After King Rhoam has limited Zelda's freedom drastically so that she concentrates on awakening her powers, Link and Zelda are only to communicate under the ever watchful eyes of the court. At least, they're allowed this one dance, but subtlety is key...
BotW Pre Calamity; g-rated. Written for Loftwing Letters. Read Dancing the Line
How many heroes does it take to build a proper bed? or: If Zelda had known how difficult building a bed would be, she would have paid extra to have it delivered already assembled.
Written for Loftwing Letters, collaboration with @mistresslrigtar
TP; g-rated. Read DIY Bed Building 101
Link learns the word "suitor" from Niko. He doesn't like what it means. At all.
Wind waker Telink; Read A What Now?
An old promise forces Link into a betrothal with Zelda, the daughter of his father's friend and the center of Castle Town's rumors. At the end of the winter solstice ball, however, he makes his own, rushed promise to her. He soon discovers she might be worth holding it no matter the trouble that seems to follow them like a shadow.
Regency AU, E-rated, ongoing novel; Read The Promise
Rhoam has waited patiently for Link to ask him for Zelda's hand. He really has! But enough is enough. He can't keep away the young noblemen from her forever, so he makes an airtight plan to finally bring Link and Zelda together: a winterly journey through Hyrule for just the two of them should be romantic enough to encourage them making a move.
And things are movingâjust not the way Rhoam thought they would. But Rhoam wouldn't be the King of Hyrule, if he didn't have answers to that, too.
AoC; g-rated; Read A Royal Matchmaking Scheme
***
Still need more? Here are the other years!
Master list 2024
Master list 2023
Master list 2022
Master list 2021
Master list 2020
3-sentences fics for a follower milestone
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Oder bist du wegen Tatort SaarbrĂŒcken hier gelandet? Dann geht's hier lang!
With Jimmyâs art, thereâs always sure to be Romance in the Air! Find her on Tumblr (@jimmyjims), Instagram (@ximmy.xime), and Twitter (@ximmy_xime) for more!
Are we sure Maqiisan isnât the Goddess herself? How else can you explain this god-tier artwork? Find more of their work on Twitter (@maqiiisan) and Instagram and Tumblr (@maqiisan)!
Gotta love Hildaâs bold makeup choices. Purple lipstick. Good very good!
Did you guys know I started playing ALTTP despite not finding old school zelda games interesting because Link turned into a pink bunny? (loved the game obviously)
Now thereâs a character dressed as a pink bunny and its a goofball and I just !!
And not only that but he is also a shop owner, somehow shop owners in Zelda are some of the best characters (i will fight you if you disagree)Â
I'm sorry your writing strategy is WHAT?? I'm going to need a thorough explanation of this because I'm FASCINATED
[brian murphy voice] I DIDNT SAY ANYTHING WEIRD!!!
okay i did. but also! if it ainât brokeâŠ
hereâs how this crumbles cookie-wise. sometimes (as is currently the case) i feel like i am trying to hold onto a whole novel in my brain at once. this does not feel particularly good because the novel doesnât belong in my brain it belongs Out There. so i make a very detailed outline and then i start at chapter 1, and i write to 100 words (give or take a few). then i move on to chapter 2 and write to 100 words. then to chapter 3 and so on until i have at least 100 words in each chapter. then once iâve run through the whole book, i go back to the beginning and make sure each chapter is up to 200. then iâm usually in the Meat of each scene so iâll get everything up to 500, then 1000, then 1500 and then usually i clock out of chapters around or just under the 2k mark.
this appeases the hyperactive part of my brain by making sure iâm never bored, and helps the project manager in my brain so i can keep track of many moving parts in the novel and also ensures that scenes at the end speak to scenes at the beginning since iâm (sort of) writing the whole book at once.
