How to outline a novel // writing tips for authors

hey welcome back to my channel my name is Megan and I'm a professional writer a published author and a lifelong reader authors can generally be categorized into two groups plotters and pancers plotters like me plan and outline their novels in advance whereas the latter folks fly by the seat of their pants that rhymed one isn't better than the other it all just depends on what works best for you I've been writing books for over 10 years and have played around with so so many different kinds of plotting and outlining and in this video I'm going to share with you what's working best for me personally this is just me okay all right so let's Jump Right In now in this video I'm going to use my most recent complete manuscript Hy sugar as an example which I'm currently querying quick overview in my book a woman's roommate is killed and because she won't provide a solid Alibi for the police she essentially becomes a suspect both of these women are sugar babies and that's why she doesn't want to tell the police what she was doing the night her roommate was killed she was doing sugar baby things with a client I have the best luck starting from a bird's eyee view like way up there so I start with the traditional story arc this guy and the first thing I do is I draw it on a blank piece of paper like this it's not perfect it doesn't have to be then I'm going to split it into three acts so we've got this we've got act one act two act three and from here I'm going to Mark the points for the inciting incident and the climax that's right here that's the inciting incident and that's the climax I'm also going to mark two pinch points maybe we've got one here and then maybe one here and we're going to go through all of this so don't worry this is where I first began plugging in some of the more major plot points now normally when I come up with a new idea for a book The First first few parts that come to me are the climax and the ending that's just how my brain works that's where my inspiration comes from so I'm going to add those to my blank story arc in Hay sugar during the climax the main character learns who the Killer is and they get into a physical altercation the ending I don't want to give away any of the juicy details but the MC is caught up in discussions with the police I'll leave it at that uhuh all right so I just wrote down very brief descriptions if you even want to call it that but here's my climax when she gets into a fight with the antagonist and then the ending when she's talking to the police there are other major points in the story including the inciting incident which marks the end of the First Act and the beginning of the second now the inciting incident is what sets the main character on a different path the one they're going to take for the rest of the book it's that moment that changes everything for them in my story and hey sugar the MC learns that the police suspect she might be responsible for the death of her roommate and she also realizes that they're more concerned with just finding anyone to pin it on as opposed to the person who actually did it and she's an easy target so she decides to try to clear her name herself that puts her on this path of trying to retrace her roommate's steps so she can learn what truly happened to her the night that she was killed okay so here's my inciting incident it's the end of act one and the beginning of act two and I'm just going to write something like MC wants to clear her name okay right there now let's talk about pinch points these two everyone has a different name for these and some writers have three instead of two it's very fluid and very flexible these are moments spread out in the story that aren't as big as the inciting incident but they do significantly up the stakes and increase the tension in the book when I learned about pinch points that became a huge help for me because one thing that I really struggle with is pacing and increasing the tension as the story progresses which is vital if you want to keep the reader engaged you have to keep increasing the tension that's what this is one pinch point in my story is when the main character witnesses her client driver so let me back up for a minute remember she's a sugar baby and she has a client who's very wealthy and he has a driver so she sees the driver engaging in some kind of questionable Behavior which may say that he's living a double life and this could be a big clue for her another pinch point is when my main character is able to prove thanks to surveillance footage uh where her roommate went the night that she was killed okay so I'm going to add both of those in you probably can't read that it doesn't matter the point is that we're plotting out the most important parts at this point we've got some of the key turning points points in our plot from here we keep building this out here's where I have to pause for me personally the first and third acts are a lot easier because these take up roughly 25% of Your Story Each the most challenging part for me is the second act which is about 50% and again I get caught up in trying to keep building momentum because this is a big piece of the puzzle I finally realize that in terms of the second act this doesn't suffice this method thankfully I learned a few new things from Sarah Canon here on YouTube I'll put the link to her channel in the description below Sarah actually splits her whole story up into four parts so we're going to get a new piece of paper here all right so here are the four parts act one act two part one act two part two and act three so we split act two up into two parts maybe it's just the mere Act of breaking the plot down even more but this has been the game Cher for me now all of the points I marked in my story arc I'm going to put on this paper nothing has changed aside from how we're breaking it down so let me do that real quick okay so it looks a little bit different now but we're still saying all the same things here is the end of act one you could even label that if you want um this is where my MC decides she's going to try to clear her own name here we're into act two this is my first pinch point when she sees the driver acting very weird in the second half of act two here's another pinch Point she finds the surveillance footage with climax when she gets in the fight with the antagonist and then this is the third and final Act where we know uh she's going to be caught up with the police at the very end from here I ask myself a very important question what has to happen in order for the main character and the other characters to get from here to here what has to happen all right well let's see I know that the main character has to attend her roommate's funeral of course her roommates parents are going to be there there and they do not have a good relationship with my MC so there will probably be some sort of tense conversation that happens between them this is going to happen not long after the roommate is killed so maybe somewhere around here and I just wrote funeral I know that in trying to track down her roommates whereabouts the night that she was murdered my MC is going to hit up various bars and clubs and restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip that's where it's set uh to see if anybody recognizes her maybe that happens here and here and I'll just write strip and strip so I added in this and this what am I doing here I'm adding more scenes and more chapters however I still get stuck because you can cram in all the scenes you want that doesn't automatically mean you are building tension here's what I've been working on in my most recent manuscript my work in progress and and how it's helped me what