I’d gone back and forth over what I wanted to write about this week, and while my original plan had been to talk about crochet, something else came up that I felt I wanted to talk about. For those who don’t know, I’m currently attending online courses through SNHU for my MFA in Creative Writing, my focus being on publication. This week marks my mid-term for this course, and I’ve found myself once again agonizing over an outline.
Now, I had a beautiful outline set up after my Genre I class – had assistance from my instructor and everything getting that baby polished and looking like I knew what the hell I was doing. But, somewhere in between getting that polished and the beginning of this course, my focus shifted to a different idea for my thesis novel that I like better and would like to develop. My only problem? I should have a plot outline and character arcs already that we are supposed to be building upon in this course. In a nutshell… I’ve fucked myself.
But that’s okay. I just need to sit down with my thoughts and get the important beats written down. But how do I do that? (Now you get my fun stream of consciousness while I figure this out!) I’ve got tons of unused note cards. I think my best course of action is to write the large beats down on the cards and shuffle them around so they’re in order. Then, from there, I can expand on each beat.
What is a beat? (I’m sure you’re wondering… I did, too.) In writing, a beat is a small action, and a collection of those beats creates the scene. I’ll be leaning on my trusty book, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody (click to get your Kindle copy). This book breaks it down to the three act structure, even dividing the second act in two (which is super helpful since it’s the largest portion of the story). Once I get the larger – more important – beats written down and in order, it will be easier for me to break those down into more detail.
In the meantime, tell me what your favorite book/movie is in the comments. I’d love to get to know each of you better.
XO,
Deanna.