Fun Story Outlines

Today we're going to talk about outlining stories. All strictly artistic, spontaneous, organic and/or pantser writers should now leave the blog, lest I poison your well, ruin your process or otherwise mess with your mojo.

It's not that bad. Outlining can be a blast, if you stop with the dread and go for the fun of it. I did that last month with my outline for my NaNoWriMo 2017 novel. I had the general idea of what I wanted to write, so basically I just channeled the protagonist and let her tell me the bare bones of the story in her voice. Since I think Emma is hilarious, it was something I really enjoyed -- and that is the key.

If you don't like writing traditional outlines, why try writing them at all? Instead, why not write what happens in your story like a bullet list:

Soviet missile sub commander defects -- with invisible sub.
CIA drops analyst on US sub.
Subs meet; get cranky.
Analyst and defector become periscope pals.
Second Soviet sub arrives.
Torpedoes fly.
The cook is a saboteur!
Sam Neill character dies.
Soviets think defecting sub sank.
They defect happily ever after.

Okay, it's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but that is a bullet list-style outline of The Hunt for Red October. I covered all the major plot points in ten lines (and just fifty words) off the top of my head. Took me five minutes because it was fun.

For those of you who are muttering that you're not into list outlining, okay. Why not invent your own method? I did that back in 2015 with story cards, and in 2012 with SCARAB outlining, and in 2008 with my speedy ten point plot outline. So now it's your turn. What can you think up that would make the task easier, faster, or more interesting?

Don't limit yourself to what you can do on the computer, either. You can use index cards, sticky notes, a small notepad, a story journal, a composition book, a cork board collage -- anything that helps you organize your thoughts can also work for outlining a story.

Finally, back in 2015 I reposted my master list of novel outlining links, and most of the links still work, so if you don't want to follow my method, try someone else's. See what feels like fun for you, and you might never again dread outlining.

Plot as You Go List

As a writer I plan out almost every detail of a story in advance; it's part of my natural process to thoroughly map out everything writing-wise so that I know where I'm going. What I most like about pre-planning a story is that it gives me the mental room to handle the few things I don't think through in advance, like dialogue, or what I should do at times when things don't go according to plan on the page.

I have tried pantsing as a writer -- once -- and while I did write and finish a fairly decent short story that way, I had to fight anxiety entire time. Knowing what the story will be before I write a single word of it doesn't diminish or ruining the writing experience for me; it makes me more relaxed and focused.

This year with my 1000 cards project I've been coloring outside the lines by courting creative spontaneity. A few months into the project I stopped trying to plan so much and instead allowed my materials inspire me as I work (which usually involves heaping a bunch of stuff on my work table, sorting through them and letting the idea gradually come together as I paint, sew, ink or whatever.) As a pantser artist I can't claim 100% success, but as I've progressed I started getting more of a feel for spontaneous design. Every mistake and failure teaches me something. What does work also helps, because once I'm finished I can analyze what went right and apply that to the next effort.

I've always imagined that pantser writers do in their heads as they write what I do in advance of writing with my outlines and novel notebooks, but the art project has taught me differently. Pantsers probably have a lot of loose, nebulous story ideas that they keep in a pile on their mental work table in no particular order or arrangement. When they're ready to write, they select from that pile whatever appeals to or inspires them to continue the story. The plotting then has to happen spontaneously, as the actual writing is hitting the page. It does create a kind of magical quality when it works, but it must be frustrating as hell when it doesn't.

A lot of what I'm going to post in the next couple of weeks before NaNoWriMo will be for the plotters and advance planners; that's the method I know best and it does work for me. But I think I can help the pantsers a little this year, too. I'm going to try, anyway.

One thing I've been doing with the art project is keeping a running list/index of what types of cards I've been making. I wanted to make a variety of cards while not depending too heavily on any one technique. The same can be done with a story if you keep a running list of scenes or chapters you've already written to help you decide where you want to take the plot from there.  This should also not ruin the creative experience for you because the list only details what you've already written, not what you're going to write.

For this plot as you go list you want to cover just the basics: one line with the most important events, where they take place, and from whose POV you've written, like so:

11/1 -- Scene One, Half-Angel Marcia accidentally acquires a mystic diamond, goes to Halloween party. Locations: Marcia's home, Halloween party. POV: Marcia

11/2 -- Scene Two, Half-Demon John meets Marcia at Halloween party; they have passionate encounter while locked in closet. Location: Halloween party. POV: John

11/3 -- Scene Three, Demon thief tries unsuccessfully to steal diamond, John protects Marcia, Marcia's house explodes. Locations: Halloween party, John's car, Marcia's house. POV: Marcia

11/4 -- Scene Four: John places Marcia in protective custody, they discover their parents are immortal enemies, demon thief casts spell over police department.  Locations:  John's car, safe house, police station. POV: John/Demon Thief.

