Alright. So as promised this week’s post is How I Outline. I tried to think up a solid answer to this and I came up with…… *drum roll*…….
Nothing.
I don’t have a specific way of outlining. However, I have tried several different outlining forms and so I thought today would be a good day to share some of those ideas. For some of them I have pictures and for others I will just have to describe them really well. So here we go. The 5 ways that I outline.
1. Scene Card Outlining
So scene card outlining is the type of outlining where you have a whole bunch of index cards. On each index card to write down the descriptions of a scene. You write which characters are in the scene, what happens, where it happens, all the information you need to start and write the scene. You do this for however many cards it takes. The idea with these cards is that you will then be able to rearrange your scenes are add new scenes depending on how the story turns out. It will help you keep track of what’s going on in your story and who does what.
I’ve tried this form of outlining before. I did it with one book a couple years ago. I did not like this form of outlining but the reason I didn’t like it was because I discovered that once I knew what happened in all the scenes I didn’t really have any desire to continue writing the book.
The book that I attempted to plot this way was called Ghost in the System. I color coded the cards based on which character’s point of views the story was from because this novel was a multiple POV novel. Here’s some pictures. (Sorry the quality is bad. My camera is not super great)
As you can see the blue cards are for Ghost (her real name is Jacky) and the yellow cards are for Jim (the villain turned good guy).
It takes a lot of cards! This is one full length novel and it took 81 cards! That’s a whole lot of scenes to write.
2. Visual Map Outlining
I personally hate this method of outlining. This was the outlining they made you do in elementary school to write small essays where you put the main idea in the center bubble and write all the ideas outside of it and connect them back to the main idea or one another. To me this just looks like a mess and I can never keep track of anything this way. I’m always confused to what things are connected to what and even when I know they are connected to another I have to remember why I connected those two ideas.
Although I hate visual mapping I know that this is one of the most popular outlining methods out there. I don’t have any examples for visual mapping but I’m sure any other author in the world has at least one.
3. Lighting Outlining
I personally have only outlined like this once and wasn’t quiet that big of a fan. You start with writing out a list of Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 etc. Under each chapter you write down the main character of the chapter and then the conflict for that chapter.
I don’t like this method for 2 reasons. 1) My main character doesn’t change from one chapter to another like some people ( I can’t seem to write multiple POV books if it kills me). And 2) Sometimes my chapters have more than one conflict in them. This method assumes that each of your chapters is only one scene and not a scene and a half or two and a half or even half a scene. This doesn’t usually work for me.
4. Skeletal Outlining
This is another one of the outlining techniques you learn in early grade school.
In this method you write down Beginning, Middle, and End and then go about writing in all the scenes or events or characters (or however you want to break it up) in each segment of the story. I’ve only ever used this method a few times and I don’t dislike it, but I’ve found a different method that works better for me.
This is a really crappy picture, but this is what the outline vaguely looks like with a beginning and then plot points for the beginning of the story. This is for my novel Destiny which I had begun rewriting a short while ago.
5. My Outlining
I’ve kind of begun my own special outlining techniques. First, I start with a general plot summary outline. I write a dustjacket summary and start writing the beginning of my novel. Once I have enough story that I convince myself that I am committed to the story and can’t back out of it (I do this a lot), I write general plot points. I’m going to use the book I am currently writing as an example. In my novel I have a first rebellion in which she fights on her home planet before its destroyed. The next plot point is when she is working as a mechanic for the enemy, and next is when she joins a second rebellion. So on and so forth until the last major plot point. Then I lump them into books if I have to many like this.
This picture is also crappy but it says Book 1: First Rebellion, Book 2: Mechanic, Second Rebellion, and Gladiator, Book 3: Soldier, Arilion Rebellion and so on and so forth.
After this I begin writing scenes from each section of the books. Maybe I want to write one of the last three scenes of the book and then I want to write the second scene of the gladiator section. As these sections begin to develop I call them Arcs. Each arch slowly gets scenes added to their repertoire. As I add scenes that I want to add I realize what scenes need to go between these. So I write those.
Too keep these scenes developing I have a special cuts folder in my notebook and in my phone. Anytime I have an idea, hear something I want to put in my book, or write a quote from someone that I know that should go in my book, I write it down. When I have a blank in writing and need a new scene idea I flip through these ideas until one of them rings with me. Then I write that scene.
The only issue that I can find with this writing is that sometimes you lose track of what you’ve written or what you’ve got ideas for. I am a very organized person, so I only have a problem with this when I write something for this book down in a place I don’t normally write it in.
So there you go! My outlining form and a list of other outlining forms that I’ve tried. Hope that helped all my fellow writers out there. Unless you’re a Pantser and not a Plotter then keep writing those books however you’ve found to do them. Next week I’m going to write on Writing Distractions and How to Deal with Them. Don’t forget to subscribe and/or tell anyone you know about my blog!
Thanks for coming. See you next week!