The Craft Of Outline Writing

How To Write Faster With Outline Writing For Your Erotica

No, don’t run away! I know, you’ve heard it before; ‘Outlining is boring and it kills creativity. Real writers don’t outline, they let their art flow!’ Well, seriously? Bullshit. Not outlining is for those that can afford to take three years to write a book, screwing around waiting for their muses to come down and inspire them. I am not one of those people. If you’re depending on your writing to ‘flow’ when you’re trying to make a living, you’re screwed. Completely. Especially if you’re like me with so much messed up shit in the head that works daily to keep me from getting out of bed, never mind writing a bitching story.

Things happen in life—All sorts of things. Good things, bad thing, crazy things, unexpected things. All these things are going to be fighting for your attention the same way a beautiful sunny day does when you’re stuck indoors working. This is when outlining comes to the rescue. Can’t get through a tough/boring scene because you’re not feeling the creativity? Outline. Lost about when to have that huge impact of information because you don’t know if it will kill the tension? Outline. Not sure what the hell is going to happen in the whole damn thing but you know it has to have a hot guy and this one weird thing as a plot point? Outline. It will solve everything.

Alright, so now that I’ve given you an idea just what an outline can do for you, let me define a bit what I mean by outline. You might be surprised.

I’m going to start by showing you my sketch outline for the fifth book of Demon Bonded. I wrote this in about five minutes after rereading the fourth book and getting caught up.

how to write faster with outline writing for your erotica

The Sketch Outline (Demon Bonded 5)


We need a reintroduction to Ky, Lovely, Feral and Magnificent Night. Ky waking up confused, Lovely and Feral alive, well, frisky and decadent. Welcoming to him sexually, needing his life force and genuinely liking him. Ky did so well. Can he feel the power inside him? He can. He doesn’t really understand it but he can feel this warmth inside that connects him to L.


Ky and parents. One has stayed home to watch over him until he wakes up. What is he going to say to them? He realizes that his parents can’t see the demons. He’s not into trouble, not in drugs. Why would he lie about anything like this? He doesn’t really know how to approach any of it, more so when he realizes his parents can’t seem to retain what he’s saying. He’s reminded of the basement, of Magnificent Night.


Visits the demon in basement after his parent has left. Can’t understand the familiarity but craves it. Wants M to feed from him. The shadowy link grows heavier on his collar, more solid and black. He finds bolt cutters but they’re ruined on the chains. Magic is keeping the demon in place more than anything else. He has a class that night, but he’ll go to the hardware store and try something heavier duty just in case. Maybe the books in the attic will have information.


His art class. Painting. Be descriptive, the array of students, the sketchbooks and paintings some have brought, how he’s drawn to Liem’s work and the model in most of them. Beautiful. Makes him feel a bit dizzy. What is he? A wolf. Don’t let him fool you, he looks very sweet but he’s a vicious demon. The word demon clues Ky in, his attention on Liem and his collar. The boy is on the other side of the room, across from the table, but keeps looking by the table. Ky realizes with a start there is someone on the other side. It’s a demon. Liem has a demon and he brought it with him.

Liem notices Ky’s jewel and dark link. That one’s going to kill him. It’s going to drain him until he’s dead. He’s the stupidest sorcerer there ever is, letting a demon black link him.

I call this a sketch outline because I come from a visual arts background. I define in visual terms and this is very much a sketch of the fifth book. The bold ‘S‘ stands for scene. This might be broken down into more parts as I go along—I may not even get to all the info, or may add some scenes in there, but the main parameters are set. I want at least these key points in the scenes to come, and I want to end with a surprise cliffhanger for the sixth book: Ky may be in danger because of Magnificent Night’s link. (Your readers may hate you for cliffhangers, but it’s because you’re doing your job as a writer. You’re making them want to read the next book.)

