@SovvanNight's writeblr where I repost writing advice, writing encouragement, and writing humor. I also post my own writing, which is mostly Julie and the Phantoms, Stydia, Teen Wolf rarepairs, Olicity, and Smoaking Billionaires fanfic. (Currently re-blogging a lot of older writing advice posts from my main blog for easier searching.)
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Writing goals for the month, posting publicly because I think it encourages accountability:
Prepping: I want to finish watching Just Like Heaven and taking notes. I want to finish reading Alchemised and start Still Into You, a rock star romance that I have out from the library. Maybe if I have time I'll go through my e-mail and try to find those replays.
Business: Probably nothing? I'd love to do something, but at the same time, I think I'd be better off using my limited energy for editing.
Writing: I'll be finished with Don't Trust Your Teammates in a couple of days. After that, it's either finish the subdrop fic or get back to DHSWTE. This should be a bare minimum month, though, so that I can focus on editing.
Editing & Publishing: It's time to start editing DDTG. I mean, it's past time, but you know, new month, new me or whatever. If I want to publish the book, I have to edit the book first.
I do want to edit and publish one chapter of BOT5P because I don't want to leave those readers hanging any longer than I already have.
Writing goals for the month, posting publicly because I think it encourages accountability:
Prepping: There are a couple of one-off webinars plus the final days of the Authorpreneur webinar to listen to. For reading, I need to finish the ARC book, I'd like to read the other 2 rock star romances in the trilogy I started earlier this year, and I just saw on one of my writing group's May bingo that there's a square for "read outside your genre" so maybe that's a fourth book. And I'd like to get back to reading the final 3 Game Changers books, if I somehow have time.
Business: Probably nothing, realistically. Even if next Friday's doctor appointment goes the way I want, it will probably take some time for the meds to get out of my system.
Writing: Probably all HR fanfiction. I'm torn between thinking I should try to keep it to a minimum to work on editing and thinking I should just finish the two WIPs. We'll see what kind of brain power I have.
Editing & Publishing: I should publish a BOT5P chapter. I'd like to publish Treacherous. I should finish my editing plan and edit DDTG.
Prepping: I did watch a couple of sessions at that Authorpreneur webinar, although not everything that looked interesting. I think I missed most/all of the one-off webinars, although I know I've got some replays to watch. That ARC book was torturous to get through, but I eventually made it. Some people in one of my writing groups were reading Alchemised, so now I'm about 10% of the way through that. And I had an idea to do an HR/movie fusion, so I rewatched part of the movie and took notes.
Business: I'm about 2 weeks into being on different thyroid medication. I still feel tired, but maybe a little bit more able to focus? My doctor thinks some of my issues could also be due to menopause, so I'm also going to start on HRT, but there's a medical test I have to do first. No other business-related activity this month.
Writing: I wrote 20,720 words last month, just about all on Don't Trust Your Teammates, which is at 39k and is very close to being done.
Editing & Publishing: I published This Daydream is Dangerous, AKA Treacherous, a Heated Rivalry one-shot.
Here we go! Your new, exciting, three months challenge to keep up your writing over the summer. Keep building that habit, keep up the energy to get your shit done.
This challenge takes place over June, July, and August. As MareeB wrote today in the SloMoWrino post, if you want to join this challenge, you have to find out what you want from this challenge. Do you want to have a set deadline, do you want camaraderie with other writers, or do you want to join this challenge for the accountability?
We can give you the options here, but it is up to you how effective you can make the challenge for yourself.
You want a deadline? You have to set it yourself.
You want camaraderie? You have to post about it, here or on the discord, start and join conversations.
You want accountability? Again, you have to post/talk about it.
What we can offer to help you along: We'll post about the challenge, of course, just give you little reminders. We'll also have a snazzy spreadsheet for you and a weekly graphic and prompt you can use how ever you like.
Will you join the Summer Writing challenge? Let us know!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Characters: Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Episode: s01e05 I’ll Believe in Anything (Heated Rivalry), POV Shane Hollander, Interviews
Summary:
At the All-Stars game in Tampa, the social media team asks Shane and Ilya to name their favorite Taylor Swift song. Shane answers in a way that feels reckless.
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It's summer, some of you may even be on vacation, and up here in the northern hemisphere it's already way too hot. None of these things lend themselves to a lot of writing time.
But we are writers, are we not? Let's write then.
Summer writing means setting manageable goals, something we can fit in between all the other stuff. This may be a wordcount goal, or to work on the story for a certain amount of time. It may also be something else creative you want to do.
