The WRITER System Notebook : A Methodical Approach to Outlining Your Novel

Thank you for being a writer, an author. The world is made all the more joyful, entertaining, and exciting with your creations in it.

As an author, I love creating, but I also enjoy the creative process — how an author writes. As I wrote my first three stories, I quickly came to understand my working process.

People say there are two types of writers — pantsers and plotters. That seemed very black and white to me. On the one hand, you have those who sit at the keyboard and write the story as if they’re watching a movie play out in their mind’s eye. On the other, some authors like to plot out every last move of their characters. And never the twain shall meet. I think the reality for many, however, lies somewhere in between.

And that’s where THE WRITER SYSTEM began.

WRITER stands for World, Rival, Idol, Twists, End, and Resolve.

Each one of these elements will help you craft the big picture of your next novel. From this basic Outline, you’ll create ever-more detailed Synopsis by questioning each point within it. From the final Synopsis, a 4-Act Structure is developed, hitting all of the beat points required of a good story.

Other elements included in this planner are scene and character sketches, plot and character arcs, notes on scene construction, a writing timeline tool (or the dreaded deadline!).

There is plenty of space for your notes in each section and several pages at the end of this notebook for your moments of inspiration on the fly.

I hope you enjoy using this tool in your writing, and I’d love to hear if you have any feedback or suggestions on how to make this an even more useful resource.