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How do you outline?

Nimue

Auror
Both a specific and a general question, I suppose. How do you guys write outlines, and how does one write a proper outline, anyway?

I’ve known for a long time that I’m a plotter--pantsing gives me an utter mess, fulminating with subplots, and the monster’s appearance by the cold light of day stops me writing in my tracks--but I’ve never really written a thorough, scene-by-scene outline. Vague plot structure notation and pages and pages of stream-of-consciousness maunderings, yes. Mostly holding everything in my head like someone serving soup from a sieve, yes. I’m looking for better organizational tools. At this point I’ve gone through a brief outline, maybe a sentence per scene or chapter chunk, and it’s already untangled my chronology, simplified character roles, and given me a clearer image of the story as a whole.

Any advice for the next step of outlining at the scene level? I’ve been listening to Writing Excuses and reading a few writer blogs, so I have a vague idea of noting motivation, conflict, outcome, etc. But it would be nice to have more resources at hand, and to hear if there are ways of approaching this that have worked well for you.
 

Aurora

Sage
I don't outline so can't give advice there. However, learning story structure is invaluable and basically what plotting is designed to help you do: construct a proper story with plot points, pinch points, climax, etc. Shawn Coyne's Story Grid is chewy and complex but has been very helpful in understanding the finer details of scene construction and beyond. If I could recommend anything, it would be this one and also Libbie Hawker's Take Off Your Pants, which was highly recommended in my author group so I had to try it out and was pleasantly surprised. Hope this helps.
 
I wrote an outline for my WIP. For my outline, I wrote down the highlights for the various plot points and pinch points in the three act structure. The highlights cover not only major events and character movement from one major location to another, but also how the character arcs for important characters are being impacted. I also include what important pieces of knowledge the characters come by, and when they come by it.

My outline is not rigorous. I discovery write between the plot points and pinch points, but know where I'm headed. It's fun to discover how the story gets from one point to the next, and that keeps me motivated to write on this particular story. I've also left the resolution ambiguous enough in the outline that I can discovery write that part of the story, but have outlined it enough to know that I can resolve it. The exact nature of the resolution will be in flux until I write it, because if I were to decide precisely how the story will be resolved, I will lose interest in writing it. Yes, I could still force myself to write a precisely mapped-out ending, but I'd not have the same excitement about writing it, the same desire to see how everything turns out, and so the lack of excitement would probably show in the writing.

For a list of plot points and pinch points and at what points they might occur in your story, I believe there are some threads on these forums that discuss them. You can also find a convenient list at How to Calculate Your Book's Length Before Writing - Helping Writers Become Authors.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
First and most important, there is not a proper way to outline, save for the one that works. Think of it as multiple ways to outline, out of which you'll find the one for you. Call that one the proper one. (and anyway, "proper" comes from proprius, which in Latin means "one's own" so that's exactly the right way to think about it)

I can't tell you what works for me but I can tell you what I've tried. One was making a list of scenes. That broke down pretty quickly because I did it before I had written anything and there were simply too many directions that story *might* go.

I've looked at the Snowflake Method. It looks great in theory. I struggle with it because it presumes that I can say what my story is about in one paragraph. After that you keep iterating in greater and greater detail until you're down to scenes. The trouble I have with that is that I never have a clear idea of the story at that stage; or, rather, the clear idea I *think* I have is never what I wind up with. I would need a whole mountainside of snowflakes before I got to the finished product.

So the one I'm trying now is to weave. I have the story idea, which I try to state in a blurb form (under 50 words). I lay out scenes using Scrivener. This gets pretty sloppy because what I think is going to be a scene when I start into it might turn into several, and sometimes a scene is so thin is scarcely can stand. As I get scenes that seem to work, I move them into chapter headings. When I have a bunch (defined as somewhere between one and infinity), I do what you did--I make yet another outline of what I *actually* wrote rather than what I *think* I wrote. And every so often I go back to the top and revise the blurb. I also have side notes on things like theme and character arcs.

It's messy. It's messy even trying to describe it. I don't recommend it to anyone. I contribute this merely to let people know that between Getting Started and Pro Tips lies a vast, steamy swamp of attempts.
 

