BaneBlade
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Bane's outlining method.
I thought some of you might be interested in the method I use for planning, and outlining my longer works.
Bane's Outlining Method:
Most of us probably learned how to outline in school. English teachers' love outlines. You probably learned some variation of a nested list, using Roman numerals.
I have always found that they work very well for technical papers, how to's, instructions etc. As I began to write more fiction, and more so when I began to write novella and novel length works, I began to find the traditional outlining method lacking.
One key reason may be this:
When we are writing a technical paper, we often must put forth an idea, hypothesis, concept, or conclusion and then offer several supporting arguments, evidence, data etc.
The traditional outlining process works very well in this manner and the results (I'm not showing the entire outline. Just the parts that pertain to this discussion) look something like this:
I. My 1st conclusion.
A. My 1st supporting argument.
B. My second supporting argument.
II. My 2nd conclusion.
A. My 1st supporting argument.
B. My 2nd supporting argument.
Of course we can further delve into sub-categories, by using Arabic numerals, lower case letters, and lower case Roman numerals, but the example above let's us look at one of the reasons that this outline method works so well for technical writing and not quite as well for fiction.
In essence we summarize for the reader what we are going to tell them before we get to the "nitty-gritty." This is not the way we write fiction. We want the reader to be surprised when we drop the monster in their lap, or to worry if the hero will defeat the dragon and rescue the princess.
Most people would outline a novel, like this:
I. A general summary of what happens in the 1st chapter.
A. The 1st key point, or the 1st scene.
B. The 2nd key point, or the 2nd scene.
II. A general summary of what happens in the 2nd Chapter.
etc...
I have always found this method stifling, especially in the early formative stages of my novel when I'm not sure what happens next.
How, for example, can I write a general summary when I'm not sure exactly what will happen in the first, second, or third scenes? And by the way, how many scenes am I going to place per chapter? Do I really need to plan out the chapters yet? Isn't the publisher going to change it anyway?
I also have a lot of other information I want to make notes about. How do I keep track of changing POV's ? How do plan word counts per scene, or chapter, or character? What about sub-plots that I may include from time to time?
The following is an explanation of the way I outline. I'll admit that this has been a personal bane of mine. I have always outlined short stories in my head. While learning how to write novels I've paid attention to the methods other writers use. Everyone uses "the one true way", but generally it boils down to the writer having found a method that works best for them. Some writers are compulsive outliners, writing down every minute detail. Steven King has refered to outlining as a last act of desperation a writer turns to when he knows a story is going no where. Ray Bradbury once described plot as being like "footprints in the snow." When you look back you can see a clear path that you took, but you weren't conscience of trying to make it.
Personally I find that if I outline to thoroughly, I lose my excitement for the story. In my mind it's already written. There's no room left to find all those fun little ideas that pop up as you're writing. Yet when I sit down to write a novel with out an outline I tend to get lost. My pacing runs amok. I spend to much time on one character or sub-plot. The trick has been in finding exactly how much, or how little I can outline. I need enough to keep me on track, yet no so much that I feel like my creativity is suffocating.
In the next post I'll describe my method of developing a novel outline.
Last edited by BaneBlade, 11/13/2008, 5:36 pm
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11/13/2008, 5:31 pm
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Loud G
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
Bring it on! I think I'm suffering right now from the "I'm lost" syndrome 
--- Reading: Mistborn
Writing: Eriadhin
"Life is like a book, except it takes longer to get to the climax."
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11/13/2008, 6:18 pm
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BaneBlade
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
Yay! I'm formating the next post. The color codes are tricky. I hope to get it up this evening (North American time.)
Last edited by BaneBlade, 11/13/2008, 6:26 pm
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11/13/2008, 6:24 pm
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BaneBlade
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
I outline by scene. I begin with a linear list of numbered scenes.
1.
2.
3.
4.
In the past my scenes tended to be about 1500 words in length. This was very handy, as it allowed me to calculate how many words a novel would be by performing this calculation:
Number of scenes * 1500 words = total novel length.
Or, if I knew I needed a novel of 100,000 words, I could divide 100,000 by 1500 and arrive at the number of scenes I needed to plot out.
Currently the number of words I write per scene is changing. If you do tend to write a particular number of words per scene, you can use this method.
