Outlining Your Novel – Map Your Way To Success by KM Weiland

Outlining Your Novel

Map Your Way To Success

by KM Weiland

Description:

Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the
outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer’s arsenal. Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success will:

• Help you choose the right type of outline for you
• Guide you in brainstorming plot ideas
• Aid you in discovering your characters
• Show you how to structure your scenes
• Explain how to format your finished outline
• Instruct you in how to use your outline
• Reveal the benefits:
  • Ensures cohesion and balance
  • Prevents dead-end ideas
  • Provides foreshadowing
  • Offers assurance and motivation
• Dispel misconceptions:
  • Requires formal formatting
  • Limits creativity
  • Robs the joy of discovery
  • Takes too much time

Even if you’re certain outlining isn’t for you, the book offers all kinds of important tips on plot, structure, and character. Includes exclusive interviews with Larry Brooks, Elizabeth Spann Craig, Lisa Grace, Dan L. Hays, Jody Hedlund, Carolyn Kaufman, Becky Levine, Roz Morris, John Robinson, and Aggie Villanueva, answering important questions:

• Can you describe your outlining process?
• What is the greatest benefit of outlining?
• What is the biggest potential pitfall of outlining?
• Do you recommend “pantsing” for certain situations and outlining for others?
• What’s the most important contributing factor to a successful
  outline?

Let outlines help you write a better
story!

My Review:  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

Many times, writers will line up into two camps: outliners and seat of the pansters (non-outliners). But it isn’t that simple. Pantsters, even the famous panster Stephen King, sometimes write a novel that requires some type of outline. And most of us, even it we don’t outline, do some sort of novel pre-planning. KM Weiland, an avid outliner, describes the outlining processes and the many ways to outline and pre-plan a novel. She also includes interviews with authors that do various forms of pre-planning and their methods. I highly recommend this book. Even if you are a panster, you’ll find some helpful tips throughout.

Planning: Outlining and Organizing Your Novel – Or Not