NOTE: sometimes i get lost in the sauce and write way past 100 or wherever im at, and thatâs fine. it just means i probably skip that chapter during my next pass since itâll be past my goal wc for each chapter of the run.
that is all. try it, if you want. i honestly donât know how to write books any other way
Summary: Newly married, Zelda and Link seem to have it allâhis band, Hyrule Warriors, has skyrocketed to the top of the charts, Zelda is on the verge of earning her biochemistry doctorate, and they've just learned they are expecting. But it all comes to a screeching halt when a devastating car crash leaves Link in a coma. When he awakens, heâs forgotten the last several years of his life, including meeting Zelda and falling in love. It will take everything Zelda has to overcome this latest obstacle before she gives birth. And this time around, she may have to depend on the one person she never thought would have her back--Link's best friend, Ganondorf
I forgot to thank my wonderful friends who have supported me from day one!! Thank you so much, @zeldaelmo and @hyylia for being my constant cheerleaders and amazing beta readers!! You rock!! đ«¶đ«¶đ«¶đ«¶
Using a Reverse Outline to Understand Your First Draftâs Structure Before Editing
I've been using versions of this tool for years, for both my own self-editing and when I work as a developmental editor for clients. Now I'd like to share a template and a hopefully not-too-long explanation of ways you can work with it!
First off: congratulations on finishing a draft of your story! Now, as you get ready to revise it into a second, improved draft, it helps to see what the story is currently shaped like. Even if you arenât a âplannerâ who outlines stories before writing them, you can benefit from a reverse outline after completing the story. It's lower-pressure and often easier than a planning outline because you just need to describe what youâve already written. In fact, writing about your story can be pretty fun! And it will give you a sense of direction and increased confidence as you begin editing.
A reverse outline can be as simple or as detailed as you like. Iâm going to give directions (and a sample file) for a fairly detailed one, which you can use as-is if it works for you, or adapt to be simpler, or adapt to include additional elements if thatâs better for your process.
Here's the link to the reverse outline template in Drive. I've filled out the first few rows with example information from one of my own stories. Please go ahead and make a copy for your own use! One tip: under the "View" tab, there's an option to "Freeze" columns or rows so they move with you as you scroll in the file. I've already frozen the top row; you may also want to freeze columns A and B for ease of reference when you scroll horizontally. There are quite a few columns, and you donât need to use all of them at onceâdifferent elements are more relevant to different writers and in different stories. In the rest of this post, Iâll explain what each column can do for you.
(The second tab of the file includes a sample reverse outline for nonfiction, with examples from a book of advice on editing that I'm writing at the moment and which this post may become a chapter in. Exactly what columns youâll want in a nonfiction reverse outline will depend on your overall structure. Narrative nonfiction and memoir use similar techniques as fiction and could benefit from the standard reverse outline.)
Column A: Chapter number and title, scene
Some writers make their reverse outlines chapter-by-chapter, but since each chapter can include multiple scenes, and each scene deserves TLC, letâs give each scene a row.
(My reverse outline sample is for one of my short story collections, so I've given the title of the short story instead of a chapter number. Again, the template is adaptable!)
Among other benefits, filling out this column shows if you've acquired two Chapter 20s by accident. Or if you've given some chapters too-similar titles. Or if one chapter has way more scenes, or way fewer, than any otherâwhich isnât necessarily a problem, just something to observe right now.
While Iâm giving advice: using the âHeadingâ style to mark your chapter titles/numbers makes it easier to find things your manuscript. Headings get their own space in the Navigation toolbar that comes up when you hit âControl + Fâ in Microsoft Word or click the âDocument Tabsâ option in Google Drive.
Column B: Action summary
Write about what happens in the scene. How much detail to include depends on your personal taste and memory. You donât want to crowd the box with information or take a very long time at this. But it can be useful to spell out not just what happens, but some of why it happens and what results. This helps you follow the chain of logic and spot where links might be weak or missing.
A quick example of how an action summary can include cause and effect: âOverhearing Jasonâs phone call, Miranda begins to suspect he was involved in the murder. She confronts him, he denies everything, and he leaves the house and doesnât come back that night.â If you feel comfortable with shorter action summaries, you might just write this as âMiranda confronts Jason about the murder. He leaves.â
If you're going to write a synopsis to query this novel to literary agents or publishers, the reverse outline can help you get started. (I made my first reverse outlines for synopsis-writing purposes, before adapting them for other uses as both a writer and a freelance editor.) It accomplishes the major step of turning a novel into a few pages. Youâll still need to edit those few pages into something shorter and smoother, and I'd write the actual synopsis after you've given the book a structural edit, since elements of the plot may change in the process!
