Need Some Advice..

Write 10 chapter titles that summarize your story from beginning to end. Thinking about the titles is easier than dealing with all the data. Once you have 10 chapter titles that tell your whole story, just write each chapter. A little trick I've used to get started organizing before. (55 yo married writer). Friend me for more discussion?

I should point out, however, that I always know how the whole thing will end and where the peaks are going to occur the whole while, and I write to those peaks and ending.

I have been editing a novel in three volumes for another author for the last 6 years or so. This guy writes a novel the way I wish I did: lays out every chapter before hand, knows exactly what is going to happen in the chapter, and makes it happen just so. It's an amazing and organized way to create a novel.

But it's not something I'm very good at. I need to leave myself room to improvise as I go, and account for ideas that are created on the fly as I'm writing, one idea springboarding off the next. So when I write a novel, I do a very loose lay out... just the high points, really. Then I write and fill in the blanks between the high points. This is enough for me to keep the story under some kind of loose control and direction, but not enough to stifle my ideas and thoughts as the come to me in response to what I've written before.

one long term thought organizer is to make a journal, you put pictures, thoughts, random skectes and anything in it that might help you face a blank page. For one story, I would suggest writing down all your ideas for it, like maybey a scene you imaginged for it, ideas for characters, places, and the actual events to make the story move. Put the even in some sort of chronological order and write in paragraphs kind of a idea of the story is going to play out.

Hope this helps,

From one writer to another