Category: Writing

NaNoWriMo Preptober: My 8 Step Process for Outlining My Novel

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Plotters, Pantsers, and everyone in between…November 1st is just around the corner and that means we need to do a little outlining.  

Don’t freak out!!

Let me give you my 8 step super simple process for outlining. And when I say outlining I mean a totally flexible, workable, fun plan that will help you write your first draft, expanding on the Beginning, Middle, and End that we created a few weeks ago. 

The fun part about this is you can do it many different ways.  You can do it via index cards or post-it notes – very analog, very messy desk, wild and free and fun.  You can do it via Scrivener or another writing app – very organized, a little structured and fun.  OR you can do a mixture and use a digital app like Goodnotes on your iPad, digital sticky notes and your Apple pencil to do this process.  Try a few and discover what feels most like YOU!

8 Steps To Outlining Your Novel

  1. Grab your card, note, or doc and write down your Beginning
  2. Grab another one and write down your Middle
  3. Finally, grab one more and write down your Ending
  4. Now, map out the steps that need to happen between your Beginning and MIddle – I like to do anywhere between 3 and 5 cards/notes
  5. Read through everything. Make sure things make sense, make sure any short hand you are using is written down somewhere so future you knows what past you means and once you are happy, move on to the next step
  6. Now, map out the steps that need to happen between your Middle and Ending. You can either do this start with the ending and work backwards or from your middle forward.  Then, read through everything you’ve just written.
  7. TAKE A BREAK….seriously, before you do anything else, go take a break.  Watch your favorite TV show or movie, eat something yummy, hang with friends and family, or take a nap.  Leave it for at least 24 hours if you can.
  8. Read through the entire outline in one sitting and adjust as necessary.  Are you missing plot points? Do things make sense? Do things need to be moved around a little?

 

Tips & Tricks

I like to write about 3-5 scenes between my Beginning and Middle and then again between my Middle and End, but this is not a hard and fast rule.  If you have a ton of ideas and you want to get them all out of paper, great!  If you are comfortable with less, leaving yourself lots of room to explore, that’s also great!  This really is a flexible plan that makes you feel ready to write so whatever that looks like for you is going to be perfect!

Allow this process to be a little messy.  No one needs to see this outline, so let yourself scribble, write in shorthand, use multiple colors, use numbers, etc. You can always import the notes into a digital system and organize it later.

If you are writing multiple points of view, make sure you know which cards are for which character.  Either use different colors, different index cards, different types of fonts, etc. You can also just write the character name on top of the index card or post-it note if that’s easier.  If you’re not sure yet, that’s fine – you can figure that out once you have your basic outline figured out. 

 

Want to see my process with my own NaNo novel? Watch this week’s YouTube video above where I take you through the process using my digital notebook in GoodNotes. 

 

Are you ready for National Novel Writing Month? 

Would you like some accountability, support, and free Zoom writing sessions? 

Then join my FREE group where I’ll be sending out weekly emails both Monday and Friday with writing exercises, tarot spreads, things to try and then check-in emails where you can reply and ask me any and all questions by clicking here.

NaNoWriMo Preptober: Use This Activity to Get into Your World (Without Cheating!)

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

How are we in week three of Preptober already? 


You have your cast of characters, you have your beginning, your middle, and your end (your little bit of story structure) and you are itching to start writing. BUT if you’re following the NaNoWriMo rules, writing actual words is cheating.


Today, I have a really fun activity that helps you get into the world of your story and gets you excited about your story before outlining, which is next week. 


So how do we keep that momentum going? How do we keep excited? How do we get into the world of our story a little bit without writing too much? 


Let’s draw a map!


Are you creating a fantasy novel? Draw the entire new land, with towns, castles, dragon’s lairs, and that river that gives your hero his magical powers.


Sci-Fi? Chart a course through the stars so you know where the alien races are that are hostile and the ones that will let you band of star voyagers respite.


Contemporary romance? A map of the city they live in and where they have their first date, first fight, and other “firsts” depending on how spicy your book is – wink


The beauty of this exercise is you can do it in a bunch of different ways. You can use a giant piece of paper and draw with markers, crayons, water colors, stickers, and doodles. OR you can do this digitally using an app like GoodNotes or Procreate. You can even use real life maps – print them out or buy them and mark all kinds of info.  