T.Allen.Smith

Staff
Moderator
My outlines are basic. Each scene is listed, chronologically or by scene order, by the main event as a scene title. Underneath, I list each happening that needs to be in the scene. I don't adhere strictly to those points though. If things develop organically while writing, or change in the daily thinking leading up to the actual writing of that scene, I'm happy to let that new development run. When it's time to write a particular scene, I copy and paste from my outline to the chapter and go.

Once the initial chapter is written, I go back through and fill out scene/chapter worksheets that I've developed. They focus on things like scene structure and strength, or the improvement of metaphors and symbolism. The worksheets help to spark the addition of elements that I've come to believe make scenes engaging & emotionally powerful.

Often, I wait several weeks after the initial scene draft to do the worksheets. They can be quite time consuming, and I've found a little time allowed for ideas to stew usually helps.

I know that's off on a bit of a tangent, but I consider my worksheets as part of a dynamic outlining process.
 

Rkcapps

Sage
I'm still finding what works for me. I appreciate the Snowflake method but it doesn't quite work for me. Lately, I've stumbled onto Janice Hardy's blog (good practical advice from a published author) and I've started to structure my scenes as per her advice. This is it:

What is the POV character trying to do in this scene? (the goal)
Why is she trying to do it? (the motivation for that goal)
What’s in the way of her doing it? (the conflict)
What happens if she doesn’t do it? (the stakes)
What goes wrong (or right)? (how the story moves forward)
What important plot or story elements are in the scene? (what you need to remember or what affects future scenes)

And I try to remember the emotional arc. For example, nervous to confidant and show that arc.

This isn't a be-all and end-all, I use it as a guide to remind me how to shape my scenes. So far, it's working but I'm sure to tire of it and try something else eventually.

There is so much to a novel, this just touches the surface and your final chapters will be slightly different but it's a start. Good luck!
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
I'm a waypoint writer, which is basically what some others have been pointing out. Some people use more waypoints than others. In my case, the ending is more or less determined, plus some plot points in between. I don't really worry about structure anymore, because it always ends up there for me anymore anyhow. But, studying structure to make sure you use it inherently or on purpose is a good idea.

So, I have the ending, the beginning is typically pretty squishy until I find the one that clicks, then I have set pieces in between, the big moments I know need to happen for each POV. Coyne's Story Grid is very good, but not necessarily for designing a story, he put it out there more for seeing if a finished story works. It can be used to structure, however.

When my editor asked about book 2, I thought I might want to formalize a little something in case an agent or pub asked in the future, so I used Coyne's basic grid and slapped in the waypoints in my head into this structure for every POV. For writing an epic, this I'm finding useful, instead of just keeping it all in my head, LOL.

As for outlines, they make me ill. Can't do it. If I tried a scene by scene outline I'd freeze up and never get a thing done. But then, I don't write down characters like a dating profile either, heh heh.

So, down to the scene? It's what motivates the character, the opposition they will face, and the ending... how will they fail, or succeed BUT... So, I sort of do mini-waypoints in my head. I know what needs to happen (the end), I know where it starts, I know it needs tension/conflict/drama, I know I need an ending that ups the dramatic ante on the POV's next chapter, and I know it should change the internal or external character arc. With that info, I write.
 
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I used to think outlining meant listing the key features of each section (chapters or maybe scenes/sequels) in a simplified way. A sentence, maybe.

Lately, I've been writing a paragraph or few for each section, summarizing the flow of events and key features. It's more like what you might be telling a friend if you were describing each:

"X Character wakes up and discovers he's not in bed alone, then remembers that Y had come over for the night. X finds Y attractive, but doesn't feel as strong a bond as Y feels. They talk about a, b, c, as X gets up, dresses, and says he needs to go about his business. He leaves the inn room and runs into Z, learning that d happened during the night; he must now alter his plans to deal with that. He goes down..."

It's practically like actually writing the chapter, but in summary form, and will need to be turned into the actual narrative later. This helps me to brainstorm better. Before, the simple sentence summary for each section was too bare bones, the things mentioned were too broad, and this slowed me down when writing the scenes and chapters because I'd have to stop to consider many of the other details.
 
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Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
Like others have said, I too mess around with different forms of outlining. One thing that keeps coming back is that I iterate on my outline several times, adding more and more detail with each iteration (Scratch). This time around I'm working on a series and I'm outlining the entire series from start to end.

