Planning that Outline

Tell Me a Story - writing tips

Okay, so what is a story outline. It's nothing magical, nothing to be wary of. A story outline is just involves planning a guide to help you during writing - a foundation for your story - a route map.

• A story outline makes the writing journey easier and assists in developing the story’s quality by giving you a complete understanding of its construction.
• Foundations are fundamental to a building; you’re building a story. It’s no different. Devote time and consideration to your plan.
• Foundations should always be deep and strong before construction commences, and your outline needs to be just the same.

Prepare
The first thing you should do is to prepare a sequential order of events, after that, planning each chapter, allowing about half a page for each. Include the most important scenes in it and show how they influence your protagonists.
Preparing the order of events will give you an indication of how each character progresses due to actions they are caught up in. Characters should always develop, without character development the story won’t have moved.

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
You can prepare a later chapter before an earlier one. Route maps don’t need to be prepared chronologically.

1. You won’t write yourself into a corner when you’re finally typing out that precious story – you’ll understand where the story is heading.
2. All difficulties will already have been understood and sorted.
3. The WORST plan is better than not planning at all. You will always know where you're heading.
4. The plan isn't set in concrete. It can be changed at any time - PROVIDING a new plan is made.

Having recognized the problems as you make your outline, you’ll be well prepared to avoid them. When you get down to it, your actual writing will be smoother, faster and far more professional. By planning correctly, you’ll be well on your way to being an author.

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