I do is I look at some of the plot points earlier on and I compare them to plot points that happen around the climax and I asked myself what is making my MC increasingly desperate to reach their goal now my MC's goal is to clear her name earlier on she's feeling the pressure but not a ton because the police are just starting to dig into this case but as the story progresses not only do they start questioning her more and more but as she gets closer to the truth about what really happened scary things start happening to her okay someone knows she's getting close to the truth and they don't want her to so they're trying to get her to stop and she finds that she's in danger so not only does she really need to get the police off her back but she has to figure this out before she ends up dead that needs to be reflected in this it needs to escalate as the MC moves through all of these plot points she's going to be way more desperate here then she is here also along the way I have to be able to Define what is stopping my characters from getting what they want this is what creates conflict without conflict you have no story conflict can be small there's Conflict at the funeral because the parents don't like my MC and they basically kick her out was it Earth shattering conflict no but it was still conflict it was still tension there is some sort of conflict in every scene I write along the way if you don't have these things in your plot your manuscript is going to fall flat because my story has other characters all of whom have their own arcs I will add in points for their stories as well they probably won't be as elaborate as the MC's Journey which is to be expected but every character is on a journey and they're all trying to achieve something even if it's tiny here's another hint even if you don't explicitly include it in your story building out story arcs for supporting characters can help you better understand their Journey and ultimately what you do want to include in the story personally I like to fill this out as much as possible because I learned the hard way that if I try to do too much plotting as I write I'm going to pay for it so this version for my current work in progress I've got little blurbs written literally the entire way and it has helped me really visualize what kind of story I'm trying to build before I actually sit down and write anything and it also allows me to kind of like take a step back again get that bird's eye view and ask myself why are these characters becoming more desperate why are they becoming more desperate as they travel through this story arc through this plot how are they changing how are they getting closer to what they want what's stopping them all of that is so much easier for me to understand here versus when I'm writing now some writers will take this a step further and they list all of their scenes and they even write descriptions of all of their scenes um I've seen people use index cards for this or even a spreadsheet I've tried it personally personally I didn't like them because then I actually got too locked into the various scenes and it almost hampers my creativity I get stuck in these boxes I get stuck in these scenes that I write and I have a hard time coming up with anything outside of them on the flip side when I stick with this and this this it gives me just the right amount of structure with without boxing me in once I've plugged in as many ideas as I can I step away for a couple of days or even a week this lets me come back to it with fresh eyes I then revisit some of the questions I asked earlier for each character at least the bigger ones what are they like in the beginning what are they trying to achieve what is stopping them along the way from achieving those things how are they different here versus here versus here if I cannot answer these questions in a concrete way my job isn't done I I want to share a few more tips that have helped me tremendously before I wrap this up just in case they help you too tip number one start at the end and work your way back I was so stuck on writing my stories sequentially that I single-handedly killed my momentum I don't know why I did this to myself um especially considering that the climax and the ending are usually where my ideas start I don't know what I was thinking by starting there I gave my character something to work toward don't be afraid to go out of order tip number two acted out this is going to sound goofy but it helps I was working on my current work in progress uh the first iteration of it which I've since scrapped and my husband and I were having a brainstorming session we were in the kitchen and we were trying to work out the climax and it just wasn't sinking in for me so I was like let's act it out so in our kitchen we did exactly that kind of like a little skit it was very cute and silly we had to really use our imagination because the climax at the time took place in a cabin in the woods W and it was very action-packed and very physical so we didn't do that much but in bringing those scenes to life even just a little bit I was able to definitively say this is not it it doesn't work I don't like it to this day I couldn't tell you why I couldn't tell you what exactly was wrong with it but I distinctly remember acting it out and seeing feeling that it wasn't the right story you can read your dialogue out loud that helps me a ton um if you don't have a buddy to read for other characters do alone and just change your voice get the thoughts out of your head and vocalize them act them out put them out there and it'll help bring the story to life so you can better identify where any gaps might be and you'll probably come up with some new ideas too tip number three when you're stuck step away I mean it go away I know that writers man when we decide we want to write a new book there is no stopping us and we are stubborn and we will not quit all you're going to do is stifle your creativity even more don't be afraid to pause and walk away for a week or a month what'll happen is that you're going to give your brain a break and when you come back your outline will feel New Again it'll feel fresh you won't be so sick of looking at it and if you feel like you're in a major creative rut the best solution I found for me has been to create literally anything find a craft you enjoy draw paint even if you're bad at it which isn't a thing consume other creative Works listen to music watch movies getting in that creative flow in ways other than writing will help you write look at it like research or like exercise but for writing you're still helping strengthen those muscles like this I've finally cut myself some slack and I allow myself to take breaks instead of beating my head against the wall and I'm so glad I started doing this because it's made a huge difference in the whole writing process for me it's a lot more fun and there's less pressure and it's more productive that was a lot I know that there are infinite ways to outline a novel but I hope maybe the ideas I've shared have planted a few new seeds for you and hopefully you picked up something new that you want to try above all else we got to have fun with this writing should be fun so give yourself some space and Grace and enjoy the process okay that's it for today I hope you found this helpful if you're still here be sure to give this video a thumbs up and tell YouTube that you like my content subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you next time bye-bye

Channel: Megan Grant

Views: 8,324

Keywords: megan grant, outlining a novel, outlining a book, writing a novel, author, published author

Id: Wm7-F78V6C0

Length: 15min 28sec (928 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2024