Prep For #Publish2022

We are 5 days away from January 1st! We are 5 days away from beginning #Publish2022, starting with Q1: Outlining.

So what do you need to do in the meantime? Three (simple) things:

1. Choose your project
2. Decide your outlining style
3. Create your schedule

Simple is in parenthesis because…some of these may be easier than others. I’ve talked to a lot of people in the #Publish2022 Discord server (sign up below!) so I know that while some people have chosen a project, they have no idea how to outline. Or others who have already started to outline two or more projects just to see which one they like the most!

Hopefully I’m here to help you figure out all of the above. Because folks, it’s almost here.

First up: Your Project

This could be as simple as the project you’re most excited for. Or maybe it’s the project you’ve been thinking about for the past year. It could even be a BRAND NEW IDEA that you just had right now.

If you have a few ideas you’re thinking about, I have three questions to help narrow it down:

1. Which project do you see yourself dedicating 2 hours a day to for the next year? 
2. Which project do you want to hold in your hands as a published work next December?
3. Which project was the first that came into your mind after reading those two questions?

I have a lot of projects I want to write! But if I only have 2 hours a day to dedicate to a project, I want to focus on the one that most excites me, the one I want to see completed first, and the one I want to share with everyone. When I think about it I that way, the answer was obvious. 

My project for #Publish2022 is the sequel to my current work-in-progress (WIP). (Remember how I said I started implementing this process back in the summer of 2021?) Well my current WIP will be ready to publish in Q2 of 2022 and it only makes sense to work on the sequel for it for #Publish2022. (This is an example on how to work on two projects at once—but I don’t recommend starting two projects at the same time. More on that below!) 

So what is your project for #Publish2022? Is it a book you’ve written the first draft of but you’ve stalled out? Is it a brand new idea? Or something in between?

The point is this: It doesn’t matter where you are in the process of your project. We’re all going to start at the Outlining stage regardless of where we are in the project stage. Choose a project, choose a book, choose an idea, that you can work on for the entire year.

Next on the agenda: Your Outlining Style

I’ve learned a lot about outlining in the past month alone thanks to everyone on the #Publish2022 server! There are so many different ways to approach outlining that I wanted to start off with talking about the purpose of an outline.

At the end of March, no matter what your outline looks like, the purpose is this: Your outline will explain your book scene by scene, character by character, so that in two months, three months, or six months, you will understand exactly what to write, why you wrote it, and what is essential.

Think of your outline as the Holy Grail of all information on your story. I actually call my outlines a grimoire because, essentially, that’s what it is. It’s a collection of all my knowledge of my story in one place.

Now, I know someone is asking this right now: But what if something changes between the time I write the outline and the time I write the story? What if I have a new idea that’s better and it changes everything I wrote?

This is a real thing that happens to all of us. But this is also why we are spending three months on our outlines. That is plenty of time to figure out all the possible avenues a story can go and all the plot holes that can develop. That is the purpose of an outline too. To explore every possible direction your idea/plot can go in and what is the best (or favorite) course of action.

Which leads me to my final thought on outlining. DETAILS. If your outlines in the past have been: Act 1: *enter stage left* Act 2: THE OH MY GOD MOMENT. Act 3: And then they kiss! That’s not going to work here. Because that outline is the reason you’re halfway writing the book, and suddenly “Oh shit, that character wouldn’t actually do this and now I have no climax because none of this would have ever happened this way!”

I want that moment to happen while you’re outlining. That’s why I advocate so hard for the scene by scene approach of outlining. It forces you to sit down, in the outlining stage, and think through every decision your main character will go through, and think through every decision your antagonist is going to do to challenge the main character, and finally, think through exactlyhow that will happen in your writing.

This is why outlining is so important. A good outline will make the writing process go smoothly. A good outline will prevent those moments where you feel the need to start completely over and scrap every word you’ve written. 

Okay, okay, but how do you outline?

However. The. Hell. You. Want. 

I’ve attached a google link to my Grimoire Blank Slate. This is what I start with whenever I start outlining—it becomes it’s own beast as the story evolves but I start here. This will not work for everyone and that’s okay.

I’ve also attached a bunch of links and videos of other people explaining different types of outlines and story structures here. Because you need to find something that works for you.  

What I want you to come back with, whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed, is the purpose of an outline. Your outline will explain your book such that in two months, three months, or six months, you will understand exactly what to write, why you need to write it, and what is essential.

Finally: Creating a Schedule

Luckily, this is something I can create for you. I created three schedules, any one of which you can follow and successfully outline for Q1.

FIRST: Look at your actual workday/weekends.

Do you work a standard 9am-5pm? Or do you work 9pm-5am? Are you super busy on the weekends that you know you won’t dedicate any time then? Or do you prefer to work on the weekends? Do you want to work in one 2 hour block? Or do you want to separate that time out into four 30 minute blocks? 

Think over your past work style and your past projects. Where did you stall out? Where did you thrive? What time did you consistently commit to and what days did you consistently miss out on?

I work okay on the weekends. Some weekends I can work all day on a project and others not at all. I know that I have a few weekend trips planned for this year so I already know some weekends I won’t be working at all. I’m making the decision now that I won’t be working on the weekends this year unless something comes up during the week. I’m creating that buffer for myself.

