Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox: Getting Started

Sometimes, the hardest part of writing is getting the first five sentences out of your head and onto your document. At other times, your biggest problem may be that you can’t jot your ideas down fast enough. While creative bursts are something to be cherished, creativity without discipline and direction often burns out, leaving a writer blocked in the middle of a story, with no clear idea how to proceed. For this reason, if you mean to write a multi-chaptered work, it’s helpful to begin with an outline.
( Plotting the Story )

( Working with an Outline )

Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox: Getting the Details Right

While an outline helps you create a framework for your fiction, research helps you flesh your story out. Your research will usually fit into one or both of the following categories:

• Canon


• Worldbuilding

( Canon )

( Worldbuilding )

( Wait a minute... )