Where should you start plotting your story? Why, at the beginning of course! Except… when it comes to fiction, it’s not always that simple, is it? One of the key principles of story theory is “the ending is in the beginning.” What this means is that any consideration of how best to begin a story […]
April 15, 2019 by 95 Comments Outlining Your NovelHow to Use Your Outline When Writing Your First Draft
Outlining your novel is one thing. But then, whether you prefer to outline with minimalism, maximalism, or hindsight (aka, in revisions), a surprisingly easy stumbling block can be that of figuring out how to use your outline in the first draft. Recently, I received an email from Matt Powers, which made me realize that, out […]
October 6, 2017 by 46 Comments Outlining Your NovelPreparing for NaNoWriMo: Your Guide to Outlining Success
Forget turkeys and football. NaNoWriMo—or National Novel Writing Month—has turned November into “da Writing Month.” But as so many authors have learned over the years, the best way to be successful in November is to start preparing for NaNoWriMo in October (aka Preptober). If you’re going to have a decent shot at writing 50k good words […]
June 29, 2017 by Leave a Comment Outlining Your NovelYour 3-Step Plan for Outlining a Novel
Today, I’m guest posting over on Writers Helping Writers, with the post “Your 3-Step Plan for Outlining a Novel.” Here’s an excerpt: There’s only one reason writers ever talk about outlining. It’s a tool that’s supposed to make our jobs easier. But it isn’t always clear how to accomplish that. Do you just start writing a list […]
June 12, 2017 by 75 Comments Outlining Your Novel5 Ways to Write a Perfect First Draft (or Nearly)
“The first draft.” Is there any phrase more likely to evoke such a poignant mix of anticipation and dread? Anticipation, of course, because we get to write—we get to tell our story! And dread, of course, because we’re about to subject ourselves to months, even years, of agony and frustration as we blindly slog toward a finish […]
June 9, 2017 by 64 Comments Outlining Your NovelHow to Use the Outlining Your Novel Workbook Software
Today, I’m pleased to get to share with you a special guest post from Bob Miller, the developer of our new Outlining Your Novel Workbook software. I’ve asked him to give you a tour of the program, his own process for using it, and what inspired him to create it in the first place. Here’s Bob… […]
June 2, 2017 by 58 Comments Outlining Your NovelBefore You Outline: How to Discover Your Story’s Big Moments
Too often, writers maintain a limiting viewpoint of outlines as “a list of scenes.” But outlining can (and should) be so much more. For starters, there’s all that good stuff in the outline before you outline. Before you ever get to the scene list, there are a gabillion important questions for you to ask about your […]
May 30, 2017 by 206 Comments Outlining Your NovelBig News! Introducing the Outlining Your Novel Workbook Software
The various approaches authors bring to outlining their novels are vast. But the one thing we all have in common is the desire for an effective, streamlined process that helps us create a solid foundation for our stories—as painlessly as possible. I have long been a proponent of outlining, through my many resources both here […]
March 13, 2017 by 72 Comments Outlining Your Novel5 Rules for How to Write a Sequel to Your Book
Just when you think you’ve figured out how to write a book, you realize you have to learn a whole new set of rules for how to write a sequel. You’d think writing the second book in a series couldn’t be that much different from writing the first one. They both have a beginning, middle, […]
January 16, 2017 by 116 Comments Outlining Your NovelHow to Outline a Series of Bestselling Books
Every good series has to start somewhere. If you’re of the mindset (as I am) that a problem as complicated as the novel is best approached from the big-picture view of an outline, then it only makes sense that the even greater complexities of serial fiction will benefit even more when their authors understand how […]
