Outline Help

I've recently discovered zornhau's Question-Answer-But-Now style of outlining. Here's a brief description:
http://zornhau.livejournal.com/5460.html

Here are two examples, each at a different level of detail:
http://zornhau.livejournal.com/7662.html
http://zornhau.livejournal.com/72037.html#cutid1

Also see Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method:
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php

For my outlines, I like to list the scenes, giving each a short, memorable title. Usually the title is a brief description of the viewpoint character's goal (e.g. "Jeremy asks about Gil at school") or the outcome of the scene (e.g. "Gil beats up Jeremy and threatens worse").

I also note a few details about the scene. The details depend on whether it's an "action" scene or a "reaction" scene. See Randy Ingermanson's description (though he uses the terms "scene" and "sequel"):
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php

If it's an action scene, I write down the POV character's goal, the obstacle or conflict that is in the way of the goal, and the "disaster" or outcome of the scene. For example:

• Goal. Jeremy waits for Deena at school to find out whether she really recognizes him.
• Conflict. Gil is escorting Deena to school, and on the lookout for Jeremy.
• Disaster. Gil knocks Jeremy to the ground and threatens to kill him if he approaches his family again. "We've been through enough."

If it's a "reaction" scene, I write the character's immediate reaction to recent events, the dilemma that the character faces (a host of bad options), and the character's decision of what action to take. For example:

• Reaction. Jeremy reels from the reaction around him. Why doesn't anybody recognize him? What on earth does this all mean? Conspiracy? That's cruel. Curse? He didn't believe in such things. But what else could it be?
• Dilemma. Storm into the house and demand to be heard? (Fight) Go back to Seattle? (Flight) Go to the police for help? (and say what, exactly?)
• Decision. Jeremy decides to search for physical evidence of his existence, and his membership in the family. Physical evidence will convince them. Maybe stories about when he ran away. Maybe stories about when he was the hero of a little league game. I will prove it to them. I will prove who I am.

That's essentially all I do. If I have some particular action or snippet of dialogue in mind I'll note that, too. But usually it's goal/conflict/disaster or reaction/dilemma/decision.

Finally, just yesterday I picked up Elizabeth George's book Write Away which gives a nice process and structure for planning a novel, with examples of outlines at several levels of detail.

Dale

  2007: Many Happy Returns (winner)
  2006: Jeremy Comes Home (winner)

Thanks a lot!

Bleen Booley,

I’ll be sure to check all those helpful looking links (and book) out.

Anybody else have more links or tips or books for me to check out?

Thanks in advance!

Bookwyrm626

Be aware of your writing style.

Back when I decided to write a second book, I decided to try writing an outline first. All the writing books said I should, so I did. I ended up with a great outline but it was so well done, that I no longer had any interest in writing the book. I'd already worked out how the story would end.

It was 12 years before I picked up the story again. I wrote it for NaNo this past year without searching out my original outline. Aside from the set up and the final outcome, very little of my story resembled the original outline. My characters took me places I'd never considered in my outline and in some cases they argued with me about where they should go next. (Seriously, I thought people were on crack when they said stuff like that until one of my characters during NaNo absolutely refused to turn left at the end of the lane like I wanted him to. So I sent two of my other characters to follow him and it turned out to be a great sub-plot)

It was a learning experience. I've discovered that my creativity is better if I let it flow naturally, rather than try to organize it ahead of time. I'll always have loose ending in my mind when I sit down to write, but I doubt you'll ever see me white a complete outline again.

Thanks!

Sue_B

I'll keep that in mind.

I've always had a strong dislike of outlines for writing. (I'd rather free write) But after starting about halfway through last year and having a stalled plot ,I figured this I'd at least try an outline. Also wasn't there a similar example of this in the NANO book? So once again thanks!

Anyone else have any idea on outline help? Example of this in the NANO book?

I use several ways to write a book and sometimes I switch between them as well. I never favored detailed outlines. It causes a disconnect from your characters and if you are determined to follow it exactly, it can also make the plot predictable and your characters flat.

