This is K.M. Island and you are listening to the 48th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

My exciting news for the week is that I think I'm almost finished with my initial brainstorming phase of outlining book three in my Dreamlander trilogy.

This is what I call the general sketches stage.

It's where I just kind of throw all my ideas at the page try to figure out the general bones of the story,

the major structural moments, and answer any plot hole questions.

Sometimes, as it was this time, this is a lengthy process.

At this point, I usually go on to character sketches,

but since I've worked on sketches

for all the prominent characters

when outlining the previous books in the series,

I think I'm ready to roll on that point.

That means that after I finish organizing my notes and making sure that I really have covered

everything I want to cover in the general sketches, I get a move on to the scene outline.

For me the scene outline is almost like a very very rough first draft. I don't write formal

prose or dialogue or anything like that, but I do work through the mechanics of every scene focusing on everything from character goals, conflict and outcome, right down to setting and sometimes even costume details.

It's always one of my favorite parts of the process because at this point I've done the heavy lifting

of figuring out the mechanics of the story but I don't yet have to worry about making all my words perfect.

I still have some note organizing to do, which honestly I'm kind of procrastinating on, since it is not my favorite part of the process.

But as soon as that's done, it's full steam ahead.

And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast, 10 ways to write a better first chapter using

specific word choices. The one thing all writers are trying to do is write a

better first chapter. First chapters are do or die

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