So after seeing my example, are you feeling so overwhelmed? That little outline for 10,000 words to come and, for real, something this simple will improve your writing speed. Did you think I was going to come in with some neurotic term paper setup with headings and sub headings and indents and roman numerals? Did you think you were writing the story out before you even started? Nope. Not important. Outlining does not have to kill creativity as long as you approach it in the right way.

I like dividing everything I write by scenes and then when it’s written out, going in and organizing by chapters. Each scene has a beginning, middle and end, the same way the story does, and it just helps get things flowing when you’re going through the motions. You’re going to find a comfortable way to organize your thoughts and when you do, your writing is going to feel more automatic—More ease and less struck by inspiration. That is so important. You cannot wait around for inspiration. You need to create it, find it, harness it to your will like any other tool in your writing box.

Creativity is a skill that you practice, not something everyone else seems so good at while you’re scratching your head. I know this because back in the day when I was obsessed with getting my digital painting skills up, I couldn’t help but notice I just kept painting the same things while everyone else had so many interesting subjects. Why was that? I had to flex my creative muscles—And it sucked. It was hard. When you’re used to things coming easy, hard stuff is like a mountain verses that little hill. But I kept doing it, failing as much as succeeding until it started to come easier. And it’s still sometimes hard and I find myself in a rut needing to kick my ass into gear. But knowing I can reach a better level if I practice helps me just as much as taking a break and reading someone else’s work that just blows me away. If you don’t feel like a creative genius, that’s fine. It doesn’t mean you won’t be able to write a damn interesting story if you work at it.

Back to the sketch outline. Did you notice the second scene is more questions than anything else? I don’t even know what I’m going to write at this point. I’m going to figure that out when I’m in that scene, channeling Ky and the story, so to speak. But I do know that I need to touch on these plot points because they’re important to the structure of the story. Whatever the parents’ reactions are can decide things like if Ky’s moving away, being locked out of the attic and the information up there, suddenly under house arrest while his parents test him for drugs—Dragged to a psych ward to see if he’s crazy! It could get dramatic and wild.

Yeah, this scene could have a huge impact on the entire story and yet I’m still vague as fuck. This allows for huge creative bursts when you’re in the moment to transform a story, and then you just alter that vague sketch outlining following that change to adapt to it. You still keep those key elements you need in there, but they’re just moved around to fit.

This also allows for something that can be even more important if you’ve ever struggled with writing. It can push you through blocks and fits of procrastination because although you haven’t got a damn clue what’s going to happen next, you have created a set up where you can build from the bones. Something can happen. Something will happen. You just made a scene by scene plan for your story so obviously you’re capable of getting to the next part. You just need to write it out.

Fleshing Out A Scene To Write Faster

So sometimes I’ll look at my outline, sink into the story and just write that scene. Just like that. Creativity hits, I’m in the zone, the characters are writing themselves and I’m just observing as I clack away on the keys. It’s pretty sweet. Sometimes this is not the case and I find myself writing a line every five minutes, struggling, bored, not sure what the hell is happening. I haven’t written that second scene in Demon Bonded 5 while writing this article, but I’m fairly certain it’s going to be one of those moments. That’s when it’s time to flesh out an outline.

The other grand importance of this type of outline is how it keeps you on track. Yes, you had your key points in your sketch, but maybe you didn’t really take them all into consideration. Here you’re going to find more—reminders of what’s motivating your characters’ actions, where your tension needs to be in the scene, and anything else you want to say. Keeping focus in your story helps you write faster, the same with organizing your information beforehand.

So in a visual sense, this is when you take a rough sketch and start defining shapes, edges, and your picture starts taking shape. There is no right or wrong, just a build up to the next final step. You know it’s not the end result but you also know it is far closer and more solid than that sketch alone.

