3 Important Outlining Notes, 4 Stories Down the Road
What I've learned in the past and what I'm doing different from last time
I feel like I’ve tried every trick there is to outlining. I’ve figured out what gives me the best pantsing freedom, what tells me everything I need to know, and everything in between. Here’s what I’m doing differently and the same, and how I’m getting the best first draft possible.
#1: Drafting my outline
I’m a big fan of reading my outline over and over and using tools like scenes instead of chapters, highlights, comments, and alpha readers (a.k.a. close friends) to help me work out all the kinks in my outline.
Previously, I have only outlined in chapters, but outlining in scenes helped me equally divide the chapters, since I’ll be posting this story as a serial this summer. Though I ended up with 19 scenes, I was able to make 12 even chapters (and make some pretty good cliffhangers while I was at it).
#2: Printing it out
I’ve never had an outline this short before (mostly because I’ve never purposefully planned to write something only as long as 30k at most), but this has allowed me to print out and have a physical copy of my outline available. Having the actual papers in my hands has helped me see things a lot clearer and not have the stress of looking through a million tabs while I’m writing.
In the past, I’ve liked having it online so that I can actively edit, but this time around I’m going to let my inner pantser shine when I run into things that I didn’t anticipate. This is because my WIP is based off a different story from Greek mythology and I know what could happen, what should happen, and what actually does happen.
#3: Highlighting
I’m highlighting things in specific colors to mark when pivotal moments happen for certain characters, for the theme, and for relationships. I also use highlighting to tell me what the structure of the scene is when I get dizzy with all the extra stuff.
I’ve used lots of different scene outlining methods, but the one that has really stuck with me is to use the goal, the conflict, and the decision as scene structure.
Let’s Outline
Alright, go have fun outlining your story and let me know how your methods have changed and evolved over the years, and if you’re curious to know the nitty-gritty about my outlining journey!