To see how I’m using my iPad, Apple pencil, and the app GoodNotes to create my NaNo project maps, watch the YouTube video below.

If you want to annotate on actual maps or your finished hand-drawn map, you can use colored post-it notes to distinguish different characters or points in your book.  You can make floor plans of houses, research how cities looked in different historical points in time and map out where things happen within your world, or you can just write bullet points of info and start writing some descriptions. 

 

Be careful with this though, try to keep the bullet points short and sweet so you don’t start actually writing – but you do YOU! I invite you to try this activity, I think it’s super fun, helps you get into your character’s world, and allows you some time to be creative before the hard work of NaNoWriMo comes around. 

 

So now that you have your characters, you have that beginning, that middle, that end, and you have some world building done – you are in an excellent position to do outlining, which is next week. Just a few short weeks and we’re gonna start writing. It’s exciting, it’s exhilarating. And if you are thinking of doing NaNoWriMo then I invite you to join my free accountability group. 

 

I am sending weekly emails and check-ins starting in November. We’re gonna have weekly Zoom writing sessions so that we can up our word count together. And don’t worry if you think you’ve missed anything because as soon as you get started, I will send you a link to the Dropbox folder that has all of the workbooks that I have sent so far. Let me know if you have any questions, leave them down in the comments below and let me know –  what kind of map did you draw this week?  I’d love to know!!

NaNoWriMo Preptober: Does Your First Draft Need Story Structure?

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

You have your cast of characters ready and you’re all excited about your story idea, right? But maybe you started doing research on Story Structure and now you’re super confused.  Save the Cat, Hero’s Journey, Three Act vs Four Act?!  It’s all so overwhelming and my not so popular opinion is I don’t think you need to worry about structure right now.

Listen, I think structure is fine, overall, but I feel like if you try to shoehorn your book into a specific structure now you’re going to box yourself in and not have room to grow or explore as you write.  Trying to put your story into beats or acts before you even know what your story is about is going to cause problems, and be a complete waste of time.

So…what do I think you need? I’m so glad you asked…just the basics!  Beginning, middle, and end. 

If you have a deck of Tarot cards, you can do the simple three card spread I show below in my YouTube video or you can just start asking yourself the following questions;

Beginning

  • How do you want your story to start? 
  • Who is the main character and what are they doing? 
  • How are they feeling? 
  • What’s happened right before we start our story?
  • What do you need to know to start writing your book?

 

Middle

  • What do I need to know about my main character right now?
  • What does the reader need to know?
  • What do I need to know about the antagonist or antagonistic force?
  • What kinds of conflict do I need to be aware of, or need to add to further the plot?
  • How can I continue to move the story forward?

 

End

  • How do you want your story to end?
  • How has your main character changed?
  • How have they stayed the same?
  • What lessons did they learn?
  • What’s different in your world?
  • How does the ending relate to the beginning?
  • What plotlines might need to be resolved?

 

 

Once you do this, if you’d like to pull more Tarot cards or think about how your characters go from Beginning to Middle or Middle to End, feel free, but you can also just stop right now and do more exploration when we get to Outlining during Week 4 of Preptober, where I’ll show you how I flesh this out into a workable, flexible plan. 

If you’re doing National Novel Writing Month this year and would like some extra accountability, writing exercises, tarot spreads, and more – then join my FREE group and receive a workbook of fun ideas right away!! And in November I’ll be hosting weekly Zoom writing sessions so we can up our word count together. 

>> Sign up here: https://bit.ly/3U48yGw

NaNoWriMo Preptober: My Favorite Technique for Character Design

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Have you ever downloaded a character worksheet from Pinterest (or other online resource) and you were just overwhelmed with how many choices you had to make?

From eye color to hair color to favorite food, there are so many decisions and, especially if you’re doing Preptober for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), you have to make them quickly. Let me share one of my favorite techniques to make character creation simple and fun!!

To see how I do this technique in real time with examples, make sure you watch the YouTube video!! 