@mareebrittenford is working on a fancy spreadsheet for you, and I'm (@barbex) making a weekly image for you, where you can write down your goals for that week and get a little, optional, prompt for your current project.
We start on the first of June, and until then, I want you to think about what a realistic goal is for you for the first week. Make a post about it and tag this blog. Let's write together this summer.
~barbex
Oh yeah, and don't use generative AI, that would be totally beside the point of writing together. And also stupid.
I'm sorry your writing strategy is WHAT?? I'm going to need a thorough explanation of this because I'm FASCINATED
[brian murphy voice] I DIDNT SAY ANYTHING WEIRD!!!
okay i did. but also! if it ain’t broke…
here’s how this crumbles cookie-wise. sometimes (as is currently the case) i feel like i am trying to hold onto a whole novel in my brain at once. this does not feel particularly good because the novel doesn’t belong in my brain it belongs Out There. so i make a very detailed outline and then i start at chapter 1, and i write to 100 words (give or take a few). then i move on to chapter 2 and write to 100 words. then to chapter 3 and so on until i have at least 100 words in each chapter. then once i’ve run through the whole book, i go back to the beginning and make sure each chapter is up to 200. then i’m usually in the Meat of each scene so i’ll get everything up to 500, then 1000, then 1500 and then usually i clock out of chapters around or just under the 2k mark.
this appeases the hyperactive part of my brain by making sure i’m never bored, and helps the project manager in my brain so i can keep track of many moving parts in the novel and also ensures that scenes at the end speak to scenes at the beginning since i’m (sort of) writing the whole book at once.
NOTE: sometimes i get lost in the sauce and write way past 100 or wherever im at, and that’s fine. it just means i probably skip that chapter during my next pass since it’ll be past my goal wc for each chapter of the run.
that is all. try it, if you want. i honestly don’t know how to write books any other way
Add a second problem that won’t stay in its lane. While the main conflict grows, introduce another issue that keeps interfering and making choices harder.
Give every victory a cost. Let each solution create a new complication instead of clean relief.
Turn side characters into sources of pressure. Their needs, secrets, or mistakes should actively affect the main plot, not sit politely in the background.
Reveal information at the worst possible time. Timing alone can make a simple twist feel devastating.
Force the protagonist to choose between two things they want. The plot thickens when there’s no option that feels “right.”
Let past actions come back ugly. Consequences that arrive late hit harder and deepen the story’s layers.
Complicate the antagonist. Give them leverage, allies, or a point that almost makes sense.
Change the stakes midway. What the story is about shifts, even though the conflict stays connected.
Introduce a secret that reframes earlier scenes. Not a random twist—one that makes the reader rethink what they already know.
Let the character’s inner conflict sabotage the plot. Their flaws should actively make things worse.
Using a Reverse Outline to Understand Your First Draft’s Structure Before Editing
I've been using versions of this tool for years, for both my own self-editing and when I work as a developmental editor for clients. Now I'd like to share a template and a hopefully not-too-long explanation of ways you can work with it!
First off: congratulations on finishing a draft of your story! Now, as you get ready to revise it into a second, improved draft, it helps to see what the story is currently shaped like. Even if you aren’t a “planner” who outlines stories before writing them, you can benefit from a reverse outline after completing the story. It's lower-pressure and often easier than a planning outline because you just need to describe what you’ve already written. In fact, writing about your story can be pretty fun! And it will give you a sense of direction and increased confidence as you begin editing.
A reverse outline can be as simple or as detailed as you like. I’m going to give directions (and a sample file) for a fairly detailed one, which you can use as-is if it works for you, or adapt to be simpler, or adapt to include additional elements if that’s better for your process.
Here's the link to the reverse outline template in Drive. I've filled out the first few rows with example information from one of my own stories. Please go ahead and make a copy for your own use! One tip: under the "View" tab, there's an option to "Freeze" columns or rows so they move with you as you scroll in the file. I've already frozen the top row; you may also want to freeze columns A and B for ease of reference when you scroll horizontally. There are quite a few columns, and you don’t need to use all of them at once—different elements are more relevant to different writers and in different stories. In the rest of this post, I’ll explain what each column can do for you.
(The second tab of the file includes a sample reverse outline for nonfiction, with examples from a book of advice on editing that I'm writing at the moment and which this post may become a chapter in. Exactly what columns you’ll want in a nonfiction reverse outline will depend on your overall structure. Narrative nonfiction and memoir use similar techniques as fiction and could benefit from the standard reverse outline.)
Column A: Chapter number and title, scene
Some writers make their reverse outlines chapter-by-chapter, but since each chapter can include multiple scenes, and each scene deserves TLC, let’s give each scene a row.
