DO I HAVE TO OUTLINE?! | THRILLER WRITING VLOG #1 

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Love your vids! Maybe it's not 100 percent accurate but I remember hearing that Agatha Christie didnt always know who did it til the end because she had several people who could have done it and just picked one. When I heard that it blew my mind!

Outlining thrillers is akin to planning a two week vacation and circling cities on a map, imagining possible activities, while allowing for spontaneity and unexpected changes.

"je ne sais quoi" how lovely to hear you speak French! You are loved in the baguette country (by me)

While watching your vlogs I kind of realized that I am also a plantser :D Like, I have an idea how it ends, how it begins, what the plot twist is and some general things but I cannot for the life of me plan every freaking scene in the book, because like for you, that is not fun for me :( On a side note, I have been watching you from before 2k subs, glad you are growing :3

“I’m scared” ME TOO😭 It’s a love-hate relationship with outlines.

Outlines are GLORIOUS. Welcome to the club... ^_^

Great vid, so on point and I love the howling wind sound--I hear that sound too when I think of outlining lol

I'm personally in love with outlining, so much that I don't even want to write when my outline is done because I put way too much energy into it. So lately I'm trying to be a bit more loose with my planning process, good luck to both of us for stepping out of our comfort zones! It also felt really great to hear you talk so passionately about your writing, really excited me about my own

I'm a proud pantser like yourself and I write thrillers you don't have to outline a thriller if you feel uncomfortable. If you know your ending, and your characters motivates, you can start from there. I believe when writing thrillers if you are surprised so will be your readers :)

I suppose you can draft without outlining, but just know that if you want a good, tight, thriller, you'll have to rewrite most of that draft many times if you don't outline to have clues and red-herrings set up.

I am so excited to watch this journey. The ironic thing is that your videos on story structure and your recommendation of the Blake Snyder beat sheet is what helped me make my first ever outline.

I started my new project on December 1. Wish you the best of luck on this new journey. About throwing in a murder, I just got two characters and a cat killed last night. I cried when killing the cat.

Watching these vlogs from the beginning again! You're so inspiring, keep up the great work 😊

I just did a YA thriller in space for NaNoWriMo! My outline was great for basic story beats but I pantsed my way in between. Now I realize for my next draft I need to outline and hammer out what happened each specific day of the murder/ trial process to keep it all straight and consistent. You can do it Alexa!

Ahh! Yes I'm so excited! Writing thriller is so much fun and definatley tests you as a writer. I had to do so much re-writing when I wrote my thriller because I didn't properly plan to start with.

This is super interesting as I've really fallen in love with the idea of a mystery/thriller/crime plot as the basis of a ya fantasy novel recently. Kinda like how Harry Potter books were structured? But it feels like a difficult project when I've never planned a plot like that before, so I'm really interested in hearing how you go about doing this!

Please keep us updated! I want to watch this happen. Good luck! Also . . . "write to your expertise" . . . this is why I write about emotionally unavailable banjo players.

I'm going back and watching all of these vlogs! I can't wait for The Ivies!

Alexa I am the same way. I don’t do outlines. I’m writing a mystery series and I write them after I’ve come up with the plot and characters in my head. Often I write down the character stuff and it develops from there. ALSO, I write the beginning chapter and the ending. Then the middle. It works. Then I edit backwards.

I really love your vids. It helped me a lot. I am currently writing on my first book and your advice was so helpful. I got Scrivener and it was a Game Changer. I am a Plantser. Currently I am writing on a detective story, i had to outline. What helped me before I started is to name all Characters in the book and find pics how they would look like. Keep up the good work, you are truely a gem :-).

Good luck! Well done for being fun about plotting, honest with your viewers, and open minded to new writing techniques. I'm sure you'll learn many things on this new path. We are all glad to be next to you from this first video until the publication. ^^

I love this idea ... get out of your comfort zone and try things out, see where they lead, maybe learn something and have fun with it. (I used this year's NaNoWriMo as a testbed for a similar approach myself, and I found that planning ahead was a necessity, too, for a change. There's still enough freedom there for gardening and twisting the plan if needs be.) So, I'm looking forward to your journey here ...

I recently had the same epiphany; my next novel is going to be a fantasy thriller and... I'm going to have to plot. Something I've also never done before. Where do I turn first to look for advice? Must be my favorite writing advice channel: Alexa!!! And, lo and behold, you've been there, too! Here for the journey. 😁

I really like your approach to this as a 'see how it goes' thing. It's good that you are trying something new and your attitude should help you through it. Glad you are letting us come along for the ride.