Speaking of summary, if the action in the story draft is told in narrative summary rather than shown as it happens, itâs often helpful to make a note of this. Summary has its uses: it can convey a lot to the reader quickly and it adds variety to pacing. Whether you have too much narrative summary or too little is something to consider once you have the outline filled out.
Column C: Scene wordcount
Use words, not number of pages, because the same amount of words can fit on more or fewer pages with different formatting. In publishing and professional editing, thereâs still the convention that 1 page = 250 words, but in my experience, 12-point Times New Roman font thatâs double spaced often fits 300+ words onto a page.
Column D: Cumulative wordcount
Iâve entered a formula here to sum up column C to the current row. This gives you a sense of when each scene takes place on the scale of the story, and also how your pacing is. (You can click the corner of a cell and drag it down to extend the formula as you add more scenes.)
That's the simplest version.
If you just want to fill in the first three columns and let the formula fill out the fourth for you, that gives you a one-sheet "map" of your story that can make the full manuscript easier to navigate, and it can be sufficient to get started on evaluating your story. But youâre missing half the fun.
Column E: POV character
To avoid both reader and writer confusion, I recommend sticking to one POV per scene. Some editors and publishers insist on it. But if you want to risk omniscient POV, that can go here too.
This column reveals when POV changes and whose perspective we spend the most time in. In one story Iâm working on, I've added notes in this column about alternative POVs I could narrate the scene from, if I decide to change things up in the second draft. You donât need to divide POV equally among all your characters, even if you have multiple protagonists. However, if one POV evaporates from the story partway through, or one takes over a long stretch of chapters, itâs good to spot this. And readers may be distracted if you have one or two scenes that make atypical POV choices without clear reason.
Columns F and G: Location; Date and time
These may help you catch continuity errors, like if a character returns home from the same trip twice, a minor character is in two places at once, or a particular evening in August winds up way too busy.
Column G is especially helpful for stories that span a long timeâor a very short time. Even if you donât have exact dates, a note such as âthree days after the previous sceneâ can help avoid logistical tangles. (When timeline is especially important to a story, some writers fill out a virtual or physical calendar with their story events. You can often get print calendars for the previous year cheaply at an office supply or stationary store in January/February.)
If your story takes place in a single location or timeline is not a big concern, you donât need to use these columnsâthis reverse outline is always customizable!
Column H: Plot and subplots advanced
Thereâs a lot going on in a story, and often a lot going on at the same time. This column lets you track where and when different plotlines are developed. You may find it useful to label your plots and subplots with categories like âExternalâ (dealing with the world around the protagonist), âInternal" (psychological change that drives character arcs), or âInterpersonalâ (rivalry, romance, and more).
Column I: Conflict of the scene and character desires
Conflict doesnât have to be violent or flashy. But stories generally include a goal and some friction that prevents the goal from being met. In this way, desire and conflict are often closely connected.
If nobody wanted things to change, there wouldnât be much to write a story about. If everyone immediately got the change they desire, the story would be very short. Adding friction will make events feel more realistic and engaging to readers. Conflict creates suspense: if there are opposing forces, we canât predict who will win (or how theyâll manage to win, even if we trust the story will end well for a character). Conflict also lets you explore multiple sides of a situation or theme.
Depending on how you fill out the action summary in Column B, you might cover much of this information there. But I suggest filling out Column I for at least a few scenes to get the hang of evaluating conflict and motivation. If these are missing, a scene can feel directionless and emotionally flat.
Splitting information across multiple columns can also prevent any one part of the outline from getting too swollen. Especially if you write long or action-packed scenes, you may find yourself writing a lot in each cell. A few solutions: one, you may prioritize only the most significant developments of each scene. You can always come back and add more information later. Two, you may realize a scene would work better as two shorter or simpler scenes. (Though don't do this just because it's busy in the outline: consider how the scene itself reads in the story.) Three, you may adapt the outline to give each scene multiple rows evaluating different elements. Just put the wordcount in column C as 0 for the added rows, and it wonât mess up the cumulative wordcount formula (I've given an example in the template).