What's new is that very early on in the process - in the first scratch already - I'm adding in the Promise of the story as well as the Wants and Needs of the protagonist. I also do a catchy one-sentence summary for each story and that's also included.

Also new in the project is the Trope List. It lists the events of the story as a series of tropes in chronological order. At first this was just for fun, but I found it helps me think of the story from various angles when I build the list and it feels helpful.

If you want to have a look, the first two phases of the outline are available on a page on my blog, here: Werewolves On A Train ? s v r t n s s e

EDIT:
I haven't gotten down to scene/chapter level yet. The outline so far is just down to what's happening in the first, second, and third act of the respective stories.
 

Penpilot

Staff
Article Team
I use scene-sequel format as the foundation to my scenes.

Jim Butcher on scenes & sequels: icefallpress

Once I know if a scene is...errr... a scene or a sequel, I sometimes make a few pointform notes as to elements I want to add into the section and maybe how I want things to unfold. Other times, all I have is the scene-sequel elements when I start and develop the rest on the fly. For clairity sake you can think of scene-sequel as action and reaction scenes.

It's a simple method but it gets more complex when you have to deal with multiple plots. So you'll have sections where you deal with multiple scene-sequels from different plots. It can get tricky when that happens, but I find it's a great way to ensure that each section is advancing plots thus advancing story, so you don't end up with sections that don't really do anything.
 

DeathtoTrite

Troubadour
Previously, I've done broad strokes outlines. I'm trying something a bit different with a scene-by-scene, hyper-detailed outline, so that I see everything that happens to the characters like a movie in my mind, then actually writing is just about effective prose.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
We are hard-core outliners. I can't write a word unless I know where I'm going, and for that I need a detailed outline at my side. Basically, we pre-write the book in a loose three act format and then I get in there and draft it all out. The outline for Faerie Rising was 14 pages, single spaced, and I found during the drafting that the tail end was a little too vague. In an attempt to remedy this, the outline for our WIP, the sequel Ties of Blood and Bone, has overshot that in Act I.

We don't do Roman numerals or anything like this. We sit down and write out what happens in present tense, paragraph form, often with important dialogue chunks here and there. Of course, none of this is set in stone and the characters change things all the time, no matter how detailed we are at the outset. It's all only guidelines.
 
@A.E.Lowan: That sounds a lot like what I'm doing currently. I'm finding that it frees up the brainstorming juices without a corresponding need to make the prose pretty and presentable or an "official" story. It's a lot like pantsing a first draft, just not calling it a draft and really not even trying to make a real first draft, at least during this outlining process.
 

Nimue

Auror
Really good stuff…. It’s gonna take me a while to reply to everything, but I’d like to. This thread is definitely open to discussion of all kinds of outlining, but I’ll go ahead and clarify where I’m at with this project, if that brings out more specific advice: (And to just talk through it for myself.)

  • I’m working with an idea that’s been fermenting for a year and a half and that I wrote 30k on before crashing, so outlines focused developing initial ideas, i.e. the Snowflake Method, are a little less relevant. (Although now that I say that, I do have another project that’s been languishing without much of a plot at all…)
  • After that first flash of inspiration, I promised myself I’d sit down and write a detailed outline. I certainly began one...and then the story was too bright and tantalizing and I jumped in writing. Burned out in scene-disappointment and next-scene-uncertainty right around where that outline left off. Hmmm.
  • One of the big problems that I’m trying to resolve is not paying enough attention to the middle, transitional scenes, the meat of arcs. In my head and in my notes, this is glossed over in favor of the big momentous stuff. I’m hoping a scene-level outline will force me to run through it all and figure out the smaller moving parts.
  • Almost needless to say, I know my story will change from the outlines, wriggle sideways, metamorphose. I have a lot of anchor points, but nothing’s set in stone. It’s just that, as a very slow and easily-discouraged writer, I’m hoping to use a detailed outline to figure out some of the first-draft problems I would (and already have) run into.

I don't outline so can't give advice there. However, learning story structure is invaluable and basically what plotting is designed to help you do: construct a proper story with plot points, pinch points, climax, etc. Shawn Coyne's Story Grid is chewy and complex but has been very helpful in understanding the finer details of scene construction and beyond. If I could recommend anything, it would be this one and also Libbie Hawker's Take Off Your Pants, which was highly recommended in my author group so I had to try it out and was pleasantly surprised. Hope this helps.
I’ve heard both of those recommended before--I’ll definitely take a look. Could use some serious exploration of the structure concepts.

