˒⠀S O T T . . . 𝙲𝙰𝚁𝙳𝙸𝙸𝙰𝙲

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tips on creating an outline! ━━ no. 013
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     NOT SURPRISINGLY, THIS IS SOMETHING THAT A LOT OF WRITERS HAVE TROUBLE WITH. Especially with new writers or writers who have never properly outlined a story, but are now trying to make an effort to do so.

     Honestly, when I first started outlining and organizing this chapter, I was fucking lost. I had, and still have, no idea how to set it up. I don't have a specific process that I strictly go through for every book when creating it. Some people do, but I don't. However, there is a small process that I tend to go through the most when outlining a book.

     Side Note: I don't do this process in any particular order. It always changes depending on the type of book, but I still go by this most of the time.

     𝟎𝟏. 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐃𝐔𝐌𝐏. This is where it all begins. So, it all starts with a plot or idea that I randomly create out of anywhere. From there, I begin typing/writing out all of my thoughts (dumping them out, writing them all out, whatever you want to call it). During this process, the order in which everything is written down doesn't matter. That's future Grayson's problem. I spend around either a day to six months going through this daydreaming dump.

     For example, I spent August 2019 to April 2020 purely daydream dumping for my upcoming Flash book. I have a million bullet points and they're just filled with scenes, ideas, characters, developments, ideas, and possible events that could happen. Everything is a complete mess and I leave it as such until I'm ready to map out the entire story (or at least the majority of it).

     𝟎𝟐. 𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐔𝐙𝐙𝐋𝐄 𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐒. From there, it's a literal puzzle. I have to figure out and narrow down which ideas of mine I want to keep, which will build the type of story and character tension I want, what storylines will propel character development forward the most, what the best beginning and ending are, the character names and which characters are important and what ones can I scrap or just make smaller. I have to comb through every bullet point and chose what I want to keep and what I want to throw away, and it takes me forever. Especially being the perfectionist that I am, I want to get it perfect and am very hard on myself and my ideas.

     One of the best parts of this step though is that I am forced to see the plot holes or potential plot holes I have already created. Now, I get to erase them before anyone knows how shit some of my original ideas were.

     𝟎𝟑. 𝐊𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃. Next, once I've gotten the majority of my bearings together, it's time to take a look at what I have (after cleaning out my ideas). While examining what I have, there are two things that I always keep in mind: (1) make sure the events I am planning in my outline are relevant to either character development, plot development, or the overall plot, and (2) when outlining the story, I make sure to ask myself what my characters would do as I'm planning events, scenes, and the plot. By keeping those two things in mind, I've noticed over time that I have stuck true to the plot and remained true to my characters and the original motivation for the story. I find that the overall book flows better.

     𝟎𝟒. 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐔𝐏. Lastly, this is something I find myself doing literally as soon as I get an idea for a book: I start planning the climax and decide how I want to end it before even planning. I left this one for last because not everyone outlines their books the same way and this is one that not everybody finds helpful. I find that planning a book starting at the end of it helps me figure out the events that need to happen in order to act as a catalyst for the climax/ending to occur. While I do this, I try to make it as detailed as possible. It makes things easier to develop and can spark inspiration when planning the rest of the story.

     There are dozen of articles and tumblr posts written to help create book outlines but this is just what I do! I hope this is helpful and gives you some ideas on how to properly outline your books!

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