Outlining Methods for Dummies

[Helen]

Hello!

My discussion topic for the day pertains to outlining. As a person who has difficulty sitting down and outlining my stories from the beginning, to the middle, and then the end; I am curious to hear some of your methods and experiences with the subject. Specifically, what type of method do you use, and how much does it actually help you during the writing period?

Thanks in advance for your input!

It helps enormously.

I outline because I need a good conception of the story from beginning to end. When I factor in, for example, theme and how it and scenes / sequences are going to be related, then it's clear that a lot of pre-thought is needed.

To explain the method I use is complicated - I'd have to explain, for example, how I relate plot to theme.

If I feel my outlining is procrastination or I'm "not writing" then I just write pages and see if they'll fit.

But I don't see outlining and writing as mutually exclusive - outlining is there to help me write the best story possible with minimum disruption - it's much less disruptive reorganizing outlines than it is whole manuscripts..

 

[wordwalker]

One extra-easy method I use is to think in layers, of 2 to 4 divisions.

I start by asking how the concept of the story splits into basic parts, and I ask if that's works best as 2 parts, or 3, or 4.

Then I repeat that once, or twice, more. When I've got something like 4 x 4 (4 parts with 4 in each) or 2 x 3 x 3 or something a little more irregular, I've got maybe 14 or 18 blocks. Those are my chapters.

Then I can do the same to split the chapters into their main scenes, and a scene into its major events or phases, and keep going as deep as I want until I know all the things to cover in a scene. And then I write.

(I blogged this out in Divide the Plan by Two.)