This means that I need to fit 14 hours (2 hours a day/7 days a week) into 5 days (2.8 hours a day — 2 hours and 48 minutes to be exact — 3 hours to round up). But wait, didn’t I tell you earlier I was going to be working on two projects? That means 6 hours a day. That is a lot. That is nearly a full-time job and I already have a part-time job. This is why I don’t recommend two projects at once for people with full-time jobs. (By the way, children are a full-time job!)

However, I’ve been doing this for two quarters already, so I figured out the best time for me to work is early in the morning. This past quarter, during the writing stage, I woke up and wrote from 7am to 9am. That’s what works for me. I also can write more than 1000 words in two hours — so even though I wasn’t working on weekends, I met the goal of 7,000 words a week.

This is where things become individualized. The end product of Q1 is a complete outline. Th end product of Q2 is a 90,000 word first draft. The end product of Q3 is a final, ready-to-publish novel. The end product of Q4 is a published book. Some of you may complete your outline in February not March. Some of you may come up to the start of Q4 and be ready to publish in October, not December. That’s great! If your pace is quicker, keep going. 

The pace I’m setting for everyone is the slowest pace possible to still reach your goal.

Read that again. I’m advocating and planning and instructing on the slowest pace possible.

SECOND: MIRCO-PLANNING

• Here are some things I find essential for an outline:
  • Character Bios (for every single character—yes even the coffee shop barista (although that can be short))
  • World-Building Necessities (even if this world is set in reality, write down pertinent places, like said coffee shop where the MC goes to everyday!)
  • Plot overview (I.e. the 3 part structure (if you do that) in 3 sentences
    • Example: MC loses her job, is dumped and moves back home. She applies to work at coffee shop and her new co-worker is her ex-best friend from high school. Their boss forces them to work together and enter in a coffee art competition to save the shop. They overcome their past and fall in love. The end.
      • (Is this how every Hallmark movie is made?)
  • Plot Structure (again if you do that)
    • This is where you’d plan out the inciting incident, and midpoint and climax. IF YOU DO THAT. (I don’t—so I skip to the next one)
  • Scene-by-Scene
    • For me, this is the most important part of my outline. This is what I come back to more than the Character Bios or even the magic system I created.
    • This is my book, written out in quick bullet points, explaining what is happening in *each* scene of the book.
    • Example:
      • MC goes to work in New York City, loses job because of budget issues; boss is an asshole and fires her in front of everyone
      • MC meets up with boyfriend who breaks up with her—he’s a washed up broadway actor who’s been cheating on her with a co-star (this comes out during conversation, somehow)
      • MC walks home to her apartment, it’s raining of course, and cries — she knows she can’t afford to live there anymore and feels like a failure
        • Calls her mom to let her know she needs to move back home
    • These bullet points can be as detailed as you want. Some of my bullet points have dialogue with them because I already know what certain characters are going to say but some of them are as brief as the ones above.
    • The main point of this section, however, is for future you to come back to this during Q2. You can easily pick up what you need to write and what the next scenes are with this section. There’s no guess work.
    • This section will take the longest. It’s easy to plan out a 3 act structure, with the BIG scenes in mind. It’s much harder to plan out the in-between scenes that get you there.

Figure out everything else you need in your outline. Do you need to build up a magic system? Write that down. Do you need to figure out the geo-political structures of your society? Write that down. Break down every piece of your outline into smaller chunks. 

THIRD: Macro-Planning

There are about 13 weeks in Q1. By the end of 13 weeks you want a fully complete and extraordinarily detailed outline. Here are a few ways to get there.

Month by Month Plan:

This is a good plan for anyone who doesn’t have any clue about their story. This is a good starting point for the people who choose that IDEA for their project and so they actually have nothing else to start with. This is a good plan for the people who can’t break down their outline into smaller chunks because they don’t even know if they have a magic system yet. This is also a good plan for people who love flexibility. They don’t want to know what they are doing week by week; they just want a goal for each month.

Week by Week Plan:

This plan is for anyone who has the “smaller chunks” of an outline figured out already. This plan is much more customizable so I’m going to give one version you can do with a week by week plan.

Combo of Monthly and Weekly Plan

I will probably follow this combination of a plan. I need more detail to work with than the Monthly Plan provides, but I also know I don’t work as orderly as the weekly plan illustrates.

However you schedule for Q1, remember the goal. At the end of March, your outline will explain your book such that in two months, three months, or six months, you will understand exactly what to write, why you need to write it, and what is essential to the story.

If this feels like a lot, DO NOT GET OVERWHELMED. First, please take a deep breath and remember that at the end of the day, all you really need is to finalize your project by January 1st. Period. That is the only due date you should worry about: What is your project for 2022?

Once you figure that out, you get to explore, research, imagine how you want 2022 to go. Your outlining style may change three times during Q1. That’s okay! Why? Because having a pretty outline on a fancy computer program is not the goal. The goal of Q1 is to have a complete outline that describes your story so that you can write it in Q2. I’ll say it once, I’ll say it 1000 times this Q1 because don’t focus on the week by week deadlines if that is going to stress you out. Focus on the goal: you need an outline that will make sense to you that will tell you what your story is about and will help you write a book in Q2.

Got it? Good.

Now join the Discord server and share what your project will be for #Publish2022!