Along with a good writing routine (which I’ll write about later), one of the most important things I’ve found useful for actually writing are the twin terrors of outlines and schedules. One really follows the other.

For a second lets indulge in a fantasy for a second. For people who have never written anything I’m sure they image writers siting down at a typewriter (what decade is this?) and just vomiting out this magnum opus like Amadeus did with his music. (He totally didn’t by the way.) I’m not saying someone out there doesn’t just sit down and churn out a short story in an afternoon, but I have serious doubts that novels appear fully formed in anyone’s head—especially 500 page epic fantasy ones.

More likely, a humble author had and idea. This idea multiplied and soon they were feverously writing down as much as they could on what ever they could find. But the mad scribbles of some good or even great ideas still isn’t a book, it’s still just mad scribbles. Some might be character ideas, others plot ideas, maybe even some cool dialog fragments. So from here we can organize these scribbles.

I often like to think of writing long fiction, and even some shorter stuff, like the 1981 Burt Reynolds classic Cannonball Run. You know where you are starting and you know where you need to finish, but everything in between is an opportunity. OK, maybe less like an ’80s version of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; but I’m sticking with the road trip analogy.

Say you want to drive from New York to Los Angeles. You have lots, near infinite choices. But you decide you want to hit certain cities on your way there. These are your great ideas and what hopefully sets your road trip from others also making the same trip. You plot your course and by doing that more cities and attractions appear on your road trip. These are new ideas generated by the fact you need to get to your cool awesome ones. Soon you’ve plotted out a complete route from start to destination.

But Ashleigh, that doesn’t sound like fun. Where’s the spontaneity? Where’s the art?

Ask it to the guy staring at his typewriting wondering what do I write.

The cliché of he devil is in the details never has rung truer. Just like the road trip, you might know where you’re going, but not how each day goes. You just can’t imagine that until it happens. Also, you start driving and have to make a detour. Happens in writing too. That great idea falls to an even better idea or didn’t turn out how you thought and you ran with something else. Maybe you’re still heading to Los Angeles, maybe you’re on your way to San Francisco.

But assuming you don’t end up in New Orleans, your trip is still mostly intact. And the great part about an outline and a great writing routine is you can make a schedule. To me the writing schedule is a tool like a writing routine that helps you stay on target. I have sections that need to be written and I know roughly how much I need to write. Lastly I know how much I can write EACH DAY. So now I assign each part a future day.

If you’re strange like me and write stuff out-of-order (because sometimes I’m just not in the mood to write that section), you can tick off the part that inspires you to write today and juggle your schedule. And learning to juggle is an important skills since life often likes messing with your schedule. Those course corrections will make it so you are changing your writing schedule, but you shouldn’t be changing it weekly.

TL;DR: Outline your story. Break it into manageable parts. Assign each part a date to be written.