Feel free to add details in pen or pencil. Label each card in MAGIC MARKER HEADLINE with the main story beat or scene.They help me feel free to easily re-arrange or cut beats or scenes and are a really effective way of identifying and charting multiple characters and storylines. I love working with index cards! I find the cards an extremely flexible and illuminating way of outlining. This kind of outline is quite helpful in anchoring each character’s point-of-view. ~ Tries to scare Dorothy’s henchmen away.~ Tracks Dorothy’s progress through the crystal ball.~ Finds Dorothy, who steals the magic shoes and takes off for Oz.~ Hears her Sister has been killed, races to the scene.The Witch of the West’s character outline might start like this: You can also look at your project as multiple concurrent linear outlines that list story developments from an individual character’s point-of-view (whether the events ultimately appear ‘on-screen’ or not. Then try to fill in the blanks and connect the dots between beats or story points you do know. If you don’t know what happens ‘next’ but have an idea about something that happens in the middle or end of the story, go ahead and fill those in. While noting specific trees (‘Dorothy meets Glinda the Good Witch, inherits the ruby slippers and sent on the yellow brick road to Oz’)Ĭontinue like that through the timeline of the whole story.This method charts the topography of the forest (‘Dorothy lands in Oz and meets munchkins’).Or a major plot point (‘Tornado strikes, Dorothy & Toto whisked away in house’).A story turn (‘Dorothy runs away but kindly old gent convinces her to go back home’).This also could be a sequence that functions as a single dramatic unit (‘Dog runs away, Dorothy goes after it, menaced by mean lady’).Headline for story beat or scene 1 (i.e.If the idea of an ‘outline’ is a turn-off, think of it as a sequence of catchy dramatic headlines that you can jot down on paper or in a digital file – whatever you have to do because chances are you will (or should!) use this form of outlining more than once over the course of a project. Admit it you think they’re non-creative busy-work. This is probably the way you were taught to outline an essay in school – and maybe the reason you’re against outlines to begin with. The B-E Axis (left-right) represents the timeline of your story from Beginning to End.ĭoes your character start at a high point or a low point? Do their fortunes rise or fall? Dramatically or gradually? And where do they end up? 2) Linear Chronological Outlines
The G-I Axis (up-down) represents Good fortune (wealth, boisterous good health) to Ill fortune (sickness, poverty) for the main character. This bird’s eye map can aid your drafting process by reminding you at a glance if the scene you’re writing comes at a high point or low point of the character’s story. It won’t help you with the details of plot, but it’s a great way of seeing the big picture. Vonnegut’s approach is a graphic chart of the shapes of stories. They are your GPS during the writing process.
Outlines are a way to discover, map and keep track of where you (and the reader) are in the forest. Each one will give you a different perspective and when you’re writing any large-scale project, you need all the perspective you can get.ĭuring the writing process, writers have to (and want to – and should) get caught up in the words and details – but that inevitably means a shift in focus from the forest to the trees. Different kinds of outlines reveal different aspects of character and story and may be better suited to different phases of the writing process in different projects. There’s no reason to limit yourself to just one method of outlining either. You don’t have to create an outline before you start drafting but most writers ultimately need and eventually use one– especially before or during a rewrite. Without diminishing King’s genius, I think some of his books could have been a lot better with an outline and maybe an ending? Anyway… You can (and a lot of writers do – don’t pretend you didn’t!) get away without an outline for the first rough draft, but you can’t do a serious re-write without one (see 4 Different Kinds of Re-Writes) – unless you’re Stephen King, who famously, publicly and condescendingly dismisses outlines all together. You’d take a car for a test drive, wouldn’t you?), but eventually you’ll want to re-gain perspective. You don’t have to outline your book or script before you start writing (I think some ‘exploratory writing’ is healthy for most books or scripts before any outline gets locked down.
Sometimes you want to step back from the trees to see the forest. 7 1/2 Different Ways to Outline (and 2 other Ways to Get an Overview Perspective on) Your Book or Script
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