If the protagonist does get what they want, youâve either reached the happy ending of the story (or at least a subplot) or you need to give them something else to want, another itch to satisfy. Maybe solving one problem makes them realize thereâs an additional problem. Or itâs a question of short-term vs long-term goals: Frodo has made it to Rivendell, but then he takes on the new goal of reaching Mordor.
Column J: Reader emotional response
One reason we write stories is because we want to make people feel things. Hereâs where you can talk about what you want the reader to feel. This gives you ideas for what to punch up and enhance in revisions. If you want them to be sad, what is the line theyâll start crying on?If you want them to be hopeful, what should they hope for and why will they feel hope that it will happen?
You may update this column after getting beta reader feedback on an early draft (but not a first draftâthe first draft is for you): where and how did your beta react? Was it the way you hoped for, or were there surprises? You could even ask your beta reader to fill out a version of this chart.
Column K: Questions raised or intensified
A powerful emotion to draw readers in is curiosity. And every story will involve some exposition and explanation as we learn about the characters, the setting, and the plotline. Some writers use the term Dramatic Question or Narrative Question to refer to the single biggest and most crucial question that keeps the story going. Once that single question is answered, the story wraps up. Others use the term Story Questions for the various mysteries on different scales that keep readers turning pagesâand not just in mystery novels. Whatever you call them, you can track in this column the questions you expect readers to ask with each scene.
In general, when a question is answered, a new, larger or more intense one should take its place. Or the answer to a still-lingering question becomes more urgent. By the end of the story, the majority of questions are answered. You may include a sequel hook, and writers often leave some small, tantalizing details open-ended to make a story feel more realistic, more vivid, or more hauntingâor because we donât have space to chase down every loose end. But if your biggest questions arenât resolved, the story doesnât feel over.
I find story questions hugely exciting because curiosity is what most often sucks me in as a reader. But a story isnât just an intellectual exercise. Itâs fatal if a reader ever decides, âI donât care about learning the answer to this question.â Make sure your other columns are providing reasons for readers to care (especially column J).
You don't want this column to be empty. But you may not want it to get too full, either. Itâs possible to draw out a question for too long, leaving readers confused or frustrated. Itâs also possible to raise too many questions to easily keep track of. If theyâre asking too much and learning too little, some readers might give up on ever finding answers. So be sure to consider both new questions and the weight of the questions already hanging over the readers' (and characters') heads.
As for where to track the answers, itâs dealerâs choiceâyou could put them in this column, or the answers might be described as part of the action summary or another column. Use this outline in a way that matches how you think, since it's organizing your story.
This is another column it can be useful to ask your beta readers to fill out (or "What questions do you have at the end of this chapter?" could be something to ask them in another format.) You may be surprised by what piques your readers' curiosity!
To reiterate, the mysteries that draw a reader to the next page or chapterâor sentenceâdon't have to be big. Jack Hartâs guide to narrative nonfiction, Storycraft, provides two excellent examples of opening lines with tiny mysteries that hook you. Joan Didion begins a piece with âImagine Banyan Street first, because Banyan Street is where it happened.â Right away we wonder: what is âitâ? And where is Banyan Street? The second example was written by Spencer Heinz in the Oregonian: âPat Yost was in bed when she heard the sound.â Most readers will give Heinzâs next few sentences their attention to learn what the sound was, and Yostâs vulnerability makes the question feel urgent. You can get a bit too obviously manipulative with tiny questions (so that the reader asks âFor crying out loud, what is it now?â), but itâs a useful technique to keep in mind.
The other beauty of these questions is that they can make the need for exposition work for you. Rather than being bored to tears by an infodump, the reader is intrigued by hints and glimpses, then satisfied to receive more context and explanation.
Column L: New characters and concepts introduced
This column can help you pace your exposition and introductions. (It overlaps with the previous column, but different writers find different angles helpful for analyzing a story, so Iâve included both. You may not fill out this column for every chapter, especially shorter chapters or chapters later in the story.) Tracking this can prevent you from introducing the same person in two different scenes. It also reveals opportunities to energize any doldrums in the middle of your story by adding a new idea.