So since I don’t have this outline fleshed out, I’m going to grab another outline as an example. Apologies, but I have this habit of taking my outlines and just deleting as I write through the parts of the scene. I don’t need that sketch once the image is finalized. Writing high word counts is about moving forward, not looking back and obsessing. Some long complicated books like Blackthorne, where you have so many little plot points and character threads you need to keep up with, I keep the outline for reference, but I still ditch the fleshed out outline as I get that final polished scene out.

I’m going to show you the sketch outline first and then the fleshed out outline of the scene. This is a story I’m 30,000 words into and haven’t even named yet. (Demon Arms) You’ll eventually see it finished but it doesn’t have top priority because of the slower pace it’s set at. It’s much more romance than erotic romance. Anywho.

Sketch Outline (Demon Arms)


Vincent makes a move to win W that fails, but gets D making a scene, making a claim. Gets W outside for a smoke and they have a conversation that gets heated.

Brief. This is a one scene sketch I’m focusing on. Next I start fleshing it out as I find I’m faltering about what they’re going to talk about.

Fleshed Out Outline (Demon Arms)


W is quiet, watching, sniffing, edging ever closer until D is cornered. Why’s he doing that, all calm. Smells good. His dragon wants to smell him. Can smell so many emotions, but D looks so impassive, so still. He’s interesting. He wants to know what all those feelings are. Where they’re coming from. Yummy.

W can’t touch him. His hands are deadly. The dragon is insisting he stay out though, wanting to be around the boy. Sorry if he’s scary to him. Weird. He’s not. They’re all fucked up and weird. D holds his wrist out, letting W smell it. Lick it.

W is losing it, getting lost in scent, the dragon demanding from him. Starts telling D what he wants to do to him. Dragons are possessive, treasure hoarders, keeping what is their’s close and safe. He would need to make him his first. Mark him, scent him, as many times as it took. Everyday, just to be on the safe side, so no one would dare to think they could touch him without crossing W first. He’d make sure D liked it. Would never want to leave. Would want to be his, a prize jewel beyond all value.

D’s having a hard time keeping his control. He usually hates when Leo says that stupid alpha shit to him, but something about W is fucking him up so bad. Precious. He can’t be touched. It messes him up. Makes him lose control when he feels desire. What about the collar? Maybe… but it tempts fate. He needs to stop wanting, not looking for ways around his situation.

Wylie thinks thats bs. He could settle for having killer arms, but they had told him they could get better, that if he figured out why, they wouldn’t be so dangerous. He’d rather try to find a solution than be afraid to break his heart. People are always trying to hurt him, life looking to break him. He keeps winning. Theo told him to stay away, and even in this, he’s not giving up. He wants to win D.

It’s impossible. Really. He doesn’t care. He can transform into a fucking dragon—what the fuck does impossible even mean? Just a taste. The things he wants to do. He can tell D wants them too.

Since you’re not a mind reader and you aren’t familiar with the story, this may seem still vague as fuck, but it’s much less so. I’ve come up with topics of conversation, motives for my characters and brought up key points I want to remember. Things like how D is self defeatist, having wanted life a different way but feeling trapped to his fate. While W is my bad-ass punk that takes his attitude and tells the world to suck it even in the impossible. If he really wants D, he’s going to find a way to be with him. Reminder of animal instincts because W’s a shifter. The need for sexual tension in the scene. There’s a lot going on here, this being the first real conversation these characters have. What’s going to get into the final scene?

I’ll show you. Part of why this fleshed out outline is here is because this scene is not finished, waiting for the weekend when I can give some time to it. Things may still change by the time it’s all edited and what have you, but it’s pretty much in it’s final place. Oh, and I put the header ‘Vincent Tries to Get Wylie’ to help me remember what my scenes are when I’m running through referencing back for needed information. All that stuff gets cleaned up by the end.

