readers and writers, welcome to another episode of the other epic story. In this
episode we're gonna talk about outlining your story. Do we need to do that, is
there any benefit? Are we just procrastinating should we just go right
into writing. Let's find out. However, it goes back to that idea of I just want to
have fun I just want to build... uh-oh hey folks, welcome to another episode of the
other epic story. in today's episode we're gonna talk about outlining so
let's take a look at the outline of today's episode first of all we're gonna
talk about the two sides the two contentious sides of outlining they'll
be interesting then second part is we're gonna ask did I outline my epic trilogy
third part is my experience my personal experience outlining how I grew into it
that's a little preface and the fourth part is I'm gonna look at my first book
that I've written if you don't know what I'm doing I'm working on this epic
trilogy and we're gonna look at my first book and see what it would look like if
it's outlines and this is your first time being exposed to the entire story
don't worry no spoiler alerts it doesn't really matter but this is the outline of
today's episode so let's get right to it so when we talk about outlining there's
also two points of view let's listen to this guy explain it a little bit better
so you're on like talking you don't approach like architecture you don't
have this entire like all the details and manuals and glossary is laid out
there no I have I have some of that but less much less than you would think I've
often said that the writers are of two types
there is the architect which is one type and the architect as with designing a
building lays out the entire novel ahead of time he knows how many rooms there
will be and what the roof will be made of and how high it will be and where the
plumbing will run and that where the electrical outlets will be in each room
and everything is there in the blueprint and then there's the gardener who like
digs a hole in the ground and puts in the seed
warders it with his blood and he sees what comes up now the gardener knows
certain things it's he's not completely ignorant he knows whether he planted an
oak tree or an ear of corn or a cauliflower no one is purely an
architect no one is purely a gardener in terms of writers but many writers tend
to one side or the other and I'm very much more a gardener that was an
interview with george RR martin the writer of the song and Ice and Fire
series you know who he is in George Stroumboulopoulos former commentator for
Hockey Night in Canada so there's two sides to this there's one side that says
no you shouldn't outline because outline would you know limit your creativity it
would force your characters to not be able to explore their environment and
just act impulsively however this the other side is like no
your character should be clearly developed by you you should know what
they're gonna do each part there's really no wrong answer outlining in my
opinion probably does help in the organizational helps cover up plot holes
it helps with the actual writing process imagine trying to get somewhere let's
travel across the world you're gonna need a map you're gonna need a schedule
plan you're gonna need all that stuff and what an outline does and maps out
every place you want to hit okay you need to get gas here you need to stop
there for rest it does that however I also think writing can be you know just
a camping trips a fun getaway there's nothing scheduled wake up in the morning
whenever you want you set up a fire someone says hey let's go for a hike and
you go for a hike and then you just wander around and suddenly it's
nighttime and you're lost in the forest and you got to eat one of your friends
to survive that's how I think writing is also but the question is did I outline
my trilogy the answer is not yet no I written the first book and I did it all
without outlining in retrospect I wish I did outline it I
think it would have helped me develop the characters a little bit better help
me understand the settings a little bit better help me even understand like the
backstory and the conflicts and the all that stuff
I could have understand a little bit better if I outline however if I did
outline I might not have gotten the first draft done I might have been just
stuck in the outlining phase in my day job I'm a content creator
the thing about content creation in a business environment is that you have
pretty strict deadlines so from the ideation stage to the publication stage
it's probably about a week to two weeks tops
and so outlining really comes in handy when you're coming up with the idea you
need to block it out you need to know what questions to ask that way when
you're researching and writing it out it's right there for you you're not
thinking about it you're just in the doing mode and I think that's kind of
helpful when you're working on you know content creation blog posts how-to
articles building out resources I think that's super helpful and I feel like it
could definitely be applied to creative writing as well however it goes back to
that idea of I just want to have fun I just want to build on sync so literally
just got my microphone no we are gonna do the second part of this with actual
good audio comes in a cool packaging this is cool this only became an
unboxing episode look this is cool do not eat one of those do not eat throw
