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Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus), family Viperidae, basking outside a communal den, one 2 different dates, PA, USA

Venomous.

(a non-suffering writer’s guide to structure, sanity, and staying mildly hydrated)

Hey besties. Let’s talk outlines. Specifically: how to do them without crawling into the floorboards and screaming like a Victorian ghost.

If just hearing the word “outline” sends your brain into chaos-mode, welcome. You’re not broken, you’re just a writer whose process has been hijacked by Very Serious Advice™ that doesn’t fit you. You don’t need to build a military-grade beat sheet. You don’t need a sixteen-tab spreadsheet. You don’t need to suffer to be legitimate. You just need a structure that feels like it’s helping you, not haunting you.

So. Here’s how to outline your book without losing your soul (or all your serotonin).

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🍓 1. Stop thinking of it as “outlining.” That word is cursed. Try “story sketch.” “Narrative roadmap.” “Planning soup.” Whatever gets your brain to chill out. The goal here is to understand your story, not architect it to death.

Outlining isn’t predicting everything. It’s just building a scaffold so your plot doesn't fall over mid-draft.

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🧠 2. Find your plot skeleton. There are lots of plot structures floating around: 3-Act. Save the Cat. Hero’s Journey. Take what helps, ignore the rest.

If all else fails, try this dirt-simple one I use when my brain is mush:

Act I: What’s the problem?

Act II: Why can’t we fix it?

Act III: What finally makes us change?

Ending: What does that change cost?

You don’t need to fill in every detail. You just need to know what’s driving your character, what’s blocking them, and what choices will change them.

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🛒 3. Make a “scene bucket list.” Before you start plotting in order, write down a list of scenes you know you want: key vibes, emotional beats, dramatic reveals, whatever.

These are your anchors. Even if you don’t know where they go yet, they’re proof your story already exists, it just needs connecting tissue.

Bonus: when you inevitably get stuck later, one of these might be the scene that pulls you back in.

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🧩 4. Start with 5 key scenes. That’s it. Here’s a minimalist approach that won’t kill your momentum:

Opening (what sucks about their world?)

Catalyst (what throws them off course?)

Midpoint (what makes them confront themselves?)

Climax (what breaks or remakes them?)

Ending (what’s changed?)

Plot the spaces between those after you’ve nailed these. Think of it like nailing down corners of a poster before smoothing the rest.

You’re not “doing it wrong” if you start messy. A messy start is a start.

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🔧 5. Use the outline to ask questions, not just answer them. Every section of your outline should provoke a question that the scene must answer.

Instead of: — “Chapter 5: Sarah finds a journal.”

Try: — “Chapter 5: What truth does Sarah find that complicates her next move?”

This makes your story active, not just a list of stuff that happens. Outlines aren’t just there to record, they’re tools for curiosity.

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🪤 6. Beware of the Perfectionist Trap™. You will not get the entire plot perfect before you write. Don’t stall your momentum waiting for a divine lightning bolt of Clarity. You get clarity by writing.

Think of your outline as a map drawn in pencil, not ink. It’s allowed to evolve. It should evolve.

You’re not building a museum exhibit. You’re making a prototype.

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🧼 7. Clean up after you start drafting. Here’s the secret: the first draft will teach you what the story’s actually about. You can go back and revise the outline to fit that. It’s not wasted work, it’s evolving scaffolding.

You don’t have to build the house before you live in it. You can live in the mess while you figure out where the kitchen goes.

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🛟 8. If you’re a discovery writer, hybrid it. A lot of “pantsers” aren’t anti-outline, they’re just anti-stiff-outline. That’s fair.

Try using “signposts,” not full scenes:

Here’s a secret someone’s hiding.

Here’s the emotional breakdown scene.

Here’s a betrayal. Maybe not sure by who yet.

Let the plot breathe. Let the characters argue with your outline. That tension is where the fun happens.

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🪴 TL;DR but emotionally: You don’t need a flawless outline to write a good book. You just need a loose net of ideas, a couple of emotional anchors, and the willingness to pivot when your story teaches you something new.

Outlines should support you, not suffocate you.

Let yourself try. Let it be imperfect. That’s where the good stuff lives.

Go forth and outline like a gently chaotic legend 🧃

— written with snacks in hand by Rin T. @ thewriteadviceforwriters 🍓🧠✍️

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

･ ⟢ ⋮ Free to use, DO NOT CREDIT ME. Reposts/Edits/Recolours/adding to Masterlists or hoards allowed.

I have a lofty goal to complete the entire Pokedex through TCG redraws! Every Pokemon, every form! And I’ll need YOUR help to do it!

We’re moving on to UNOVA, and everyone is going to pick Pokemon from a spreadsheet!

Some ground rules first:

Absolutely NO “AI” IMAGES ALLOWED. Anything I suspect of being AI will not go into the queue.

Post your submissions here on tumblr as soon as you finish them! Use the tag #poketcgunova so I can find everything in one place! It also helps to @ this blog.

There will be a check-in due on August 31st! If your submission is not posted by then but you want to keep your spot, DM me by that time with a check-in! You do not need to have any progress done, this is just a notice for me that you’re still planning on participating! If you do not check in with me and your entry is not posted, I will be wiping the remaining names from the sheet and opening submissions again. The final deadline will be September 30th, 2026

I’ll be adding posts to my queue once everything is wrapped up so they will post in National Pokedex order, and I’ll gather everything into one gallery (with credit to you!) for everyone to view together!

I would appreciate it if you somehow credited the original card/artist you’re referencing somewhere in your post! (Posts with links still don’t show up in tags! Yay tumblr!)

You can use any medium you want! Photography, 3D, digital, traditional, clay, Lego, fiber, the limit is your own creativity!

You can change the card to be a shiny form if you want! Otherwise I’d prefer the designs stay within canon (An exception would be an old canon design of the Pokemon, like something based off old Gameboy sprites)

There is no application for entry!! Pick a Pokemon and draw it and have fun!

All official cards are okay (Including TCG Pocket)! All full arts are okay! Any skill level is okay!

You do not have to make a full formatted card! Just the illustration is perfect!

Some Mega Evolutions don’t have cards! Any submissions of Megas and Gigantamaxes have permission to redraw a regular card as the Mega or Giga form!

Here is the link to the spreadsheet!

Enter your username to the right of the Pokemon you plan to draw! (Scroll to the right to see the rest of the list if you’re on mobile!)

Sign up for only ONE Pokemon so everyone has a chance to pick what they’d want! After check-ins there will be opportunities for people to pick a second Pokemon if they want to. And only one artist per Pokemon, please!

If you want to back out for any reason, please tell me! Nobody will be mad at you! Your art WILL be platformed on this blog if you enter, so if that makes you nervous I understand!

If you do enter, please save this post so that you remember and still have access to the sheet! (By accessing it on Google Sheets you’ll also have it saved)

did you know that the poles that these cameras are mounted on have never been crash tested, regardless of the camera's brand? I sure do hope no evil "antifa terrorists" knock them over by driving into them with a modern truck! that would be hooooorible!

What I need for the time being was covered thank you, leaving this rebloggable for anyone that wants to help more

Venmo: AGIEF

Paypal: [email protected]

Ko-fi:

Edit: rescinding this request I need to get more heartburn and lactose intolerance medicine