Outlines

Mine vary based on the project. Sometimes it's basically just free-writing. Other times it's like a formal outline from school (with I's, and A's, and 1's, and a's). Usually, though, it's a bulleted list of some kind.

And I always outline on paper to start with, even though I rarely write on paper. Something about seeing it in physical form helps.

Sometimes, when I'm just starting to work on an idea, I'll do mind maps, too. I do these on paper, sometimes with different-colored pens. But honestly, it's more a form of procrastination than anything else...

If I'm writing a script I'll outline on index cards, one card per scene.
Each card will have a main heading and a couple of lines underneath of explanation.

Writing a novel I'll use a bulleted list on the laptop for each main scene with one line of description.

Don't know why I do it this way, just always have.

I do bullet lists. I'll note the characters and the situation. Then I list each scene with a line about what happens. Depending on the complexity of the interaction I'll add sub-bullets for what else happens.

In my head. Writing anything down kills the mojo. I have a sort of 3D layout in my head. Multi-sensorial. I know I sound like a hippie but it's true.

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Present tense plot summary, often with dialogue thrown in. Made up example:

Guy walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Hey, Buddy--" but doesn't finish what he's saying because the guy steps closer beneath the light and the bartender recognizes him and gasps and swears. Guy says something. What? And the bartender...

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It depends. Sometimes it's a ridiculously detailed list of bullet points that reads essentially like a task list. Individual list items may even have word count targets associated with them. I use this mainly with complex nonfiction projects which are in danger of becoming very messy if I allow myself to wander around aimlessly. But bullet points have their uses in fiction, too.

My favorite format, however, is what Elizabeth George calls a running plot outline. It's a present-tense, stream-of-consciousness description of the passage or segment I'm about to write. It often includes any relevant dialogue, action beats, sensory details and overall feel. It helps me "see" the scene in question better. Often I write this "down the page", one beat of action, image or thought per line. When cleaned up, this gives me a great statring point, a zero draft, if you will. Writing the first draft is about expanding this quick sketch into a fully fleshed-out scene. Rinse and repeat.

EDIT: virtue_summer's example describes what I do pretty well.

I think I would like that running plot outline. To jot stuff down right before I start writing the scene. I think I could grow to like that. But not before I'm actually about to start that scene. Hm... Nice idea.

First I create "beat sheets" for each of my POV characters (I have 6 rotating POVs).
The "beat sheet" is something I took from Save the Cat but altered it to novel-form. I kept most of it as it works brilliantly for plotting character arcs.
Once the beat sheet is complete, I begin going chapter by chapter. In each chapter I write:

1. The name of the POV character.
2. What has to occur by the end of the chapter (how I get there is up to me during the writing process).
3. End of chapter hook.
4. A note about where the character is at this point in his/her narrative arc.
5. A note about motives, how to display what the character wants.

I'll do this for each chapter. If I have more than two scenes happening in a chapter, I'll be super cautious. I won't go over three scenes per chapter.

As to how I arrange them, that changes throughout the process. I usually try to look at their character arcs and see how they might intersect, where I can pull away from a group to give more tension/suspense, etc. Again, my "order" is still changing on my work in progress and I have been revising for three months. It's close now. (I used to use the notecard method, but found that more frustrating to change material in the future if I need to--whereas I can just go in and make alterations to a Word Document).

I also create a narrative timeline spreadsheet in Excel to keep track of days that pass where each chapter fits, etc. That way, when I reference precious incidents in later chapters, I can say, "____ days ago, when Ron spoke with Joe..." (go to my excel sheet and know exactly how may days ago that was.

On another sheet, I write political and familial information. I create family trees (lineages). Sometimes, to get in the mood, I'll go out on the internet and look for images of people who I think resemble my characters physically and place thumbnails of that person in my family trees.

I detail political atmosphere. What nations/people are allies? enemies? new allies with ancient grievances, etc.

Map is already finished before outlining process begins, but if I need to plug in names of countries, geographical locations, I'll do that if I feel it's necessary, but most of that is already done.

