How to Create a Scene by Scene Outline for Your Novel This post is the second in a short series about how I plan and outline my novels before I write them. Last week, I shared how I plan out the overall structure of the novel, and this week I am sharing how I create…
Let me start by saying that not everyone plans out their novels. Some people literally sit down with little more than a glimmer in their eye and start writing. Some people do more, and some people go absolutely bananas outlining their novel as precisely as possible. All of these methods are worthy and valid, and…
We’ve all had the experience of reading the first chapter of a book and saying to ourselves, “This is going to be good.” This is how I felt when listening to the first chapter of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi for the first time.
What makes us feel this way? A magical amalgam of relatable and interesting characters, language that sings to the heart, and awakened curiosity draw us into a world that is not our own.
Word count goals are magical. They motivate and push us to reach levels of productivity we didn’t know were possible. They are fun for those of us who like to measure progress, and meeting those goals feels amazing. But when we consistently overreach and do not hit our goals, it can be disheartening, and when we push too hard to hit a number, we aren’t always focusing on the quality of the work. That is the dark underbelly of word count goals.
