TECH: All Mapped Out
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writercisesWriter's Digest, December 2006, pages 46 to 49, has an article with the title, "All Mapped Out" by Daniel Steven. Basically, this is another look at outlining, especially for those who really don't want to do those old English class outlines.
Let's take a look. Daniel points out that "outlining allows you to think creatively about plot and plot lines, while freeing you from wasted effort, backtracking, and rewriting." He also points out that mystery, thriller, and suspense stories depend on twists and turns that are easier to keep straight with an outline. Finally, the point isn't to make a Roman numeral monstrosity of a hierarchy. Instead, use a simple template focusing on your concepts, characters, and plot points, and let it evolve as you work on your story. So here's the steps that Daniel suggests:
1. Develop and refine your concept. You need to be able to summarize the plot in a sentence or two. It should be original, imaginative, and have an interesting character in trouble. Start by sketching that out.
2. Develop your characters. How many characters do you need, what are their roles, and who are they? A lot of people use character sheets. The key is what's important background for this character -- education, family, experiences, appearance, problems, strengths, weaknesses. While you're at it, pick the viewpoint character or characters. Decide on first or third person, and present or past tense.
3. Develop plot points. What are the major events and conflicts in your story? What are the pivots -- the scenes where the direction of the novel changes. Short novels probably have about six plot points, longer novels might have up to 15. Plot points, pivots, and the grand climax. Make a simple chart of these.
4. Make your outline. Daniel suggests a four column table. Each row is one scene -- a setting and a time. Column 1 is the scene number. Daniel puts checkboxes in here, so that you can check things off as you go along. Column 2 is chapter number, filled in later when you're assigning scenes to chapters. Column 3 is the point of view and plot line for each scene. Who is the viewpoint character, and is this part of the main plot or a subplot? Column 4 is going to be the scene description. Leave it empty for now.
5. Develop and expand the outline. Now fill in the outline, putting scene after scene into the fourth column. Just a brief summary, phrase, sentence, but no more than a paragraph. If you're not sure -- skip it, or put a placeholder. Fill in as much as you can. Don't worry if you can't fill in the whole thing.
Your choice -- you can start writing with a partial outline, or you can try to fill in more of the outline before you start writing scenes. And then as you write, feel free to modify.
When the outline is starting to feel pretty final, that's when you group the scenes into chapters and fill in the second column.
Incidentally, by adding transitions between scenes and chapters in the outline, you've got a pretty good synopsis.
If you want to practice this, take your current work in progress, a favorite story, or maybe something coming up -- are you planning to do Nanowrimo? Whatever, go ahead and try it out. What's the concept, who are the characters, what's the high-level plot? Then sit down and work out the scene-by-scene details. After that, of course, you've still got writing to do :-)
Let's take a look. Daniel points out that "outlining allows you to think creatively about plot and plot lines, while freeing you from wasted effort, backtracking, and rewriting." He also points out that mystery, thriller, and suspense stories depend on twists and turns that are easier to keep straight with an outline. Finally, the point isn't to make a Roman numeral monstrosity of a hierarchy. Instead, use a simple template focusing on your concepts, characters, and plot points, and let it evolve as you work on your story. So here's the steps that Daniel suggests:
1. Develop and refine your concept. You need to be able to summarize the plot in a sentence or two. It should be original, imaginative, and have an interesting character in trouble. Start by sketching that out.
2. Develop your characters. How many characters do you need, what are their roles, and who are they? A lot of people use character sheets. The key is what's important background for this character -- education, family, experiences, appearance, problems, strengths, weaknesses. While you're at it, pick the viewpoint character or characters. Decide on first or third person, and present or past tense.
3. Develop plot points. What are the major events and conflicts in your story? What are the pivots -- the scenes where the direction of the novel changes. Short novels probably have about six plot points, longer novels might have up to 15. Plot points, pivots, and the grand climax. Make a simple chart of these.
4. Make your outline. Daniel suggests a four column table. Each row is one scene -- a setting and a time. Column 1 is the scene number. Daniel puts checkboxes in here, so that you can check things off as you go along. Column 2 is chapter number, filled in later when you're assigning scenes to chapters. Column 3 is the point of view and plot line for each scene. Who is the viewpoint character, and is this part of the main plot or a subplot? Column 4 is going to be the scene description. Leave it empty for now.
5. Develop and expand the outline. Now fill in the outline, putting scene after scene into the fourth column. Just a brief summary, phrase, sentence, but no more than a paragraph. If you're not sure -- skip it, or put a placeholder. Fill in as much as you can. Don't worry if you can't fill in the whole thing.
Your choice -- you can start writing with a partial outline, or you can try to fill in more of the outline before you start writing scenes. And then as you write, feel free to modify.
When the outline is starting to feel pretty final, that's when you group the scenes into chapters and fill in the second column.
Incidentally, by adding transitions between scenes and chapters in the outline, you've got a pretty good synopsis.
If you want to practice this, take your current work in progress, a favorite story, or maybe something coming up -- are you planning to do Nanowrimo? Whatever, go ahead and try it out. What's the concept, who are the characters, what's the high-level plot? Then sit down and work out the scene-by-scene details. After that, of course, you've still got writing to do :-)
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