This one is for the plotters and spreadsheet lovers! — Now, a quick disclaimer… I am not a spreadsheet enthusiast. I barely know how to make one but over the last year or so I’ve been dipping my toe into budgeting and list-making with Excel. I don’t know all of the fancy tricks, but for this method, you don’t need…

An outlining method made for future-proofing your book — If you’ve done any research into selling your book you’ll know exactly what a synopsis is. A literary agent will ask for a query and a synopsis to figure out if they are interested in reading your work. A synopsis is a summary of your characters and the events within…

How to keep your novels and characters on track — I have to be honest. I am only going to recommend this method to people who have very complicated books or are trying to keep track of a series. Someone who writes faster-paced books might also find this method more helpful. If your books are set over multiple years with…

Keep track of dates, events and fix pacing issues. — Timelines are one of the most well-known outlining methods out there. A lot of famous writers choose to use them. Dan Brown, Amanda Patterson and she, who will not be named, are among them. Despite looking very complicated, timelines are relatively simple to create, making it a perfect method for…

A time tested classic way to outline your novel — Flashcards have been used in story creation for decades. It’s a tried and true plot organisation method. The nicest part? The flexibility. Flashcards can be as detailed or as information sparse as you want, though using a virtual method might afford you more writing room if you tend to like…

An outlining method for the aesthetic writer. — I can almost guarantee that you could take any one of the outlining methods we’ll cover over the next month and make it work no matter what type of writer you are. A writer can make almost anything work for them through personalisation and customisation. That being said some of…

Welcome to Plotting 2022 — Okay so I have a pretty exciting announcement, at least I’m excited about it… so I hope you are too. Every publishing day for the month of April (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) I will be releasing a guide for specific types of writing outlines and plotting devices. There are about…

Yes, it’s still early, but yearly goals are large beasts… — Life is crazy right now, both on the larger worldwide scale and in my own personal life. Because of the wild ride, my writing goals at the moment feel small, insignificant and quite frankly unimportant in the grand scheme of things. There will always be new daily problems. Life… at least my life has this awful habit…

Here’s how I never miss a deadline… — I’ve said a couple of times in various articles that I love writing to deadlines. Deadlines are my jam, now I know a lot of writers hate them and don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to convert you. …