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HOW TO BUILD A BOOK: THE 27 CHAPTER OUTLINE REVISITED | Katytastic | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: HOW TO BUILD A BOOK: THE 27 CHAPTER OUTLINE REVISITED
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Core Theme
The author is launching a new video series called "Build a Book" where they will document the entire process of writing a novel, using a previously outlined "haunted tattoo" story as a case study to teach writing craft elements.
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hello my name is cat and this is the
series that's right I am starting a new
book well kind of newish the idea isn't
new but I only ever outlined it and
wrote like a really messy zero draft of
the first chapter you should know you
were there maybe were you a a couple
years ago back in 2018 I sorry what it
was 6 years ago 6 years ago allegedly I
came up with this idea about a haunted
tattoo that I offered as a writing
prompt so I never intended to actually
write this story I gave it away it was
free real estate because I'm the type of
writer who has an abundance of story
ideas and I love to throw a quick
outline together like give me a premise
and I will outline a book in an hour
let's go let's do it I actually did that
once in a live stream like 11 years ago
the Warlock Gladiator book like five
people know what I'm talking about
anyways haunted Tattoo book this was an
idea that I liked but I didn't love like
it wasn't precious to me it was so far
down the priority list like
realistically I was never going to write
it in my lifetime I had too many
projects that I cared about a lot more
and was like way more interested in
writing but everything changed when the
Fire Nation attacked no here's the deal
I have made a lot of videos about
writing from general advice to Vlogs
about my own writing journey and process
and in almost all of those videos I've
kept things pretty vague and like
spoiler free when talking about my own
projects you know I might mention like
the genre and some key tropes basic
premise enal Vibes but like no details
because I didn't want to spoil anything
or give anything away but what if I did
some of my favorite videos that I've
ever made are the brainstorming
outlining and zerodraft videos for this
haunted Tattoo book because I love
sharing that behindth scenes look at
story creation like breaking down my
writing process and how I make the
storytelling decisions that I make I
find that kind of thing so fascinating
so like what if I did a whole series of
videos of that what if I take this
project that you already know the whole
outline for it's designed to be like an
example project so I don't need to worry
about spoilers and I can show you how I
actually construct a story How I build a
book so I can make videos going into
depth about things like character
creation and weaving subplots together
and World building theme tone point of
view plot twists tropes all the things
all the story things what if I made a
bunch of videos talking about all these
writing craft elements while actually
developing the story alongside that as
an example and just sharing the entire
process I just think it's going to be a
really fun and interesting project I
love behind the scenes stuff like this
and documenting the entire life of this
story from random idea six years ago to
a hopefully finished book and even if I
don't get there even if I never finish
this book because let's be real that
could happen it's entirely possible the
story could fall apart along the way for
any number of reasons but even if I
never finish this project I still think
that the videos I make along the way
will be useful and interesting
regardless sometimes failure is a part
of the process but you know it'll be way
better if we're documenting a success
story rather than a flop but only time
will tell so welcome to build a book
episode one I'm going to consider those
first three videos kind of a prologue to
this series so you can watch them if you
haven't that is like the actual origin
story of this story but the first thing
we're going to do in this video is re
outline the book my hard drive crashed a
couple years ago now and I lost the
scrier document with the zero draft of
the story but because I only ever worked
on the story for videos I didn't really
lose anything you know it's a bit
bothersome that I have to recreate the
file but it's fine we can rebuild it we
have the technology we're also changing
some stuff up anyways I haven't actively
worked on this story over like the last
half decade but passively I have spent
quite a bit of time thinking about the
story you know further
brainstorming and sporadically making
decisions about how I want the story to
go like in my head I have all sorts of
worldbuilding info and character
backstory info I have a bunch of lore
about like how exactly the haunted
tattoo thing works you know I have all
sorts of stuff like that figured out in
my head it's all been brewing for the
last 6 years and the time has finally
come for me to actually write this
down so let's do that let's re outline
this book and start getting all these
ideas down on the page it's an important
part of the writing process you know
actually writing things
down who knew all right let's get to
outlining so I almost always use my
three act n block 27 chapter outline as
a starting point I'll link a couple
videos in the description for a more
