I did it!

I set aside time to actually put some words down on paper and got quite a lot done. I just have to transfer the information from my notebook to the actual page in a way that makes sense. And yes, I’m that person that still writes shit down. This is what it looks like. If you can’t read my writing, that’s okay. Sometimes I can’t either.

This is how I start:

I find it easier to get to the place I need to be by writing it down first. Otherwise, I end up lost in the weeds and I can get pretty far into those weeds.

Anyway, when I was in high school, my English teacher taught us to frame out our arguments in outline form. You know:

1. Thesis
2. Point 1
   1. Supporting Evidence
3. Point 2
   1. Supporting Evidence
4. Point 3
   1. Supporting Evidence (She always made us have 3 reasons, i’m not sure why. Maybe 2 are good enough).
5. Conclusion

So, as you can see, I am conditioned to outline. It gets worse. Once I have the overall outline, I then take each one of those sections and break it down further.

It can get pretty messy, as you can see.

Once I have all that done, I actually write the book…long hand.

I don’t write every word, just enough to know where I’m going. Things like; what the mood is, how people are reacting, and dialogue, and some side notes. When I actually sit down and start typing, that’s when I’ll put in the dialogue tags, the atmosphere, and the internal monologues.

This weekend, I got almost two full scenes mapped out. This may not sound like a lot but it’s probably a few days worth of typing. I learned something extra this weekend too. Don’t leave your notebook out while you’re changing the laundry (for all of three whole minutes) with a toddler in the house. This is what happens…

I haven’t typed this page yet either.

Lesson learned.