Taking a Step Back

So I've written a bit of a twist in the last installment of this story, and I'm not totally sure where to go from there. Hence the lateness of the post. Also I went to go see Black Panther (super good, go see it), and then took at least two naps. Saturdays are my napping day.

I am calling the story "Just One Yesterday" for the time being, so now all the pieces are tagged with that. And I guess it's going on hiatus for the moment, since I'm not sure what happens next and I don't want to screw it up. It'll be back next week. Maybe even on time. But probably not.

What am I going to talk about today, then? Well, I'm glad you asked.

So last week, I went to a workshop about outlining. There are some options when it comes to making an outline, as it turns out. Some people do big, in depth outlines that detail every scene and are 20+ pages long. Some have a half page with the major points laid out. And of course, everything in between.

What was more surprising was that you don't even have to make your outline beforehand. There's a strategy of pantsing your way through the story, and outlining after. Why? Well, then you have something to quickly skim over when you want to remember what you've done instead of having to reread the whole story. You can keep track of what you've done, which characters and plot points you've introduced, that kind of thing.

I've been making a little outline for "Just One Yesterday" after the fact. It tends to be like:

1. Thing that happens
1. Repercussions of that thing, or the hook for the next episode

Rinse and repeat for each episode. They're short, so it works. There's not a lot of stuff in each one. What I would like to do is have at least the top level thing for each chapter worked out in advance, and then fill in the other stuff after the fact. So I'm not, you know, spending every week trying to figure out what I'm doing.

I have a couple of plot threads that I've introduced that are going to lead… somewhere. Some complications for our character. That's what makes stories, after all. The character wants something, and various shit gets in the way of that. Will he overcome his obstacles? Or will he spend forever in search of a cool weapon?

Stay tuned for the return of "Just One Yesterday" next Saturday, plus another post about something or another on Wednesday.