals and descriptions don’t get overly crowded. But how to storyboard a novel really comes down to how you absorb visual information, so keep it at a structure that looks good to you.

When you begin a new storyboard project in StudioBinder, you’ll answer some setup questions like these, before arriving at your own personalized blank template. From there, you can start by writing and pacing out some general descriptions for where you want your story to go. How to write a storyboard will reflect your own unique way of writing, so keep it as condensed or detailed as you want, just be cautious of how much space you have.

Since this page only represents one of many chapters we plan to storyboard, we’ll also go into our sidebar and create some groups organized around our novel’s three act structure. And just like that, we set a structured plan for how to make a storyboard for a novel!

Step 2

2. Upload images

Some novelists have also been gifted with the ability to illustrate their ideas before writing them, so if you identify as this type of novelist, now’s the time to put those skills to good use for your storyboard book template! But for those of us learning how to storyboard a novel without the gift for drawing, there are still some solid options available.

Even basic stick figures can work if you do choose to illustrate, this is your own book storyboard afterall, you’re the only one who needs to understand it visually. And with that in mind, online images that reflect the tone/mood/action you’re planning to write can also work. It really comes down to what speaks to your story’s look and feel.

Once you know which images you want and where you want them to go, you can just click Upload on any blank panel to insert them.

Step 3

3. Organize your narrative

Learning how to storyboard a novel isn’t too unlike learning how to use color coded sticky notes as you write, it all comes down to organization. Maybe you want to use a blue placement card to track an important supporting character throughout, or maybe the yellow placement card helps identify the dangerous choices your protagonist makes throughout, leading to a climax that culminates in the consequences of all those choices.

Whatever the case, storyboarding for writers tends to take on a structure of its own. For our novel storyboard example, we’re customizing text boxes for each of our opening chapter loglines. You can drag and drop these text boxes anywhere on your book storyboard and stylize them as you’d like with background colors and font styles.

Once you have a text box formatted in the way that helps organize your storyboard, just click Save and you’ll see it added into your project. Now we’ll have no problem memorizing the overarching goal for each of our chapters.

Step 4

4. Collaborate for feedback

While the actual writing of a novel is often a solo process, editing drafts and working with publishing companies throughout the construction of your story requires some collaborative skills. Once you learn how to storyboard a novel and finish building your storyboard, you can get feedback from close friends and colleagues, or even use the storyboard as a pitch for your publisher. The goal is to make your novel storyboard the best it can be by incorporating alternate perspectives, so why not use the convenience of your storyboard itself as the one place for all your collaboration?

With StudioBinder, you can send anyone an invite with either viewer, commenter, or editor permissions enabled. If you send an invite with commenter or editor permissions on, then your collaborators can go into the comments and discuss their notes with you.

Step 5

5. Convert your storyboard

Now that you’ve gone through all the writing and collaborating of making a top tier storyboard, you can officially say you know how to storyboard a novel. But don’t start celebrating just yet, because there’s one more important step to take into consideration: converting your storyboard to a PDF document.

Since some book publishers might prefer a hard copy of your storyboard, a PDF is the best way to present it to them. Not only that, it’s good to get into the habit of saving your work as an unchangeable document as you make changes throughout. In StudioBinder, you can customize your PDF document in any way you or anyone else requesting it prefers.

For our novel storyboard example, we were sure to make our font size just a bit bigger, before going into the security tab and adding a custom watermark. This is a juicy novel, so we really want to make sure it doesn’t get leaked early.

Conclusion

You're finished!

Now that you know how to storyboard a novel, what are you waiting for? Get out there and make those creative writing dreams come true! And remember, storyboarding for writers isn’t the only kind of storyboarding help StudioBinder offers, so be sure to check out all the free storyboard templates we have to offer!