Before I begin detailing what I learned from this side quest experience (spoiler alert: it was a significant amount), I first want to talk about how I got here. 

Back in 2024, I was invited by a friend of mine (we’ll call her Anonymous) to participate in a group (we’ll call it The Grown Ups) who complete tasks to earn badges. These tasks include a variety of things, from sharing your favorite music to sharing your favorite outdoor activity, or even teaching the group a new task or skill. I have been tentative in my participation within the group not out of disengagement, but out of trepidation. 

This January, Anonymous encouraged The Grown Ups to share a map of their goals for the year. Easy enough, right? Well, it still took me until the end of the month to put something together, even though I set my goals in the middle of December (forever a procrastinator, this one).

I’ll keep my goals close to the chest for now, as my specific goals don’t particularly pertain to this story. The important point is that I shared them; I shared them for The Grown Ups to see and react to. This is a level of vulnerability – it’s one thing to set goals for yourself and work throughout the year to achieve them to the best of your ability. It’s an entirely separate thing for you to set those goals and share them with others to hold you accountable. Accountable is the scary and intimidating keyword in that sentence. Whenever I thought about setting goals or sharing goals, it always made me nervous because what would others think? What would happen if I didn’t achieve them? How would I be held accountable? Would there be some sort of punishment? I never considered the opposite – what would happen if I shared my goals and others helped me achieve them? And supported me on my journey?

Anonymous read my goals and then shared with me that she had visited this blog (if you’re reading this – I hope you find my references comical). Specifically, she mentioned reading my post from January 17th detailing my contemplation on writing a book. Turns out, she was looking to write a book too, and had found several workshops hosted by our local library specifically designed to support emerging writers. I never would have known about this if it wasn’t for her!

Anonymous and I attended a workshop together at the beginning of this month and speaking for myself, I learned so much! This particular workshop focused on how to develop your plot through the creation of outlines. The facilitators (a published author and an editor) walked through a variety of different methods of developing your outline, and I took more notes than I did for some of my college classes. It turns out this workshop was exactly what I needed to jumpstart my inspiration and send me careening in the right direction. 

To wrap this up, I want to issue a special thank you to Anonymous for lifting me up and supporting my goals. It turns out, that when you actually voice your goals and what you want to do, instead of keeping them locked away inside your mind, others will help you. Who knew?! Maybe I should make a post about my goals for the year. 

Things I learned in the Emerging Writers Workshop (abridged version):

1. There are many different ways to write a novel, ranging from completely winging it (apparently that’s called being a “Pantser”), to outlining it to the nth degree (being a “Plotter”). 
2. Depending on where you are on that scale of identity, there are a variety of different outlining methods that may be beneficial to you. I learned that I think I am inclined to skew a little towards being a Pantser, and will likely approach my novel using a hybrid of the Bullet Points approach and the 5 Key Scenes approach.
3. A pitch for your book is important! Writing a pitch seems easy, but I have tried, and It. Is. Not. I was never good at creating elevator speeches in business school; it seems that unfortunately, that skill is transferable. 
4. The best outline is the one that works for you. Write an outline, or don’t, but just write! Get started and see where things go, and worst-case scenario, you start over. The pressure you’re putting on yourself is your own. 
5. There are plenty of resources out there to support you – use them! As a nod to my earlier revelation, trying to do it on your own makes for a bad time. 

Upon the conclusion of the workshop, Anonymous and I agreed that we would both aim to have our novels outlined before the next workshop at the beginning of March. So from now until then, expect to see my head buried in my notebook as I try to pull everything out of my mind and get it onto paper. Right now my notebook is filled with scribblings, and my phone is full of voice memos of rambling nonsense. I guess I have another 3 or so weeks to make sense of it!

Cheers to taking the next step in this process. If you have any writing tips, please drop them in the comments! And if you’re also working on a book, let me know how I can support you on your journey 🙂