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1.06.2013

Outline Methodology


I learned a new thing and I’m so excited I just had to share it with my imaginary friends!

So I was procrastinating on rewriting the ending to Queen of Broken Hearts by listening to the Writing Excuses podcasts (I don’t think I use these podcasts as intended) when they said something absolutely genius in the outlining podcast. See, they were talking about Mary’s method of outlining and how she expands from a thumbnail sketch and sees the outline as a sort of under painting, and I was all, hmm, that’s interesting. She mentioned that she ends up with at least a sentence about each scene, and  I was all, oh, I do that too! But THEN she said the genius part. She writes the novel ON TOP OF the outline.

My brain exploded. I was all, what. But that makes so much SENSE. Admittedly, this probably never occurred to me because I tend to write my outlines in notebooks then reference them as I type the story. But I did my last outline on virtual notecards, and I had to keep switching back and forth to reference what I would need to write next.

Writing on top of the outline would not only solve that problem, it would solve the problem of forgetting my outline notebook somewhere and having no idea what happens next (this usually leads to writing with reckless abandon and creating big plot snarls when I finally have my notebook again).

So I’m implementing this method for writing Junk Squad. Honestly, I’ve been debating the best way to go about Junk Squad for a while, and this seems brilliant. If it works I can totes also use it for my Seven Deadly Sisters novellas. I’m so excited! 

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