Formula For Your Writing Success

I recently watched a YouTube video about why we should stop calling ourselves plotters or panters.  It was a very good point the authortuber made – by pigeonholing yourself as either one or the other we end up in “camps”.  One of the top reasons why I enjoy the romance writing community is that it is a super supportive one.  However, while I agree we should divide ourselves into Camp Planner, Camp Plotter or Camp Plantser I do believe we should, at the very least, have an outline for our novels.  It’s all good and well sitting down to write and winging it as you go, at some point it is going to come back to bite you if you don’t have a rough idea of where you’re going with your story.  And I think one of the most painful things a writer can go through is having to dump large numbers of words.  This poor authortuber had to dump 30 000 words – the pain, the agony.

So what is this formula for my writing success?  I hear you ask.  It’s as simple or as complicated as this.

(Motive + Conflict = Effect) = Outline

Brainstorm a list of motives for your characters, a separate list for their conflicts and a final list for effect.  Here’s a simple representation of the workings:

Take your:                                           

1.            Motive brainstorm list

2.            Conflict brainstorm list

3.            Effect brainstorm list

On a pad or index card write:

1.            A motive

2.            The conflict(s)

3.            And their effect(s)

A quick, simple example would be :

Motive: to survive a sinking ship

+

Conflict:  she’s terrified of water

=

Effect:  she hops in a lifeboat to stay out of the water.

From that you can create your scene, even if it’s just one sentence.  As long as you will still be able to understand it if you come back to it after a time.  Once you’ve created a list of scenes your happy with simply shuffle them around into an order that makes sense, et voilà, you have an outline for your novel.

(Check out Rachel Stephen for more in depth breakdown – her 5 YouTube videos about how to build a story)



by Dorothy Ewels
www.dorothyewels.co.za