#my process

i do it cuz i litteraly dont have the time. my watch later playlists on youtube are 10000s of videos long.

So basically what's your process for outlining and how do you know how much detail to put into the outline?

(I can't wait to read stinkbug btw, I love secret third thing crossfangs so much)

Hi! First of all, congrats on embarking on the fic writing journey!!

I’ll start this by saying I’m still figuring out my own process for long form writing. I’ve been doing long form writing for 15+ years and have only ever completed 4 projects (2 original fiction first drafts and my two completed long fics), so don’t be discouraged if it takes time to figure out how the process is going to work for you.

On the scale of Planner to Pantser (writing by the seat of your pants, no plan) I am probably two thirds pantser one third planner.

Currently, the process that is working for me is to work backwards. I take my fic idea, and decide on the ending. (Or at least, where I think it *could* end. The ending of Genuine Luxury changed three or four times through the writing process). Usually when I get an idea for a story it’s built around a few moments or a character dynamic, and these thoughts form the start (or sometimes the middle) of the story. With those puzzle pieces, I have the start of my outline.

I have done very detailed outlines in the past, with full scene breakdowns and dot points and arc notes and everything, but I’ve found doing that I tend to get too bogged down in the details, and feel too married to initial ideas, and it leads to me rapidly losing motivation.

My current outline process is very stream of consciousness. I don’t worry about trying to plan every single scene, I focus on key moments and any specific interactions I know I want to include, and use vague dot points to connect them.

I also let myself start writing before I’ve finished the outline. I’m currently writing Chapter 6 of the Manor AU, but only have about 2 thirds of the outline done.

Sometimes I expand on the dot points to fill out all the scenes, and break them into where I feel the natural chapter breaks will be, but anyone who was following while I was posting Genuine Luxury knows that those planned chapters do not tend to stay at the amounts I initially think haha.

Overall, the main thing that has helped me get to the point of being able to actually finish long form fiction is having at least some sort of key point I can come back to as a guide. Where is the story going? What is the goal? Everything builds from that.

The other motivator is getting incredible feedback from my readers, so I highly recommend posting your work, even if it’s still a WIP, because the excitement of others is an incredible motivator.

I hope this has been a little helpful. I may have to sit down when I get home from work tonight and pull up the outlines I had for Unfortunate Passing and Genuine Luxury to give some more exact examples. You can also look at the last chapter of Complex Journey for an example of the style of the dot points I do when planning.

While I await any comments from my very kind beta reader on my next chapter, I'm going through the essential task of updating my synopsis spreadsheet with the latest chapters. It's a bit tedious because I'm summarising each chapter (around four since the last time i did this), and colouring it depending on whether it's plot or romantic action taking place (and both are sometimes the same, and also there is black text which is just elaboration).

This means I can go back and quickly see where the plot is at, and where the romance is at, if I need to refresh myself without rereading in depth. Which I do need prior to detailed planning, because there's too much to remember without help.

This is great for helping me pull back and get a big picture view of the fic after getting sucked into the details. After this, I can plan the next chapters better, knowing not to repeat things, and what must be included next. At the moment, I'm also working to a rough outline going forward, so I'm looking both forward and back before I plan then draft the next chapter.

It's too much to keep in my head, and that's one of the reasons I write slowly at the moment. As more things are resolved, I'm hoping it gets a little less tricky.