You can also tag certain scenes with keyword markers (I usually put them in brackets) so you can track the story details you've already addressed:

11/2 -- Scene Two, Half-Demon John meets Marcia at Halloween party; they have passionate encounter while locked in closet. Location: Halloween party. POV: John. [first love scene.]

11/4 -- Scene Four: John places Marcia in protective custody, they discover their parents are immortal enemies, demon thief casts spell over police department. Locations:  John's car, safe house, police station. POV: John/Demon Thief.  [First appearance of demon thief.]

If you keep this list updated, and glance at it before you start your new writing session, you can use it like a cheat sheet to tell you where you left off with the action, whose POV you wrote from last, where you are in reference to your settings, etc.  That could help you eliminate a lot of back-tracking and avoid the temptation of re-reading and fiddling and possibly becoming trapped in a rewriting loop.

One final plus to keeping a plot as you go list -- when you're finished your story you'll have all the details of the story in order as they occur.  This can be very helpful, not only to review for editing purposes, but also for reference when putting together a novel synopsis for submission.

Related Links:

PBW's Ten Point Plot Template  -- my one-page minimalist plotting worksheet.

Planning, Scheming, and Plotting by Stephannie Beman -- Stephannie talks about her method of sketching out a nice, brief checklist to loosely organize her stories in advance of the writing.

Moody Writing's Plotting in Your Pants -- Mooderino explains how thinking out a scene first can help with pantsing your way through t

Photo credit: David Hugheshe writing.

Scarab Outlining

Last night, after rescuing a ladybug trapped on the porch -- yes, I occasionally do insect search and rescue -- I got an idea for a quick way to outline a scene or story. I then went in search of my ancient Egyptian coloring book (what, you expected Dora the Explorer?) and found what I wanted:



This is a scarab, a symbol inspired by a common black beetle (Scarabeus sacer) which was held in high regard by the Egyptians. To them the scarab represented the sun god Khepera (also known as Kheper, Khephri and a couple other names) who represented renewal and eternity; both very important themes in their culture.

For our purposes this elegant creature is going to help prepare a micro-outline for writing, and to do that I'm going to borrow the letters from its name: SCARAB.



Each letter of its name represents an idea prompt to help you think about what you need to know in order to write your story:

Situation: Here's your main premise. What is it?
Characters: Decide on your cast. Who is involved?
Action: These are the main events. What happens?
Reason: Determine the motivating factor. Why does it happen?
Ambiance: The type of story this is. What's the mood, theme or genre?
Building: The world of your story. Where/when does it happen?

Be brief when you answer these questions, as you don't want to write a synopsis. This is a very basic outline, the sort of thing you'd scribble down in a pocket notebook. I have a story I'm writing based on my story card prompt for January, so I'll use that as an example:

Situation: a lady delivering flowers is trapped inside a haunted house and must befriend (the thing?) haunting it in order to survive.
Characters: the lady, her business partner, the thing.
Action: lady delivers flowers to haunted house, is trapped inside by homicidal business partner, discovers the thing. The thing protects the lady in exchange for her promise to stay. The lady discovers the thing's real motives, must choose to escape or stay/risk her life to protect it (from business partner? Public discovery? Whatever made it a thing?)
Reason: the thing has been secretly watching the lady for some time, wants her for itself, and manipulated business partner into bringing her there.
Ambiance: dark fantasy, scary, erotic, ironic
Building: modern day northern California (rural, city?)

At this point you don't have to chisel in stone all the story details, either. As you can see I've included in my scarab micro-outline a couple of questions for myself; these are elements I haven't yet decided on, like exactly what the thing is, what the final threat is, and where the story takes place.

I think the scarab approach can help you nail down an idea for a scene as well as a full story, or even rough out the main premise for a novel. Adapt it to suit your needs. It may also prove easier to deal with for writers who would like to play with the basic framework but don't want to work out a lot of detail ahead of time.

Scarab image credit: Ancient Egyptian Design Coloring Book by Ed Sibbett, Jr., ISBN# 048623746X, published by Dover Publications