Character creation takes time, but when you’re prepping for NaNoWriMo, time isn’t necessarily something you have an abundance of, so you grab one of those worksheets online and get to work…but soon you start to get overwhelmed.  Enter my favorite tool ever, Tarot cards!!

Tarot cards lets you quickly answer those online character worksheets – seriously, I did one whole example in my video in 20 minutes!! – and create a real human that you can then use for November (or anytime you are creating characters).  

Start off by thinking about which character you want to create – protagonist, antagonist, side kick, hero, etc.  And if you have a general sense of your genre, it helps.  Grab your favorite tarot deck – I suggest one that has people on it, but you do you – give it a good shuffle and start pulling cards.

I do one card per section.  So my worksheet had sections for Physical Characters, Story Information, and Likes/Dislikes so I started at the top and pulled my first card.

My physical characteristics started with things like Hair Color, Eye Color, Age, Body type, etc.  I used my King of Wands card to determine that my Main Character has red hair, green eyes, will be 18 years old – a senior in HIgh School, and a slender/athletic body type.  

I do this by looking at the figure or main focus of the card first, then looking at background details, colors, and anything in the foreground. For the red hair in my example above I actually used the main figure’s red pants and not her actual hair color on the card.  The green eyes I picked up from the leaves growing on her wand staff.   

Things to think about…

  • There is no wrong answer, there’s only YOUR answer, the trick with using Tarot is picking up on small details and going with your first gut response.  Remember you can always change things as needed when you start writing or when you figure out other characters. 
  • I tend to pull one card per section, but there’s nothing stopping you from pulling one card for each question – so one card for eye color, one for hair color, etc. You can use one deck or multiple decks – this is YOUR project, your novel, you get to decide. That’s the fun part!
  • Make sure you’re keeping notes, writing things down as you go or recording yourself in some way as alot of info can come up while doing this process.  You might be filling out the characteristics but then get a really great idea for story or plot, write it all down!
  • I got a name during my live example, but most times I have to look up meanings or think of names later – and that’s fine if you don’t get 100% filled out in one session, but I bet you’ll be super close. Naming characters is extremely hard for me, so it’s sometimes easier to do that later with a baby book in hand.  

Have fun, don’t do too many characters at once – I can usually comfortably work up 3 in one writing session before I need a longer break. Make sure you have some rewards/snacks so you can celebrate your accomplishment and get ready for next week when we will talk about Story Structure.

And if you’re doing NaNoWriMo this year and would love some accountability I’m running a free group where I’ll be sending out tips and tricks, tarot spreads, writing exercises, things to try and during November I’ll run weekly co-writing Zoom calls so we can up our word counts together.  I would love it if you’d join me.

My Favorite Writer’s Block Cure

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Have you ever experienced writer’s block? If you have, you know that it can cause frustration, depression, anger and some fear. Fear that you may never write again.

 

I understand….because I’ve been there!  

 

There were literal months when I could not sit down and write. And one of the biggest things that I’ve done to help me combat writer’s block was to befriend my inner editor. Today I’m going to share three ways you can work WITH your inner editor rather than let them work AGAINST you.

 

Personify your inner editor

 

To start, choose an image that personifies that inner negative voice that you have.  I use Tarot cards for this, but you can use an image out of a magazine or Pinterest. You can even draw a picture of what you think your inner editor looks like – just have something visual that you can use to talk to your inner editor. 

 

Communicate with them

 

I personally start this step in a journal, but you can also type it out in a document, talk out loud to your image, or even film yourself so you can take notes later.   Get comfortable, look at your image and start asking questions

 

  • Why are you such a pain in my butt?
  • Why are you giving me such trouble?
  • Why do you cause me issues so I can’t even sit down to write?

Ask these questions and then wait for the answers. Yes, this seems silly, but we do this with our characters right? Personifying your inner editor, creating that character, allows you to talk to them and start befriending them, as if they were in one of your novels.

 

Hopefully these answers can help you understand your inner editor, your negative voice, a little better.  I have a theory that our inner critics are actually there to help us, but they don’t know how to do that, so they take the little bit of fear and self-doubt we already feel and amplify it to get our attentions like that’s magically going to make things better, but it doesn’t help! This process will help you talk to your voice and let them actually help you in a way that works for you.