First method is willy nilly, or the "super organic" version of writing. That's where you just let events that the characters tell you just write themselves. Don't think about chronology. Just think about what events does the character need to get from point A to point B. The hell in this is getting it organized later, but you are sure that your characters are talking to you. And its always exciting to write this way. You aren't always sure how it all fits in, but you are pretty sure most of it does. Let me tell you English and literature teachers hate when writes validate this method. Because to them books have "structure" and books need a beginning, middle, climax and end. (I once saw a chart that my English teacher drew about books and I was writing at the time and I thought, that's not true...) To do this, you really have to be in tune with your character and how they are going to evolve, also you need to be able to let go of any semblance of control. This can result in plot holes to fix later, but has its upside that the reader never knows what will happen next--because you don't know.

Second method is the sign post or milestone method... You plot out certain points in which you would like to go. This can be chronological order that you write it, or you can skip around. So you know that Character walks in the bar... at some point he picks up a lady at the bar, he gets slugged by a boyfriend and then he finds out that the girl he hit on was a guy. Those are mile stones, because you aren't plotting it in great detail. I like to plot my mile stones by chapters when I choose this method. Within the chapters I sometimes place mile stones, but most of the time they are blown out of the water by the characters who highly disagree with my assessment of them.

Then there is outline... with adaptation. This is where one writes a complete outline, has all the events mapped in, and then goes writes the story. When the characters change their mind, replot and reoutline the whole entire thing over again and keep going at this back and forth method. I always found this method a bit tedious, however, you can do a lot of false foreshadowing and twisting of the plot this way. J.K. Rowling reported herself to use this method. She outlined all of the HP books before writing them, in massive detail, though she wrote the end of the book first. Less editing later.

Then there is the detailed outline method, without allowing for deviation. This is where you bend the characters to the outline, which, to me is a waste of paper. Because you end up ripping out character's histories and so on to get them to conform to the plot. I find this kind of writing rather dry because I normally can guess the ending before I get halfway through the book. However, it can work for short stories. I don't recommend it for novels though. >.<;; That's how you get things like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Good book, psychological, but damn boy, the characters are flat! Oh, and this one take the least amount of editing because you've spent hours perfecting it.

Then you also have chronological writing, skipping around writing and then a mixture of the two. Chronological is beginning to end. Skipping around is Writing various parts at a time (can be dangerous if you don't write boring parts too), and then mixture is when you realize that your chronological writing is generating an idea for a future event, so you write a bit of that and fit it in later.

I mix the above stuff book to book as the book dictates it to me. Because messing around with the reader's expectations is fun.

As for getting stuck... it might not be because you didn't have an outline. It might have been a number of things, though the top two are burn out and not knowing your characters enough. The former, you just need to rest between. I would spurt to get my word count, lag then catch up later. And the latter, sometimes you need outside eyes to get you unstuck as long as you present the question of how to get unstuck and NOT to edit your novel, it can help to get out, also interview your characters, make them speak to you, and if that doesn't work, get your revenge for a few scenes by torturing them. Make them talk and reveal things to you. Believe me, it's a lot more fun for your reader and for you when your characters are pissed off. It forces them to find solutions and eventually grow as they solve problems.

Telling someone you're a writer is like telling them you're an obsessive compulsive bipolar schizophrenic that goes to AA meetings once a week.

There's no one correct way to write a book. Some like to know what the ending will be before starting out, so they know how to begin it and don't write themselves into a hole. Others write bits of scene along with the outline. Some have no outline at all.

There's only one general rule for outlines -- don't follow them. Okay, that may sound totally strange, but stories are always evolving and changing. You're not going to get the best ideas when you write the outline.

On the other hand, I outline a lot. I'll add in bits of dialog, a description of a place or character. It gives me a nice foundation. And it keeps me from writing into holes. Sure, I'll come up with crazy ideas when improv writing, but these usually don't work, and I may have to scrap 90% of what I've written. Same thing happens when I strictly follow the outline. I'll find that I hate the story and may not even finish it.