The exact nature of the resolution will be in flux until I write it, because if I were to decide precisely how the story will be resolved, I will lose interest in writing it. Yes, I could still force myself to write a precisely mapped-out ending, but I'd not have the same excitement about writing it, the same desire to see how everything turns out, and so the lack of excitement would probably show in the writing.
This is fascinating to me because I think I’m the opposite as a writer. I could know how every scene turns and ends (and I hope to do just that) and that wouldn't diminish my excitement--what keeps me going is the joy of inhabiting the world and the characters’ heads, making all the detail and emotion and dialogue concrete. For me it’s not about the suspense, but about the experience. I also re-read books a dozens of times, to be sure.

For a list of plot points and pinch points and at what points they might occur in your story, I believe there are some threads on these forums that discuss them. You can also find a convenient list at How to Calculate Your Book's Length Before Writing - Helping Writers Become Authors.
This is really helpful and concise, thank you. I’ve been reading K.M. Weiland’s blog and she’s great for where I’m at right now. I don’t know if I had seen that particular post, but my reaction reading it was literally: “Huh. Huh.” Because, looking at my rough outline, I have all of those points, roughly where she places them, although I never designed the plot around an act structure, just what felt right. (Particularly now that I’ve given the beginning more room to breathe, which it badly needed). Had everything divided into four “Books” even, corresponding to her act chunks. I’ll absolutely keep this plot-point spread in mind as I watch for bloat and pacing problems, which I’m prone to.

First and most important, there is not a proper way to outline, save for the one that works. Think of it as multiple ways to outline, out of which you'll find the one for you. Call that one the proper one. (and anyway, "proper" comes from proprius, which in Latin means "one's own" so that's exactly the right way to think about it)
Ah, the “proper outline” reference was mostly tongue and cheek--I do mean something more rigorous than what I’ve done in the past, which demonstrably has not worked for me.

So the one I'm trying now is to weave. I have the story idea, which I try to state in a blurb form (under 50 words). I lay out scenes using Scrivener. This gets pretty sloppy because what I think is going to be a scene when I start into it might turn into several, and sometimes a scene is so thin is scarcely can stand. As I get scenes that seem to work, I move them into chapter headings. When I have a bunch (defined as somewhere between one and infinity), I do what you did--I make yet another outline of what I *actually* wrote rather than what I *think* I wrote. And every so often I go back to the top and revise the blurb. I also have side notes on things like theme and character arcs.
When you say you lay out scenes, do you mean you begin writing them, or you start describing them/making notes about them? What ends up on paper at that point? --That’s what I’m trying to get at in this thread question, I suppose.

It's messy. It's messy even trying to describe it. I don't recommend it to anyone. I contribute this merely to let people know that between Getting Started and Pro Tips lies a vast, steamy swamp of attempts.
That in itself is good advice--try different things. But your method is something that works for you, Skip, seeing how you’ve finished The Novel. Aspirational, that. I appreciate it!
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
@Nimue, I started on A Child of Great Promise with little more than an idea and a character. I wrote some notes in my paper notebook, which I wrote into a page in my Scrivener project entitled Ideas. That's where I keep ideas that are not yet stories. A time came when I felt I was ready to start a new novel, and among the Ideas that crowded around shouting "me, me!" I chose this one.

At that point I began a new Scrivener project. I then on paper started writing out more ideas. At this point, it's more like me talking to myself on paper. Very little structure. I suppose you could call it brainstorming, if you wanted a word for it.

At another point (see how precise this is?), I felt like I had something like a story arc. My hero would begin here, this and that would happen, she would end up there, all with little idea of how to get from A to B to C. But it was enough that I could open that Scrivener project and start making scenes with headings and (bonus points!) actual notes within. Some notes were actual bits of dialog or description, while others were just notes to self. I also began a file listing characters, another for settings, another for theme (I need that to keep me on course), and a few other files with meta information of one sort or another (e.g., terms, magical powers, etc.).

Then I start writing. I got about 40k in before I ran out of steam and Life crashed the party for a while. What, you may ask, keeps me on track? A couple things. These are things I learned from doing them too late in the Goblins novel: theme and character arc.

