I’ve been in a creative bubble this past week, totally engrossed in outlining my novella. It’s crazy how such intense focus can make the rest of the world drop away.
The more I get into the outline, the more excited I get to write this! I just have to remember this feeling when I’m halfway into the book and stuck for ideas or how to describe something.
I’ve been using Save The Cat Writes A Novel to help me structure the story. I also fell back into the rabbit hole of Character Arcs and their relationship to your story’s theme, which has helped me a lot.
I still feel like my main character’s Want and Need might not be strong enough, so as I go back into my outline next week to flesh out the beats of each chapter, I’m hoping things will become clearer.
What methods do you use for plotting (if you’re a plotter!)? Do you like a rigid outline or something a little (or a lot) more flexible when you’re writing a book or novella? I’d love to hear it!
Not gonna lie…I’m a bit of a writing instruction book junkie and my outlining methods are a mish-mash of all the things that work for me from various methods. I think that’s what some get stuck on - there’s no one right way to outline!
Have a great weekend everyone! I’ll be spending some time with family and taking a few days off next week to enjoy the summer (It’s totally summer now - hahaha! The things you kind of forget when you’re in the writing nook every day!).
Image by Лариса Мозговая from Pixabay
I always love hearing how organized you are, Mary, because my writing process is always an absolutely chaotic pantser mess. Despite my protests, I've finally learned that I need SOME facet of planning to write long-form work. It's been so damn hard but I think I'm getting there. Wishing you the best on this new project!
Can't wait to see what you're working on! I did a detailed outline for my novella but then decided to change some major things, so it's stonewalled for the moment until I get up the energy/interest to work on it again 😅