Chapter Outlining! (ft. Beta Bully Update) (Patreon)

From main story outline to… chapter outline?  It's another behind-the-scenes post! 😙 (With Beta Bully update at the bottom)

I usually work on a couple of chapters at a time actively writing them, then I'll have a few later chapters that I am outlining at the same time. I have my original outline (as seen in the planning BTS post) before I start my story, but additionally outlining the chapters helps me with pacing, and also allows me to add more scenes or subplots! 

First, I copy-paste sections from the original minimal outline on the planning page and start spreading them across word docs to get an idea of the pacing I want. Then, as I give the chapter outlines more detail over time, sometimes these shift and spread out even more.

Pacing is definitely near the top of my worry list when I write (along with rambling and infodumping). I started to become quite obsessive over it with the Mates & Marks series, and it was actually around the middle of Hold Me Close that I started trying to outline chapters instead of just having one story outline to refer to. It really helped - and it also let me include a lot more of my beloved filler scenes because I knew I was getting the important plot stuff in at the right times, too. As a reader, I love the background fluff and filler scenes between characters most. I don’t care that the world is ending, show me the main character and their love interest bickering over coffee while on their way to the big fight scene! 🤗

I also find that using this planning system is a great help for writer's block. Having the next chapters outlined tells me exactly what scenes I need to write and when, which can help me keep going even if I don't have a lot of creative energy. There is age-old writing advice about never leaving off your story on a fresh chapter/page/etc. because jumping back in without somewhere to lead from is difficult, and I think this is in the same vein. This is why I am never worried that I will never finish one of my stories (such as The Bonnet Family trilogy - I am coming back to you!) because all the chapters are outlined, they just need fluffing and filling like a build-a-bear 😁

How my chapter outlines look differs between stories, and also depends on how close I am getting to that chapter, they fill out a bit as I write and find more things I want to circle back to later in the story. 

Hearts of Gold and Blades of Steel is super detail heavy and has lots of mini plots so those outlines are usually longer, whereas for I Know You’re Still Just A Dream (The Bonnet Family Book 2) each outline is two or three sentences about the key things that need to happen in the chapter, then a sentence advising what Lucia would be experiencing at that stage in her pregnancy as each chapter has a countdown to the birth of her child.

I’d like to do another chapter outlining post showing more about The Bonnet Family, because this post is getting awfully long 😉 I'll try and get some example images together for another post 😁

So, for the Beta Bully update: Beta Bully has 3 arcs (you may have noticed this in the chapter planning BTS post) and I have finished the chapter outlines for the first arc so I now know that chapter 18 should be the start of arc 2! Of course, things can change while writing, in the sense of scenes getting too long and carrying over into more chapters (especially the sexy scenes, those always seem to grow like weeds). But chapter 17 has been outlined as the last part of the first arc 😊 Very exciting!

I hope you have a great week, and if you would like some mild Beta Bully spoilers, please see below the names of each arc:

[SPOILER START]

Arc 1 - Cat & Mouse

Arc 2 - It’s my party, and I’ll lie if I want to

Arc 3 - Assistance is futile

[SPOILER END]