Column M: Notes (and whatever else you desire)
I use this column to make revision suggestions to myself. You can also use it to track elements you find important but which donât fit in other columns. Again, please feel free to add more columns and delete ones that arenât a priority for this story or your process!
Mystery writers may want a column to keep track of where clues or red herrings appear. Romance novelists may want to track beats. A kinky romance novelist may want to keep track of which toys the characters use in which sex scene. Other writers may want to track what Robert McKee calls the âvalue charge,â measuring how much closer to or farther from their goal a character has moved.
Using the Outline
You don't have to fill out the entire spreadsheet in one sitting. You might do a few chapters/scenes at a time. You might get one or two columns completely filled out in one go (I do columns A and C together) but take time to do the rest. Some columns may never get entirely filled out. My tip is to try every column to start with, because you never know what will make something click for you. Itâs better to fill out half the columns than none.
Some authors create reverse outlines as they write the first draft. After completing each chapter, they end their writing session by filling out a row with a summary of what theyâve just written. This has the benefit of your memory being fresher, and if it sounds like itâd work for you, please try it! It may help you spot issues early and course correct. However, some authors find too much analysis paralyzing in the first draft stage. Personally, I find it easier and fun to do my outline at the end, in a sugar rush of triumphant celebration at finishing a story. I write it up, stand back dusting my hands, and go âWell, what do we have here?â
And what do we have here?
Things a reverse outline can reveal:
Where does your climaxâthe peak of suspense, intensity, and emotionâhappen in the story? How close to the end? How do you build up to it and climb back down? Are there mini-climaxes earlier in the story to keep readers engaged? Your main plot will have a climax, and so will your subplots and your character arcs. These may be located in different places, or they may all climax together. (Stop snickering, you in the back!)
Whatâs left unresolved at the end of the book? (For traditional publication, youâll have the best luck if your first book is a âstandalone,â though it may have opportunities for a sequel if it sells well. You might think self-publishing is more forgiving, but in fact, readers may greet a cliffhanger ending with bad reviews if they feel youâre trying to trap them into buying more books for unclear payoff. They may even return the book and demand a refund. However, in both traditional and self-publishing, books later in a series may end in cliffhangers once the author has won readersâ trust by finishing earlier stories in a satisfying way.)
How do the character arcs develop? Anything important enough to write a story about will probably change a personâhow are each characterâs actions and desires different at the end of the story than they were at the beginning?
How long are questions left unanswered or conflicts left unresolved? You generally want these to last for at least a few chapters to let suspense grow and keep the story flowing. (The author Benjamin Percy, in Thrill Me, speaks of his failed early novels: âI treated chapters like short stories, introducing and resolving trouble in fifteen pages. The containment, the stand-aloneness of my chapters, gave my books a stop-start quality that destroyed any sense of momentum.â) At the same time, each scene should make a little progress, whether positive or negative. It will end with the character a little better off or worse off (or better in some ways, worse in others) than they were before.
Friction, tension, conflict, and struggle make a story richer and more vivid. Even for small and simple goals, let the readers and characters yearn just a bit before you give them what they want. Make sure your payoffs each have setup.
Do you have scenes without action? Or where the action is all internal rather than external: does your protagonist sit around thinking until they change their mind about something? This isnât fatalâIâve done it myself on occasion. But try not to make these static scenes too frequent (and internal action is better than no action at all: beware scenes that are pure exposition).
Do you have scenes that are overgrown transitions, moving characters from Point A to Point B? In particular, you have an overgrown transition rather than a proper scene when there arenât enough questions, conflict, stakes, urgency, or emotional engagement. Make your story more vivid by fleshing out these transitions or removing them (a transition can often become a paragraph or sentence at the beginning of the next scene).
Do any significant events happen off-page or between scenes? Would it be clearer or more impactful for readers if they happen on-page?
Do you spend a lot of wordcount introducing a particular character, setting, or detail that doesnât go on to play a significant role in the story? Be wary of one-offs: characters, POVs, locations, and apparent subplots that only appear once may be a sign you should develop them furtherâor take them out entirely. Not always! But make sure itâs clear to readers why you break your storyâs pattern. Sometimes, an author will give a character one flashback scene to share backstory. However interesting the backstory, be sure the events of that flashback are relevant to their present-day storyline!