(My reverse outline sample is for one of my short story collections, so I've given the title of the short story instead of a chapter number. Again, the template is adaptable!)
Among other benefits, filling out this column shows if you've acquired two Chapter 20s by accident. Or if you've given some chapters too-similar titles. Or if one chapter has way more scenes, or way fewer, than any other—which isn’t necessarily a problem, just something to observe right now.
While I’m giving advice: using the “Heading” style to mark your chapter titles/numbers makes it easier to find things your manuscript. Headings get their own space in the Navigation toolbar that comes up when you hit “Control + F” in Microsoft Word or click the “Document Tabs” option in Google Drive.
Column B: Action summary
Write about what happens in the scene. How much detail to include depends on your personal taste and memory. You don’t want to crowd the box with information or take a very long time at this. But it can be useful to spell out not just what happens, but some of why it happens and what results. This helps you follow the chain of logic and spot where links might be weak or missing.
A quick example of how an action summary can include cause and effect: “Overhearing Jason’s phone call, Miranda begins to suspect he was involved in the murder. She confronts him, he denies everything, and he leaves the house and doesn’t come back that night.” If you feel comfortable with shorter action summaries, you might just write this as “Miranda confronts Jason about the murder. He leaves.”
If you're going to write a synopsis to query this novel to literary agents or publishers, the reverse outline can help you get started. (I made my first reverse outlines for synopsis-writing purposes, before adapting them for other uses as both a writer and a freelance editor.) It accomplishes the major step of turning a novel into a few pages. You’ll still need to edit those few pages into something shorter and smoother, and I'd write the actual synopsis after you've given the book a structural edit, since elements of the plot may change in the process!
Speaking of summary, if the action in the story draft is told in narrative summary rather than shown as it happens, it’s often helpful to make a note of this. Summary has its uses: it can convey a lot to the reader quickly and it adds variety to pacing. Whether you have too much narrative summary or too little is something to consider once you have the outline filled out.
Column C: Scene wordcount
Use words, not number of pages, because the same amount of words can fit on more or fewer pages with different formatting. In publishing and professional editing, there’s still the convention that 1 page = 250 words, but in my experience, 12-point Times New Roman font that’s double spaced often fits 300+ words onto a page.
Column D: Cumulative wordcount
I’ve entered a formula here to sum up column C to the current row. This gives you a sense of when each scene takes place on the scale of the story, and also how your pacing is. (You can click the corner of a cell and drag it down to extend the formula as you add more scenes.)
That's the simplest version.
If you just want to fill in the first three columns and let the formula fill out the fourth for you, that gives you a one-sheet "map" of your story that can make the full manuscript easier to navigate, and it can be sufficient to get started on evaluating your story. But you’re missing half the fun.
Column E: POV character
To avoid both reader and writer confusion, I recommend sticking to one POV per scene. Some editors and publishers insist on it. But if you want to risk omniscient POV, that can go here too.
This column reveals when POV changes and whose perspective we spend the most time in. In one story I’m working on, I've added notes in this column about alternative POVs I could narrate the scene from, if I decide to change things up in the second draft. You don’t need to divide POV equally among all your characters, even if you have multiple protagonists. However, if one POV evaporates from the story partway through, or one takes over a long stretch of chapters, it’s good to spot this. And readers may be distracted if you have one or two scenes that make atypical POV choices without clear reason.
Columns F and G: Location; Date and time
These may help you catch continuity errors, like if a character returns home from the same trip twice, a minor character is in two places at once, or a particular evening in August winds up way too busy.
Column G is especially helpful for stories that span a long time—or a very short time. Even if you don’t have exact dates, a note such as “three days after the previous scene” can help avoid logistical tangles. (When timeline is especially important to a story, some writers fill out a virtual or physical calendar with their story events. You can often get print calendars for the previous year cheaply at an office supply or stationary store in January/February.)
If your story takes place in a single location or timeline is not a big concern, you don’t need to use these columns—this reverse outline is always customizable!
Column H: Plot and subplots advanced
There’s a lot going on in a story, and often a lot going on at the same time. This column lets you track where and when different plotlines are developed. You may find it useful to label your plots and subplots with categories like “External” (dealing with the world around the protagonist), “Internal" (psychological change that drives character arcs), or “Interpersonal” (rivalry, romance, and more).
Column I: Conflict of the scene and character desires
Conflict doesn’t have to be violent or flashy. But stories generally include a goal and some friction that prevents the goal from being met. In this way, desire and conflict are often closely connected.
