Wattpad Creators Weekly Writing Challenges

Outlining Your Story

Week 3: Outlines

Hello, Creators! 

Now that you have a character and have spent time thinking critically about some of your favourite stories, it's time to dig a little deeper into the world that you're creating. This week we're going to dive into one of the most effective ways to organize your ideas and bring structure to your story: outlining your novel.

There is no right or wrong way to outline—it doesn't matter if you're compiling a detailed beat sheet or a general sketch, the most important thing you're doing while outlining is coming up with an idea of how your story might unfold. An outline is never set in stone: as you write, you will learn more about your characters and your story may change. But for now, this is a great time to get to know your character a bit better and see how they might react in the situations you plan on putting them in. The important thing is to have a roadmap to guide you as you bring your story to life. Even if you are a pantser(aka, a person who writes as they go, or by the seat of their pants!), creating that foundation to build your story on will keep you on track and help you to avoid writer's block.

Writing an outline may be daunting, especially if you've never used one before, but here's a fun exercise that our editorial team ran during Wattcon 2022 that is sure to get your creative juices flowing! All you need is a blank piece of paper and something to write with:

Step 1: Fold and cut/tear a sheet of paper into 8 pieces. You will need 6 pieces for the first part of the exercise, so save the last 2 for the next part.

Step 2: Brainstorm 6 major events that will happen in your story, and write each event on a piece of paper.

Step 3: Move the plot points around and shuffle them into different orders. Note how shuffling the order changes the outline of your story. Does this make your story more interesting? How would the order impact the reading experience and understanding of your story?

Step 4: Settle on an order for the 6 pieces of paper that you find interesting or inspiring. Now pick two plot events that are next to each other and try to connect them. Use one of the blank pieces of paper and write what needs to happen for your character to get from one plot point to the next. Do this again with two new plot events and the final blank piece of paper.

Congratulations! You've created an outline for your story! Hopefully, you now have the bones of an engaging and exciting story. Don't hesitate to repeat this exercise if you need to generate additional ideas for your novel!

Happy writing!