How does each scene fit into to the larger story? How do the subplots connect to each other? If something doesnât connect, does it belong? Can you flesh it out and connect it more? (Whether you connect it more tightly or delete it often depends on if your story is longer or shorter than you want it to beâsee next section.)
You can color-code rows by subplot if that makes things easier for you. The reverse outline can become a very visual document, helping you see things itâs harder to find in a manuscript of text.
Look at scenes that only advance a single plot or subplot, and see how strong they are in the other columns. One way to punch up a sagging scene is to combine it with a second scene and do two things at once. Maybe the scene in which Miranda overhears Jasonâs suspicious phone call is also the scene where she reels from the revelation that sheâs about to be fired from her dream job (which she learned in the previous chapter). As our friend writing at the Cincinnati Enquirer in February 1947 said, âLife is just one damn thing after another, is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.â
Do tensions and stakes rise over the course of the story? This is often phrased as âthings have to get worse and worse for your characters,â but that isnât the only option. Giving your characters an occasional âbreakâ provides hope, which, for you literary sadists, gives characters more to lose when things get worse again. Hope raises the stakes. And building a character up lets you continue a story for longer because it gives them farther to fall. The occasional achievement can give your character new abilities and resources to make future scenes exciting. Also, alternating hope with loss or disappointment creates a variety in tone and texture; most readers find variety welcome. (This also means you should beware of too many scenes of unmitigated success, even if your story's tone is one of cozy wish fulfillment.) In some genres, both your character and your audience may need occasional injections of hope to be motivated to see the story through. There are exceptionsâa short horror novel may be nothing but things getting worseâbut overall, donât worry that youâre failing at suspenseful storytelling if your characters are sometimes happy! But there still should be something missing, an unanswered question, an unachieved goal, or an unresolved risk that keeps the story going. And generally, these risks, goals, questions, and unfulfilled desires should get bigger as the story goes on.
How's the length of your story?
Some writers end up with first drafts way longer than they want. Some wind up with first drafts that are too short. For some authors, each story causes them wordcount-related stress in a different way. And in every manuscript, whatever its overall length, some scenes will go on a bit longer than they need to, while several character details and plot threads will tantalize with their ability to be developed further.
Too long/too short is also a question of the audience youâre writing for. Young adult novels tend to be shorter than adult historical epics. If youâre writing fiction to publish in magazines paying pro rates, you'll often have a better short with a 4,000-word short story than a 9,000-word novelette. And if you donât intend to write a novella (I love them, but they can be tricky to sell), then a 40,000-word ânovelâ probably needs more development.
If your story or scene is too long, either:
Too much is happening
Youâre giving too many details about whatâs happening
(It may be both at once, of course.)
Youâll want to make changes in that order: first, decide what needs to happen in the story. As I advised earlier, making some of it happen simultaneously can reduce the number of scenes and make each scene more intense. But upon consideration, and with the help of your reverse outline, you may find one or two excess subplots. Save them for a different story.
Once youâve reduced your number of scenes, if youâre still longer than you want, look at each scene and tighten paragraphs and lines. But that fine-tuning is something to work on later, in the line-editing rather than organization or structural edit (what I'm calling the second draft in this post, and which we editors also call developmental editing).
If your story is too short, either:
Not enough is happening
Youâre not giving enough details about what is happening
Should you add a subplot, or draw out a subplot you currently have? Do the charactersâ problems get resolved too quickly? Have you raised enough narrative questions? Given enough answers? Is the conflict strong enough and are the stakes high enough? Have you shown how high the stakes are? Look at where youâve used narrative summary. Would any of this be more interesting or dramatic as a scene? Are there sentences you could expand to paragraphs, or paragraphs into chapters? Donât pad the story, but flesh it out.
You may want to do more research, especially if you put research aside to complete your first draft (which you've doneâcongratulations!) Learning about your charactersâ jobs, the world they inhabit, and processes within it can open up lots of avenues, many of which you wouldnât have predicted.
Or you may write short because you know so much about the story. Youâve been developing this magic system since you were in high school, so you donât realize how weird and wondrous it is to your readers and how much theyâd enjoy a (vivid, active, non-lecture) tour of it. Nowâs the time to add some more scenes of your protagonist learning to use magic! Or, switching genres, a mystery writer may have meticulously planned the crimeâbut they need to add enough description that the reader can follow the logistics.
