Prewriting

My relationship with the prewriting stage has certainly evolved over my writing career, and even over the course of this project. I used to think it was only coming up with a full outline of a story and coming up with basic details about my characters, and even then, I'd spend most of my prewriting time by imagining how the story would look as a movie, not a book. At times, I think I also used prewriting as a crutch: I hoped that the longer I spent perfecting the outline, the easier it would be to actually write the story...except the opposite happened. I never actually wrote, because it was never perfect.

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From working with my mentors, I've now realized just how much is involved with prewriting. Yes, this process should make the actual writing easier, but it's also more than just daydreaming. On these pages, I've included links to some of the exercises and templates I've followed throughout this stage, as well as some fun extras from my own story as examples. Click any of the buttons on the side for a closer look.