MatHaz
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Writing Blog: Outlines
🕑 Added 2020-09-23 12:00:03 +0000 UTCI write using an outline. That’s something I have mentioned a couple of times, I’m sure. I do outlines for individual arcs, and I also have one big outline that’s for the entire story. It’s one of the first things I wrote for Ave Xia Rem Y, and it’s only gotten bigger with time.
When I first learned about outlines in school, I never thought I’d end up using them this much. Back then, my thoughts were that outlines were pointless. I could just keep stuff all mapped out in my head, and it’d work out. I stuck to that logic for a long time. I don’t even remember why I stopped. I just know something caused me to do a project using an outline once (a real one that was all thought out, not the ones I’d halfass just because the teacher asked for an outline). Maybe it was a whim.
Either way, it ended up helping a lot. I tried using it for other things, and it kept working. Shocking, I know.
When I finished the first “book” of Ave Xia Rem Y, I went and took a long look at my main outline. I remember nodding to myself a lot as I saw that I had hit all the plot points I set out to hit. And yet, as soon as I finished writing that first book, I spent a lot of time making little adjustments to the main outline here and there.
Some of them are due to the small changes that happened in the story. I have said this a few times already, but there are some things I have planned since the beginning and others that evolved naturally as the story progressed. It’s the latter group that gave me a few surprises as I thought about how those things could be implemented in the latter parts of the story and what ramifications they could have. Honestly, I was pretty surprised at how easily some things slotted themselves into the main structure of Ave Xia Rem Y.
Then there are other adjustments I made due to having a bit more experience writing things. I found myself thinking, “This arc will take too much time,” “This can be moved up a little,” “These two can be merged,” and so on. It was a fun process, and I think the end result will lead to a better story. Hopefully.
Sometimes, people send me comments asking for writing advice. No idea why, but they do. So here’s one I think is good. Try doing an outline. Map out the story you want to write with all the big events you want to hit as bullet points and then work on filling out the gaps between them.
Outlines are not for everyone, but they might be for you.
As an aside, I have updated the descriptions on Writing Blog - The Cultivation Realms. You might want to check those out.