The emotions of revision
Personally, I think adding more scenes and details is great fun. You get to write fanfiction of your first draftâand publish it! However, expanding a story can take time and requires you to keep track of what youâre doing. The record in the reverse outline will help with that.
Cutting scenes, plot threads, characters, and even favorite sentences can be melancholy. I encourage writers to save what they cut in case it can fit in a future storyâeven if it doesnât, this feels less like a final execution. However, sometimes cutting something is a relief. Youâve had a feeling that element wasnât working out, and now you can let it go.
Some writers may get a little too eager to cut. It might seem like the easy way out, but if you delete everything that causes you trouble, the story will get smaller and smaller, and it might wind up less interesting as a result. Youâre also depriving yourself of the chance to stretch your creativity and try new things. (Mary Oliver in A Poetry Handbook warns that âdeletion teaches nothing.â) Itâs a judgment call: does this troublesome bit have enough potential that itâs worth rescuing through revision? Try sleeping on it in case your subconscious offers a new solution you hadnât expected. If that doesnât pan out, you can always save the idea to try again in a different story. As Matthew Salesses says in Craft in the Real World, âSome encouragement (hopefully)! The bulk of successful writing is in the fact that you have an endless number of tries. Persistence is key.â
To wrap up, a few more uses of reverse outlining:
Reread your story in light of the outline. Going between the outline and each scene, consider this question: does your outline describe whatâs actually on the page or what you intended to write? If your outline is more wishful than actual, that's still progress: it's helped you express your intentions, which is a step that brings them closer to reality. Now the reverse outline has become a planning outline for your next draft.
Similarly, some authors find it tricky to revise existing scenes. Instead, they write the second draft more or less from scratch in a new file. They trust their memory to give them back the best parts of the stroy and to drop or rework what wasnât succeeding. If you want to use this approach but still need some guidance, the reverse outline can be made into a new outline.
You can reverse outline other peopleâs books! It's fun and insightful to examine how a favorite author works on a scene-by-scene level. Heck, it can also give insight into how an author you canât stand, but who is undeservedly successful, works on a scene-by-scene level. Maybe you can learn from their success after all.
Again, hereâs the reverse outline template in Google Sheets, with an example from one of my own stories filling out the first few rows. Make a copy and make it yours!
Iâm happy to share another Breath of the Wild fan art and announce a new project Iâm going to be working on! Itâs a charity project themed around Breath of the Wild to create a calendar. It will focus on Linkâs travels throughout Hyrule with each month reflected through the environment. If you are interested in following the project joining as an artist please go to our page @seasonsofhyrule
As soon as I saw the title and concept/setting, I had a feeling that this story was going to be right up my alley. Readers? I was correct! This hits a LOT of things I'm super into. I love a good AU, first of all, there's so many possibilities for creativity with putting the characters into a different setting, and I'm especially fond of dropping them into ones that are outside the more common modern day settings. This one in particular I'm really digging, I love a good historical/steampunk-ish tale. And of course I'm a sucker for anything with ghosts and Poes, heh. I was also pulled in immediately by the dynamic between this Link and Zelda, and the reveal that they're up to some shady activities to further their business. Hey, whatever pays the bills, right? I'm so so so intrigued and excited to see what other mischief and adventures these two will find themselves getting into! - onlybythestars
Link and Zelda are partners in grifting on creating paranormal haunts with the help of their ghostly friend Fado, so they can swoop in to "solve" it. The early industrial vibe and historical references are a treat, and the trio's dynamic is fun and humorous, but they're sure to find and launch themselves into trouble. - Schneeflakes
An interesting premise with a lot of promise. Link and Zelda seem like a delight bound for a lot of trouble. Looking forward to the adventures they and their ghostly companions get into. - amelias-hart
A fun mixture of supernatural and con-artistry. Link and Zelda are trying to make the best out of the cards theyâve been handed in an unfair world, and are doing their best to use their talents for that end. Fascinating story with great world building that I canât wait to see where it goes! - louwhose