 

My inner editor, who I call Dude, told me that he gets upset when I don’t write enough details in first draft – but that’s not important to me, so we had to talk awhile and I made him feel like I heard him and that I will come to him during 2nd and 3rd drafts to help me add in the missing detail. He’s really good at that stuff too.

 

So, ask some questions, get some answers and write down all that good information.  Ask some more questions, get some more answers and keep digging until you feel pretty good about what your inner voice is trying to tell you.

Ask them what they are good at

 

Now that you have that baseline communication done, you feel like you’re understanding each other a bit more, now you can ask them what they are good at, what they can help you with. 

 

You might already have come up with some ideas during your initial conversion, like I did with the details, but if not just ask them.  They might be great with settings and world building, names, or remembering things that are hard for you – like hair or eye color of characters.  Maybe your inner editor really wants to help when you are all finished and starting the marketing and publishing process. 

 

If you don’t get an answer right away, that’s fine – jot the question down on a post it note or index card and pay attention as you go about your normal writing sessions.  I bet you good money that voice will pop up at some point and tell you what you are doing wrong, or what they might be able to do better, and that’s the golden nugget – that’s the information that will help you decide what jobs you can give them. 

 

Process takes time

 

Just like any friendship, this process isn’t going to happen overnight.  It can take weeks, months, even years to get into the perfect rhythm with your inner editor, but just starting this process can help unlock some new things within your brain that will help keep writer’s block at bay.   And the card or image you chose might change as you and your inner voice keep working together.  I’ve been doing this work for almost a decade and I just recently changed the card I use for my Dude, one that’s more playful and colorful and feels more like the relationship we have now – so don’t feel like you have to get the perfect or right image, just find one that resonates with you now and start talking to them.

 

Let me know in the comments below if you’ve tried this how did the process work for you? And if this is something you might be interested in learning more about, stick around, because I will be teaching a class on this subject with an amazing writer friend of mine in January 2023!!

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Tarot for Writers…Helpful Tool or Waste of Time?

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

As you can probably tell, Tarot is one of my absolute favorite tools to use as an author. I use it to help me with everything from character creation to plot design to marketing strategies. You name it, I’ve probably used Tarot to help me in some fashion.  But when I mention Tarot to other writers I sometimes get the following phrases:

It’s too woo, I’m not a witchy person.

I have my own things, I doubt Tarot will actually help me. 

I’m not intuitive enough for Tarot, don’t you have to be a 4th generation psychic?

I’ve looked at it, but Tarot doesn’t make any sense – what’s a pentacle?


Let me break down some of those myths and help you decide if Tarot is a useful tool for your writerly toolbox. 

Tarot is too “woo”

Yes, it’s true that witches and other spiritual people use Tarot as a tool to connect to their divine energy, and personally I use it that way too, but as a writer you don’t need to consider yourself woo to use the cards.  The thing I always tell people is it’s just cardboard pieces of paper with pretty imagery on it.  Imagery that can help your brain come up with new ideas. It’s a visual tool that can help with brainstorming – that’s it!

I promise you, they will not open any portals to an evil world or let in evil spirits. I have been using Tarot in this way for at least ten years, and I’ve never opened an evil portal yet. 

I don’t “need” Tarot

If you have tools and systems that work for you – great! I’m not asking you to replace those, I’m asking you to be curious and see if there are any places within your writing journey where you get stuck, need help, or might benefit from a new tool. 

Now, I personally teach a lot of ways to use Tarot because I use the cards in different ways, and I want you to have options.  So if you don’t need help with character creation, that’s awesome, but let’s say you get stuck in the middle when outlining, or have trouble coming up with conflict while drafting – that’s where you might be able to utilize the magical tool of Tarot.

I’m not intuitive enough for Tarot

If you’ve used Tarot for personal reasons, you might have heard that the books are bad and you should rely on your intuition only and that might be true if you’re looking to be a professional Tarot reader for others, but as a writer I think using the books is perfectly fine!  The books, the guides, and the online information can be extremely useful when you are brainstorming.  Yes, I will always guide you to start by just looking at the card and seeing what comes up, but then grab those books, look the card up online and see what else might help you with ideas. 

