Got a writing or editing question for Smooth Draft?
Leave a comment here, or email your question to em@smoothdraft.com. I’m happy to answer any question. I may even do a whole blog post about the topic if it’s one I hear a lot.
Thanks!
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
uhh I couldn’t edit my previous question, but just by pointing me to a reference book will be more than enough. 😉
Is it better to outline? Which is the best way? (I’m a total newbie)
Everyone has their own best way. The longer a story and the more complicated plotlines you have, the more likely you’ll need to outline to keep everything straight and in the correct order. For a new writer you’ll need to write several finished pieces before you can see whether you should outline or not. If you get halfway through a story and don’t know what to do then outlining is probably a good idea. If you outline and then find it too constraining then you’ll want to have a looser outline, or just bare bones. But until you’ve written a few pieces and know where you’re having trouble, it’s almost impossible to answer.
For me, I write novels with several intertwining plots, so I need a certain structure to write. But I tend to do more outlining in a second draft once I see where the problem points are in a story. For a short story or novella there are fewer plotlines and generally a shorter time frame and it’s less important. HOpe that helps.