Great post about what many writers despise, Outlining. It is an essential part of writing a good story but it is also time consuming and often maddening as you sit and try to move scenes around without losing the plot or subtle hints that you have scattered through the text.
My favorite way is the cork board methods. You write up each main scene in your novel on an index card and post them in order on a cork board or layed out on a table. then you can move each scene around and see if the plot still flows.
When I was a kid, my mom had a rule at the dinner table: “Eat everything on your plate.” I was okay with it most of the time. Mom was a great cook who never failed to deliver a stunning meal even when she didn’t have much to work with. But sometimes…sometimes that rule was a tough pill to swallow. Especially when Lima beans were involved. But what I didn’t realize was that mom was teaching me an important principle way back then: it’s just as i … Read More