To begin, we need to pick out the scenes that have already begun to form in our imagination. Perhaps you only know the first scene in the story, or maybe you know how it ends. Typically, I have a handful of scenes that I can envision very clearly, but only an amorphous idea of how they connect. Let's throw those scenes into our list. If we know the 1st scene we write a few sentence fragments describing what happens after the "1." heading. If it's the last scene we'll pick some insanely high number and write it out there. If we have several, we'll guess at their approximate locations within the story.
The nice thing about not using a nested list is that we can cut and paste with abandon, and easily adjust our numbering
As these scenes start to ferment in our minds, and we start to develop a story, we will want to include more information in each note.
Let's plot out a very complicated story.
We'll have three POV characters, to make things more difficult on ourselves.
45. Bob sneaks into Mikes office.
46. Bob reviews the papers he slips out of Mikes desk.
47. Bob takes Shelly out to dinner.
48. Mike begins hiding his money.
49. Mike makes a deal with a mysterious man.
50. Shelley goes to speak with a lawyer. She notices someone following her.
51. Bob confronts Mike on his front lawn but leaves when the old lady across the street calls the cops.
52. Bob starts to feel ill on the way home.
53. Bob realizes he must be infected. He finds his apartment has been searched.
54. Shelley is attacked by a man following her. He steals her notes concerning the virus.
Now, we have a fairly straight forward list of plot events, but there are some things we could add. For example have we spent enough time on each character? (Or the proper amount of time, whatever that may be,if one character is supporting.)
And what about when Bob and Shelly meet for dinner? Who's POV is that in?
Let's use our word processor and highlight each scene. We'll assign Bob the color blue and change the text in Bob's scenes to blue. Mike will be green, and Shelly red.
45. Bob sneaks into Mikes office.
46. Bob reviews the papers he slips out of Mikes desk.
47. Bob takes Shelly out to dinner.
48. Mike begins hiding his money.
49. Mike makes a deal with a mysterious man.
50. Shelly goes to speak with a lawyer. She notices someone following her.
51. Bob confronts Mike on his front lawn but leaves when the old lady across the street calls the cops.
52. Bob starts to feel ill on the way home.
53. Bob realizes he must be infected. He finds his apartment has been searched.
54. Shelley is attacked by a man following her. He steals her notes concerning the virus.
Now we can tell at a glance exactly how many words or scenes we've dedicated to each character.
For instance, it's immediately apparent that Shelly has gotten the short end of the stick. She's a major character yet we haven't spent much time on her.
Additionally we can tell right away that the dinner scene is in Bob's POV, so we count that scene towards Bob's word count. Let's assume we've established a pattern of two to three scenes per character. Yikes! We have two scenes that break that pattern. Each time Shelly gets only one scene before our readers have to switch POVs. Let's fix this. We could of course write more scenes for Shelley but that feels too much like padding. By coloring each POV a different color several solutions become apparent. For example we could move our scenes around like this:
45. Bob sneaks into Mikes office.
46. Bob reviews the papers he slips out of Mikes desk.
47. Bob takes Shelly out to dinner.
48. Mike begins hiding his money.
49. Mike makes a deal with a mysterious man.
50. Shelly goes to speak with a lawyer. She notices someone following her.
54. Shelley is attacked by a man following her. He steals her notes concerning the virus.
51. Bob confronts Mike on his front lawn but leaves when the old lady across the street calls the cops.
52. Bob starts to feel ill on the way home.
53. Bob realizes he must be infected. He finds his apartment has been searched.
Now Shelley's scenes are together, and we don't force our readers to switch POVs as rapidly. When we revue our outline before writing any particular scene, there will no confusion concerning who's POV it's in. Additionally, we can use this method to group a characters scenes together in different logical or artistic ways. It provides a great visual guide if you want to do something like have the last scene in a characters turn be very dramatic. By being able to only focus on one color, and thereby one character, we can think about where we choose to switch to another character. I think of this a lot like a scene break. I want my scene break to occur at just the right time, not before I've told the reader everything they want and need to know, and not too far after either. Now, we're learning pacing on a much larger scale.
We can of course run into problems moving scenes around. Perhaps in moving a scene we introduce a certain element we don't want the reader or the character to learn yet. This why we want to write our outline from the beginning, with the scenes colored, instead of going back and coloring them after the story is plotted out. This will affect the way your story grows in it's critical stages, and often you will totally avoid problems like the one above. Additionally we will begin to think more about the nuances of our story. For example I automatically colored scene 51 blue, denoting that it's from Bob's POV. Probably due to the fact that it's right next to another one of Bob's scenes. Now, I might ask myself, “Would that story look better in Green?” From who's POV would that scene be the most powerful? Is it important that I don't use one character's POV, because they know something the reader doesn't?
