Today I wanted to bring up my thoughts on outlining. I just had an idea for a story that I think I’ll be working on next, that’s somewhat inspired by the Last Starfighter and somewhat inspired by Harry Potter and school slice of life shows/books.

However, I wanted to take the time to give it a proper outline/character arch. I didn’t do so with Samurai Jin. Well, technically I had in the past. However, none of them were outlines that I was happy with, and so when I finally wrote it I feel that the overall story felt ok, but the plot and character development could use some work.

Every time over the past few years when I went to outline it’s killed projects or ideas I had. I don’t know what the reason for this has been, but it has made it difficult to outline as I get kind of stuck on the outline and then abandon the project before I even write it. In the past when I had just started writing things flowed a lot better.

I think this speaks to a core issue I need to work on which is, of course, to get in the habit of at least making a better general outline, but I also need to work on developing the overall plot and character arcs in greater detail.

That’s my quick analysis of myself and what I’m planning on working on. Tomorrow I will be traveling again, but I will post the second part of yesterday’s, and while I travel I’ll be working on an outline for my new idea.

Peace!