Swiggity swag, what's in the bag?

ryu-gemini:

Does anyone have a good method for like..creating an outline for a story??? whether it be a written work or a comic. 

For example a friend of mine uses flashcards. I think she writes the main points on individual cards and then like creates a web of sorts with other cards that lead up to those main plot points. Thats pretty cool 0:!

Does anyone else have any other ways that they do this kind of thing?? Cause I really really really want to like get some work done for WAYS but im like overwhelllmmedd huhaha I’m not the best writer so oops. I know I need to write at least a barebones outline of the first chapter at least before I start on it otherwise I wont get anywhere.

hRRRGH cries I just wanna draw already i dont wannna have to do all this gross stuff before hand soBS

Ahaha… I haven’t put any of my writing online, so I’m probably not the best to take advice from, but my process sort of goes like this:

For ideas: Whenever I have an idea for a story (whether it’s a simple idea, a plot point I want to look at, or whatever), I jot it down on anything I can get my hands on. If I’m at my computer I use notepad, and if I’m out somewhere I use my iTouch’s note program or a notebook. Sometimes I just brainstorm ideas and write down everything that comes to mind, and other times I just have ideas pop up randomly. I’m pretty sure everyone does this. 

For the roadmap: Eventually I’ll have a lot of ideas down and won’t know how to make the story (Note that not all ideas get used in the writing process. Some get thrown out, and it’s up to you to decide whether or not everything fits). This is where I look at all of the points together and try to think of how I get from one to the other. My solution to this is to do these three things:

The first is to create a literal roadmap, which is similar to what your friend does. It doesn’t have to be flashcards, it can be whatever you want. I just type it out (like a table of contents) in notepad. Basically, try to see what points connect, or at least which ones you want to connect and in what order. 

The second is to write the sequence of events, or generalize what you want to occur between each point in your roadmap. You can still think of it like driving; when you go from one place to another, you don’t just teleport there. You’ve got an entire car ride before you get somewhere. The points in your story are the different places on your map. You know where the story is going, but how does it get there? What happens during the ride? Why is the story taking the direction it is, and is the story making sense in the way it gets there? If you’re able to answer most of these questions, it makes it easier to flesh out your story later.

Now, the third is dividing up the roadmap into chapters. By this point you should have a general idea of what’s going to happen in your story or, at least, good amount of your story. It just needs to be cut up into bite-sized chunks for the reader to enjoy. There are good ways and bad ways to both write a chapter. Too much information and the reader might get confused or lost, but too little might not warrant a full chapter. In addition, when ending a chapter, you want to keep the momentum of the story going. Keep these in mind when sectioning out your story.

As a sidenote, It’s okay to go into writing without an idea of how you want the story to end. There is nothing wrong with wanting to write chapter-by-chapter. Be cautious though, as you may have a bit of trouble writing later portions of your story.

If you have any other questions, I’d be fine to answer. uwu