As Oct. ticks down, those getting ready for November’s race to The End of a novel might be having a twinge of, well, not panic, but perhaps an idea that they ought to know WHAT book they’ll be writing. (I still don’t know what I’ll work on in Nov. I’m keeping my options open.)

But if you want to define “write a book” into something a little easier to get a handle on, here are some basic Book Ingredients you might want to line up before Nov. 1. Those of you who took journalism will remember that you have to define Who, What, Where, When, How and Why.

(Who) Characters: who is in your book? You need at least 3: protagonist, antagonist and ally.
(What) The Plot: What do your characters do? What goal are they in pursuit of?
(When) The story’s time period: Present day, historical, alternate history, etc.
(Where) Setting: where does your book take place? Are you familiar with it? Do you need to research the setting?
(How) What do your characters do to try to reach their goals? Do they succeed or fail?
(Why) Why is success important? What will make them keep trying? (3 times is traditional)

Even if you don’t answer all of these questions before you start, leaving How and Why open to possibilities, for instance, just thinking about them can help you get ready to write and successfully complete your book in November.