Now, if you start using one or two decks all the time, I believe your intuition will get stronger and you might not need the books as much, but even after ten years of using the cards I still grab the books for insight, new keywords, and other information sometimes.  It’s fine, I promise!

Tarot is overwhelming, I don’t know where to start!

I get it, Tarot, as a system, looks very overwhelming but once you learn the basics, it’s not so bad.  First know that there are two main parts – The Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana, and the Minor Arcana is broken up into 4 suits, like a deck of playing cards. You can watch my Creative Tarot 101 videos here to learn more about the Minor Arcana.

A normal deck of Tarot cards has 78 cards and on one hand that’s amazing, there are 78 things for you to look at and get inspiration from.  On the other hand, that’s 78 cards that you might feel like you have to learn and get “right” – you don’t, you don’t have to have the right answer, you just have to have “your” answer.

To start, I suggest getting a deck you feel connected to – you like the art or the colors and just start by looking at one card.  It can be the very first card in your deck or you can shuffle and pull one at random – whatever feels right to you.  Look at the card and just see, what’s going on, what is the figure or human doing? What are they thinking? Then look for one tiny detail and ask the same kinds of questions.  What is that tiny snail doing? What is he thinking? Ask those great writerly questions and let your imagination go wild! Then, if you want, you can look the card up in your guidebook as well.  

So, I would love to know, have you ever used Tarot as a writer before? If so – what’s your favorite deck!!  And if you haven’t, what’s stopping you and did these tips help you?

Oh…and if you’re doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year and would like some accountability, I’m running a FREE group with pep talk emails, check in emails, weekly writing Zooms in November and Preptober help so you are all ready to write come November 1st.  You can join here today!!

Easy Character Creation Using Tarot Cards

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

When starting a novel, it’s important to fill  your world with well-rounded characters – the kind that feel so real your readers love diving into your stories, getting lost in their lives. Today, I want to teach you how to do that with the magical tool of Tarot.

For some great examples using my Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, be sure to watch the video below!! 

I like to think about what kind of story or genre I’m writing before I grab my deck. Young Adult, Fantasy. Science Fiction, Cozy mystery? Then, grab your tarot deck and give it a shuffle. If I have any other ideas, like which character I’m creating or any story details I already have, I’ll think of that while shuffling, then I’ll choose 1 card.

As soon as you flip the card over, what immediately comes to mind? Any and all thoughts start writing them down. Then pay close attention to the main figure or focal point of the card. How are they dressed? What are they doing?  

Once I have established a few things, I’ll move on to the background of the card, paying close attention to color, other figures or animals, and what’s going on – is there any action that helps you with information about this character?

Now, let’s ask some questions:

  1. Are you getting main character energy? Protagonist or Antagonist? Or is this a side character? 
  2. What gender is this character? Male, female, non-binary?
  3. What age is this character? Young, old, timeless – like a wizard?
  4. Are you coming up with any name ideas? Sometimes I get great ideas from something really random on the card and sometimes I don’t.

Once I have these basics established and I’m starting to get a clear picture of who this person is, that’s when I personally bring in the character worksheets you find online. In fact, sometimes I turn those into a tarot spared by pulling cards for each section of the sheet – which can be a fun exercise. 

If you are in a writing group, this can be a fun group activity too. Each of you grab a card and go around the group talking about the character you’ve created – you might even get inspired by the other people’s cards – so bonus!

Have you tried something like this before? Did you find it fun or do you have questions about how to make the process easier?  Let me know by hitting reply to this email.

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How To Get Your Manuscript Back On Track

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

When you started writing your novel, you had a vision for what you wanted your book to be. You went along as your characters took you on a journey, but now you realize you are completely off track from where you “wanted” to be.  You can’t seem to find your way back.  Today, I’m sharing three steps you can take to get back on track when you’ve gotten completely off the rails. 

 

Stop & Assess

You can do this in a couple of different ways. You can reread what you’ve already written and write down bullet points of what has happened so far.  You can just think about what you’ve written so far and jot down some ideas and thoughts.  Or you can take an assessment of how you are feeling about what you’ve written.  How do you feel about where you are now? How do you feel about where you were trying to go originally?