detailed explanation of that if you want
more info on what all these beats are if
you're familiar with my outline method
then you may notice that I've used some
different terms for some of these points
chapter 3 used to be called immediate
reaction and has been changed to Fallout
and chapter 4 used to be called reaction
and is now choice and I just felt like
those terms were a better fit the points
do still contain the same story beat but
the terms Fallout and choice feel more
specific and more active like we're
still reacting but in a more active way
we want our protagonists to feel like
they have agency and to not just be
passively reacting to everything mostly
there are always exceptions but readers
generally like an active protagonist
that drives the story along you know
protags got a protag and all that jazz
now I'm going to go through this outline
in chronological order because that's
how I like to build it out but for those
of you who look at the 27 points and
think that is too restrictive you're
doing too much outlining try starting
with these five points instead in the
first 5% you have your introduction in
your inciting incident at your 25% Mark
you have a plot twist and the promise of
the premise at 50% you have of course of
course your midpoint at 75% you have
another plot twist that pushes you into
the darkest Moment The Dark Night of the
soul and at that last 5% of the story
you have your Climax and resolution
regardless of what story structure you
use whether you use three act with even
divisions like my 27 chapter method or
the version of 3A structure that's
divided by 25% 50% 25% or four act
structure or five act structure act
divisions are arbitrary to a certain
degree like it's really just a
structural Choice it's about pacing and
flow and where your sequences end but
regardless of whatever act structure
you're using if you're even using one
you're going to have these five plot
points at approximately these places and
once you figure out these five plot
points for your main story you can build
out around them or you can go in
chronological order like what I'm going
to do now so let's get to it so chapter
1 is our introduction we meet Charlie
our main character and her life kind of
sucks and then she finds out that her
estranged twin sister who she hasn't
spoken to in a year is dead and that of
course is our inciting incident penny is
dead but she is somehow here as a ghost
haunting Charlie's town tattoo The
Fallout of this incident has Charlie
rebelling against this call to action
she doesn't want anything to do with
this she is still mad at Penny for her
betrayal a year ago so she doesn't want
to help she tries to ditch Penny and
find a psychic who can help her with her
ghost problem but of course the only way
to actually get rid of Penny is to help
her complete her unfinish business so
she can move on Charlie reluctantly
agrees to help in chapter 5 Charlie
takes action Penny's unfinished business
is this science project that she must
complete in time for the Showcase in two
weeks so Penny convinces Charlie to
break into her Elite Science Academy to
get to her project we'll have some fun
like breaking and entering Heist type
Shenanigans in this chapter but of
course there's a consequence to this
action and Charlie is caught breaking
into this lab and now she must appeal to
the people in charge the Headmaster in
order to take over Penny spot in this
course to crank up the pressure a little
bit Charlie must first prove herself
before she's allowed to be accepted into
this program there's some kind of test
or interview that she must pass and she
does she is accepted into the program
but then plot twist while checking out
Penny's project and like assessing what
needs to be done the girls discover that
Penny's death wasn't actually an
accident it was murder in the original
outline from 6 years ago I actually had
this it was murder reveal at the
midpoint and like I could have tried to
keep it there and like make that work
but I concluded that the murder reveal
really does need to be here like we we
need to get that murder plot started
earlier than the midpoint like the story
story really is about the sister's
relationship first and the unfinished
business second so the murder isn't like
a huge element of the story like I
wouldn't classify this as a murder
mystery the murder mystery is very much
a b plot but at the end of act one is
traditionally where you introduce the B
plot so that it was murder reveal is
definitely our plot twist and push into
act two also pushing us to act to is
meeting the other five students peers in
the lab and one of them is most likely
our killer next up breaking into the new
world we get to explore this new
location the lab we get to know what
Penny's project is all about and who
these other people in the course are we
also get to have some fun and games this
is where we get some fun Ghostly
Shenanigans and you know the girls
investigating the murder and working on
Penny's project we're building some
tension because the sisters are
constantly arguing like they still have
beef there's still a lot of tension
between them from their estrangement
then we have the oldw world
juxtaposition chapter this is another
element that has changed because
originally it was just about the sisters
bickering and like rehashing their
history and we're still going to have
some of that here but I was thinking
about our timeline and like a realistic
sequence of events and Penny's funeral