The Final Product Based Off Of Outlining (Unnamed Shifter Story)

Vincent tries to get Wylie

Dorian was about ready to start hexing Vincent. Someone had confirmed that Wylie was a dragon shifter and the German was currently trying to flirt his way into the boy’s jeans. Dorian wasn’t sure if Vincent just wanted to fuck the blond, or take him apart for spare parts. What he did know was that he was blocking his view of the dragon shifter and ruining their very intense game of eye contact Dorian and Wylie had been playing ever since the dragon shifter had sat down in the lounge with Fox.

Dorian was not feeling quite himself. He was aware of it, but he wasn’t really willing to do much about it just yet. Vincent was an ass and he was feeling childishly jealous and he didn’t fucking care. He had spent the last three hours in the reflection room getting himself into some sort of balance. Except it had felt decidedly difficult today, his mind ever straying to the new boy and his wild eyes and strangely sexy behavior. Dorian had decided he needed sex. He couldn’t have sex—not without fear of losing control of his magic and taking the damn Academy with him—but he was at least fairly certain that was what his problem was.

Seeing as he couldn’t have sex, couldn’t let himself talk to the hot new kid, and he couldn’t beat the fuck out of Vincent—the damn shameless slut—Dorian settled on a cigarette. Snapping his book shut, he stood from his favorite chair nestled in the corner of the lounge and reached for his cigarette case as he headed for the door. He had to cross the table Wylie was at to do it, his eyes narrowing in on Vincent and his stupid super shiny blue-black hair and skin tight jeans. Dorian was considering discretely cursing a tear into the boy’s seems just out of spite when he heard a growingly familiar hiss, his eyes snapping to the blond staring at him.

“Whoa there,” Fox said, jumping up when Wylie’s arms gave a shudder, his scales exploding up over his flesh. “Shit, shit—Vince, don’t fucking go near him,” he warned, shouldering the boy away when the German looked ready to actually try and touch Wylie’s nearest arm. Dorian was almost disappointed, fairly certain Vincent would have lost a few fingers if he actually touched the impossibly sharp scales.

“Sorry,” Wylie mumbled, trying and failing to turn his gaze from Dorian’s. “Seriously, sorry.”

“Are you guys like fighting or some shit?” Fox asked when Wylie broke out into another hiss. “Should I get someone?”

“No, it’s fine,” Wylie said slowly, taking a deep breath, eyes locked with the brunette who had still chosen not to leave. “My dragon is just a little, um, difficult to understand, is all. It’s not angry… He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, I swear.”

Fox looked unconvinced, putting himself between Wylie and Vincent. “For real, man, you sound scary as fuck. Could you, like, put the deadly arms away?”

Wylie shook his head, clearly struggling internally. “I’m trying. The dragon really doesn’t want to be put away right now… I’ll just, uh, leave until I get it under control…”

“I was leaving anyways,” Dorian finally spoke, clicking his cigarette case open. He watched Wylie’s eyes flicker down, a look of pure desire moving across his features. Raising a brow, Dorian held one up in offering, inwardly smirking when the boy looked ready to lunge across the table. He started walking, Wylie falling in step behind him.

“Wait—I really think you should call one of the Masters,” Fox yelled after, both boys ignoring him.

Dorian wasn’t sure exactly what the hell he was doing, his heart racing in his ears as he felt the dragon shifter following behind him. It was a bit like being stalked, he realized, wetting his lips as he reached the outside door. A tremor ran down his spine, heat flooding him from the simple weight of eyes on his back. Yeah, definitely like being stalked.

Dorian stepped out into the growing evening, fresh air filling his senses and doing nothing to cool the strange heat rising in him. When he stopped under the shadowed awning, staring out by the edge of the pillar, Wylie walked past him, silent as he watched the shorter boy.

“Thanks,” Wylie said, taking the offered cigarette gingerly, clawed hand holding the delicate stick with practiced grace as he placed it to his lips. He paused, eyes narrowing on Dorian’s fingers as one began to glow, a small controlled flame sparking to life at the tip. He stood absolutely still when Dorian brought his hand closer to his face, unblinking eyes fixed on the brunette’s.