If nobody wanted things to change, there wouldn’t be much to write a story about. If everyone immediately got the change they desire, the story would be very short. Adding friction will make events feel more realistic and engaging to readers. Conflict creates suspense: if there are opposing forces, we can’t predict who will win (or how they’ll manage to win, even if we trust the story will end well for a character). Conflict also lets you explore multiple sides of a situation or theme.
Depending on how you fill out the action summary in Column B, you might cover much of this information there. But I suggest filling out Column I for at least a few scenes to get the hang of evaluating conflict and motivation. If these are missing, a scene can feel directionless and emotionally flat.
Splitting information across multiple columns can also prevent any one part of the outline from getting too swollen. Especially if you write long or action-packed scenes, you may find yourself writing a lot in each cell. A few solutions: one, you may prioritize only the most significant developments of each scene. You can always come back and add more information later. Two, you may realize a scene would work better as two shorter or simpler scenes. (Though don't do this just because it's busy in the outline: consider how the scene itself reads in the story.) Three, you may adapt the outline to give each scene multiple rows evaluating different elements. Just put the wordcount in column C as 0 for the added rows, and it won’t mess up the cumulative wordcount formula (I've given an example in the template).
If the protagonist does get what they want, you’ve either reached the happy ending of the story (or at least a subplot) or you need to give them something else to want, another itch to satisfy. Maybe solving one problem makes them realize there’s an additional problem. Or it’s a question of short-term vs long-term goals: Frodo has made it to Rivendell, but then he takes on the new goal of reaching Mordor.
Column J: Reader emotional response
One reason we write stories is because we want to make people feel things. Here’s where you can talk about what you want the reader to feel. This gives you ideas for what to punch up and enhance in revisions. If you want them to be sad, what is the line they’ll start crying on?If you want them to be hopeful, what should they hope for and why will they feel hope that it will happen?
You may update this column after getting beta reader feedback on an early draft (but not a first draft—the first draft is for you): where and how did your beta react? Was it the way you hoped for, or were there surprises? You could even ask your beta reader to fill out a version of this chart.
Column K: Questions raised or intensified
A powerful emotion to draw readers in is curiosity. And every story will involve some exposition and explanation as we learn about the characters, the setting, and the plotline. Some writers use the term Dramatic Question or Narrative Question to refer to the single biggest and most crucial question that keeps the story going. Once that single question is answered, the story wraps up. Others use the term Story Questions for the various mysteries on different scales that keep readers turning pages—and not just in mystery novels. Whatever you call them, you can track in this column the questions you expect readers to ask with each scene.
In general, when a question is answered, a new, larger or more intense one should take its place. Or the answer to a still-lingering question becomes more urgent. By the end of the story, the majority of questions are answered. You may include a sequel hook, and writers often leave some small, tantalizing details open-ended to make a story feel more realistic, more vivid, or more haunting—or because we don’t have space to chase down every loose end. But if your biggest questions aren’t resolved, the story doesn’t feel over.
I find story questions hugely exciting because curiosity is what most often sucks me in as a reader. But a story isn’t just an intellectual exercise. It’s fatal if a reader ever decides, “I don’t care about learning the answer to this question.” Make sure your other columns are providing reasons for readers to care (especially column J).
You don't want this column to be empty. But you may not want it to get too full, either. It’s possible to draw out a question for too long, leaving readers confused or frustrated. It’s also possible to raise too many questions to easily keep track of. If they’re asking too much and learning too little, some readers might give up on ever finding answers. So be sure to consider both new questions and the weight of the questions already hanging over the readers' (and characters') heads.
As for where to track the answers, it’s dealer’s choice—you could put them in this column, or the answers might be described as part of the action summary or another column. Use this outline in a way that matches how you think, since it's organizing your story.
This is another column it can be useful to ask your beta readers to fill out (or "What questions do you have at the end of this chapter?" could be something to ask them in another format.) You may be surprised by what piques your readers' curiosity!
To reiterate, the mysteries that draw a reader to the next page or chapter—or sentence—don't have to be big. Jack Hart’s guide to narrative nonfiction, Storycraft, provides two excellent examples of opening lines with tiny mysteries that hook you. Joan Didion begins a piece with “Imagine Banyan Street first, because Banyan Street is where it happened.” Right away we wonder: what is “it”? And where is Banyan Street? The second example was written by Spencer Heinz in the Oregonian: “Pat Yost was in bed when she heard the sound.” Most readers will give Heinz’s next few sentences their attention to learn what the sound was, and Yost’s vulnerability makes the question feel urgent. You can get a bit too obviously manipulative with tiny questions (so that the reader asks “For crying out loud, what is it now?”), but it’s a useful technique to keep in mind.
