For a first novel, I didn’t expect to have as hard a time as I thought making these.
Really should be a given.
Writing a novel is hard! Takes heaps of learning and troves dedication. Not saying that as if I am past my first few books, but being honest. Short stories are one thing. A book takes it to another level! And it is SO. MUCH. FUN! Like, jiggling your fists with a broad smile fun. In this Writing Update, I will report on my outlining I did… attempted… dug at… to resume Just as Human Draft 2.
You have to inquire about what characters need, want, what motivates them, her or his strengths, and so forth. Before them, and even still now, I didn’t understand my characters enough. Had to wonder deeply, sooo very deeply at what they POSSIBLY wanted. Any of those details, and others, with my major characters helped set up scenes in chapters.
Did I already have those before? Uh, kind of yes – the first skeleton of a draft. I squished them into summaries in a Google Sheets document rather than made more partial snowflake outlines.
Like… excuses of flakes.
What I mean is – writing in increasing detail until you have a complete section, or a story… which I did not do much.
The intention is not extensive summaries. Ironically, I do not have enough ideas outlined to make them.
At that point, I had enough to spark the words. Major character arcs, then a rough chapter outline a bit more than my previous one. For details that remained in the dark, discovery writing is how they surface.
In other words, that is what I did these last three weeks with having enough to update on… which brings us to the end of yet another writing update! If you have any advice for the above, do share it in the comments. See you next time!
Outlined:
- Four character arcs. I did leave space open for them to naturally develop.
- A near full chapter list with summaries.
Matthew Birdzell 