Dorian had not expected the boy to be afraid of him, but there was definitely a wariness in Wylie’s strange eyes as he lit his cigarette for him. “You know a lot of sorcerers?” Dorian asked after a moment.

“No. Never met magic users or shifters before this place.” Wylie took a deep drag, his eyes closing and shoulders slumping. “Hell, that’s good.”

Dorian lit his own cigarette, glancing at the dragon shifter occasionally while leaning against the pillar. It was much quieter outside, the light dim enough that Wylie had removed his sunglasses half an hour ago. He couldn’t help but stare, taking in the muscular scaled arms and fierce features that came along with them. Dorian had never seen a partial transformation like Wylie’s. It was an odd balance of human form and soft skin mixed with deadly rainbow reflective black scales. He liked it.

He wanted a taste, just a little one. Dorian was certain once he just got the new boy out of his system, he wouldn’t feel so crazy. He was curious. Wylie was new, different, impossibly hot. If he could find a way to nip it in the bud now, he could prevent it from growing into the dangerous thing it was threatening… If the shifter was even into it.

Dorian was pretty sure he was, Wylie again staring at him when he glanced his way again. It was pure attraction; raw, unhindered, and very difficult to ignore. He should, he really probably should, but Dorian was having a lot of trouble caring about consequences when caught in such an intense gaze.

“Another?” He asked, reaching for his case again when he saw Wylie had finished his cigarette.

“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” Wylie asked instead, stepping closer, hands kept deliberately at his side. “I scare the hell out of me, and I’ve been dealing with this strangeness since I was eight.”

Dorian shrugged, holding the cigarette up, Wylie reaching the last inch to grasp it with his lips. Dorian lit it with a magical flame, hand lingering too long before withdrawing. “Eight? That’s young for a shifter.”

“No clue. I’ve been alone for a long time—No parents, no shifters… no pretty mages.” Wylie took another step closer, nostrils flaring as he breathed in Dorian’s scent.

“You ever hurt yourself with your claws?” Dorian asked, doing his best to keep his heart from racing as the dragon shifter edged ever closer.

“Can’t. They move whenever they come in contact with my skin. Soften. Some sort of innate protection.” Wylie tapped the side of his face with a long talon, the edges blunting and smoothing until removed. “I tried to do it with other people, but not so lucky.”

“But you can heal them, right? Your saliva?”

Wylie nodded. “Only found that out the other day. Usually people just get hurt around me. Course, most of them I wanted to hurt at the time, don’t get me wrong. That’s why the arms come out to begin with.”

Blinking, Dorian let his gaze move down as Wylie took another step, the boy so close now he could feel the heat coming off his body. “Is that why they’re out now?”

“I don’t want to hurt you… It… The dragon would never hurt you,” Wylie said hesitantly, looking away when Dorian tried to meet his eye. “It’s just a little weird. I’m trying to understand the creature, it just… It communicates differently from most things. Hisses when it…” he trailed off, turning his gaze back, the softest of hisses escaping from his lips, Dorian shivering in response.

“Why does it hiss?” Dorian asked, his fingers itching to pull the nearly spent cigarette from the boy’s mouth and touch his face.

“Because it doesn’t know better,” Wylie muttered under his breath.

And that’s all I got. We have the beginning of the scene—could have possibly been two if I chose to turn the indoor scene with Vincent and Fox into a different scene completely, but it doesn’t really seem necessary. We establish the characters in the scene, the environment, start throwing those plot points in there, conversation points and then let them go and do their own thing. All it needs is an ending where I have to decide if we have them leaving on simple terms or if maybe Dorian starts sparking and nearly exploding things because he just thinks Wylie is that hot.

The Next Step In Outlining: The Play-By-Play

Sometimes it’s still not enough. Sometimes you’re still blocked and you’re staring at your screen and you’re like, so what the hell happens next? That is when you bring out the big guns.

