How To Outline A Novel With Sticky Notes

Start with your biggest problem. How to outline a novel (summary) a solid outline is the foundation of a tight and interesting first draft.

Four Wee Princesses Sticky Notes in Outlines or Full

Then put the two stacks together in the order you think the events, clues, and red herrings will appear in your mystery novel.

How to outline a novel with sticky notes. With enough practice, you may find writing your own outline for a novel to be much easier. I filled in the notes as scenes in chronological order of what was happening in the novel. A novel outline can be anything that helps you create an overview of the entire novel.

Whoever invented the sticky note was a genius. Once you know where they go, you can click and drag them to their place. For instance, if you’re writing a scene with a romance story line, at some point your hero and heroine are going to meet.

Midpoint crisis (act 2b) 4. The goals of a main character shift and change and what he/she felt is no longer the way they now feel. Each row then became the beginning, middle and end of the story.

Each main character has sticky notes listing features, hobbies, names, and relationships. Lines are more difficult to edit than lists, but a good trick to keep your line flexible is to use index cards or sticky notes that can be easily shuffled and switched around. You don't even need to have that much of your novel figured out yet.

Compensating for word variance, and the fact that even plotted out i might need an extra chapter here or there, i lined up 30 sticky notes, 10 to a row, like this: Once these note cards are filled out, you can create cards for transitional events. Go through your outline and identify where your plot shifts to a new act and write these plot points on the colour you’ve chosen to represent your acts.

These sticky notes will go on the top line of your sticky note wall. Others create a corkboard of cards. (or yellow sticky notes, if you prefer.) ready?

Cards can be moved between lists, so don’t worry about where you create them. In the business of screenwriting, it’s simply called “the board.”. Take a look at what you have created and how each part of the novel fits into the larger picture.

The photo above shows a sticky note system for my young adult novel. These sticky notes should represent the main thing happening in your story in each of these acts. My writing process, step 5:

Use a mind map book outline; A point in the middle of the novel when, suddenly, everything changes: Third act twist (act 3) 5.

The wall of sticky notes (aka “the board”) if you’re a visual person, outlining method #3 is for you! Here are the steps for how to outline a book: Be creative and add some more elements, then make sure you bring in a new twist every 25% of the way.

All you need is a few ideas, a pencil, and a pack of index cards. If each chapter is 1,500 words, then i would need about 33 chapters. Check out my top tips for how to organize and how to use your outline notes, however few or many they may be, while writing your first draft.

You need to find five of the most important points in. As you read a book, take each chapter apart and outline it scene by scene, chapter by chapter, until you are finished. Finally, the document notes section at the bottom of the inspector is where i type in the entirety of my outline notes for each scene.

The index cards become like a living outline, guiding you through your story. Use a book outline template; I call it the wall of sticky notes, because that’s how i build it.

Inciting incident (act 1) 2. Where i put the sticky notes. Something flips everything and there is a major protagonist shift.

I started using this method during my second or third time editing my mystery novel, george florence & the perfect alibi. Some people enjoy the reassurance of boxes in a spreadsheet and some the flexibility of a mind map. Lay down who your main character is, what they want, and what their problem or obstacle is.

If you are limited for space, scrivener and aeon timeline are two programs popular with writers for. It can be as simple as writing the chapter sequences in a notebook or as detailed as using a spreadsheet. So, here's the sticky note outlining method that i use.

Events in each of the chapters are also listed on sticky notes to easily find information for later references. Take a card or a sticky note and write down the single biggest problem your main character faces. To use your plot board, you’re going to write a few words about each scene in your book on a sticky note and put it where it belongs in your story on the board.

These will appear at the bottom of your list. Research while not actually a part of what i consider the “outlining” phase, i’ll also mention research in this post, since it has to take place before the first draft begins. This is the method often used by screenwriters, and although it looks more simple than the sticky note storyboard method, it gives you more of a structured guideline for your story.

DIY Sticky Note Books Sticky notes book, Note pad covers