The other beauty of these questions is that they can make the need for exposition work for you. Rather than being bored to tears by an infodump, the reader is intrigued by hints and glimpses, then satisfied to receive more context and explanation.
Column L: New characters and concepts introduced
This column can help you pace your exposition and introductions. (It overlaps with the previous column, but different writers find different angles helpful for analyzing a story, so I’ve included both. You may not fill out this column for every chapter, especially shorter chapters or chapters later in the story.) Tracking this can prevent you from introducing the same person in two different scenes. It also reveals opportunities to energize any doldrums in the middle of your story by adding a new idea.
Column M: Notes (and whatever else you desire)
I use this column to make revision suggestions to myself. You can also use it to track elements you find important but which don’t fit in other columns. Again, please feel free to add more columns and delete ones that aren’t a priority for this story or your process!
Mystery writers may want a column to keep track of where clues or red herrings appear. Romance novelists may want to track beats. A kinky romance novelist may want to keep track of which toys the characters use in which sex scene. Other writers may want to track what Robert McKee calls the “value charge,” measuring how much closer to or farther from their goal a character has moved.
Using the Outline
You don't have to fill out the entire spreadsheet in one sitting. You might do a few chapters/scenes at a time. You might get one or two columns completely filled out in one go (I do columns A and C together) but take time to do the rest. Some columns may never get entirely filled out. My tip is to try every column to start with, because you never know what will make something click for you. It’s better to fill out half the columns than none.
Some authors create reverse outlines as they write the first draft. After completing each chapter, they end their writing session by filling out a row with a summary of what they’ve just written. This has the benefit of your memory being fresher, and if it sounds like it’d work for you, please try it! It may help you spot issues early and course correct. However, some authors find too much analysis paralyzing in the first draft stage. Personally, I find it easier and fun to do my outline at the end, in a sugar rush of triumphant celebration at finishing a story. I write it up, stand back dusting my hands, and go “Well, what do we have here?”
And what do we have here?
Things a reverse outline can reveal:
Where does your climax—the peak of suspense, intensity, and emotion—happen in the story? How close to the end? How do you build up to it and climb back down? Are there mini-climaxes earlier in the story to keep readers engaged? Your main plot will have a climax, and so will your subplots and your character arcs. These may be located in different places, or they may all climax together. (Stop snickering, you in the back!)
What’s left unresolved at the end of the book? (For traditional publication, you’ll have the best luck if your first book is a “standalone,” though it may have opportunities for a sequel if it sells well. You might think self-publishing is more forgiving, but in fact, readers may greet a cliffhanger ending with bad reviews if they feel you’re trying to trap them into buying more books for unclear payoff. They may even return the book and demand a refund. However, in both traditional and self-publishing, books later in a series may end in cliffhangers once the author has won readers’ trust by finishing earlier stories in a satisfying way.)
How do the character arcs develop? Anything important enough to write a story about will probably change a person—how are each character’s actions and desires different at the end of the story than they were at the beginning?
How long are questions left unanswered or conflicts left unresolved? You generally want these to last for at least a few chapters to let suspense grow and keep the story flowing. (The author Benjamin Percy, in Thrill Me, speaks of his failed early novels: “I treated chapters like short stories, introducing and resolving trouble in fifteen pages. The containment, the stand-aloneness of my chapters, gave my books a stop-start quality that destroyed any sense of momentum.”) At the same time, each scene should make a little progress, whether positive or negative. It will end with the character a little better off or worse off (or better in some ways, worse in others) than they were before.
Friction, tension, conflict, and struggle make a story richer and more vivid. Even for small and simple goals, let the readers and characters yearn just a bit before you give them what they want. Make sure your payoffs each have setup.
Do you have scenes without action? Or where the action is all internal rather than external: does your protagonist sit around thinking until they change their mind about something? This isn’t fatal—I’ve done it myself on occasion. But try not to make these static scenes too frequent (and internal action is better than no action at all: beware scenes that are pure exposition).
Do you have scenes that are overgrown transitions, moving characters from Point A to Point B? In particular, you have an overgrown transition rather than a proper scene when there aren’t enough questions, conflict, stakes, urgency, or emotional engagement. Make your story more vivid by fleshing out these transitions or removing them (a transition can often become a paragraph or sentence at the beginning of the next scene).
Do any significant events happen off-page or between scenes? Would it be clearer or more impactful for readers if they happen on-page?
