Completing an outline with Story Genius

Just over a year ago in late 2020, my writing group referred the book Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron. I’ve read more than a few writing craft books, read more articles on outlining and the Hero’s Journey than I can count, and I’m always up to learn more, so I decided to give it a shot. I cannot express how glad I am to have read and used this book during my outlining process.

Lisa Cron can explain it far better than I can, but this book helps you understand the psychology behind why people get so attached to some books but couldn’t care less about others. We can all think of a few books that weren’t exactly written the best, but people just can’t seem to put them down! This novel helps explain why that is, and how to make sure your future novel is one that readers will want to read under the covers far into the night.

Over the past year, I’ve been using this book as a guide for my new YA fantasy outline. Having a true process may have made this outline take a lot longer than the outline I made for my first manuscript, but I know that this new outline is FAR more extensive, detailed, complete, and useful. I have a true vision of where this novel is going and thanks to the outline process, I was able to fill in holes before I even started really writing. My characters are more fully fleshed out, I was forced to combat difficult questions and plot holes head-on, and I know where I’m writing from start to finish. This process wasn’t easy. Some nights I wanted to tear my hair out or was just dying to write a real, actual scene. But after doing this process for a year, I know 100% that for my next manuscript, I’m going to use this system again.

If you’re starting your novel outline or are looking for a place to start, I highly recommend this book. It is clear, has easy to understand examples, and helps you build an outlining system that works for you. Everyone has things they like and dislike, but even just reading through this can help inform your writing process.

Now that I’ve finished my outline, I just have to start writing…I’m a bit terrified after doing editing and outlining for the past year. Luckily NaNoWriMo is coming up in a few months so I’ll face it head on whether I’m ready or not! If you have any writing resources or other outlining tools you love, let me know. I’m always interested in learning more!