Final outline time here, peeps. We’re talking about the play-by-play. This is the easiest way to improve your writing speed and when you write like this, you write faster to begin with.

If I were going to describe this in visual arts terms this is the messy drawing you do before you then take a fresh piece of paper and a lightbox and trace over it so it looks perfect. This is part final product, part sketchy mess and it can be so freaking helpful when you’re stumped. I use this method the most for getting through a sex scene or for the occasion when I’m writing something more action oriented and dialogue riddled. This is all about writing the events, those momentary character reactions as they happen, and just getting it out without worrying about being perfect. This is you writing that story before writing the story and then just following after and polishing it up with more sensory input and proper tenses.

This is, of course, another part of the outline I erase the moment I’ve typed up to the point so let me scrounge around and see what I can find to show you…

Alright, same fic but a different scene further on where I ended up cutting the previous scene up to reveal important info in slower doses.

S D and W reveal secrets

W really needs to get his own cigarettes but it only happens during weekends when they’re allowed out and he’s under special restrictions because of the judge. Wylie is determined to keep his distance but the dragon is winning. D is teasing him again, luring him over. D acts colder than before but Wylie can read underneath. The want. He said he didn’t want anything to do with him but he’s inviting him in again.

Sorry he fucked him up in class. It’s nothing. Forget about it. It upsets D, he can tell. He doesn’t want to upset him. Seriously, just drop it. He’s dealing with it. Better in class with a teacher there to collar him.

W can’t help but notice the boy is pissed. Did he do something to piss him off? Well, besides having his dragon overreact and play unneeded hero. It was unneeded. D can take care of himself. W knows, but it doesn’t mean he can keep his dragon straight about it. He’s working with the creature, trying to get it to back off. The dragon knows D is powerful but it wants to be the one to protect him so D never has to worry.

God, stop. Just don’t talk to him like that. He was clear. There’s no winning him. He can’t be with anyone—he’s got a fucking lifetime of loneliness ahead of him. There’s no anything so stop making him, fuck, feel. D is agitated, sucking another cigarette down.

What about the null-collars? That blocks his magic, right? Why doesn’t he just wear that when he wants to be with someone?

Exasperated, D shrugs. He has a lot of problems with the collars, the main one being that it’s a crutch. He has to spend the rest of his life with this disorder. He needs to give up on the things he wants. It’s irresponsible to put others at risk over something so selfish.

W is not impressed. Since when? Since when is personal happiness selfish? What, you’re just supposed to wait around for someone to allow you to be happy? You think anyone else is crying over how others are going to be effected every time they go out to get laid?

D gets quiet. He wouldn’t understand, would he? He’s just dealing with… What, exactly? A hissing disorder?

W has no interest in letting anyone know why he’s there specifically, especially since he’s sure D is the type to not be impressed with the fact that he just dodged five years of jail time. He can’t shift fully, and his arms are deadly as they are. But even still, he’s going to do everything he can to not hurt anyone and learn how to control his shifting better. He can slice through metal with ease but he’s never hurt anyone he didn’t intend to. Never killed anyone. He’s not going to stop living just because his arms are fucked up.

It’s easy for him to say. He really just doesn’t understand. Maybe if he was one of the crazy shifters that can’t control his beast. D’s magic is like another entity inside of him, always trying to escape and kill.

All the more reason to find ways to have fun. To enjoy life. D’s been giving a raw deal—Why the fuck should he give in to it? Take everything good in life he can get. So what if it’s selfish? Be selfish. It’s just a stupid human manipulation to make him feel bad about himself.

D really needs W to step back, W sexy when arguing. Yeah, well, like he said, it’s really easy for him to say. He doesn’t have to worry about killing people if he loses control.

W thinks D’s just copping out. Has he even tried?

D, who has spent forever knowing he can’t get angry or people die, is starting to crack at this particular line of conversation. Really, what the fuck does W know about it? About him? He just fucking got there. He doesn’t know fuck and he should really shut up about it.