I create character bios sometimes, (I interview them). I also will go take a character Briggs/Meyer test to see where they fall. Sometimes it can really help! It's a lot of fun, too. I don't want characters "just like me," so this can help me stay off that track.

All of this pre-writing.

Some of it changes through the process if a plot point changes.

I'm not good with remembering some things. It's why I keep a notebook of ideas, an "idea file" and it's why I outline. I need this to ground me so I can clear up my brain for the fun, creative part and just let her rip.

After I write a scene I add it to my outline. So I sort of outline backwards. I lay the story out in my head. Of course I mostly use my outline to find where something is after the fact not to really plan the story.

I used to outline extensively before writing, got away from it for a bit, and am only now getting back into it. I think I let my pantser self get a little too giddy, and now it's time to bring structure back into the game.

I personally use a bulleted list, with the far left points being the major plot points or changes in setting. The farther the bullet is towards the right of the page, the more minor the detail.

Works for me, but there's a different method for everyone out there!

Good luck

My outlines look like very badly written first drafts. Probably because they are in fact very badly written first drafts. The art happens in the second draft and the craftsmanship sometime after that. The first draft is just about getting a big glop of clay on the potter's wheel.

I've found that I usually do a bullet point list with a short description of each major plot point. I don't do much in-depth plotting because I never follow my outline completely and I'm very likely to change things around while writing. Still, it helps to have a general idea of the major things that need to happen between the beginning and end.

OpheliaRevived said:

What do yours look like? What's your favorite format?

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Chapter list, with two to five sentences per chapter summarizing the plot points and events.

For first-person POV, it's a free-write just saying what happens. Then I find the logical scene breaks and split it into chapters.

For multiple third-person POV, I use an excel spreadsheet. Chapter #s go at the top, and beneath, the POV each chapter is from. Each subplot gets its own row, so I can make sure I touch on each enough times, without too much time between.

Usually a numbered list of significant scenes, which looks a little like this:

1. Bob wakes up in his bed after a nightmare about razors.
2. Bob gets up and methodically braids his beard.
3. Bob calls a taxi to the Beard Championship.
4. When he arrives, he discovers his arch-rival Harry has been killed.
5. Harry's funeral. Rumours of 'the Barber', serial killer of bearded men.
6. POV of the Barber stalking Bob...

I strike out the points as I write them. They are usually rough as hell with more than a few blank spots, and I like to deliberately leave the ending a mystery before I get there, but without some sort of outline I tend to flounder a bit.

My latest project has several interlinked POVs, so I made more detailed outline in spreadsheet form to get the timelines right. I'm writing each person's story linearly, then puzzle-piecing them together. It's strangely fun.

This time, the most detail ever. I use the Swain/Bickham thinking about scene, and I outline in Excel. So the rows have titles like: MC goal, ant. goal (conflict, in other words), disaster, sequel notes. The scenes are labeled first by date and then a second row with a brief description, like, "cultivating corn- the horse balks." I have two MCs, and so I have two chunks of outline that sit one on top of the other so that the dates line up and I can see at a glance that when F is doing X, M is doing Y.

I've been cut-and-pasting three-scene chunks into my current word doc until those three get written (taking about a week these days, half that time two months ago), then erasing them from the Word doc and going back and grabbing another three-scene chunk from Excel.

There are five sections to the book and I really only do detailed outlining of the section I'm in. I do put in scenes in the later sections I can see clearly already, but there are still many gaps out there. I like brainstorming and outlining, so it becomes a sort of reward for completing a section: I get to go and flesh out the upcoming section with the detailed outline.

And when I'm done with a section I can see I missed some scenes, so that gets added as a note at the top: "add scenes where the necklace gets stolen/recovered." I'll get to those when the rest of it is done, as the first step in revision.

In the past I've done more what Stellan describes.

