Get organised with a 3 act chapter by chapter outline

I’m not as organised as I would like to be when it comes to my writing.

Of course, procrastination and a lack of self worth play roles in my snail-like pace as I constantly find distractions to keep me from pursuing my latest ms.

But another issue around getting my act together is knowing at least a little bit about how my characters’ stories are going to pan out. I need to get to the nub of the story arc for all of them.

I’m doing what I’ve never done before in my latest ms. Its working title is Millicent is Dying but that’s not giving anything away because I’ve changed my mind hundreds of times about the role of the character Milly in the story. And she’s no longer dying!

This time around, I’m writing the points of view of four different characters. What’s more, it’s in the first person, except for Millicent. Added to this, the narrative isn’t linear.

My other books (surprisingly, there’s a few in the drawer, mostly romances) are all in the third person, and mostly from the main character’s point of view. They also follow one path that leads to a lovely ‘the end’ for all.

I started Millicent with the inciting incident as the opening chapter about three years ago, put it in the too-hard basket and went on to start another novel (now on-hold).

In 2020/21, during COVID-19, I returned to Millicent and wrote some more chapters. Prior to this, I’d described my characters in Scrivener but when I returned to them I decided to change all of their personality traits and their circumstances.

I dropped Millicent again to do a couple of writing courses (a good distraction) and enter flash-fiction writing competitions (no luck so far and I keep botching the prompts!). Catch my drift?

Prolonged procrastination equals maximum frustration

On the weekend I wrote an outline on a white board to go with my mud map, which will need a re-jig.

I can’t just fly by the seat of my pants with this one. I need to have guidelines.

I’m not sure how other authors deal with this. I know that some are totally tied into plot so they must have incredibly organised minds and a huge commitment to getting the work done.

No more excuses from me. I’ve got to get this baby off the ground.