W unfortunately has a very bad habit of liking to piss people off, upset about the conversation as well and finding himself head over heels over a boy that won’t even attempt to face his feeling back. Yeah, he’s totally copping out.

D holds two fingers up, the same spell he uses to subdue Leo when the shifter is out of control. When it hits W, he hits the ground, his knees giving out, weakness settling through him. D’s smug, pulling out another cigarette. He was saying? For real, the new kid doesn’t know shit and he should watch his mouth.

W’s realizes again the spell isn’t actually keeping him down. But D seems to think it should so he stays where he is, letting the boy talk.

It’s really easy for W to talk, he never killed anyone. He didn’t fuck up so bad that someone died. D can tell. He’s had killer shifters go through before. W’s not one of them. It’s not so easy to tell with sorcerers. Some kill and W should be careful. Should definitely watch his back with that sociopath, Vincent.

So you killed someone.

D is surprised W can talk, turning and glaring at him. Right, he’s a fucking dragon. Why is he pretending his spell works?

Momentarily stunned and D seems calmer when he thinks he can’t move. He doesn’t want to upset him anymore. He just… Just wants to be around him.

D shakes his head, exasperated. Fuck. Just stop being so fucking perfect. Get angry. Hate him. He’s treating him like shit and he needs to hate him and leave already.

So I’m going to leave it there for now otherwise I’m giving away too many plot points that you may want to read in the final book. You get the idea. It’s a rough final. You have most of the elements needed for the end result, it’s just not in the right format, tenses are off—it’s a bit of a mess. Believe me when I say this; it is so much easier to just write it out like this than stopping and thinking of all the many little things you need to think about when it comes to presentation when writing that final draft. Part of what can get you fouled up in writing that plot is all the things that go into writing, to the point that you’re too distracted to focus.

Yeah, you’re distracted by your own writing. I totally just said that.

So what does this outline look like once you polish it up? It depends on you.



Two paragraphs of text starting a scene and conversation. Depending on how I choose to approach this, it could end up being a page or just a small blurb. It could be as close to how you see it now, or it could become something that looks extremely different. Depends on what I’m trying to say at the time.

The autumn afternoon air still warm, Wylie carefully lifted his sunglasses, testing his normally light sensitive eyes as Dorian pulled him outside and away from the other kids. Theodore’s trick had worked, his eyes no longer in night vision mode the way his dragon preferred. He glanced over at Dorian, the brunette quiet now that they were alone, his hands trembling slightly as he pulled out a cigarette from his case.

Wylie was thinking about giving up on smoking if only because he had no fucking access to cigarettes. He was told they were allowed to go out during the weekends, but since he was dealing with special restrictions from the judge, he probably wouldn’t be able to leave the Academy grounds until he saw his parole officer later that month. That Dorian had the one thing he was craving seemed just a bit too damn dangerous considering he was trying his damndest to stay away from the beautiful boy.

It didn’t help that Dorian kept throwing him mixed signals. They had spent the weekend avoiding each other, yet now Wylie had been forcefully dragged out the door by the brunette. And even though Dorian looked particularly distant and cool as he held a cigarette up in offering, Wylie and his dragon could read so much going on underneath the surface.

Dorian had been clear they couldn’t be anything, but it hadn’t stopped the sorcerer from wanting it. That he was out there inviting Wylie closer, hazel eyes sharp and filled with something damn near wild said more to Wylie than any of Dorian’s previous words of impossible.

Dorian wanted him, crazy hissing dragon and all.

Carefully plucking the cigarette from Dorian’s grasp, he let the boy light it, no longer worried about being burned when the sorcerer’s finger lit up in a flame. “Sorry about earlier. Didn’t mean to make you start sparking.” He watched Dorian carefully, catching the slightest of tics in the boy’s jaw.

