In which I talk about outlining and new projects
Hey guys!
So if you read my blog, then you know that I am a dedicated pantser. The first novel I finished was a complete disaster. It didn’t have a plot and though I really liked the characters, I had no choice but to trunk it in the end. For some people, not having an outline works for them. There are writers who can spit out semi-good first drafts without having any kind of guideline. I am trying to accept the fact that I am not that writer. I need to have some sort of plan before I start working on a new project. Though I would much rather delve into the story right away, I know I need to learn from my mistakes, stop being lazy, and actually outline a project for once.
In case you're wondering, I'm working on a New Adult (Light) Science Fiction novel (think The X-Files meets any movie/book/ TV shows about aliens taking over and intergalactic wars). It's called Starfall. This idea is not really new. I've been sitting on it for a few month now only when I first thought of it, the story was supposed to be YA. Ever since I started college, I found myself not being able to connect with high school anymore and I really wanted to write a story set in an environment that I was more familiar with. Starfall doesn't take place entirely in college, but the main character is a college freshman in the beginning of the story before she gets sucked into this world of aliens and lies.
So, yeah, Starfall has A LOT of layers. Not only that but it's told from the perspective of two characters. I thought about just making Seren (the girl narrator) the only POV of the story, but Nico's side of the story is important to the plot. It's going to be really hard making their voices distinct, especially since Nico is a guy and he's from a different planet but...if this is the way the story wants to be written then I'm going to take my chances, and hope for the best. Since I want to stay somewhat sane throughout the process of writing this novel, I am going to outline Starfall before I do anything else.
I'm a visual person and though there are a lot of brilliant blog posts about outlining I wanted to watch a video showing me the step by step process. So...I went on Youtube and searched around for a few videos.
This is what I found:
This video is pretty long so I suggest you watch it when you have a little bit of time on your hands. If you don't think you'll have time to watch it any time soon, here's a shorter version of it:
I hope these videos help you guys as much as they helped me. I already have Act I and part of Act II outlined. I had to change the structure of the outline a little bit because I have two main characters, but that's what I like most about this outline; it's so flexible!
Happy Plotting!
