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How to Plan and Outline Novels (Using Scrivener)
Rating: 3.9 out of 5(721 ratings)
7,830 students

How to Plan and Outline Novels (Using Scrivener)

Learn the Step-by-Step "Story Beats" Process That Two Bestselling Writers Use To Publish 1.5 Million Words a Year
Created bySmarter Artist
Last updated 12/2014
English

What you'll learn

  • Plan your entire story from Day One starting with a no-fuss, stepwise outlining process ... but WITHOUT locking yourself in and cutting off creative expansion as happens with most outlining methods.
  • Learn how "casting" your characters the way Hollywood does will give you amazing shortcuts to understanding their personalities, appearance, and mannerisms.
  • Use "location scouting" (complete with online, image-based research) to effortlessly build your story's locations and world (even if your world isn't on Planet Earth).
  • Find your book's central nuggets by working "narrow to wide," beginning with a single, simple sentence.
  • Effortlessly craft a story summary, book description, and boiled-down "elevator pitch" with no extra work as you follow the process.
  • Use Scrivener's native organizational features to keep everything together and searchable, right where you need it whenever you require it.
  • See how the deepest stories can come from the very simplest of ideas -- and learn how you can make a great story from just about anything.

Course content

6 sections • 10 lectures • 2h 14m total length

  • An Introduction to Using Scrivener for Beats16:40

    In this introduction, Sean explains the reasons we use beats, how they help us write faster, and the general architecture of the entire system using Scrivener software.

Requirements

  • Scrivener software (not required for planning process, but recommended to get the most out of it).

Description

In this course, Smarter Artist co-founder Sean Platt will show you the step-by-step process our 3-person bestselling author team uses to plan and outline over 2 million words per year of high-quality, reader-loved fiction without hassle, delays, or the frustration most writers face.

The most important thing any independent author must do to sell more books and make more money is to "write, publish, and repeat," getting new work to market fast. In this course, we'll show you how to get faster while making your stories richer, deeper, and flat-out better.

Through ten videos and just under 3 hours of content, you'll learn a pre-production process we call "story beats" -- a way of planning that combines the thoroughness of traditional outlining with the flexibility and high creativity of "seat of the pants and trusting the story" writing. Having the very best beats in place before writing will take the frustration out of daily writing because you'll always know your characters, their world, their motivations, and their conflicts. You'll know what they look like, how they act, and what they're up to.

Sean will show you this process using our favorite writing program: Scrivener. He'll show you what to put where, how to use images and the different sections to define your project, and how to show up at the desk tomorrow ready to kick butt and take names.

Who this course is for:

  • Authors who want to write better stories faster.

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