You know your story needs to be told. You know it can save lives, shape history, and change the world for the better. But, where do you begin?
You open up a blank page and your fingers hover over the keyboard. A sense of existential fills you as you stare into the white void in front of you. Does your life truly matter? Do you really have anything worthwhile to say?
Welcome to Blank Page Syndrome™, a cousin of Writer’s Block. My goal is to guide you safely along a path that will help you overcome Blank Page Syndrome™. It is my goal to ensure that you get that book written sooner than you imagined possible without any unpleasant encounters with Writer’s Block along the way.
After all, there are lives to save, history to shape, and a whole world in desperate need of being changed for the better by you.
Love Your Outlines
I know what you’re thinking. “I hate outlines. They’re too confining.”
That’s because you’ve bought into the great Outlining Myth. The Outlining Myth is the firm belief that what you’ve outlined must be written, as if it is some oracle of destiny that cannot be defied.
Fear not. An outline is not a wedding ring. It is not an eternal commitment to a diety. It is a tool, and nothing more, to help you avoid Blank Page Syndrome™ by giving you an idea of what to write and a solid idea of why you’re writing that.
Outlines are like roadmaps. They are places to begin your writing and check to be sure you’re still on the road to delivering the message you intended to deliver. You can change pacing, take detours, or even change direction once you get on the road if you find that it suits you better. But at least you’ve got a place to start and a way to map out what resources you might need to bring to ensure your success.
Start with the Main Story Outline
The path to story outlining I recommend is my Universal Storytelling Framework. This is universal to the human experience so it will work for any character in any genre and for any type of writing you need to do.
Problem: What is the problem the hero encounters that they must solve to reach the end of the story?
Mistake: What mistaken belief, false assumption, or ignorance is keeping them from finding the solution to the problem?
Truth: What truth must they embrace to find that solution?
Solution: What is the solution to their problem?
Obstacles: What are the main obstacles that they must overcome to implement that solution?
Answers: What are your answers to those obstacles? What must they do to overcome them?
Results: What will change in their lives if they succeed in implementing their solution?
Transformation: How will that change transform them, their lives, their families, their neighborhood, their city, and their world?
It’s okay if you don’t have all these answers at first, but thinking about them will help you identify the main plot points and the way you need to lay out the story so that it moves the hero on a steady course from point P (Problem) to point T (transformation).
The next step is one we’ll discuss in the next blog post.
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