As you’re assessing, I want you to think about three focal points.

  1. What has already happened in your novel
  2. Where you thought you were going
  3. Your ending

 

Gather Information

Let’s talk about that second point – how far off track are you actually?  A little bit, maybe can fix things in a few chapters or are you so off the mark you can’t even see any original plans? How much work is it going to take to get back on track and do you even want to get back to your original plans? Do you like where you are?

There are no wrong answers here, just how you are feeling about your novel, your story, your characters. 

 

Think About Your Ending

Now that you have all of this information, I want you to look at that third focal point – your ending.  Do you like where you are headed? Or do you like what you originally planned? Or do you hate everything and want to create something else? Take a few writing sessions and figure out an ending point, even if it’s a vague idea or one sentence on an index card.

 

Point A to Point B

Ok, take a big picture view and start plotting out, using bullet points, to get you from Point A – where you are right now – to Point B – your ending.  I’m not talking about big detailed outlines here, just bullet points. Stepping stones upon a path to get you back on track. 

For some fun examples watch the video!!

Notes To Future You

You’re probably asking yourself at this point, Jennifer, that’s great and all but what do I do now that I’m off track, how do I start writing when nothing makes sense? This is the beauty step, this is how you’re going to get back on track in 1-2 writing sessions feeling so much better about your book, ready?

 

Change your font, I like to just bold mine, but you could completely change the font size, type or color, and write – Notes for Future Writer Here – and start writing all of the things that should have happened to make your ending possible.  Write out everything in either bullets, paragraphs, fragments of ideas – whatever you need to get you on track to keep going.   Let’s say you decide your main character gets pregnant but you haven’t established a boyfriend or male type character into her life, write that down – I need to have her hook up with Dean sometime around chapter five.  And then figure out events both before and after that, those things that need to happen, those things you will add when you start revisions.

 

And finally, I have a tip for you as you’re writing too. As you’re moving along back on track, things are going to come up. New ideas are going to spur things that you needed to have done earlier, this is where in-document author notes come in.  Again, I use a bold font and usually brackets and I’ll just write them directly into my document right where I am, but you could separate this all out into a separate document – whatever works for you.  These are more notes for the future writer to work with during revisions and edits. 

 

They’re gonna be so helpful when you’re redesigning your draft.  Remember first drafts are messy, they aren’t going to be linear, they might not make much sense at times, but doing this prevents you from stopping and rewriting the first 5-10 chapters over again and never getting to the middle or the end. 

 

Take the time to make the assessments, gather your info, figure out your focal points and map out a new journey.  At least you’ll stay in the world of your novel, stay connected to your characters, and get back on track faster than if you just stopped all together.  

 

And if you found this helpful, I would love for you to check out my Muddy Middle to Manuscript coaching package where I will walk you through a process of getting very clear on your Big Why, becoming friends with your characters, and we will fix your outline so you can type The End all with a smile on your face. 

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Pantser Problems – Getting Out Of The Hole You’ve Dug

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

You pride yourself on being a pantser – someone who just dives right in with their book project without an outline, writing by the seat of your pants.  It’s exciting – I get it! You want to just get started, but what happens when you get to that one scene and you don’t know what happens next? Let me tell you…

Stop & Assess – Where You Are


The best way I have found to do this is with what my editor calls a reverse outline.  Basically, you read what you have written so far and using very easy bullets, you write down what has happened.  For example:

  • Bob meets Jane
  • Jane hates Bob
  • Jane tells her sister about Bob
  • Jane’s sister realizes she knows Bob

I want these bullets to look like a kids primer book – easy breezy. 

Figure Out Your Ending


Pantsers don’t get scared, I’m not asking for a detailed outline – we are going to stay with these easy bullet points for this too.  You don’t need a full blown plan, but you do need to know where you are going.  Do Bob and Jane end up together? Do Bob and the sister end up together? Does Bob get murdered? What happens before The End?

