Outlining | How I Outline Series and New Projects
Good morning guys,
I feel very excited about today’s topic! I’m going to be talking about the method that I use for outlining my projects (when I do outline), especially for series. I never tended to enjoy outlining at all, but for some projects that I had ideas for, but no time to actually write, I found it to be perfect. Now all my ideas are down on paper in an ordered fashion so they’re easy to find and distinguish. And I don’t have that story taking up place inside my head anymore, it’s waiting on the back burner for me to get back to it when I have the time and motivation. And when I do start up again, I’ll know exactly what I was going for and whee to start.
Without any further delay, this is what you came here for.
I got interested in outlining for one of my more confusing projects. I really needed a way to sort through and organize the ideas I had or kept having with this project without actually getting to the writing because I didn’t know enough about the story to begin writing, I didn’t even have a name for the main character(s) and could not, for the life of me, find out that sounded like the character I was trying to write.
So I decided to see what Sarra Cannon’s HB90 outlining plan looked like. I never took her course and I don’t use all the pages, but I did like a few of the pages she had and inspirational quotes and they got me excited for trying to plan this idea. Plus I knew they were pages I would actually use if I printed them out. So I put together my own sort of workbook with the pages I was going to use for the planning. And it worked, I reorganized them in the way I wanted to view them and got to work.
I was able to put down my initial thoughts about the world and the story I wanted to tell about the world. I filled out character sheets with all the information I had on my characters (minus the names at first). Then, with all my knowledge down and in the open all together and organized, I was able to figure out more of the information I needed for the story. I also turned to my partner, now that I understood where the story was trying to go and what I was trying to figure out, I was able to ask for his help in brainstorming and fixing the major problems that I had.
My story didn’t have a villain and it needed some sort of villain, someone/thing that held the characters back, something they had to push through. He helped me with that, he also helped me restructure the idea that I had and fix the plot holes in the lore that I was trying to develop for this new world I created.
With everything more organized, I was able to think more clearly about the story I was trying to tell. It will still be the most difficult story I have to write, but at least I am now well on my way to doing just that. I do pull it out every once in a while and jot down a new idea, but it’s very far down the line of the books I want to finish writing because it’s such a big idea I don’t think I’m ready to write it just yet.
But Sarra Cannon’s HB90 workbook pages have done wonders for me across multiple projects. They help me get my ideas down when I cannot spend time writing the whole thing and they keep my thoughts organized instead of just dumping them out on a blank page and trying to sift through the information later. Thank you Sarra, you have no idea how much you help people.
Here are a few of her links in case you want to check her out. She has helped me and many others, maybe she can help you too. She has a lot of writing advice and helpful speeches about the writing journey as it is from her perspective.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tidbit of mine. I do want to share with you guys more about what I do and how I write. But, I have been struggling there as I’m not sure what I do that others don’t. If you want to know something about how I write or what things I use. Please comment your questions and I will make a post answering them and giving you all the details you crave about how others write and find their way.
Thank you so much for popping by. This post was fun for me and it really took me back in time as it has been a while since I’ve even used these pages becasue I’ve been deep in school and inside the editing cave for a while now. I haven’t been working much on new ideas at all besides writing them down so I don’t forget. But hopefully I can get back at it soon! When I finish up editing Book 1.
Lots of love! Happy reading and writing! Until next time.
Celine Rose Marie
