Saturday

Outlines - The Bain of My Existence

Hello everyone! I'm terribly sorry for the lack of posting, but I will try to do more than one post a week in November, October has just been horribly hectic for me.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been outlining. And planning. And not writing. Which is kind of terrible because when I'm planning what to write I want to cry. Because I just want to WRITE. 

LET'S TALK ABOUT PLANNING.

woo hoo.

But wait, why even plan if it’s the most dreadful thing in the world?

You know honestly I ask myself that same question every day. But really, if you want to go back and read any writing I've done in the past 5 years, I can answer that question for you.

It's messy, first drafts are messy but this is after a party pizza on the floor, root beer cans everywhere, pillows scattered messy.

nOT FUN.


How does one.. plan?

Yet another question I ask myself every day. Planning works differently for everyone, you can do specific planning like TOTALLY CRAZILY ANALYZE EVERY SINGLE SCENE or you can grab 3 index cards and write your beginning, middle and end. Or you can find a middle ground.

I found my middle ground, and it works quite well.



Here is a basic outline of a chapter, this is what I use for all my chapters and it helps me gather basic information, not being too general and not being too specific. MIDDLE GROUND !!

Noor, making planning easy since 2016. 


I also do weird things like CHARACTER SKETCHES because I love them and they're my children/my best friends and I need to get to know them well so my readers (who probably won't exist until I PERFECT my novel) can get to know them well. 

Also so that they're not bland and boring like chicken broth, chicken broth isn't fun without a little PIZZAZZ. does anyone still say pizzazz anymore? probably not. 




Basically I just give some basic information on my character, what she's like, her backstory, her conflicts, her education for some reason, and also other things which I didn't show because spoilers. 

IT'S FUN AND EASY AND QUICK and helps me somewhat develop my sweet loves into COOL CHARACTERS. alliterations, haven't even started writing and I'm already using literary devices HAH. 



HOPE Y'ALL ENJOYED THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF PLANNING.

I scream too much SORRY, I'm just so proud of myself because organization! That being said, I only have 3 chapters planned and NaNoWrimo is in 9 DAYS GTG. 

Thanks for reading,
Noor

7 comments:

  1. This is such a great post! Planning and outlines are super important for everything, especially writing ♥
    Also, I tagged you in the Harry Potter Tag if you'd like to participate! The questions are on my blog :)
    Amy xx

    Little Moon Dragon

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is awesome! I love doing character sketches. I used to call it a character crash, because it was like a crash course on the specifics of a character and I'd just word vomit on the page without paragraphs or sentences. Character interviews are fun too. :)

    Outline is SO hard. I'm not big on organizing, but you're right. There's definitely room for it when preparing to write a novel. I should consider it sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my gosh I love your planning style!! Mine is so terrible, honestly. I have the main "beats" of the story planned out (so the conflicts, rising action, climax, falling action etc) and I write like a one-sentence summary of each scene. But I love the idea of detailing the when/where/urgency/characters involved. So smart!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Noor,

    I just came onto your blog and I'm obsessed with it. I'm new to the blogging world and I would be so happy if you checked my blog out:
    bubblegumandbooks.blogspot.co.uk/

    If possible, could you email me some tips and tricks as your so good.
    thebookworm1206@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. I NEED TO FINISH PLOTTING WHY AM I ON BLOGGER RIGHT NOW?!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Each time I sit down to write, I tell myself that I have to plan and plot out every detail first. But I'm always too eager to dive right into the story. I'm not sure being a panster will work for me so I'm sticking to forcing myself into writing AFTER the planning is finished. Anyway, your blog is really nice. Check mine out too: https://sarahkhawaja.wordpress.com/
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Hey! Yes you, you're about to leave a comment, why thank you! Just remember, if you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all.