Tested Writing Tips – Page 5 – Marie Alice Writes & Reads

Tested Writing Tips: 3 fun way to outline your novel – for pantsers and plotters!

But, I had to girl-up about it for new writing project reasons. Took me a while to find outlining methods that felt right… sort of. I share those with you.
Spoiler alert: the « Save the cat! » method is not included down below.

Outlining can be tricky. It always has been for me anyway. I am more on the pantser side of the spectrum.

But, I had to girl-up about it for new writing project reasons. Took me a while to find outlining methods that felt right… sort of. I share those with you. Spoiler alert: the « Save the cat! » method is not included down below.

Outlining is for…

For some literary genres, outlining can help a big big lot.

For other literary genres, it does not help so much but it can still be super useful.

Outlining a novel will help tremendously with:

Mysteries
Thrillers
Roman noir
Crime/Detective stories (we say romans policiers ou polar around here)
High fantasy series
If I’m forgetting one, please let me know and I’ll update the list.

No beat sheets available here

Beat sheets, not for me. Don’t like the feeling of singing the same tune everybody’s singing, you know. I hate the feeling of writing the same book everybody’s writing, following the same guidelines, having the characters be miserable at exactly 45% of the book or whatever.

Here’s the 3 outlining I feel gives room to create while making sure a story has every beat it needs to captivate readers.

Katytastic
This outlining method is my method of choice. Her outlining structure does not leave any fundamentals beats behind.
Hannah Truelove
Her method is simple, giving a pantser like me lots of room to play around. Simple, yet, not too simplistic. Every important story beats is there to grab.
The NovelSmithy – Lewis
It’s the best of both world: a clear map of what an outline should look like, where the story beats should it + details on the why the story beats should fall there and not there. (Yes, I did fell for the « How to outline without sacrificing your creativity » headline.)

Thanks for reading this post, gals and guys. I hope it helps.
Please, feel free to buy a ko-fi to this crazy full-time Writer on a Quest. Always much appreciated.

Until next time!

Tested writing tips: testing Chris Fox « 5,000 Words Per Hour » technique

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This is not an affiliate post.

My opinions are my own. « 5,000 Words Per Hour » is available at Kobo and Amazon/Audible. On to the tested writing tip stuff!

Sharpen your pencil writer friends, it’s time to get writing!

Continuer la lecture

Tested Writing Tip: How to make peace with adverbs

One night, the teacher in our creative writing class said: adverbs are bad.
I felt called out, probably like most of the others 20 years old students there.

One night, the teacher in our creative writing class said: adverbs are bad.

I felt called out, probably like most of the others 20 years old students there.

I was (still am) very fond of adverbs. I loved their rhythm, the way they would make emotions, places, moments clearer.

That being said, I was more eager to become a better writer than to fight for adverbs. And since, according to my teacher, a great open-minded author, relying on adverbs was a clear sign of lazy, unimaginative writing, I promptly banned them.

For years, I avoided them whenever possible, and felt like a bad writer whenever I was using them.

Over the years, I learned how to make peace with adverbs. I used them less for sure. And when I do use them, I go through these checkpoints:

Is it making things clearer or confusing?
Is the sentence flows nicely?
Is the adverbs necessary here?

When in doubt, I read the sentence out loud. Tell you the truth, I often read out loud, just to see if I trip on words or need to take a breath in the middle of a sentence (a clear sign that there’s a punctuation problem somewhere, or that the sentence is way too long).

So there it is, short and sweet, my tested writing tip on how to make peace with adverbs.

Thanks for reading this post. Feel free to show your support by buying a ko-fi to this crazy full-time Writer on a Quest, it is always very very much appreciated.

Until next time!