Growing an outline into a story
Filed under Tips & Tools on January 20, 2009
Tagged: fantasy fiction, outlines, Shattered Amulet
I write using an outline. If you’re doing work-for-hire, you’ll probably have to turn in a chapter-by-chapter outline before you turn in a manuscript. I know there are many writers out there who prefer not to work with an outline, however. I find outlines to be invaluable tools for keeping a story on track and identifying plot holes. I usually keep two windows open when I write: one for the manuscript and one for the outline.
My outline for Shattered Amulet has seen more use than just as a reference tool. The outline I submitted to Wizards of the Coast for Maiden of Pain was 17 pages long, and some chapters contained as much detail as specific lines of dialog for a character. When I initially outlined Shattered Amulet, I ended up around 10 pages covering about 14 chapters. The main plot and certain scenes had lived so long in my head, I thought a sentence’s worth of description would be enough to trigger a torrent of words when it came time to write.
They didn’t. I found myself many times since going back and fleshing out those chapters in the outline, adding several levels of detail until I’d nearly written the scene word for word.
“Ding,” went the light bulb.
I’m sure some people feel their not really “writing” unless their sentences form pretty paragraphs that fill up the screen or page, but let’s be honest and admit that most of us will spend too many hours staring at that daunting, blank white space, waiting for the muse to give us more than a sentence or two at a time. I do, and it’s frustrating because I already know what I want to happen in the scene–in the whole story, for that matter. The difficulty is in the details. Wouldn’t it be great if I could just write out the main points of the story then come back and flesh it out a sentence at a time. Each time I ran through it, I’d add more and more detail until those two sentences became a paragraph, that paragraph became a scene, and those scenes became a chapter.
Guess what? I just described the process of outlining. That’s right. You can grow your outline detail by detail into a full-fledged fantasy fiction story. I found myself recently doing that with scenes in Shattered Amulet. Rather than stare at the last period I just wrote, I’m going back to the outline and adding a line of detail then another, and another. Pretty soon, I have the scene written out and I can transpose it to my manuscript. It’s been an incredible tool for overcoming writer’s block.
Do you use outlines? How much detail do you tend to include? If you don’t use outlines, but find yourself getting stuck in the middle of a scene, I’d encourage you to give outlining a try. Let me know how it goes.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
For the novel I’m currently writing, I find that the outline tends to be about a half page up to two pages per chapter.
I don’t get that detailed in the chapter outlines. They cover simply who’s in the chapter, and what happens in the chapter (and why). If I’ve thought of a particular line of dialogue that I like, it goes in, but I don’t get terribly dialogue-specific. I often throw in reference notes to other chapters just so I can keep track of things (i.e., the villain who shows up in chapter 5 is the shadowy figure I mentioned in chapter 2).
Once I get into writing the chapters, I don’t necessarily stick to the outline verbatim, but I’ve found the outline helpful in figuring out how changes will affect the novel as a whole. If I suddenly think of something very different that I want to do midway through the novel, for example, the outline gives me an idea of whether or not the change can be inserted easily into the existing structure, or if I need to commit to rewriting a lot of the outline (and the novel).
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:08 am
Yep, I’m a constant reviser of outlines.
Some chapters are a paragraph, some are three or four. When I neared the end of my first book last year, I spend about a month re-outlining the last 6 chapters to make sure everything that needed to be tied up/addressed could be worked seemlessly into the narrative. Feedback from my crit group so far is the effort worked. It certainly helped when I sat down to write those chapters last fall (especially helpful since nearly six months passed between outline and actual writing…)
I know some writers hate outlines, saying it kills the creative process. To me, outlines are fluid things. I use them until they aren’t helpful, then I scrap them or revise. I’m always looking to discover something new during the actual writing. If it’s good, I’ve update the outlines as needed. If it’s really good, I’ll revise past chapters (or at least make notes to do so). If it’s not good, I’ll just hit delete and rewrite that section again.