This does not need to be the ending you actually write, but like pulling back an arrow you need to know where you are aiming before you let go, right? Right! That’s all I’m asking you do.  So, for example

  • Bob and Jane fall in love
  • Bob and Jane get married
  • Bob falls into the Grand Canyon and dies
  • Jane falls in love with a park ranger

Your ending can be anything you want and need it to be – just write something down so you have an ending, deal?  Okay, how are those bullet points treating you? I’m hoping you are digging this because step three uses more of them.

Map Out The Journey From Point A To Point B


Did you read that heading and freak out?  Unclench please, I’m not asking you to do a full outline – I’m asking for bullet points.  Very simple bullet points starting from where you are and ending with what you figured out in the above step. 

So, if we’re going with the ending that Bob dies at the Grand Canyon and Jane falls in love with that park ranger, because – why not! – then you need to figure out how to take Bob and Jane on this road from hating each other to true love to death.  

  • Jane gives Bob a chance
  • The first date goes really well
  • At the one month anniversary, they realize neither has dated anyone that long before
  • Something happens here (this is perfectly fine to do when doing these bullet points) and Bob and Jane start fighting
  • To re-ignite their romance, they go on a trip to the Grand Canyon
  • It’s late, it’s raining, it’s dark and Bob falls in
  • Jane, grieving, meets Park Ranger Ron
  • Jane falls in love

Literally, it can be that simple!

Extra Tip


Now, I’m going to throw in something…extra that you can take or leave, pantsers.  Take those bullet points and expand on them as needed.  I like to do a very detailed outline of a few chapters at a time.  So on Friday I’ll look at what scenes/chapters are coming up and work out characters, conflict, setting, etc so the next week when I sit down I’m ready to go.  You can also do this as a writing warm-up exercise and it can be as simple or as detailed as YOU need.  Take two minutes and just write down the characters and setting. Or don’t write at all – just look over your bullet points, shut your eyes, and put yourself into the setting, open your eyes and start writing.  

I think pantsers like writing by the seat of their pants because it’s exciting, they need space to explore and I believe the bullet point method helps them do that while also keeping them on track to actually type The End.  If you only need the bullet points and don’t mind shuffling things around as new ideas come around – great! If you want to try the extra tip and expand those bullet points before you write – also great!

Let me know in the comments below – Why do you like being a pantser?

And if you found this helpful, I would love for you to check out my Muddy Middle To Manuscript coaching package where I will walk you through a process of getting very clear on your Big Why, becoming friends with your characters, and we will fix your outline so you can type The End all with a smile on your face.  

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Image of binders stuffed with papers

4 Ways To Get Back On Track When You’re Off Your Detailed Outline

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

You did what all of the writing books and experts told you to do when you started working your novel – you created a very detailed outline and you expected things to go super smooth. BUT now you’ve hit a wall and that detailed outline isn’t helping anymore.  Your characters aren’t doing what you told them to do. Your scenes, heck your entire plot, feels boring, like nothing is actually happening. And that ending you mapped out months ago is miles away, nowhere to be found on the page.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but sometimes having that thought out detailed, meticulous document can actually hinder your creativity. 

 

Before I jump into the four things that I think will help you when you’re off track from your outline, I want to talk a tiny little bit about why I think having too detailed of an outline is actually causing the problem. See I get it. I’m a planner girl at heart. I have goals for my week, my month, my quarter, my year. I love having a plan, but sometimes, okay most of the time, life does not go according to plan. And yes, I am also still learning this. I have tried to learn to be a little bit more flexible with my planning. This also goes along with my writing life – you need to have a flexible plan with your outlining. Having things too mapped out can cause you to freak out when the littlest thing goes wrong. And when you freak out, you don’t know how to get back on track which can cause you to stop writing – that’s where I come in!

 

Let’s assess where you are

 

How far off your outline did you get? Are you just a little bit, or are you a lot? If you’re not sure, you can do something my editor taught me called The Reverse Outline. You just read what you’ve already written and write down in bullet points what happens in each scene or chapter.  Note – you need to write what you actually wrote here, not what you planned – and I’m talking bullet points. 

  • Jimmy did this 
  • Which caused Laura to do 
  • And because of that, Jane did this other thing

This should show you in black and white what you planned and what you wrote and how far off the plan you are. 

