15 Minute Challenge - Day 3: My Version of an Outline

I've never been a big outline person. It feels so restrictive to me. And I freeze almost more than I do over a blank page if I am trying to outline an entire book. What if I don't know where I want to go? What if I want to see what the characters want? What if I don't know what to put where? How does an outline even work? Isn't this a waste of time? And on and on the questions go. No. I rarely do outlines. Not saying I won't ever - so many people claim they change your life and novel, but for now, I am going to work with methods that actually get me writing.

For the first time, though, I am beginning to understand the index card methodology - you know, the whole write scenes on index cards and rearrange them? I may end up doing that yet. So, I finished what I started yesterday and went through the book, noting areas that I felt needed additional scenes to actually create the story and give it depth. I figured out 54 MORE SCENES THAT NEED TO BE WRITTEN! (*I will not panic* *I will not panic* *repeat over and over*) But on the bright side, I truly do believe that they will make the book better and flow more easily. As it stands now, Elizabeth changes from a haughty little rich girl to a humble person trying to help her family waaaay too fast. It's kind of like, wait - who are we talking about? So things like this ought to fix that.

I realized as I was noting where things need to go that this is where outlines and index cards probably come in for writers who use those. They can see at a glance where those gaps are. I finally understood it. I still think this worked better for me personally - at least where this is novel is concerned - but I think knowing makes me a better writer and better prepared for whenever I finish Ethrill.

Yes, I am counting this as my 15 minutes of writing. I may not have written an actual scene, but at least I now know where I am going with this.