As Camp Nano is in about a month, I thought I'd start a Saturday blog series about how to make sure you're ready for it! (For those of you who don't know, Camp Nano is a writing event where writers decide on a writing goal to achieve in July and then work towards it.) The first step to a successful Camp Nano, or to any writing project, is to have an outline. And yes, I know some people can write novels without them but I can't. So if you're like me and need an outline, this post is for you. Today, I thought I would share my three step process to outlining a novel. Step One: Braindump all your novel ideas If you read my post about my writing process, then you know a novel idea usually brews in my head for a while before I write the outline. The first thing I do before outlining a new novel idea is to get all those ideas out of my head and onto the page. For this, I'll pull out my journal and just jot down all the fun ideas, no matter how big or small, onto the page. This can serve as inspiration for the beat sheets and oftentimes leads to me creating fully formed characters before I even use the beat sheet. Step Two: Use the Save the Cat Beat Sheet to Organize Your Ideas If you're unfamiliar with Save the Cat Writes a Novel, you need to buy this book! The author highlights all the beats you need to craft a great novel...and the book will revolutionize your outlines--however, any three act writing structure would work here. I divide up all my ideas into different beats which belong in a three act structure. Usually, I write these out on index cards, as I did when outlining my last novel back in October of 2019. I even blogged about it in case you're curious what the cards looked like! Step Three: Divide the Beats Up into Chapters and Create a Formal Outline After I have all the beats down on index cards, I assign each index card to a chapter. I try to make sure there's about three scenes/beats per chapter so the chapters aren't too long or short, but this is just a rough guideline. Once each beat is assigned a chapter, I pulled up a Google Doc, name it "Draft 1 Outline" and set to work roughly outlining the main points of each chapter. For each chapter, I like to have mapped out any main plot points, any subplot progression, any character development, and the cliffhanger for each chapter which will keep readers reading. Curious how this all looks in action? Watch me outline in this vlog:
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Writing playlists transformed my productivity. When I started creating playlist for each WIP, I instantly wrote more often as the music served as a psychological trigger for knowing when to write. When I hear one of my WIP playlists, I instantly want to work on that project. Why? Writing playlists help us maintain the aesthetic of the novel. It's kinda like a vision board, but for your ears. So how do you create a writing playlist? I create mine in the following seven steps using Spotify: Step 1: Write down a few words to describe the aesthetic of your novel For my contemporary romance project, I would use: -cutesy -indie movie -cozy sweaters -pink decor and fairy lights For my upcoming thriller project, I would use: --dark --badass females --mysterious ambiance --hazy Take a moment right now to write down random words for the aesthetic of your novel. Step 2: Link your descriptive words to a genre of music And get really specific about the genre. Don't just link it to pop but to main female powered, upbeat pop or slow and romantic pop. This can give you an idea of what sort of music to be on the hunt for, For my contemporary, I linked it to indie folk music you would play at Sunday brunch For my thriller, I linked it to dark, mysterious pop that bordered on indie rock. Step 3: Decide if you're doing instrumental music or music with lyrics Try out writing to both types of music and decide what works best for you. For me, I write with music that has lyrics although I think I'm the exception to the rule. Most writers I know write to instrumental music and that's great! There's tons of spotify playlists out there with instrumental music for any genre. Step 4: Think of one song or artist that defines the genre you chose Usually, this comes pretty naturally once you have determined the genre. Ask yourself, who is my favorite artist in that genre? What song in the genre speaks to me? For my contemporary, I chose the song Sunbleached Girl by Shag Rock For my thriller, I was stuck between two artists and chose both--Hozier (especially his newest album) and Billie Eilish Step 5: Create the actual playlist and add your guiding song(s) Remember to name your playlist something fun. And don't worry if you don't have a name for your book yet, just name it something you will remember it by. When I first created the playlist for my contemporary, I called the playlist "Fun Lil Novel". My thriller playlist is currently called "Thrills and Chills". After you add the first song, think of any songs by the same artist or similar artists that might fight the vibe of the book. Add those to the playlist as well. Step 6: Once you run out of your own ideas, add songs based on Spotify's recommendations Once you have added all the songs you can think of, Spotify should autogenerate some song recommendations. Listen to them and decide which ones to add. Usually, I know within the first thirty seconds of a song if it will fit the vibe of the playlist. Another tool to find more music is to go to the artist's page on Spotify. From there, Spotify will recommend similar artists and you can look through their stuff to see if any resonates with the vibe of your playlist. Invest the time to look for the perfect songs! Step 7: You have a completed playlist!! Congrats!! A rule of thumb I use to know when a playlist is created is when a WIP playlist has 30-50 songs. I do add new songs as I'm drafting and revising, but 30 songs gives you enough content to listen to the songs without them becoming repetitive and tiresome. This number might change for longer, instrumental pieces, but is a great baseline for songs between 2 and 6 minutes! Congrats! Listen away!! And if you want more tips, check out my friend, Madeline's blog post about how she creates her writing playlists!! |
AuthorI'm Angela Anne, a Young Adult contemporary writer committed to helping you achieve your writing goals + giving you writing inspiration. ArchivesCategories
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