You have researched your story, established your characters, settings, ideas to use in the story. You have even done your minimal plotting and now you roughly have an idea of at least three points you need to reach inside your story. So the task at hand doesn’t feel so daunting anymore.
Every story has three acts. The three pillars you need to know about and use in your story are Plot Point 1, Midpoint, and Plot Point 2. Now, Act I and Act III are about half the story, while Act II alone is the other half. That’s a rough estimation. Obviously, you can experiment.
You may think “I need to write at least 80,000 to 90,000 words to qualify it as a novel. I know the story is that rich. But, I only know what to write for the first 10,000, or maybe 20,000 words, yet I still have to fill in at least 60,000 more words!” And that can be daunting…
And we crossed into Alpha. Now that you have everything in place and you know who your characters are, what’s the story about, where and when it happens, and how it happens, you need to think a few steps ahead and start plotting.
Now it’s the time to decide what will be in the story and what remains background information. And we’re talking from big decisions, like what cities or neighbourhoods and buildings will get into the story, to very small decisions, like what the protagonist will eat for breakfast, or what technology are they using to advance the mission.