Do you spend a lot of wordcount introducing a particular character, setting, or detail that doesn’t go on to play a significant role in the story? Be wary of one-offs: characters, POVs, locations, and apparent subplots that only appear once may be a sign you should develop them further—or take them out entirely. Not always! But make sure it’s clear to readers why you break your story’s pattern. Sometimes, an author will give a character one flashback scene to share backstory. However interesting the backstory, be sure the events of that flashback are relevant to their present-day storyline!
How does each scene fit into to the larger story? How do the subplots connect to each other? If something doesn’t connect, does it belong? Can you flesh it out and connect it more? (Whether you connect it more tightly or delete it often depends on if your story is longer or shorter than you want it to be—see next section.)
You can color-code rows by subplot if that makes things easier for you. The reverse outline can become a very visual document, helping you see things it’s harder to find in a manuscript of text.
Look at scenes that only advance a single plot or subplot, and see how strong they are in the other columns. One way to punch up a sagging scene is to combine it with a second scene and do two things at once. Maybe the scene in which Miranda overhears Jason’s suspicious phone call is also the scene where she reels from the revelation that she’s about to be fired from her dream job (which she learned in the previous chapter). As our friend writing at the Cincinnati Enquirer in February 1947 said, “Life is just one damn thing after another, is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.”
Do tensions and stakes rise over the course of the story? This is often phrased as “things have to get worse and worse for your characters,” but that isn’t the only option. Giving your characters an occasional “break” provides hope, which, for you literary sadists, gives characters more to lose when things get worse again. Hope raises the stakes. And building a character up lets you continue a story for longer because it gives them farther to fall. The occasional achievement can give your character new abilities and resources to make future scenes exciting. Also, alternating hope with loss or disappointment creates a variety in tone and texture; most readers find variety welcome. (This also means you should beware of too many scenes of unmitigated success, even if your story's tone is one of cozy wish fulfillment.) In some genres, both your character and your audience may need occasional injections of hope to be motivated to see the story through. There are exceptions—a short horror novel may be nothing but things getting worse—but overall, don’t worry that you’re failing at suspenseful storytelling if your characters are sometimes happy! But there still should be something missing, an unanswered question, an unachieved goal, or an unresolved risk that keeps the story going. And generally, these risks, goals, questions, and unfulfilled desires should get bigger as the story goes on.
How's the length of your story?
Some writers end up with first drafts way longer than they want. Some wind up with first drafts that are too short. For some authors, each story causes them wordcount-related stress in a different way. And in every manuscript, whatever its overall length, some scenes will go on a bit longer than they need to, while several character details and plot threads will tantalize with their ability to be developed further.
Too long/too short is also a question of the audience you’re writing for. Young adult novels tend to be shorter than adult historical epics. If you’re writing fiction to publish in magazines paying pro rates, you'll often have a better short with a 4,000-word short story than a 9,000-word novelette. And if you don’t intend to write a novella (I love them, but they can be tricky to sell), then a 40,000-word “novel” probably needs more development.
If your story or scene is too long, either:
Too much is happening
You’re giving too many details about what’s happening
(It may be both at once, of course.)
You’ll want to make changes in that order: first, decide what needs to happen in the story. As I advised earlier, making some of it happen simultaneously can reduce the number of scenes and make each scene more intense. But upon consideration, and with the help of your reverse outline, you may find one or two excess subplots. Save them for a different story.
Once you’ve reduced your number of scenes, if you’re still longer than you want, look at each scene and tighten paragraphs and lines. But that fine-tuning is something to work on later, in the line-editing rather than organization or structural edit (what I'm calling the second draft in this post, and which we editors also call developmental editing).
If your story is too short, either:
Not enough is happening
You’re not giving enough details about what is happening
Should you add a subplot, or draw out a subplot you currently have? Do the characters’ problems get resolved too quickly? Have you raised enough narrative questions? Given enough answers? Is the conflict strong enough and are the stakes high enough? Have you shown how high the stakes are? Look at where you’ve used narrative summary. Would any of this be more interesting or dramatic as a scene? Are there sentences you could expand to paragraphs, or paragraphs into chapters? Don’t pad the story, but flesh it out.
You may want to do more research, especially if you put research aside to complete your first draft (which you've done—congratulations!) Learning about your characters’ jobs, the world they inhabit, and processes within it can open up lots of avenues, many of which you wouldn’t have predicted.
