Usually, I don't do extensive planning of my writing projects--the ideas just come in and I start writing, but this time I felt the need to lay at least some topics out so it'll be easier for me to write the narrative when the time comes. Since this narrative will be about the time when a story I was writing crashed because of one simple bad idea, it will likely be one of the longer ones, because there must be the story component of the narrative, in addition to the "moral" component, which I usually like to add to the end. The primary insight is that you have to judge carefully if your ideas are fit for your book before putting them in; otherwise, the book may reject the idea, and then you'll be unable to continue knowing that you have a bad apple in there. To keep things organized, I've decided on a short introduction that informs the reader what the Gates of Terror is, and why I started writing it. Then, I would move into the development stage, where I would explain how the Gates of Terror got wrecked. And finally, there would be the end stage, where I would discuss the moral of the story, and bring about the primary insight (although I plan to have that insight distributed throughout the narrative, rather than concentrated at the end.)
I plan on having only a few subsections, so the reader won't get confused which one they're in. Under the middle section, when the narrative is developing, I'll have a subsection about ideas and their connection to a book. Then, I'll have a subsection around the last paragraph about the moral of the narrative, which would explain how you can prevent the issue I had from happening to yourself. I think that's pretty much all I'll have in terms of subsections. However, I do want to have main ideas that drive the story, rather than just having one primary insight without anything to back it up. Here is a list of those ideas:
Don't focus on making the story long. Focusing on making it too long will lead you to make bad decisions, like putting the wrong ideas in the wrong places. The quality is more important.
Before adding new plot twists or ideas to your book, check if they are fit for the book (e.g., if they match up with the context of the rest of the story.) Otherwise, the book may "reject" the new idea, and you may wind up with a wrecked book.
Put your stories on your computer, not in the cloud! This may sound silly, but if they are permanently deleted from the cloud, no professional software can recover it. If it gets deleted from your computer, with the right software you can still get it back. (I made that fatal mistake with the Gates of Terror.)
I think that with this plan, it'll be much easier to write the Literacy Narrative, even though I don't usually plan writing assignments out.
And that is all for Writer's Journal #8.
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