“It happens. Forget about,” Dorian muttered, jumping up to sit on the thin banister that overlooked a row of shrubs, shoes locking in the metal rails to keep him from falling.

“Pretty sure you’re upset,” Wylie said simply, stepping away to lean on the side of the building.

Glaring, Dorian looked away after a moment, smoke streaming from his nose. “Just drop it. I’m handling it. At least Master Howld was there with a collar if I lost it. But I didn’t because I’m fucking handling it.”

So like I said, this method is great for getting through long ass scenes. It’s so easy to get sidetracked, sometimes writing yourself into a corner or what have you. This can get you back on track, cut through the bullshit, and then you just go back and clean it up and make it sparkle.

I don’t recommend making a play-by-play beyond the scene you’re currently at in the story unless you’re solid on what you’re writing. You’re basically putting things in stone when you write the play-by-play. You’re defining a lot of parameters that weren’t defined before, but they’re not necessarily everything you’re going with. You still have leeway and if you do all this work for five chapters straight, just to realize you changed something halfway through the first scene that’s going to nullify everything else you’ve written, well, that’ll suck. Big time. You want to write faster which means writing smarter.

Scene by scene in order is how I work. I do sometimes end up going back and slipping scenes in there, but I have to be super careful to not put any info drop or change that will effect other scenes without being willing to change the rest of the story. You may find a better way for you but understand; keeping things in order allows your creative bursts to be put in without consequence of later scenes.

You might look at the play-by-play outline and feel resistance to it. It looks like a lot of time and work for something that won’t even be your final draft. It can be. I still feel resistant to doing it even though I know how much time it saves me in the long run when I’m struggling. But the thing is, it works. Every damn time.

I actually came up with this method when I was writing the second half of ‘Dare.’ It was Christmas time, I had so much stuff I needed to do that was putting me on a huge stressful deadline to get the story finished and published so I could do things like wrap presents. It didn’t matter how determined I was to get the damn thing done, it just wasn’t happening fast enough.

I was struggling through the threesome/foursome scene which can be a total pain because of all the characters you need to account for. Actually had the same problem with Coffee Guy and I wish I had used this then. Seriously, if you’ve ever written this type of scene, they can be tedious and exhausting. Gangbangs are an artform. Laugh all you like but then try to write one and keep track of who is what and where, doing what to who. And make sure you write it well enough for your readers to not stop halfway through and go, ‘wait, whose hand is that?’ And after all that, you still need to keep the tension, still need to make it interesting. No, not easy and every tool in your writing bag that will help you should be used.

Anywho, I realized I just needed to do that thing that I see in a lot of erotic writing that I don’t actually like on its own. Just choreograph the scene. Write out what the characters actions and idea of dialogue are going to be, and just get the simple shit set in stone first. Once I knew what the characters were going to do, everything else was easy peasy. Using the outline as a base, it was simple to add in those sensory and emotional elements on top of it. Like drawing. The skeleton before the muscles before the flesh and clothing; sometimes you really need to get the bones in there first to save time fleshing your finished product. It really helps your write faster.

Hope I gave you a new perspective on outline writing and took you out of the common mindset I grew up with whenever I heard the word ‘outline.’ I have a dozen half finished books that I started way back when that will continue to sit there, unfinished, because I foolishly jumped in without an outline and got lost wondering where to go next. But if I have the time and interest, like with the shifter fic I used as an example, I can go through and write an outline for the end and get that shit done.

I can write an outline for a 10,000 word book like Demon Bonded in ten minutes and get the thing written and cover made within two days because it’s all planned out. I can spend a day writing outlines for different stories and then pick and choose what to do next, always having something at the ready instead of worrying I’m going to run out of ideas. Combine that with some creative twists and hot scenes, and you could be publishing a lot of sexy fun books on a weekly basis. And really, don’t you want your life to be full of sexy fun? I sure do. Sexy outlines to the rescue to let you write faster.


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2 Responses to The Craft Of Outline Writing

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