 

Do you like where you ended up? 


Are you okay with where your story went OR do you like your original outline better? Neither answer is correct here. It’s just how you are feeling about your story. 

 

So if the answer is, “I loved my original outline and what happened is terrible.” OR “Yes, I love where my story went, the character did this really cool thing and I’m excited, I’m just not sure where to go from here because it’s so far off my map.”  Both are good!! If you like your story right now, but need help, go on to the next step.  If you hate where you ended up, I need you to take a small pause and do a little bit of journaling about where you think the story should be at this point in time in your outline, then you can move on to step three. 

Now, let’s look at your ending


Look at where you originally mapped out and ask yourself if it’s still the ending you want. Are you happy with the ending or is it not going to work based on all the new things you figured out in steps one and two?  Does it still make sense? Do you still love it? Again, there is no right or wrong answer here, just how you are feeling and what you think based on your story. 


If you like your ending and can start to see a path between where you are and where you want to go, great – move on to the final step.  But if you’re not happy, pause again and do some more journaling – ask yourself some What If questions to get to an ending you are happy with…but please, please do not start a new detailed outline. Not yet okay? Just write down where you’d like your characters to end up based on the new information and then go on to step four.


Getting from Point A to Point B


Now we are going to map out a quick and dirty plan from where you are to where you want to end up using bullet points. Doing this step first, before you start mapping everything out in full sentences, will help you see problems before they start. So get out your outline document or index cards and start writing down ideas, notes, thoughts, and plans for different scenes and chapters between where you got stuck and where you hope to end up. I just don’t want you to sit down and spend three weeks making a new detailed, meticulous plan. I want you to keep it a little loosey goosey, a little free flowing.


Secret 5th Step – Flexible Planning


Now I’m not asking you to not have a plan because I couldn’t do that. What I’m asking you to do is just try, just try the loosey goosey, free flowing for just a minute and see if you feel better. When you start actually writing again, you don’t have to keep this up. If you get back on track and you are in the zone and want to make another detailed outline, great, you can stop and do that in a day or two, but I’m asking you not to do that yet. I’m asking you just to map things out quick and dirty bullet points, one idea at a time, just so that you can get back on track and then assess how you are feeling.


The hidden step here is the way I now do my outlines – and again, this is totally optional, but if you’ve been stuck this might be something to try.  So I outline my entire novel using bullet points on index cards – usually 1-2 sentences max for each chapter.  BUT then on my final writing session of the week, I look at my living document and do a more detailed outline for the chapters coming up – that can be anywhere from 3-5 scenes for the following week.  That’s when I flush things out with character motivations, settings, ideas for dialogue, what I need to remember based on what I wrote the week before, etc and so forth.  I take my index card and use my writing software, Scrivener, to add detailed notes and flesh the scene out so when I sit down to write I have my plan. 


Hopefully you can see the beauty of being a little bit more flexible, I’m inviting you into the world of plotser. I really hate this term, and wish I could come up with a new one, but I haven’t been able to. It’s basically where you take the plotters, the people that have that detailed, meticulous outline and you merge it with the pantsers, the people that have no outline and just start writing – by the seat of their pants.


The thing I like about being a plotser, is you have a plan (because I am a planner girl don’t forget) and you can map out your whole book but that doesn’t mean I’m tied down to a meticulous plan right at the beginning. I don’t have to spend too much time before I start writing because I’m going to take some time each week to add, update, and map out more of my book as I go. And this works for me. 


So I’m inviting you to try this, especially if you are stuck, especially if you are feeling frustrated with your outline. If you have a detailed outline and you are cooking with gas and you are moving towards your goal. Perfect. I don’t think there’s any one right way to write a book, but I’m saying if you’re stuck, maybe try this.


Let me know in the comments below – Do you consider yourself a pantser, a plotter, or are you that sort of middle plotser? And do you also hate that word or is it just me? 


And if you found this helpful, I would love for you to check out my Muddy Middle to Manuscript coaching package where I will walk you through a process of getting very clear on your Big Why, becoming friends with your characters, and we will fix your outline so you can type The End all with a smile on your face.  

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