After the First Draft
Outlining after you already have a first draft sounds a bit crazy, but it’s not. A novel is a long journey, and long journeys to unknown destinations frequently lead to an occasional wrong turn. If you have a map to check, you can easily see where you went astray. An outline is that map.
In StoryCAD, Problem, and particular the Story Problem, is key. Start by adding your scenes, and then, as described in ‘StoryCAD for Pantsers’, find your problems from them. The outline doesn’t have to be detailed, except for the Problems. You want to thoroughly understand your Problem story elements.
Using your outline as your guide gives you a number of places to start editing- and every story needs editing. With StoryCAD you’re editing for story (structural edits) as opposed to line or copy editing. Key Questions, for Problem and Character and Scene, will ask about specific issues. Does your protagonist have a clear story goal? Do the scenes show her actively trying to achieve it, despite opposition? Does the Story Problem have a clear resolution, and does your story end when it’s resolved? Do problems other than the main story problem connect to the story problem? (A clue to this, and a plotting plus, is a scene which contributes to both problems’ structure.) Does your protagonist grow or change (does she have an internal problem and thus a character arc?)
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