Doyou Outline?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Do You Outline Your Stories?

I suspect most casual writers dont. Outlines seem to be the last bit of the craft writer's master. And I suspect most outlines take the School Marm's Curse Format, Roman numerals et al.

When I worked for the state I wrote 1000s of legal documents, from Probable Cause Affadavits to Post Dispositional Judicial Reviews. The state loved fat, thick documents, running to several pages. Judges and lawyers hated them; they want the bottomline with corroborating evidence. They do not wanna know if you have PTSD becuz you never had the BIG carton of Crayolas. The state likes all that CareBear stuff.

But no one teaches you how to write legal documents. So I captured a judge and had her spell it out for me. WHATCHUWANT? And she told me. I edited it and made an outline template. It didnt stop my supervisor from asking about the Crayolas or was the guy ever Halloween Queen at his school; but the judges liked it.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I do, but it's nothing elaborate. It's more like a timeline of events. When I get inspired, it's kind of in a flurry and everything occurs to me from beginning to end. So, I really have to make a summary to keep me from forgetting anything important. If only my hands and eyes could keep up with my brain!

 

[Liar]

Meticulously so. I have a full plot, charachters, back story and character transformation, most separate scenes and a whole lot of ready phrases and dialog ready before I ever write the proverbial "It was a dark and stormy..."

 

[oggbashan]

Yes and No.

I do for my longer stories but the outline is not a straitjacket. If the story develops away from the original outline, I change the outline, not the story.

For my fifty-word stories I usually have the start and ending outlined in my head before I start to write. The ending is the only fixed point for them.

My shorter stories that are not fifty-worders start with at least an outline in my head. The plot, but not all the development, is known before I write a word.

My most ambitious outline was for my successful NaNoWriMo which ended as the Flawed Red Silk series. Before the month I had outlined 30 linked chapters with a starting chapter and an ending chapter but once I began to write I found that 12 chapters were enough and those included most of the incidents I had proposed for 30 chapters, some of which were variants on other chapters rather than original ideas.

I have an outline for the missing parts of my Silverbridge Chronicles but I doubt I'll ever use it. My writing has developed away from Silverbridge and I'd have to work hard to get back to the writing ideas I had then.

Og

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I always used Miss Crabtree's Curse, but I'm wising up a tidge.

Last night I doodled a form that is about a page long and begins with THE HOOK, then jumps to the DISTURBANCE, 1ST COMPLICATION-RESOLUTION, ETC. And betwixt & between I ask" Reaction to disturbance, reaction to complication, insight?, action taken? and salt it with THE POINTS OF NO RETURN, which can be action taken (and usually is).

For description I search my collection of old journals for information about whatever I'm depicting, for authenticity. I call these inlays becuz they're inserted after editing.

But I stopped the ROMAN NUMERAL I, CAPITAL A, etc. routine.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OGG

Franklin sez the outline is for analysis only. It exists as a summary of what you plan to do but is not the blueprint. And he suggests what in fact you do, change the outline if you get a nifty idea. He sez it prevents spaghetti mind beyond his word limit. That is, he can keep 5000 words in his head, but not 5001.

 

[oggbashan]

...
But I stopped the ROMAN NUMERAL I, CAPITAL A, etc. routine.

My employer insisted on all-numeric divisions and sub-divisions:

1
1.1
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.1.3
1.2
1.2.1
1.2.2
etc

with version numbering as well:

Version 001 dated xx/xx/xx
Version 002
Version 003

and a line of description for the change of each version:

Version 002 dated xx/xx/xx - Development of sub-plot 1.2

When writing a longer story I tend to use that system because I used it for thirty years but I sometimes use alpha for minor variations such as spelling edits:

Version 002a dated xx/xx/xx - spell-checked to para 1.2.1

Og

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

OGG

Yes. We have to find what works for us. Much depends on how we organize experience and perception and cognition.

 

[penandpaper]

Roman Numerals Rule!

Seriously, I do use them and find them to be a benefit; however, I also outline in another form in which the characters are bubbled and then interconnected. A kind of, this is how this character knows him/her and the possible conflict between them.

Also, for erotica, I do a scene tracking outline. I just write the scene in the middle of the page (bare details), on the left what kind of sex it is and which characters, on the right how it relates to the theme, plot and how it moves the story forward. Directly below the scene, I write segue to the next scene (if I have one ).

 

[R. Richard]

I don't outline. I find that my characters develop a story as I write it. Outline be damned, if I get a good story line going, I just follow it.

 

[Weird Harold]

I generally record story ideas as a barebones "outline" that isn't what most people would consider an outline because I don't use numbers, bullets, or much indentation.

In many ways my outlines are more first draft than an outline because writing the story consists of simply expanding each outline point with more detail.