For weeks eight and nine of my In-Depth project, I concentrated primarily on completing an outline that summarized my ideas for the entire podcast series. I found this process difficult and time consuming. I was surprised by the complexity I faced while organizing all my initial ideas regarding characters, plot devices, and changes in setting. I ended up writing and rewriting my outline several times to refine and revise the story. To be honest, I am still not completely satisfied with my outline and expect there will be further revisions this week. 

I met with my mentor, Mr. Gosselin on March 3rd, to discuss concerns about the outline. I transcribed a portion of this meeting below. 

I started my conversation with Mr. Gosselin, with a blue hat style question. (Organization/focus/purpose)

DL: What do you do if you discover something in the outline is not working? 

Mr. Gosselin’s reply started with a yellow hat approach. (Insights on how and why something should work)

MG: That should’ve been figured out in the outline stage: if it’s not working, then you figure out on the spot essentially. A lot of the time scripts are messed up and we have to go back and fix them, sometimes if they’re so broke, you have to go back to the outline, but if you can mend it, we call it doing ‘surgery on the draft’, then you can do that, but if it’s beyond surgery, you have to bring this thing back from the dead before you start the draft. 

He then transitioned into a black/blue hat answer. (Critical thinking/advice on why the information does not work/purpose)

MG: If there isn’t something working in the outline, then you need to fix the outline before you draft for sure. If there’s something already wrong in the outline, it’s just going to get worse in the draft. 

I continued the conversation by asking a green hatted question. (Productive/Asking for creative ideas/alternative solutions)

DL: How do you suggest handling tropes? 

MG: I don’t know, what is a trope?

DL: Kind of like where when people hear a story about a crazy dad who is trying to kill his son, people think “The Shining”, so you know, how should I go against that kind of thing?

MG: Like they think you’re ripping it off?

DL: Yeah

Mr. Gosselin responded with a yellow/green hat style answer. (Insights/Ideas/Creative Possibilities) 

MG: I mean, there’s only like 7 different plotlines that exist in the world. I think that if you’re all out stealing, then it’s obvious. If you’re doing your version of something, every story is a version of something, or a version of stories that have conglomerated and come together to tell one story. So as long as you’re being true, and you’re taking a story idea and you’re doing your version of it, but you’re not stealing any original ideas from anybody else, it’s completely universally fine. 

Overall, I tried to ask many questions to Mr. Gosselin. I specifically followed the recommendations within De Bono’s “How to have a Beautiful Mind,” in our conversations. I feel that we had a very productive conversation and that I learned a lot through listening. I really appreciate that Mr. Gosselin is taking the time to mentor me with this In-Depth project. 

I anticipate that the next four weeks will be very productive and busy. I will be starting to write full scripts of my podcast once my outline is finalized.