Before You Outline Your Novel, Do This!

Writing a novel (or writing anything at all) is a huge undertaking. Some writers make the creative writing process seem like this magical, spiritual experience where they were suddenly struck by divine inspiration and somehow were in the right place at the right time to be able to write it all down.

While this may be true for some writers, chances are this is not the case for most writers. It certainly isn’t how I write things, and it isn’t how Shaelin writes her novels. In the video below, we get a sneak-peak into Shaelin’s writing process, and what groundwork she lays before even starting on the outline.

Shaelin walks us through her process of taking notes and brainstorming for a story. While some scenes and plot arcs do come to her organically, a lot of the planning process is a matter of sitting down and filling in the gaps. By writing all of this out, it is easier to see how things are flowing and where you may need to add scenes or delete scenes.

For Shaelin, as with most writers, the creative process is part inspiration and part hard work. Get her other tips and tricks on prepping the outline as well as researching in the video below!