would happen at some point over the
course of the story so this is the
perfect chapter for that Charlie goes
home for Penny's funeral and it's kind
of a reality check for both of the
sisters like they're both kind of
grappling with the reality of Penny's
death and both sisters are a little
emotionally stunted so all these big
feelings things they're dealing with
yeah they're just going to fight with
each other about it they're going to
like lash out and have a big blowout
fight which builds us up to the midpoint
where the Killer goes after Charlie
there's an attempt on her life and the
girls learn the hard way that they have
to work together if they want to figure
this out and complete the project and
you know at least one of them is still
going to be alive at the end of this
hopefully so we have a bit of a reversal
here like the sisters make up they hash
out their issues and start to make
amends and like really repair their
relationship so when we get back to the
lab things are different the sisters are
now working together and making real
progress on both the project and the
murder mystery it's not easy progress
though there are trials involved in this
process of course they are freshly
dedicated and determined to do the thing
they even go so far as to confront their
main suspect at the time but it wasn't
them it was someone else and they're
really narrowing down on the probable
suspect now the last night before the
Showcase we have our Calm before the
storm just a quiet moment of the
sister's bonding and kind of some
preemptive mourning uh you know the
Showcase is tomorrow and after that
penny is going to move on so you know
it's kind of a heavy moment and then the
killer attacks again Charlie is attacked
and hurt and Penny who is incapio can't
help this is the darkest moment Charlie
is Left for Dead Penny is helpless all
hope is lost except no it isn't because
Charlie and Penny find the power within
themselves to make a comeback at the
last minute we get our together
together and then we are racing to the
finale we got to get to the showcase on
time we got to call some reinforcements
in we call the detective who's
investigating Penny's murder we call
some of our allies at the lab can you
stall the Showcase we're on the way and
then everything is coming together and
converging Charlie and Penny have
connected the dots and they've really
connected this time everything
comes together we confront the Killer
and have our final battle our final
showdown and of course we are
victorious hooray for Justice at the
climax of our story we make it to the
competition showcase just in time we
present our project and we win again
another Victory but this Victory is a
little Bittersweet you know because it
means the murder is solved and the
project is complete and the sisters have
repaired their relation ship and all of
Penny's unfinished business has been
finished so now it's time for our
resolution our final goodbyes and Penny
finds peace and moves on maybe we'll
we'll we'll we'll just see about that I
have an alternate ending in mind but
we'll talk about that in a future video
and yeah here is our revamped outline
it's a very basic outline you know this
is only like 500 words or so it's just
like a story story skeleton that we're
going to hang everything else on but we
have these 27 basic story beats and we
have a general shape of the story this
way you know there's obviously a lot of
specifics that this outline doesn't even
touch like I said before the
relationship between the sisters is a
huge part of the story and we don't
really dive deeply into it in this basic
outline this is just like action points
story beats and as you will see in
future videos in this series it's pretty
malleable like I can split some of these
points into more than one chapter or
combine several points into a single
chapter it really depends on how the
story actually flows which you can't get
a good sense of from like this bird's
eye view but we have a road map now we
have broad Strokes of a story and now we
just continue to narrow in on each point
and flesh it out and yeah I think that
is going to do it for this video today
there's a lot of specifics and like
decisions that I've made that aren't
mentioned in this outline at all if you
remember at the end of that original
outline video I had all these questions
like what exactly is Penny's project
what exactly is this competition and the
Showcase and the program that Penny's a
part of what is the tattoo that the
twins share that is somehow haunted I
know all of this stuff now I figured it
all out I've made decisions and I can't
wait to tell you all about it as we
progress through this story and this
project a good amount has changed over
the years not just structure-wise like
introducing the murder mystery sooner
but also things like the twins
personalities uh they're they're pretty
different now and it changes a lot like
I am going to have to completely rewrite
the chapter one that I zero drafted
before because our main character
Charlie is very different now and that
original chapter just does not fit with
her personality at all which is where
we're going to pick up in the next
episode we're going to read draft
chapter 1 so tune in next time for that
until then thank you so very much for
watching this video I hope you enjoyed
it I hope you have a wonderful night and
I will have another video up soon so I
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