I am not procrastinating. Really, I am not. I am looking for the best tool for me to outline. Did I ever mention how much I like K.M. Weiland’s outlining articles and tools? That I have her program “Outline Your Novel”? I also have Drabble Scrivner, and recently I downloaded a 14-day trial of Plottr.
So here is what I have found:
Snowflake Method
The snowflake method might be the most pantser friendly outlining method. It focuses on writing your premise sentence down and working your way out, making it bigger.
Write your character name down, and then work your way out by making your character bigger. It’s not traditional outlining, so it appeals to people like me.
The man who developed the Snowflake method also developed the Plottr program. Which has a fourteen-day free trial, and that is what I decided to check out.
I have just under a week to finish outlining What We Leave Behind before I start writing on November 1st. This is why I am not procrastinating, but I am still looking at the best option for outlining a novel. I am also outlining my middle-grade children’s series. These programs are geared toward outlining adult novels. So, what do you use when outlining a middle-grade or young-adult book?
Outlining Your Novel Workbook
This is one of my favorite outlining programs because I have the book, the workbook, and the program, and I use notebooks to outline my novels. Still, I can also outline them on the computer and plug the information into the system. Her character development is excellent. She asks questions and even gives you a spot to plug in a photograph of what you think your character looks like.
It also works with Scrivener, which I love and use instead of Microsoft Word or Dabble. I only got Dabble because I had a Chromebook, and I couldn’t figure out how to get Scrivner to work on the Chromebook.
Dabble
So Dabble is described as Scrivner without the learning curve. I’m afraid I have to disagree. Yes, there is a lot of learning involved in using Scrivner. However, I am not sure that Dabble doesn’t require its own learning curve. I like the program, though, and I will continue using it. Especially the NaNoWriMo plugin that shows what you’ve written daily and keeps you accountable for your goals.
Back to Writing
That’s enough for today; I better finish outlining my novel. There are only five more days to go. Happy writing, and until tomorrow.