Central to this story is Talysse's quest to find out who she really is. I know exactly where I want her to wind up. I know how I'm going to tear her down and I believe I know how she'll find her feet again. That's really the core of the story, so I not only have that written in the Theme page, I return to that regularly when plotting. This happens and that happens and it's wicked cool, but does it move Talysse forward? Or backward? It helps me decide when I'm going off track.

The character page gives me waypoints. That's where I say this has to happen and that has to happen to this particular character. I have pages for all the main characters, and that lets me keep on track with how arcs intersect and complement, villains included.

The settings pages help me order things chronologically and geographically, so impossible things don't happen, or necessary things fail to happen.

So it's not all just one outline. It's more like a framework in multiple dimensions. And yes, sometimes I still get lost and frustrated and think I should do it differently. I am more and more convinced I can't really speak of "my process" until I've written at least three or four novels. Because I have to do it wrong at least that many times!
 

Aurora

Sage
I think outlining can be really helpful for getting a deeper understanding of story structure. It's the tool I used to improve my pantsing. :cool: However, all writers are different and I think the most invaluable thing is understanding how stories are constructed.
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I think outlining can be really helpful for getting a deeper understanding of story structure. [...]

I feel like I'm experiencing this with my current project. I've gone into it with the mindset that I want to figure out how to tell a story, rather than bring out a story I've already envisioned, and it's making a world of difference to me.
 

Aurora

Sage
I feel like I'm experiencing this with my current project. I've gone into it with the mindset that I want to figure out how to tell a story, rather than bring out a story I've already envisioned, and it's making a world of difference to me.
I bet it is. Do it enough times and the hang of it will become second nature. One thing I often see new writers struggling with is making words pretty. Books are about stories, characters struggling to solve problems. The words are helpful for ambience, theme, and connection, but they come second place to the story itself. Can't tell you how many writers I've met in recent past who spend years working on words and when push comes to shove they realize they don't know how to write a story.


I can't write a word unless I know where I'm going
I'm just the opposite. I can't write a word if there's an outline in front of me! Call it stage fright. ;)
 
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Nimue

Auror
Once the initial chapter is written, I go back through and fill out scene/chapter worksheets that I've developed. They focus on things like scene structure and strength, or the improvement of metaphors and symbolism. The worksheets help to spark the addition of elements that I've come to believe make scenes engaging & emotionally powerful.

Often, I wait several weeks after the initial scene draft to do the worksheets. They can be quite time consuming, and I've found a little time allowed for ideas to stew usually helps.

I know that's off on a bit of a tangent, but I consider my worksheets as part of a dynamic outlining process.
No, this is really good. I had begun making a list of things to consider for each scene, but some of them are so in-depth that it would be tedious to fill it all out for every scene. I like the idea of breaking it out into “things necessary to know before going into the scene” and “further development/fine-tuning as applicable”--i.e. your outline vs. your worksheets. Good to keep in mind that not everything needs to be bundled into a single organizational document--keep some clarity at a glance, maybe. Was there a resource that inspired these sheets, or are they out of your own experience?

What is the POV character trying to do in this scene? (the goal)
Why is she trying to do it? (the motivation for that goal)
What’s in the way of her doing it? (the conflict)
What happens if she doesn’t do it? (the stakes)
What goes wrong (or right)? (how the story moves forward)
What important plot or story elements are in the scene? (what you need to remember or what affects future scenes)
These are definitely fairly agreed-upon elements; I have jotted down at the head of my outline the sequence of:

Goal > Conflict > Disaster/Outcome/Yes-But/No-And > Reaction > Dilemma > Decision

The first half of that being the Scene, the second being the Sequel, essentially. I’m still struggling to keep this structure in the front of my mind. Deep down, after reading and writing for so long without a solid grasp of structure, I still think of a scene as “something happening” and not also why it’s happening and what comes out of that...

I'm a waypoint writer, which is basically what some others have been pointing out. Some people use more waypoints than others. In my case, the ending is more or less determined, plus some plot points in between. I don't really worry about structure anymore, because it always ends up there for me anymore anyhow. But, studying structure to make sure you use it inherently or on purpose is a good idea.
It’s funny how ingrained structure is. But what I’ve built in the past was far wobblier than it would have been with conscious, deliberate engineering. Right now I think my waypoints need to be set apart the width of a dialogue or an expository passage; I can’t trust my sense of direction across a scene, much less a chapter. Maybe one day.