Or you may write short because you know so much about the story. You’ve been developing this magic system since you were in high school, so you don’t realize how weird and wondrous it is to your readers and how much they’d enjoy a (vivid, active, non-lecture) tour of it. Now’s the time to add some more scenes of your protagonist learning to use magic! Or, switching genres, a mystery writer may have meticulously planned the crime—but they need to add enough description that the reader can follow the logistics.
The emotions of revision
Personally, I think adding more scenes and details is great fun. You get to write fanfiction of your first draft—and publish it! However, expanding a story can take time and requires you to keep track of what you’re doing. The record in the reverse outline will help with that.
Cutting scenes, plot threads, characters, and even favorite sentences can be melancholy. I encourage writers to save what they cut in case it can fit in a future story—even if it doesn’t, this feels less like a final execution. However, sometimes cutting something is a relief. You’ve had a feeling that element wasn’t working out, and now you can let it go.
Some writers may get a little too eager to cut. It might seem like the easy way out, but if you delete everything that causes you trouble, the story will get smaller and smaller, and it might wind up less interesting as a result. You’re also depriving yourself of the chance to stretch your creativity and try new things. (Mary Oliver in A Poetry Handbook warns that “deletion teaches nothing.”) It’s a judgment call: does this troublesome bit have enough potential that it’s worth rescuing through revision? Try sleeping on it in case your subconscious offers a new solution you hadn’t expected. If that doesn’t pan out, you can always save the idea to try again in a different story. As Matthew Salesses says in Craft in the Real World, “Some encouragement (hopefully)! The bulk of successful writing is in the fact that you have an endless number of tries. Persistence is key.”
To wrap up, a few more uses of reverse outlining:
Reread your story in light of the outline. Going between the outline and each scene, consider this question: does your outline describe what’s actually on the page or what you intended to write? If your outline is more wishful than actual, that's still progress: it's helped you express your intentions, which is a step that brings them closer to reality. Now the reverse outline has become a planning outline for your next draft.
Similarly, some authors find it tricky to revise existing scenes. Instead, they write the second draft more or less from scratch in a new file. They trust their memory to give them back the best parts of the stroy and to drop or rework what wasn’t succeeding. If you want to use this approach but still need some guidance, the reverse outline can be made into a new outline.
You can reverse outline other people’s books! It's fun and insightful to examine how a favorite author works on a scene-by-scene level. Heck, it can also give insight into how an author you can’t stand, but who is undeservedly successful, works on a scene-by-scene level. Maybe you can learn from their success after all.
Again, here’s the reverse outline template in Google Sheets, with an example from one of my own stories filling out the first few rows. Make a copy and make it yours!
This is the stall that makes you feel like you got played.
Tasha L. Harrison:
You were writing. It was going well. The first few chapters came fast. Characters were vivid, the dynamic was crackling, the voice was locked in. You were the person in the group chat saying, “I wrote 3,000 words today, and I’m not even tired.” You had momentum, confidence, and that specific kind of giddiness that comes from a draft that’s cooperating with you for once.
And then somewhere around chapter six or seven, the whole thing just… stopped. Not gradually. Not with warning signs you should’ve caught. It just stopped. Like a car that ran out of gas on the highway with the destination still visible on the GPS. You can see where you’re going. You just can’t get there.
You’ve probably called this “the messy middle,” because that’s what we all call it. And the messy middle is a real thing, but it’s also become a catchall that obscures what’s actually happening structurally. The messy middle isn’t a weather event that descends on every draft at the same point like some kind of creative writing hurricane season. It’s a symptom of a specific deficiency in your early chapters. And once you understand what that deficiency is, the middle stops being a swamp you wade through hoping to find dry land and starts being a problem you can diagnose and fix.
This is such a good post! It explains so much about my problem with the slow, swampy middle. Good advice, especially for romance writers.
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Each character is introduced in their own emotional world. We see:
Their wounds, needs, and flaws
What they want vs. what they actually need
Why love is currently not working for them
This stage sets up why the romance matters.
2. The Meet Cute or First Collision
They meet in a way that creates friction, curiosity, or disruption.
This can be cute, hostile, awkward, or intense — but it must change something for both of them.
3. Attraction and Tension
They feel drawn to each other, but:
There are obstacles (external or internal)
They deny, resist, or misinterpret their feelings
Chemistry builds through proximity, conflict, or emotional glimpses
This is the slow pull stage.
4. Forced Proximity or Emotional Intimacy
Circumstances push them together:
Working together
Traveling together
Being trapped together
Sharing secrets or vulnerability
This is where emotional bonding starts, even if they don’t admit it.
5. The First Shift (Romantic or Emotional Breakthrough)
A moment changes the nature of their relationship:
First kiss
Confession
One saves the other
A moment of deep understanding
After this, the story is no longer “will they notice each other?” but “what does this mean now?”
