Outlining

Hi everyone,

I got a little sidetracked as I was outlining my character arc for The Search for Magic (draft 2). I have mostly finished outlining act 3 of The Search for Magic but I’m letting some ideas percolate as it’s important to pay off everything here.

While waiting for some ideas to germinate, I decided to look up how to outline properly and I’ve been having fun outlining a new SECRET Project. My aim is to turn myself into as much of a plotter as possible, so that my revisions are faster. Let’s hope it works. Here’s how I’ve been outlining my Unnamed Secret Project.

Step 1: format an excel spreadsheet with the items I want to outline on the left column: chapter name, scene outline, plot details, how moves story forward, character arc H1 (H2 etc), backstory, psychological aspects (wound/need/want etc), extract (I like to write a paragraph or two if I get super inspired). Basically each row are things that interest me and I’d like to know before writing the story. For example, I like to know a lot about the character, their back story, wound, flaw, need, want, arc and how these play out in each scene.

Step 2: in the first row, I wrote the story beats of the plotting method I use, eg Save the Cat, Romancing the beat etc. I use Save The Cat, so: Act 1: Set up, Theme, catalyst, debate etc.

Step 3: I started filling out each box. In any order. I modified old inputs as my story changed.

Step 4: Revise.

Step 5: revise again or skip to step 6.

Step 6: Write it.

I’m still in step 3. I’ll let you know how it goes.

That’s it for today,

Happy writing,

Joanne.