Tuesday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

OUTLINING A STORY

By: Elizabeth S. Craig

I’ve been asked a few times lately to write a post about how I outline, since I’ve recently been talking about outlining.

This is something I’ve been reticent to do, since I don’t really think of myself as an outliner.  My outline process does seem to work for me, though, and in the hopes it might help someone else, I’ll share it.  But it’s not pretty.  There are no highlighters or index cards around.  And at times, it seems like the ramblings of a crazy person.

With that caveat, here we go.

Pace–I outline generally as quickly as I can. My goal is to get through the thing, look for places where the story seems weak, fix the outline, then either hand it in or start writing the book.

Format—The outline looks like a story.  If I’ve really thoroughly outlined and gone scene to scene, the outline runs anywhere from ten to twenty-five pages.  It’s in paragraph form. I sometimes include dialogue. There are no numbers on my outlines since I’m a fervent believer that numbers and words should stay segregated (this would explain my grades in Algebra all those years ago.)

Starting out—I write three series, so to keep my head straight, I put a list of all the recurring characters at the top of the page before I start out.  I start out with my victim, as usual, and come up with a quick list of who might want to kill such a person.  With that victim and that list, I start writing the outline.

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Your Character’s Flaw is His Greatest Strength http://ow.ly/vviB3
2. 52 Ways To Sell More Books – 14 Ways to Make Your Facebook Page Fun and Lively http://ow.ly/vvprK
3. Outlining a Story | Elizabeth Spann Craig http://ow.ly/vvT7d
4. Seriously Write: Researching for Novellas by Lenora Worth http://ow.ly/vw0Ng
5. Making Character Deaths Meaningful | Elizabeth Spann Craig http://ow.ly/vw3wW
6. Fiction University (The Other Side of the Story): And...End Scene: When to Add a Scene Break http://ow.ly/vw3IF
7. Mailchimp: Ten Reasons it’s the Best Program for Authors Since Twitter | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/vw42N
8. How to Get Your Book into More Categories on Amazon with Keywords | Lindsay Buroker http://ow.ly/vw4FP
9. See Your Book Idea Through the Lens of a Publishing Professional | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/vw5rI
10. The Dreaded Sagging Middle | The Violet Femmes http://ow.ly/vwScR
11. Best Time For Sharing Content [Infographic] » Best Infographics http://ow.ly/vxgSv
12. A Synopsis Checklist | Writers In The Storm Blog http://ow.ly/vxlyv
13. 5 Ways to Absolutely Kill the Descriptions in Your Science Fiction Novel http://ow.ly/vxpsu
14. 10 Pinterest Tips for Writers - Social Media Just for Writers http://ow.ly/vxpxe

Happy writing and running, Kathy