6. The Honeymoon or Hope Phase
Things feel good. There’s closeness, trust, or passion.
The reader is allowed to believe the relationship might actually work.
This makes the coming conflict hurt more.
7. The Break (The Black Moment)
Something shatters the relationship:
A betrayal, lie, misunderstanding, or revelation
A fear or wound resurfaces
External pressure pulls them apart
This is the emotional low point of the romance.
8. The Growth and Choice
Both characters grow:
They confront their flaws or fears
They choose love intentionally, not accidentally
They become capable of sustaining the relationship
This is where love becomes a decision, not just a feeling.
9. The Reunion and Resolution (HEA or HFN)
They reunite with honesty and emotional maturity.
The story resolves with:
A Happily Ever After (HEA) or
A Happy For Now (HFN)
The emotional promise of the genre is fulfilled.
✦ Why This Structure Works
Romance isn’t just about attraction — it’s about emotional transformation through love.
Each stage:
ᯓ★ Give your character a weird specific opinion about something meaningless. Do they think cereal is soup? Do they have FEELINGS about people who put pineapple on pizza? Do they fold or crumple toilet paper? These tiny details make them HUMAN.
ᯓ★ Flaws that actually inconvenience your character. Not "I'm too loyal" or "I care too much", give them REAL problems. They're passive aggressive. They hold grudges. They're cheap. They talk over people. They're judgmental. They can't admit they're wrong. Make them ANNOYING sometimes.
ᯓ★ Backstory is seasoning not the whole meal. Sprinkle it in. Your reader doesn't need a full paragraph explaining why your character is afraid of dogs in chapter one. Show them flinch when one barks. Mention it later. Let the reader PUT IT TOGETHER.
ᯓ★ What your character wants vs what they NEED are different things. They want revenge but they NEED to heal. They want love but they NEED to love themselves first. The journey is them figuring this out, not getting what they think they want and living happily ever after immediately.
Writing Tips: Ask yourself - what does this sentence do?
Every sentence in your story should serve a purpose. If it doesn’t reveal something new about a character, advance the plot, or add tension, it’s weighing your story down. Extra words, tangents, or filler may feel satisfying while writing, but they can slow the reader’s immersion.
When editing, read each line and ask yourself: Does this matter? Does it change anything? Does it show me who this character really is? If the answer is no, delete it. Sometimes cutting feels painful, but your story will be stronger, tighter, and more engaging.
Lean into precision. Let every word earn its place. You’ll be amazed how much sharper your narrative becomes when you remove everything unnecessary.
Trim the fat, sharpen your prose, and let your story breathe.
Please keep in mind that sentences which are intended for world-building, showcasing personality, a unique style or subtext are not fat to be trimmed!
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hollanov just like heaven au where ilya ends up in an accident and is in hospital in a coma and *handwavy hockey logistics* shane is traded to boston to take his place. and ofc bc it's a last minute deal boston's managers agree to lease shane ilya's house short-term until he can find somewhere of his own except when shane unlocks the front door he finds a very pissed off russian waiting for him and demanding to know why the fuck he's in his house. and shane has a heart attack obviously bc ilya is supposed to be in hospital and why the fuck is shane even hERE if he's well enough to yell at people but then idk maybe ilya tries to shove him and his hands go straight through shane and they realise oh fuck ilya's not actually here at all.
ilya loses his shit and is terrified that he's dead. shane has a panic attack and is convinced he's going insane. they take a trip to the hospital ilya's staying in and confirm he's very much alive but unconscious and then they slip into a very strange but somewhat enjoyable cohabitation situation. shane is lonely in boston and still bitter over the trade so it's nice to have someone to talk to about it and ilya feels strangely unselfconscious in his incorporeal body, like nothing he says really counts. and he gives shane advice about how to gel with the team and they watch hockey together and ilya complains if shane tries to rearrange anything in his house and they desperately, desperately want to be able to touch each other even though they can't.
shane starts visiting ilya in the hospital and sitting with him for way longer than he really should and ilya sometimes lies in the empty space in his bed next to shane when shane's asleep and tries to ignore the lump in his throat every time shane reaches out and his hand goes right through him and they're falling in love and they shouldn't be and it hurts So Much and anyway long story short ilya wakes up and remembers everything and they finally get to kiss and they play on the same team and everything is wonderful!!!!
I literally have notes started about this, and I downloaded the movie since I haven't seen it in decades. I want someone to write this so bad, enough that it might be me!!!