I would love a video with YA (and non-YA) recommendations. I love thrillers and I can always use some tips :)

this is such perfect timing! last night I read through the first draft of a mystery I wrote and yikesss. I planned my characters but not my actual mystery and now I need to do that 😛 looking forward to more updates! your videos are so helpful 💜

I am VERY interested to see how you manage this. Yay! Good luck!

I love your new setup !! Great video, as always

i'm so excited!! can't wait to have this thriller in my hands one day :)

I'm excited to follow this book progression. Best of luck with the outlining! Outlining always kills ideas for me so I am sending you the best, most positive vibes.

Ok, wow! It's gonna be cool to see how this change in process (and genre!) goes for you :)

Love watching this video and seeing this process after finally reading it. So wild to think of The Ivies as a "fun break book" 😂

Good luck on your process Alexa! If you feel like outlining, even if the slightest, don't be scared to do it! This doesn't make you any less than a panster, but it allows you to explore and get to know your own writing process ;)

I pantsed my first book, and it made the process so slow for me. Add to that my memory and focus issues, and my story took me 2 years to write. I'm proud to say that after those 2 years, I have finished my rough draft, and will now work on the edits. I might do a mix of outline and pantsing for my next one. Have a good day! God bless, take care + happy writing :)

Why not draw the outline instead of type it. It is how I do it. All of those little arcs over lapping, tell me when a moment happens and keeps me on track. I use these as sign posts - i.e., deadlines. I determine the word count of each section and how many pages that will be in the 12 point. This keeps me from getting too detailed and also keeps my pacing on track. It gives me enough freedom to pants all I want so long I know the guardrails are there.

You should totally go for it! Writing the YA thriller, I mean. It sounds like it will be really fun for you and even if you have no intentions of publishing it, who knows? Maybe you will decide to publish it one day. Or maybe you’ll realize you enjoy writing thrillers more than sci-fi and fantasy! No matter what, I think it’s awesome that you are branching out as a writer! I can’t wait to continue watching your journey on this WIP!

Oooh, this is going to be so exciting! And thanks for telling us Kat's reaction, lol, I was wondering about that. XD

For anyone out there who reads German, nobody writes YA thrillers better than Ursula Poznanski, an Austrian author who hits the ball out of the ballpark every time. Exciting, thoughtful, memorable, meticulously constructed plots, and with very convincing characters. She's an inspiration to me, and I can't wait to read her next book! I think at least one of her YA books, "Erebos", is available in English.

I also identify as a gardener and am in a similar situation! I've recently come up with a crossover mix of this murder game with another fandom of mine for a fanfic and it's my first time sort of like developing everything before actually starting the writing process. I also started with the end! Or more like, I immediately chose a mastermind and their motive without actually conceptualizing the murder or the rest of the plot (tho there's already stucture from the murder game). I usually write slice-of-life stories so this is pretty out of my comfort zone as well. Since it's ffn, the characters are already there though it's hard for me to think /why/ they would kill and how it fits into the story without breaking character. It is really fun making chara profiles though hahaha. Good luck on both of your stories! Excited to see how it turns out!

It's fun to read this now, knowing you sold it. :P Very neat!

Good luck outlining... be strong. And those close ups with dramatic sound effects were great! lol

But...you're a pantser! Everything I know is a lie! That said, as a fellow pantser and sometimes hybrid plotter/pantser I think that if you feel you need to outline this one, then I know you can do it! I love thrillers, so I'm excited to see how this new writing journey goes! Also, I'm really looking forward to reading "Brightly Burning" once I'm done this semester of school. It's outside of what I typically read, but I love your videos so much that I'm excited to read it and will be excited to one day read this thriller of yours.

I'm suspicious how "murdering people" is apparently the thing you know really, really well. Should we be concerned?

I’m a co author with my friend (we are working on separate projects that we’ve mostly finished) but writing with a partner means communicating and yes, outlining. I’m a panser too, so this is a scary challenge, but it’s fun and it’s improving my writing.

If you want to see a fantastic thriller, the anime “Monster” is fabulous. It is the writing I aspire to. It's not necessarily YA, but the storytelling is so good.

I love you so much omg

I would totally love to know what YA thrillers are on your TBR list for December!

I pants my thriller. So far so good

absolutely great information but let's talk about what is really important: the red lipstick you wore in at least one of your videos. i cannot forget it, it was that impressive. it just so well suited you that i suddenly felt incomplete with my 78 different nude shades that are essentially the same thing, over and over again. and your eyebrows always pique my interest. i just had to share, alexa. i have grown very fond of you and your videos. my husband loves them, too!