I started using spreadsheet software when writing my mystery--it's really important to keep the various suspects activities straight and related to each other to get the red herrings and decide how it'll get revealed to the detective. I'm sure there are mystery novelists who are pantsers, but I can't imagine it!

For those who outline there are so many ways to approach this. Don't you think it's best to figure this out on your own? What works for one won't work for another.

Although if this thread has been helpful, tada! Great!

Start outlining!

jaksen said:

For those who outline there are so many ways to approach this. Don't you think it's best to figure this out on your own? What works for one won't work for another.

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Well, I guess the point of the thread is to see the variations and the many ways, just because that's interesting. I'm wondering why sharing how one approaches a problem means that one is giving up on figuring things out for oneself. I'm also wondering why it's best to figure it out on one's own, if somebody else has a tool that you might be able to make use of, improve your own process maybe.

(I imagine that most of the people in the thread are already working on their outline making the call to 'start outlining!' redundant)

Layla Nahar said:

Well, I guess the point of the thread is to see the variations and the many ways, just because that's interesting. I'm wondering why sharing how one approaches a problem means that one is giving up on figuring things out for oneself. I'm also wondering why it's best to figure it out on one's own, if somebody else has a tool that you might be able to make use of, improve your own process maybe.

(I imagine that most of the people in the thread are already working on their outline making the call to 'start outlining!' redundant)

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I like to collect ways to outline like people collect stamps or figurines or ceramic state thimbles.

My favorite to this day is The Snowflake Method. Sometimes I follow it to the letter, sometimes I modify and skip steps, sometimes I sort of jump ship midway and drag in another way to continue organize and outline, depending on where the idea is taking me and my mood and probably the phase of the moon.

jaksen said:

For those who outline there are so many ways to approach this. Don't you think it's best to figure this out on your own? What works for one won't work for another.

Although if this thread has been helpful, tada! Great!

Start outlining!

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Of course not, but that's not what this thread says. In fact, I find it interesting to see how other people work. Nobody is saying you have to do it like they do, although if someone happens to see an idea they want to try then what's wrong with that either? There's no guarantee it would work for them, sure, but there's no guarantee it wouldn't either, and trying different approaches often is the way to find our own.

bearilou said:

I like to collect ways to outline like people collect stamps or figurines or ceramic state thimbles.

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I'm a discovery writer, but I think I can learn from hearing about how people approach stories and getting things done, regardless of their approach.

"Neither a panster nor plotter be—be both."

Sometimes as I write, I want to be a million miles away from a plotted plan. Other times I type red numbers into the text to keep track of events or character traits. Any outline bit that occurs to me, I jot down for reference. I also feel free to cross them out or delete them as the story rolls on. Usually, there will be one or two good ideas left in a list of ten items. I do however believe that I wouldn't have found the one or two good ones unless I had made the list of ten. Doing a second or third draft brings me more strongly to use definite plot points. When the laundry is dry on the line it is easier to reel in—in other words, during a rewrite I'm less invested in some of my sentences and more concerned with the flow of story, so it's easier to re-arrange paragraphs and sections of text. I don't follow the rules, but I keep a wary eye on them lest they bite.

Outlines are fun!

But it depends on what I'm writing. Short stories usually are either a discovery writing process or the whole thing is stuck in my head and I can't get it out of my head until it is on paper.

Novels are very, very different. I was originally outlining in Word with bullet point lists of each chapter, but it seemed to get complicated for some reason.

I moved to OneNote and opened up a new tab for each chapter, but then the OneNote notebooks got unwieldy. I found a piece of software that I love--Scrivener. I can use it like OneNote, but it is so much more. There are index cards you can rearrange on a virtual bulletin board. I can create a research folder and link specific bits of research it to specific points in the outline.

I can compose the entire novel in the thing and not have to feel like I am stuck writing in a linear fashion, and when I'm done, I hit print and it compiles a very nice Microsoft Word document formatted for submission.

Plus, if I make changes to one version and don't save the old version, I can still go back and look at the old draft.

The whole thing becomes way more than an outline, and makes the process almost easy.