away moisture packs all right all right I'm gonna set this up and then we're
gonna finish this episode all right so I believe I was a new mic this sounds
better right I think it sounds better I have to actually go in and check it I
didn't check it yet oh that was incredibly distracting at Amazon guy
scared the shit out of my dog who is over here now moping moping on the
ground Michael right back to what's important so I was talking about my
experience working in a professional environment as a writer and needing to
outline I really think it's helpful throughout the next part of my writing
process book 2 book 3 I'm definitely gonna outline especially if you're on a
tight schedule like I am and you only have like an hour two hours to write you
definitely want to make the most of it you don't really have time to sit around
and just like ponder oh should I send the character this way or this way like
having to go back and rewrite is so much more painful than writing it the way it
should be the first time even though like when I write a first draft I feel
like I'm about 75 80 % done I'm pretty sure I'm just lying to myself and I'm
like about to give up and like this is done when your outline you're so much
more certain that you're closer to the finish line you actually have a map of
where you need to be and that way you actually know you're done and I think
the first book really suffered because I didn't outline so let's have a look at
if I was to write an outline now this is not the original and this is like the
outline after I finish writing the first draft which is kind of but I do want you
guys to see just a quick glimpse of what my story is actually about before I get
more into it we'll probably do another episode about outlining I would like to
outline my next two books as well just so we have an idea of the whole
structure of it but I don't know when I'm gonna do that one so let's just do
this one first before we get too far ahead see this is why we need an outline
if my story had an outline what would it look like I think it would look
something like this this is the outline I called it this is called like a
skeletal outline and it just looks like this so it begins with the town is
threatened by a mysterious thief that steals the stock every year
then it jumps to a different part of the story where a man from a different town
murders his wife and fled then it goes to a boy sheriff discovers the murder
and chases after the man with the man's wife as a guide
then the man arrives in the town with the thief all distress while the boy
sheriff and the wife discovers that she is in fact pregnant with the lover the
murdered lovers child back at the first town with the thief and all that stuff
the man can this is a town that he is in fact a hero of some sort he is a sheriff
of another town and he has come here to help protect him from the thief and then
the boy sheriff and his wife trek through dangerous Lang's up so the idea
is that these two towns are really far away almost a year's journey so if she's
pregnant she's traveling it's a whole thing I don't really understand pregnant
woman and travelled so this is something I need to figure out as I work on this
finally we reached the climax boy sheriff the wife and the man converge
and a standoff ensues so this is the climax this is the point where
everything is sort of building up into and we're gonna talk a bit about working
backwards from the climax so that you get every piece of the story built out
properly the tension and all that stuff so the boy sheriff survives the standoff
and the life is now in labor spoiler alert this is definitely a spoiler
because anything after the climax is essentially spoiled the town is the town
become weary of all this Buffalo and they still have the thief to worry about
and so they write they revolt against each other they have like this big
argument in the Town Hall and a fire starts and many lives are lost however
through all these ashes and rubbles the baby is born and this baby is
essentially the prodigal son and that's the first book the birth of this child
and all the sort of mayhem that ensues to lead up to this point and
yeah that would essentially be the outline of my first story it's not
brilliant in any sense it's not meant to be it's just meant to guide us as
writers from beginning to end with a middle in between
I really recommend doing an outline I started out in the camp of being a
gardener I think I'm now in the camp of having to structure it properly unless
you have all the time in the world which you don't because we're all gonna leave
this fragile fragile world at some point I really do recommend outlining you end
up having to deconstruct your whole novel which is something I am totally
into doing when we start working there's this process called the second draft
where you just break all the scenes apart and you put them in the
chronological order and I'm very interested in doing that and I'll do
that with you guys at some point but today that is our episode on outlines is
it good for you is it bad for you my opinion is outline are super useful
totally recommend them so that's the point I'm trying to make if you enjoy
watching these videos or enjoy just watching me ramble on and on with so
much awesome insight please subscribe please like this post share with all
your friends and until next time keep writing don't give up believe in
yourself believe in other people leaving ghosts
you