
Objects – All By My Shelf
This player shows the most recent public episodes of the All By My Shelf Podcast.
It doesn’t matter what age you write for, writers will always debate whether it’s better to be a plotter or a pantser. A plotter is someone who outlines their novel completely before beginning to write it (sometimes overly so); a pantser is someone who “writes by the seat of their pants,” completely winging their novel.
Personally, I like a bit of both. A general outline is a great place to start so that as I begin to write by the seat of my pants, I have some kind of direction.
I consider the following while I begin exploring a new work.
- What is the average day in the life of the main character? How can I make it busy?
- What does the main character want and what needs to happen for them to achieve their goal?
- What, according to the main character, is the worst possible outcome?
- What would keep them from answering the call to adventure?
- What or who will get in the way of their goal?
- How much time do they have?
- What does total loss look like and who or what remains afterwards?
After answering these questions, it’s easier to draft an outline of a story.
A great resource for outlining your novel, whether in depth or lightly, is the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet from Save The Cat!.
Project Title:
Logline/Simple Pitch:
Beats:
- Opening Image: Set the mood, tone, and scope of the story.
- Theme: a secondary character poses a question/statement that is the theme of the piece (can be a challenge to the main character)
- Set-Up: introduce characters who are involved with your main plot and character tics to be echoes later in the story.
- Catalyst: the life changing event that shatters the main characters average day.
- Debate: your main character makes a choice; the point of no return.
- Act II: the playing field has changed, the rules that the main character thought they were playing by are out the window and adjustments must be made.
- Secondary plot: something that distracts us from the main plot and eases tension.
- Fun & Games: the heart of the story.
- Midpoint: the threshold between the first and second half of the story. Fun and games are over now.
- Bad Guys Close In: the villains send in their worst and the main character’s plan and supports begin to unravel.
- All Is Lost: no hope can be found here, this is often a false defeat.
- Black Moment: the main character has lost everything and makes a second choice.
- Act III: The main and secondary plots collide to form the solution.
- Finale: The bad guys are defeated in ascending order until the last one is toppled.
- Final Image: the opposite of the opening image, showing how much has changed.
Originally published on July 8, 2021 @ 12:00 pm