You can do it!!!!!!!

I'm writing one too lol. Its a YA/NA urban fantasy murder mystery though. Thankfully, I'm a plotser. I'll plan two chapters ahead. And then immediately forget about them as I'm writing. Because outlining is really boring and makes writing a drag, personally. But some things stay the same so I'll usually change some things along the way. My murder Mysteries always starts backwards. Create an interesting villain/murderer. Plan the rest, if at all, around them. Make a obvious red herring. Make a detective. Then do the rest.

I outline majors themes and events and then pants the chapter

What are your thoughts on outlining vs Pantsing for a series? It seems to me that you would have to outline in order to make sure that all the loose ends get tied up neatly somewhere along the way.

i also have a ya contemporary that i just recently discovered needs a murder mystery! yay! i have absolutely no idea who will get murdered or who the murderer is and ive been stuck on these two questions for several months now lol ive been working on other projects but would really like to start on that one soon, but i just cant figure it out... the motive is there and there are like five characters who totally have reasons to do the murdering but i just cant decide... maybe i should just start and then hope one of the characters will volunteer.

Welcome to my world. :) The basic, and most simplest outline is: Beginning, Middle, End. Once you have that, with a paragraph or two of what happens to whom, you can pants to your hearts content. ~ Jon, crime fiction writer

I like outlining, blocking scenes, and overall development way more than the actual writing. Got to get out of that habit!

When you are filling the well, how many books do you read?

I get so stuck when I start writing a book and end up giving up on it

The Riverdale writers came up with a list of three or four characters who could be the killer and then just felt it out as they got closer to the end so the other potential killers are neatly written off as red herrings once the killer is chosen.

I just saw This Mortal Coil and This Cruel Design on your shelf and I audibly gasped. TMC is one of my favorite books of the year and I just started TCD. Have you read them?

I loved this video! I'm also writing a thriller but mine is more scifi. What you were talking about for your brainstorming and outline is exactly what I had to do before I was able to get started on this book. I'm a little confused about what word length requirements are for thrillers. I know you said a YA thrillers are around 60k, but mine is a scifi thriller, so how do word count expectations changed based on that? Also do you have any YA thriller recommendations for me? I want to read more of them.

Watching this after the cover reveal

I think that if you do character outlines to get a feel from them, and decide on you big twist, you could probably write backward and still pants and be surprised and enjoy it as you normally do? In theory at least. Edit: Hahaha I wrote this before I got to the part about your friend talking about figuring out the characters first.

Do it!

Out of curiosity, have you already done a video with some YA Thriller recs?

Do you have a favorite YA thriller at the moment and why is it your favorite?

I'm writing a YA/NA thriller too revolving around a group of 18-year-olds(The age solved a few plot holes.lol). I saw an earlier comment which said this. It's a freaking epidemic. lol. Mine is set in India though and it's not exactly a murder but yeah there's a mystery element. I have always been a pantser and I finally admitted that I needed to outline. I chose a lose summary outline and made sure I fit in the clues and red herrings. So far I'm done with the first draft which is about 60k (NaNoWriMo).

Off topic but WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE BOOKCASES??

Outline!?...NOOOOOOOOOOO!

You ever tried the Snowflake method? It's my happy medium as a non-pantser, non-planner. Lol

I say if you pants, then outline after you finish. Then you can use it as an editing tool after the fact.

So what are these YA thriller books that you’re reading? 😁

"I do like to throw a lil murder :3 " --Alexa Donne, 2018

If you ever need help outlining I can help. :) it's my favorite part of the writing process.

Also welcome to the dark side

Take planning as a fast draft. Instead of one chapter of 2000 words do it in 100 lol.

It takes a gardener plus an architect to have a high yield greenhouse. Dont think "outline" think Netflix. Here is How: Let's say I ask you to tell me your story in 50 short sentences. Each sentence is the headliner for that "Netflix Episode" of your story. When I outlined my story this way I got 300 headliner sentences. Imagine these as checkpoints on a long car drive. Many things happen "on the fly" while your writing; yet, you have checkpoints from start to finish. I hope this is explained in a simple manner.

Are you in the NaNoWriMo Facebook group? I have seen people reference your videos so many times on there! And I just referenced someone to your editing rant video.

I’m curious: Have you discussed this thriller with your agent? I’m just wondering what her advice would be from a career-building standpoint. In other words, does she think it would expand your brand...or be possibly problematic since it diverges from what you’ve previously published?