So through a process of trial, error, and finding out what the professionals do, I write an outline based on chapters. For example, here's a fantasy story I've been recently outlining:

Outline:
1. Jousting: Julian participates in a jousting tournament; he unhorses Ashur.
2. The Knighting Ceremony: After the tournament, Julina is knighted, but Ashur, a clerk’s son, is knighted as well.
3. The Mission: Julian is unhappy about Ashur’s knighthood. After all, he earned his through fighting, and he feels his glory is diminished. King Brendan speaks to him, and Julian finds that he will be Ashur’s guard on a journey to the lowland kingdoms, seeking official recognition and possibly an alliance.
4. Pinnacle: We meet the bad guys. King Garret of Pinnacle is trying to stop the alliance, as are rebel forces.
5. Shadows: Julian and Ashur set out together. Someone starts to follow them. However, they have not gotten far before they run into trouble. An assassin sent by King Garret, named Scott, attempts to murder Ashur. Julian is able to drive him off, but Scott escapes.
6. Charity: Julian and Ashur seek the help of a Healer, Charity. Ashur likes her. Charity determines to go with them a short distance. They are aware that someone is following them.
7. Mounted Attack: As they travel, they are attacked by mounted men (Rolann and his gang). Charity convinces the horses to go elsewhere. Ashur fights, Charity vanishes (somehow), and Julian starts to respect Ashur.
8. Unfamiliar Territory: Julian and Ashur leave the highland kingdom of Kieghts and enter unfamiliar territory.

It goes on from there. I've also got a list of about a dozen characters, including names, ages, relationships to other characters, physical descriptions, abilities. And I have about a page of a back story and a blurb of what I envision this story will be about. You may notice some of the chapters are not really detailed, because I have yet to decide what will happen there.

"Be nice to the imaginary people. Don't kill too many." -- e-mail from my youngest sister, June 23, 2008

A Very Large Thank You goes out to Kimberly Dawn & Larelmian for their help tips and comments. . . THANKS!!!!!!!!

Anyone else have a more tips, hints, or suggestions for/about an outline?

Once again thanks in advance!!!

Have you read much Shakespeare? His plays are really the best analogy for outlining that I have come across.

The first thing you want to do, if you haven't already, is forget about any preconceived notions of chapter breaks. That can come later, after or during the actual writing.

Your outline will have five basic parts, more or less corresponding with Shakespeare's idea of a five act play.

I. Introduction
II. Rising Action
III. Climax
IV. Falling Action
V. Conclusion

The vast majority of your story will happen in the first three. The longest section will probably be "Rising Action. I've seen diagrams of this where it's like a road leading up a hill. When the little car gets to the top, he's in danger of falling off a cliff. You can also think of it as the first major hill on a roller coaster ride... how it takes a long time to slowly climb up, and once you get to the top, you rush down quick as anything.

The best way I have found, personally, of doing this, is starting out with a very simple five-point "skeleton outline." In other words...
-meet bob
-bob meets/starts liking shirley
-bob screws up big time and loses shirley
-bob finds a way to fix it
-bob and shirley live happily ever after

After you've figured out those most basic elements of your plot, you'll go back and fill in details underneath each section and flesh it out properly.

You'll also probably end up with multiple outlines... for example, you may find that Bob has an elaborate backstory about how he ended up in New York and single, or about Shirley and why she's so reluctant to date Bob. That doesn't fit neatly into the ouline of the current plot, since it already happened, so you'll want to move to another page and outline that previous story so that you have it all in order to reference as you write. If there's a lot of location change, you may want yet ANOTHER outline mapping where exactly everyone is at key points in the story. Or, if you have a lot of different characters, you may want to have a folder detailing each character, their personal information, and how they know, encounter, or affect one another.

An important thing to remember with this is that you're not locked down to whatever outline you make. I do think that outlining is a very important step (I can't tell you how many times, without an outline, I've written myself into a corner and had to throw something away... )it's a lot easier to avoid writer's block when you use notes and prewriting to work all of your problems out in advance. But at the same time, you may find when you're writing that what you had initially planned just doesn't feel right, or that the story naturally wants to go in another direction... so feel free to go back and change your notes or make a new outline at any point. It just really helps to know where you're going and basically how you're going to get there.

Thanks, Smoshea

I have gotten a few character thought and a very vague direct in which I want my 08 Nano to head in.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the fantastic help!

THANKS!!!!!!

Bookwyrm626