Phillip Williams - Author
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Lately, I've had others comment on how much they like my outline. Admittedly, I first thought about saying thank you, that's very flattering but I'm married... and then I realised that I had my laptop open. Solid joke, I know. But in all seriousness, I've had enough positive comments for me to want to give this method its own blog post. It is probably one of the simplest things to do and it helps you to keep track of where you are. So picture this... You've written down all of your plot points and put them all in order. You know exactly what needs to happen and at which point in the story they need to occur. The next thing to consider is where you can store these for easy access; making it easy to edit, chop and change as and when you need to. The answer, of course is a spreadsheet. Mine looks like this (blank, of course... don't want to give you the story until it's done): Having this format will make it super easy to keep track of where you are. I even highlight the row in green once I've completed the scene. So... let's break it down: Scene Number This doesn't necessarily mean Chapter Number. If it works, you can transition between scenes using line breaks. Just make it obvious that's what you're doing so that the reader doesn't find it jarring. Date This refers to the date that the scene is happening. It is just as important to understand when something is happening as well as where so that you adopt particular writing styles. If it's set in the Victorian era, you're not going to be discussing social media, for instance. Focus Character You may have several characters in your story, so this helps to keep track of which character you're writing for. This helps if you're switching between characters and don't want them to be in too many consecutive chapters. Characters Who else is in the scene? If they're important enough to form part of the plot, they need to be included. Movies need extras; books, not so much. Location The where to the when and the why. I like to try to re-use locations so that I only have to describe it once. Still, important to know where your character(s) are so that you can prompt yourself to include smells and other nuances. If they're in a factory for instance, you can prompt yourself to mention the smell of burning coal and the noise of the machinery, etc. Plot/Action What is happening in the scene. Simple as that. Sub-Plots/Arcs The not so simple part of the above... why is it important to the story? Notes Will there be things that you need to change as you go? Probably. This section helps you to add extra things that you need to add/change/mention. This one is more flexible than the others because it really is just for little reminders for yourself. Word Count You can keep an eye on how much time your reader will spend on each section. If one scene is in at 3000 words and the other scenes are sitting at 1200 each you can ask yourself... have I rambled a bit? Can I trim that down? Or vice-versa, of course if you find yourself with just 400 words in a scene. Here's another neat little trick to help you keep track as well: NB: I decided to break my story down into ACT I / ACT II / ACT III - this is just my approach. You don't have to use it. If you freeze the top row, you can write scenes galore with as much information as you wish. It just means that as you scroll down, you will still be able to see the categories as you do so.
As I said though, this is all just how I approach things myself. If it doesn't work for you, then that's fine. One size does not fit all. Let me know what you think! Feel free to use it and get in touch if you need a hand. As ever, thank you for reading! Until next time...
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Hi, I'm Phil Williams. Welcome to my blog.
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