I have always wanted to be one of those quirky, passionate, spur of the moment writers. I wanted to be the kind of writer who would carry a notebook everywhere she went just to write down new ideas as they came. I wanted writing to consume me to the point where I would sit down and the words would just spill out of me. No planning, no plotting, just writing. I would sit and write for hours in end and the words would just flow out, and that the end I would have this beautiful half polished story.
I still have the notebook I bought. I filled a few pages and gave up. I realized that I am no where near extroverted enough to go out in public to write. I don’t even like going in public to get groceries.
I started to write, my head filled with dreams and the drive that only 20 year old’s have and let me tell you my draft was bad. I wrote over 30k words and then woke up one day, read my draft and thought, “this is terrible, I can’t believe I ever wanted to write novels.”
I stopped writing for years after that.
Between that time and now I’ve written half of another novel as well as a handful of short stories. I haven’t finished any of them. Why you may ask?
Because I’m a plotter, trying to be a pantser. I was actively fighting against who I was to try and fit into this idea of who I should be.
I sat down a month ago and read my first draft for my first book again… And I was right… It was bad. It was only bad because I had no clue where I was going. My characters didn’t have a voice, my plot was basically non existent and my writing was atrocious. I reworked my idea and now I have something that in my opinion, could be good. The only way I got there was outlining.
This is what I did.
Chose a Plot Structure
I researched plot structures and picked one that resonated with me, which ended up being the 4 Act Story Structure.
This ended up being my favorite because it helps to break down your novel into specific components, each having its own distinct purpose to move the story forward. I found this very helpful, especially to lift up my middle… which is exactly where I tend to fizzle out and give up.
Outline, outline, outline, and outline some more!
I went onto create a brief chapter outline and wrote a few sentences for each chapter to flesh out my story beats, character perspectives and the overall feel I was going for. I know people have strong opinions on this… but I swear this is the only thing that helped me to actually flesh out an entire story. Plotter.. not pantser…. I need to know how the story goes to even begin to start writing it.
While I did this I made sure to link each chapter up with each plot point, ensuring that I had a chapter to fit each one that was going to hopefully, move my story forward and make sense along the way.
This was the hardest part and my favorite part. Writing the perfect scene to perfectly fill the need of each plot point just scratched a spot in my brain I didn’t know was itchy. It felt like I finally knew my story, and wasn’t just learning it as it popped into my head.
More Outlining!
After I actually figured out my story, I got to the hardest and more grueling part. I had to actually write each scene. I took my few brief sentences and expanded and expanded and expanded, until I wrote at least half page for each one.
Trust me when I say this. It was bad. I loved it.
It was messy and in point form, unfinished and raw. It was just a big brain info dump for each chapter. This person went here and did this. This place looked like this. This person said this. I had some random quoted dialogue and some random scenes, but most of it was not that. When it was done, I had a story. The bones of a novel. It hit all the plot points, it had a middle that didn’t sag and a climax that made sense. It was a real story.
Writing the book!
I’m still working on this part so I’ll let you know when I have more to say. All I have to say now is that my confidence has skyrocketed and I think I am a much better writer with my outline by my side.
Plotter for life!!
Happy writing 🙂
Every Book and Cranny 