Lately, I've been writing a paragraph or few for each section, summarizing the flow of events and key features. It's more like what you might be telling a friend if you were describing each:

"X Character wakes up and discovers he's not in bed alone, then remembers that Y had come over for the night. X finds Y attractive, but doesn't feel as strong a bond as Y feels. They talk about a, b, c, as X gets up, dresses, and says he needs to go about his business. He leaves the inn room and runs into Z, learning that d happened during the night; he must now alter his plans to deal with that. He goes down..."

It's practically like actually writing the chapter, but in summary form, and will need to be turned into the actual narrative later. This helps me to brainstorm better. Before, the simple sentence summary for each section was too bare bones, the things mentioned were too broad, and this slowed me down when writing the scenes and chapters because I'd have to stop to consider many of the other details.
Oh, this is very much how I like to write outlines as well. Bullet points don’t work for me as well as a descriptive passage does. Not entirely sure why, but at least it gets me into the writing mindset. Well. I say this is how I like to write outlines, but in the past the flaw of those outlines was being much too general, and not being complete. I’m going to apply this to every scene/section, no matter how small, as you seem to be doing. No more “things get worse” and “it’s winter now” ffs. Unless I’m actually jumping that much in the narrative?
 

Nimue

Auror
What's new is that very early on in the process - in the first scratch already - I'm adding in the Promise of the story as well as the Wants and Needs of the protagonist. I also do a catchy one-sentence summary for each story and that's also included.
The "promise" is a good conceptualization--Writing Excuses has hammered that home, to be sure. I feel like I've always kind of thought of what I expect out of a story, and what hooks me, in the positive of "I should put that in", but I need to think more about whether my writing is making the wrong promises... For example, on the first draft of this story I opened with a battle scene from the POV of the secondary protagonist, but action is in no way the focus of this story, and it really felt wrong. I've rejiggered the beginning so we open more quietly--though possibly with more tension--with the primary protagonist.

Of course, I'll probably have to rework the beginning a dozen more times.

Jim Butcher on scenes & sequels: icefallpress...It can get tricky when that happens, but I find it's a great way to ensure that each section is advancing plots thus advancing story, so you don't end up with sections that don't really do anything.
That's a great link. I'm totally on board with scene-sequel, for the reason you say: making sure that the plot keeps moving forward. Any way to keep from sinking into the bog.

Previously, I've done broad strokes outlines. I'm trying something a bit different with a scene-by-scene, hyper-detailed outline, so that I see everything that happens to the characters like a movie in my mind, then actually writing is just about effective prose.
Yeah, I'm hoping to untangle the pressure of writing well from figuring out where I'm going. It's far easier to make changes and move things around when a scene is just a paragraph in an outline.

We are hard-core outliners. I can't write a word unless I know where I'm going, and for that I need a detailed outline at my side. Basically, we pre-write the book in a loose three act format and then I get in there and draft it all out. The outline for Faerie Rising was 14 pages, single spaced, and I found during the drafting that the tail end was a little too vague. In an attempt to remedy this, the outline for our WIP, the sequel Ties of Blood and Bone, has overshot that in Act I.

We don't do Roman numerals or anything like this. We sit down and write out what happens in present tense, paragraph form, often with important dialogue chunks here and there. Of course, none of this is set in stone and the characters change things all the time, no matter how detailed we are at the outset. It's all only guidelines.
Totally sounds like me. I need to know what I'm going to write--and having it written down is even better than having it envisioned in my head. Another vote for summary/narrative outlines: I think it's fair to say that outlines come in a lot more shapes and sizes than the traditional image of bullet points and Roman numerals.

@A.E.Lowan: That sounds a lot like what I'm doing currently. I'm finding that it frees up the brainstorming juices without a corresponding need to make the prose pretty and presentable or an "official" story. It's a lot like pantsing a first draft, just not calling it a draft and really not even trying to make a real first draft, at least during this outlining process.
This! It really is like a first draft in terms of what I'm learning about the story, but with less pressure, hours spent, headaches, bloodshed, wailing, gnashing of teeth...
 
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