I’ve been trying to work on several story ideas since the beginning of the year. I have all these great ideas, but I can’t ever figure out where my story is going past the beginning. I know what I think I want to happen, the how and where of that taking place just doesn’t come together easily for me. I try to outline and plot my story, but I still get stuck somewhere around the middle and can’t ever finish it. Thus, my stories end up as partially written and just hanging out in cyber-space. If this is a similar problem you have when it comes to writing books, then you might find this post helpful.

I’ve been really trying to get one of my stories out of cyber-space and actually written. I knew that I needed to write a good plot outline and have been scouring Pinterest and the internet to find a way to outline my story. The first one I found, by Michael Wellington, that I thought might work, was great at helping me figure out word count and the amount of scenes that I would need in my story; however, it wasn’t going to help me actually break past my middle book block.

The next place I went was the Lady Writer’s website. OMG, did she help me out! I actually completed a whole plot outline! Yes, I was able to break past my block and complete a whole beginning to end plot outline, in one page I might add. It turned into such a cute little mock book too once it was complete.

So, this is what I learned in my plot outline scavenger hunt: 1) Start with Eva Deverell’s one page plot outline video:

2) Use Michael Wellington’s outline method to set-up my story in Google Docs

• Step 1: Determine novel length
• Step 2: Figure out chapter/scene length
• Step 3: Outline structure using bullet points per chapter/scene
• Step 4: Write Quick Scene overview – The main thing that happens (no details)
• Step 5: Add scene details under each overview point – one or two important things that need to happen in each scene
• Step 6: Read the whole outline
• Step 7: Edit outline – fill in any areas that are lacking, find plot holes and fix, etc…
• Step 8: Have someone else read our outline
• Step 9: Final outline edit based on review from other person and your own reading
• Step 10: Write your story

I hope this helps you with your writing as much as it has helped me. I’m so excited to start writing my story!