The AmWritingFantasy Podcast: Episode 25 – Keep Your Writing On Track With This Outline

Don't you hate it when you have a fabulous idea, the writing flows well, and then when you hit edits you release your favorite bit has NOTHING to do with the novel plot?

Keep your writing on track so you don't waste writing time OR inspiration with this very quick outlining method, which is nearly painless, even for pantsers!

And don't forget to check out the FREE Starter Kit writing course for more great tips on writing HERE!

The link to check out average word counts in your genre is at HERE.

And pick up a graph of a traditional story arc HERE or watch the video of today's episode HERE. The link to the video on the 7 Steps of Story Structure is HERE.

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"Read the full transcript below. (Please note that it's automatically generated and while the AI is super cool, it isn't perfect. There may be misspellings or incorrect words on occasion).

Autumn (0s):
Have you ever been writing a fantastic scene full of tension and tripping with emotional nuances? The scene is the best thing you've written and spent hours, if not days on it, only to realize in a late moment of clarity that it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the novel. It hurts so much to hit the lead on all that work, but what if there was a way to ensure you're wasting your inspiration and writing time on stuff you'll cut later?

Autumn (34s):
If you're a fantasy author, then you've come to the right place. My name is autumn and together with Yesper we've written and published more than 20 novels. Our aim is to use our experience to help you with writing marketing and selling books to fans all over the world. A quick note to those listening in on the podcast. There are a couple of graphics that I'll link to in the show notes at the bottom of the page, but for the full effect, I'd recommend watching the video.

Autumn (1m 4s):
Most writing pitfalls aren't genre specific and effect all authors. These are the big ones, Lang like landmines at a field of wild flowers. You think everything is going along just beautifully until boom and one of the big ones is figuring out what should go where as you write or if what you are writing even belongs in the novel. You know what I'm hinting at that dirty P word plotting

Old McGrumpy (1m 30s):
but readers like character driven stories.

Autumn (1m 34s):
Oh, hello. Old bit grumpy. I knew I couldn't escape an entire video without you making an appearance as are mostly unwanted AI cohost. That is true. We just love character driven stories and that is one reason many writers shy away from spending time on plotting

Old McGrumpy (1m 52s):
so you shouldn't plot.

Autumn (1m 54s):
I wouldn't say that many writers prefer to pants rather than plot. I'm a hybrid that is probably is a bit more on the side of my pants or that applaud. Or always tended to jump into a fire before I assessed everything. Anything

Old McGrumpy (2m 8s):
but this video is about plotting and you've said you are a pantser Fuman are confusing in like superior. I

Autumn (2m 16s):
actually, the video is about creating an outline. I'd make one to keep myself out of trouble. Well, as much reading trouble as possible, at least.

Old McGrumpy (2m 25s):
What is the difference? Plotting is plotting

Autumn (2m 28s):
well because I don't want to plot much. I developed a method of creating an ultra quick outline that takes about half an hour and will guide my process as I write without feeling like I just wasted a week that I could have been writing the darn thing instead of a figuring out how to write the darn thing. That is why this is an applauding video. My a grumpy we'll see despite my grumpies disbelief up bed, a flooding is a lifesaver. The first writing course I taught was called right great faster and I use the slogan, it doesn't matter how fast you type, if you just end up deleting the page anyway, so much writing help is centered on typing fast or like you're only writing.

Autumn (3m 12s):
Problem is time, but we all know ideas seem to disappear like vampires at sunrise. When you finally sit down to write or wasn't. That inspiration strikes. It can lead you astray as much as actually help you write. Writing is complicated. I don't care how fast you type, if you don't know what you're writing is actually important to the novel, you are just wasting writing time with 15 books out and a bout release number 16 while beginning my fourth and fifth series.

Autumn (3m 42s):
I firmly believe in protecting and making the most of my writing time as well as keeping it on track. I'm serious about this which is why I teach writing tips and started with a course on how to write great novels faster because the world needs more fantastic fantasy and no writer. She'd get lost in the weeds. In fact, if you are looking for more key tips on how to rate especially start off writing and steps and make sure you succeed in actually finishing your work in progress, make sure to check out the free starter kit.

Autumn (4m 15s):
The link is under the video. It will help you refine your idea, avoid novice pitfalls and give you some great tools. That is how serious I am about making sure writers don't fail right now we are talking about an outline though. One that is simple, doesn't take days, how you can finish it and under a half an hour does half an hour investment saw logo worth keeping your writing focused and moving? Good. So let's get started.

Autumn (4m 45s):
Start by looking at your own writing. How many words do you typically type in a chapter? Hopefully you've done enough writing to be able to create an average word count. If not, check out a book you've read that you liked the flow of and give an estimate on the new words per chapter. Remembering that the average paperback has 250 to 300 words per page. Got that? Good. Now we need to find out what is the average word count is in your genre. There are lots of resources out there for this. I'll include a link to in the notes below this episode to a great blog post with some solid numbers by sub genre and it's a good reference, but it's getting old word counts for indie authors are actually coming down.

Autumn (5m 27s):
The important thing is to decide what your writing, such as a short story, a novella, a novel, and how long you'd like it to be. Don't take your target word count and divided by your average chapter like Presto. You have your target number of chapters. Why is that useful? Glad you asked. Well, if you take the typical graph of a story like the traditional story arc, which looks like this, a traditional story arc starts out with a pretty flat tension until you hit the inciting incident, then there's explosive tension growth towards the climax, but it isn't linear.

Autumn (6m 6s):
The tension goes up and down a bit as you toy with your reader and character as well. Um, but as the character goes through a few stages and some hurdles in laws, then there is a sweeping bell curve of the climax before it drops to a gentle wrap up. That's a nice little flat tail. What tension is lower than the climax, but higher than the intro? Pretty cool, huh? With the calculation you just did, you can add your chapters to the graph. Now you have an idea of where your inciting incident should fall, when you should be adding in hurdles, in laws and when the climax begins and you won't forget to do a wrap up.

Autumn (6m 45s):
Now if you follow the seven steps of story structure, which was covered in this video, you can also add in the steps remembering that the inciting incident, an idea dark night of the soul is usually a chapter. Each intro and wrap up are usually one to three chapters. The climax should be at least as long as the longest phase and your novel, either the reaction of the planning phase, which those don't have to be the same length and again, Presto, you have a rough outline.

Autumn (7m 16s):
I do this. Everything I write now even short stories. My next release at the end of June is a novella that I targeted for 35,000 words. I typically write 2,500 words in a chapter and that works out to 14 chapters. Guess what? Guess how many lungs by novella is 14 this really works better than that. I knew that chapter's wanted to would be my intro. As you can see from my quick outline, the inciting incident needed to happen by the end of chapter two chapter three to seven would be the reaction phase while new info would occur in chapter seven.

Autumn (7m 50s):
This would lead to the reaction phase from chapters eight and 11 with a climax spanning 12 to 14 and it really quick wrap up at the end of 14 that is all I put together before writing. Yes, we're, I know we'll have a small a panic attack when he sees this, but it is all I need and honestly I have the entire serious planet out this way. Oh, but there is a bit more to a series including this video. Could that be a hit of something coming in the future? This outline leaves room for inspiration, but it keeps going in the right direction so I don't end up wasting a week's worth of writing, which means I'm writing a new book, my new book that much faster and I know I'm hitting all the key plot points and that is the goal, isn't it?

Autumn (8m 34s):
Don't forget to watch the video on the seven steps of story structure to really develop your quick outline and create a solid guide that we'll get your writing. Well, prick novels faster. Stay safe out there and see you next Monday.