An outline is a summary of the story you are going to write. It can be brief, with just the main plot points and important characters listed, or very detailed. Some people use outlines and some do not, and I think the important thing is to do what works best for you. That said, some of us don’t know what works best until we try several methods for ourselves.
In this post, I want to use the analogy I mentioned last week, comparing walking in my yard to writing a novel, in order to help explain the pros and cons of outlining.
The first picture shows my novel idea hiding in the undergrowth at the edge of my yard. It’s a beautiful but undeveloped story, surrounded by a tangle of raspberry buses, sassafras trees, scrub oaks, and plain old weeds.
To see it clearly I need to get closer, but every time I make a move, the story scuttles away. I’d like for it to head down the road, giving me an easy route to follow, but my story has its own ideas.
I have a choice of racing blindly through the woods in the general direction I last saw it moving, or creeping up on the story a few steps at a time. The first method (no outline) is more exciting, and will lead me down paths I don’t anticipate. I may end up with a great first draft, but I’ll probably need to do some major revisions to get the scenes to tie together smoothly. There’ll be some dead ends to clear up or get rid of, unforeseen obstacles to overcome, and some characters may get lost along the way since I haven’t taken time to think out their purpose in the story. The final result may be worth it, but I won’t know until I reach the end, wherever that may be.
By taking my time and thinking ahead (outlining), I feel sure I can guide the story towards an open spot I know is further inside the woods. I can get to know the characters better, and add in scenes that clarify what’s going on as I journey towards the climax I anticipate. I can leave clues (foreshadowing) to guide others along the route I’m following, leading to a satisfying resolution of the plot.
By loosely following my plan, I can keep the story from straying too far from where I think it should go. If I stumble onto a different, more interesting path along the way, I can always change my mind about where the story should end up and how I want to get there. But at least I always have a general idea of where I’m headed.
An outline should simply be a guide to help us reach our ultimate destination.
Do you prepare an outline before you start writing your stories, or simply follow wherever they lead? What type of outline do you think is most useful–basic, detailed, a timeline, storyboard, notecards, or what?
I agree. The outline really does just give us something to aim for as we write and a rough idea of how to get there. During the first draft the story may go somewhere else, but at least it will go somewhere if you ahve an outline.
Hi, Cassandra. My story has changed completely from what I thought it would be when I started writing my novel. I finally made an outline after the first 40,000 words seemed to be heading for the recycle bin on my desktop. Now I’m done with the first draft, and in the final stages of revising it into something worth reading.
Thanks for visiting.
Carol
Love the analogy and the images!
What I’m finding so far is that a basic outline is helpful to me, but beyond that, I prefer to write the story rather than create a more detailed outline. (However, maybe I should be working on a more detailed outline… I’ll be able to evaluate better after I’ve finished the first novel!)
If I were to borrow your woods/deer/hiking analogy, I definitely want to go on a hike with a basic map, but I’d prefer to spend the hike finding the surprises in the scenery. The destination of a hike is usually much less important to me than the experience of the hike.
Of course, at some point, I have to think of the reader (the person back home who didn’t go on the hike but wants to hear about it? ;-D) . They do care about the destination (did you see a big waterfall?) , as well as about the surprises along the way. They don’t, however, care as much about how I felt during the hike (process?), and they probably don’t want to hear about every single leaf or flower I saw!
You make some good points, Christina. Readers don’t want to sit through every moment of the journey, they want to read about the exciting things and the details that are important to the story.
I’m glad you liked my analogy. I love taking pictures, and had fun browsing through the thousands on my computer looking for ones that I could use to illustrate my point. It took me longer to choose the pictures than it did to write the post, but I enjoyed it.
Carol
I loved seeing all those pictures for your story inspiration. I gather pictures, too, to help me visualize my stories. I don’t outline, but I may jot down some main themes. I just start writing and then to keep track of things I go back and create a timeline.
Carla, I think a timeline is a great idea. One of the worst problems I have is forgetting where a particular scene occurred in the story and not getting the subsequent ones to make sense. For example, I inserted a scene with my character burying her dog, but 2 chapters later there was a scene where she was playing with him.
I’m glad you liked the pictures. I take hundreds of pictures every month, but most turn out terrible because I don’t really understand the features on my camera. I’m afraid to throw any in the recycle bin, though, for fear that blurry or off-center picture might be perfect for a story sometime.
Carol
And I forgot to mention, that I am working on learning how to outline. I know I need to change my writing habits. Your post gave me some excellent advice!
Carla, I’m glad this post was helpful. One thing I am using that helps me keep organized is yWriter5. I jot down brief descriptions of major events in each chapter, and it is really easy to look back and see where things happened. I can print off a report any time I need it, insert changes when I add or move a scene, and could print off the whole novel if I wanted to make edits on paper. I wrote a post about it:
Thanks for taking time to leave encouraging comments.
Carol
[…] determine their approximate placement when I get stuck. The same holds true with my writing. I’m not a strict outliner, but knowing the basic story and key plot points or talking points helps me stay focused on the end […]