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sylvia plath once wrote in her journal 'if i get through this year, no matter how badly, it will be the biggest victory i've ever done' and if that's not a mood for 2020 i don't know what is.
Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
bitches be like my dream job is to be a published writer but then complain about writing 24/7. its me. im bitches.Â
The Progressive Outline â How I balance my plotter and pantser tendencies.
When I first started writing at 13, I was a pantser. Iâd develop an initial concept for a story, then just write â making everything up as I went.
Within a year or so, I became a plotter. I wrote extensive character sheets, deeply developed the worlds of my stories, and wrote detailed outlines that spanned not just the current novel, but series-long arcs.
In the years that followed (high school, college, MFA), I oscillated between the two approaches, navigating the benefits and challenges of both, as well as my own evolving preferences â before settling on my current method.
I call it âprogressive outlining,â and it helps me do two somewhat conflicting things:
Create an outline for structure and direction
Allow my characters the freedom to organically grow, surprise me, and influence the story
The Progressive Outline
There are three parts to my outlining process:
Initial preparation
Creating a rough outline
Incremental journeys
1. Initial Preparation
Here, I do my initial brainstorming. Starting with the original concept, I generate ideas for the setting, characters, motivations, plot points, magic systems, etc. You can spend as much time as you want in this stage, but for me, the most important things to firmly establish are:
Your main character (and what drives them emotionally)
A small, initial cast of characters
Any core magic or sci-fi elements
The opening setting of your story
Those four things are important, because theyâre the foundation of the story â the launchpad, both for the writing and the outline.
2. Creating a Rough Outline
Next, I create a rough outline of the story, and I really do mean ârough.â Instead of detailing every beat of the story from beginning to end, I allow the outline to become increasingly broad and vague the further out it goes.
For example, letâs say my story is made up of three parts. The most detailed section in the outline would be Part 1; Part 2 would be pretty broad; and Part 3 would have just a few high-level bullet points.
In all those sections, however, I try to mark key turning points for the characters and the plot, even if I donât know exactly what will happen. For example, I might say, âOur characters clash at the festival,â or, âA friend will somehow betray the main characterâs trust, hurting their relationship.â
The point of this outline is to provide long-view guidance wherever I am in the story. However, I keep things relatively vague, because I like to delay making specific decisions until my characters are closer to each event.
3. Incremental Journeys
Now the fun part. Writing.
To start, I take my rough outline and make sure the first couple sections are nicely fleshed out. Then, considering everything I learned during my initial preparation and using my outline as a general (but not set-in-stone) guide, I write those first few chapters.
After finishing those chapters, I do three things:
I think about what Iâve learned about the characters and story so far.
Using what Iâve learned, I flesh out the next few chapters in the outline, which might include some further world building or character development.
I write the newly outlined chapters.
Then I repeat those three steps, again and again â progressively outlining and writing my way through the story in short, incremental journeys.
Why do I write this way?
As I said at the beginning, this approach gives me the structure and direction of an outline, without denying my characters the freedom to grow and surprise me.Â
Thatâs why I write this way â outlining, yes, but leaving much of the outline initially broad and vague so that I can let my characters play a more active role in shaping how each plot point comes to life. The process is pretty similar to Flashlight Outlining, if any of you are familiar; the main difference, as far as I can see, is that I also maintain an overarching outline.
Should you write this way?
Youâd know better than me! A key part of every writerâs development is figuring out their process, and we do that by writing and experimenting. So give this outlining process a shot if youâre dissatisfied with your current process or want to try an approach that draws from both plotters and pantsers.
And if you already love your process?
Please share it below! Iâd love to hear how you write (with or without an outline) and why it works for you.
â â â
Hey there! My nameâs Mike, and Iâm a writer and copywriter with an MFA in fiction. For more tips on how to hone your craft and nurture meaningful stories, follow my blog.

