Why Outlines Only Help So Much

Phase Three and Four ask us to finally write something. Well I guess sprints are writing but it feels different. First, we take two outlines and write about two thirds of the piece before choosing the final piece to move on to🤞publishing.

In Phase Three I chose to move ahead with sprints 4 and 5, the cannibal and the cops. They now both have working titles! “Powerful Witch Seeking Apprentice” and “In Without Backup”. It was a difficult decision, but it had to made. (And I can always go back.)

I will likely return to Sprint Two, the possession story, but the main reason I left it behind is that it has a pretty large cast and I feared I wouldn’t get it down to the 2000 words the challenge suggests. Not that this isn’t going to be a problem anyway…

I chose “Powerful Witch Seeking Apprentice” and “In Without Backup” mostly out of excitement for the ideas. PWSA felt very straightforward to write which also gave it a leg up. For IWB, it was really the excitement over trying to write in that weather pathos.

During the first part of writing, both stories told me there would need to be a bit of an overhaul. They perhaps weren’t as ready as I thought they were. (One far more than the other.) The change that reveals itself in IWB is exactly why it is PWSA that makes it through to Phase Four and onward.

“Final” Word Count: 1200

(With quite a bit to go…)

The idea was there, the potential was there, the outline wasn’t.

There was a point where I was writing and returned to the outline to see where I was and I was in multiple places at once and had a face palm moment… really… look at this face!

Needless to say, I realized there was something awry with the plan and there would need to be quite a bit of rejiggering and logic fixing. It comes down to the dual POV approach and figuring out what the weather looks like where and when, in which POV is what being said over the radio, and some pacing shenanigans.

That doesn’t mean the writing process wasn’t going well, it just meant that writing had fixed the problems I didn’t know I had and now the plan had gone out the window. However, the writing hadn’t totally fixed the issues because I had returned to the plan to reorient. The exact opposite happened!

What will actually happen when I return to this one is a new planning stage, and then I can try writing it again.

Final word count: 2878

(yes this is a “problem,” however, there are many journals that do accept up to 5000 words and beyond so, I may just say poo-poo to the challenge’s suggestion; it’s my challenge anyway!)

Overall I really enjoyed writing this one. It was pretty free flowing, and I even managed to get some interesting descriptions in the first draft despite being a chronic underwriter.

Slowly through the process a clear issue was cropping up, see if you can sense the pattern before you reach the final note.

A few notes from the writing process:

• Just had a thought of following Hilde home and her rearranging her house to match Dana’s version of witchcraft. for a longer adaptation perhaps.

• POV may become an issue. Maybe we need to add a bit more of Hilde’s interiority to make this more on the omniscient side. will also help with that first meeting.

• I haven’t spent nearly enough time with the uncreepy here. (This just speaks to my underwriting!)

• POV switch? start with Hilde instead of Dana, switch to dana, switch to martha...

What’s most hilarious to me is that by the time I’d written the final note, I’d forgotten about the first two! I wrote the beginning of this piece first, switched to IWB, and then returned to finish it as the challenge asks. In fact, I didn’t realize I’d already caught the POV problem until scrolling back up to my notes to write this post!

In my video ponderings I wonder if I could have chosen IWB because the editing process might look more interesting for all of you, but it turns out I have major big picture editing to do after all!

I’m super excited to move on to the editing process in Phase Five (after a little break to refresh the mind and eyes). Editing is kind of my favourite part anyway! Though, even more so I prefer to edit other people’s work.

How is your writing going? If you’re joining me in this challenge, are you at all surprised by the story that’s made it through the final choice?

I think I am surprised actually… At least If I return to Phase One me. I hadn’t had the whole “actually a cannibal” idea yet, once that decision was made, I think it was plain on my face that this one had its teeth in me.

Jerrica Black is an editor, writer, and content creator with a variety of passions including but not limited to literature, cooking, crafting, hiking, and gaming. She graduated in May 2025 from Professional Writing at Algonquin, is the author of “Flames to Remember” in Shattered Reflections, and creates educational and conversational blog posts and videos about reading, writing, and editing while encouraging (and editing for) aspiring writers and assisting small businesses with copy & content.