Plotting Forwards and Backwards

The image that most people have of writing is a lot like reading.  We imagine the author punching line after line into the keyboard (or typewriter), plodding along in the same direction that we read:  From page one to page one hundred.

This view is both poetic and wrong, and the source of a lot of frustration for newbie writers.  But at first it’s all we know and so that’s how we write.  So today’s post is all about outlining.  

“Reading is linear.  Writing is non-linear.”

Most peop...