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WIP INTRO | THE LAST CADENZAÂ
genre | romance, dark ya
status | drafting
pitch |Â
Mae has a simple plan for grade eleven: donât think.
Thereâs a problem with that. Actually, two problems. The first problem is that as a frequent performer, sheâs required to tap into thinking to be any good.
The second problem is Samir Anand. Samir is nothing like Mae expected, and he has a penchant for getting her to say more than she wants to. As Mae and Samir grow closer, and Mae has to hide their blossoming relationship from overbearing parents, itâs clear that Samir is going to make Mae abandon her plan. And then heâs going to make her hurt.
further concepts |
Whatâs it like to be a performer when youâre not sure you have the vibrancy you need to come alive on stage? Whatâs it like to fall in love with a person when youâre not sure youâre in love with being alive? Mae Montgomery, a high schooler struggling with undiagnosed mental illness, has to ask herself these questions. When it comes time to choose between honesty and self-preservation, will she be able to? The Last Cadenza explores the idea that a relationship canât fix a mental illness, while also emphasizing that people with mental illnesses donât need to be âfixedâ to participate in them.Â
People are flawed, they make mistakes, and they learn. This is a deeply, deeply personal narrative, covering a range of topics, and Maeâs unreliable narration draws readers into a mess of partial truths, begging the question - will she ever be really honest with herself?
characters |
Mae Montgomery. Sixteen. She/her. Too many secrets. Loves to sing but wonders if she might not have what it takes to perform.Â
Samir Anand. Seventeen. Always around. Too tall to be allowed. Mysterious and a little bit weird.
Amanda âSixâ Hefferman. Seventeen. She/her. Maeâs best friend. Too nosy. Loyal to Mae on every level.
excerpt |Â
The day Samir Anand talks to me for the first time, it doesnât change everything. My world doesnât turn on itâs axis.Â
Itâs just a regular Tuesday. Thereâs nothing about the way he stands staring at the bulletin board with his hands shoved into his pockets to indicate that heâs going to be the most important person Iâve ever met, or that one day Iâll break his heart.
He says, âHello, Mae.â
Thereâs a split second where I consider playing the game â sorry, Samir, right? â like I donât know perfectly well who he is, but Iâm too tired for that today. So I just let my backpack sag onto the floor. âHey.âÂ
warnings* | mental illness, suicide, disordered eating, self harm
*all excerpts will be tagged extensively and appropriately. i will not be sharing the more intense scenes publicly. please - if something is not tagged that should be, please please let me know.
aesthetics | the anxiety of knowing you havenât tried your best, a fake smile that hurts to put on, keeping secrets from yourself, standing too long under a hot shower, the terror of someone loving the person youâve become for them, deep exhaustion
ask to be added to the TLC taglist!
You ever come up with a fic or story idea in your head and it's like... everything you wanted? Like you're sitting there and thinking "damn this is gonna be my magnum opus" and you've got every detail so perfectly sketched in your head with all the right emotions coming through.
And then you go to write and it's like the most daunting task ever??? Like please someone help me connect my brain to my empty google doc so I can type without typing yk???
Here is a quiet moment of Cats Are Not Made of Fire, of Julian finding his words to discuss things about mental illness openly with a friend. This is one of the views people have of mentally ill artists that I wanted to challenge with this story, the idea that the illness does things.Â
Taglist (ask to be added or removed):Â @my-liminal-spaces @yakultlover457 @scvthian @writingbyjillian @drarrytrash8 @alicewestwater @estudiamo
Continua a leggere
âVenice once was dear, The pleasant place of all festivity, The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy.â Lord Byron
fuck you i put commas wherever i want

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youre probably thinking of this really essential writing advice in a really unhelpful way
âHOW DO I PLOT?â is a really common question/struggle/panic of writers. I have all these ideas, but how do I plot. My plot is full of holes., help??Â
And writing advice will often tell you that the answer is to ask, what does my character want?Â
Which is really solid advice, but look what happens a lot of times when we try to apply it practically.Â
What does my character want? Well, what she really wants is acceptance. Or, she wants to avoid her painful past. Or, she wants to be loved. These are all very legitimate âwantsâ or motivations for your character to have. But, in the thick of a story, they are like 0% helpful.Â
Because these things are abstract. They canât be DIRECTLY pursued by the character. The main character may not even be fully, consciously aware of what they want. Not all or even many of us in real life have that kind of self awareness. And thatâs why I wrestled with this advice (and my plots) for so long. Because I always knew what my character wanted, but it was always too abstract to help.Â
Instead, you have to get really nitty gritty and specific and tangible about your characterâs wants.Â
So no. Not acceptance. Your character wants to make this specific person like them. They want to get invited to this particular party. They want to be included in this particular conversation. They want to change the behaviors that label them as âweird.â They want to behave like or mimic this clique of people. Try to dig into and get more specific with even THOSE things because then what youâll have is a rich hoard of things your character can do, things they can choose. So, maybe your character starts downplaying their geeky interests to seem less âweird.â Or is trying to convince their mom to let them shop where the âpopularâ kids shop. Write out the argument between parent and child. It fits into the story because itâs just a trickle-down of your characterâs larger motivation.Â
So: Not to avoid their past. To move out of the house that reminds them of what happened. To avoid a specific thing that triggers them. To change their identity. To cut off contact with this person. Write about their relief as they rip posters off the walls and paint over the scarring left. Get VERY SMALL.Â
Youâre only onto something helpful until you can state your characterâs desires as a concrete verb, that is, something specific and tangible they can DO. Split these things down as far as you possibly can and extrapolate and explore them. Maybe your character wants to feel free from their grief (not âinner peaceâ or somethingâ).WELL. Figuring out what your character wants and getting in the way of that isnât just for big things. Itâs for the tiny things too. I mean tiny things. Maybe your character is coping with their pain using comfort food, but the brand of ice cream they used to enjoy with their lost loved one is discontinued?? Sounds like a minor disappointment, but not while it is tied into much deeper things. You could have them have a breakdown over the ice cream and it will fit perfectly into the story.
Literally every action you take in life is toward *some* goal. You normally donât think about how your desire for good grades is due to your underlying desire for self validation (just throwing something out there.) But think about the actions and feelings you take and have in connection to this. You might skip out on movie night with friends because you are stressed about a test. You might neglect self care in favor of studying. You might feel better and friendlier when your grades are good, but if you get a C in something, you might feel less passion for your hobbies and not want to talk to anyone because you feel depressed.Â
If you wrote âself validationâ as a motivation for your character you wouldnt have the least idea what to do with it, but âto obtain good gradesâ is getting closer and âto come up with an excuse to skip on movie nightâ is even better because itâs very immediate and specific.Â
Plotting became a lot less intimidating when I figured this out.Â
when youâre trying to write and your last two functioning brain cells start yelling at each other
Let's be honest, reading books and buying books are two completely different hobbies.

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of course the only time I get inspired to write is when I'm procrastinating my uni work
I know adverbs are Controversial, but âsaid softlyâ means something different than âwhisperedâ and this is the hill I will die on.