Hopefully this gives everyone some food for thought. There are many other ways that coloring the POVs (If your writing totally in omniscient 3rd person this method can be useful as well if your characters are separated.) can be useful, but this gives us a good start. You can of course find some other way to denote your POV in the outline. This is the way that I have found works the best for me, and has become standard for novels with many characters.
Next up we'll tackle characterization and conflict!
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11/13/2008, 11:59 pm
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BaneBlade
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
Outlining internal conflict and character growth.
If you look at the example outline I've been using, you'll note that, without seeing the entire story, there is a pretty clear conflict. It seems to be some sort of external conflict involving a virus and some very shadowy figures.
This is the manner in which most people outline. Everything so far has been a plot point concerning the external conflict.
Many, many factors go into creating realistic characters. The two that I want to focus on are character growth and internal conflict.
Realistic characters change and grow.
How many times have you read a novel where the author created a character, and then relentlessly drove their character's traits into the ground, until they felt like a cliche? (This is usually a sign of a shallow character conception. A little more planning and a lot of character growth will fix this right up.)
Have you ever read a novel where the author stuck by a previously established character trait or motivation, even when they threw the character into a situation where you didn't believe the character would act that way?
Have you ever felt that the characters were not realistic and just tools the author used to move from plot point to plot point?
Here's a simple recipe for fixing those problems. I'll admit that strong internal conflict is always as important in my writing as external. It may be an element of my personal style, but any work can benefit from it to the degree that you are comfortable with. It’s beyond me why more authors don’t plan character growth along with the external plot. There is a certain synergy between the two. The external events are affecting the characters, and the characters are in turn, affecting the world around them.
Let's look at our outline:
45. Bob sneaks into Mikes office.
46. Bob reviews the papers he slips out of Mikes desk.
47. Bob takes Shelly out to dinner.
48. Mike begins hiding his money.
49. Mike makes a deal with a mysterious man.
50. Shelly goes to speak with a lawyer. She notices someone following her.
54. Shelley is attacked by a man following her. He steals her notes concerning the virus.
51. Bob confronts Mike on his front lawn, but leaves when the old lady across the street calls the cops.
52. Bob starts to feel ill on the way home.
53. Bob realizes he must be infected. He finds his apartment has been searched.
Now let's add some internal conflict.
45. Bob sneaks into Mikes office. Bob tries to rationalize what he's doing. He tells himself he really just needs to see if Mike has received the invoices he sent.
46. Bob reviews the papers he slips out of Mikes desk. Bob begins to fear that he‘s becoming obsessed, and that he will take his desire to protect Shelly too far, and get into trouble.
Now that Bob is conflicted between his desire to stay out of trouble and his desire to help Shelly let’s add some character growth. (Notice another type of conflict: Bob is trying to rationalize what he’s doing in the first scene, even though he doesn’t really believe it. More on this at a later time.)
47. Bob takes Shelly out to dinner. Show that when Bob is with Shelly all his cares disappear. He no longer worries about getting in over his head. Show one brief moment of regret over not having spoken with his son for so long.
O.K. That’s pretty straightforward, I’ve added to the established conflict and very briefly introduced a new one. Let’s keep going.
51. Bob confronts Mike on his front lawn, but leaves when the old lady across the street calls the cops. I want to reveal that between dinner with Shelly and confronting Mike, Bob has discovered something implicating Mike in the papers. Perhaps, show Bob‘s anger at Mike as he‘s walking up through internal dialogue. Don‘t make it specific, let the reader infer what he‘s found, while at the same time showing how Bob feels about it, thereby deepening his characterization. “That idiot! That selfish idiot! He could kill hundreds! For what? A little money! I’m going to kill him! No I’m not, but I’m at least going to smash his face in! And what about Shelly? Sold her down the river!”
52. Bob starts to feel ill on the way home. Bob chastises himself for losing control. Bob realizes he needs to stop and think.
53. Bob realizes he must be infected. He finds his apartment has been searched. Bob realizes his chance of surviving isn‘t good. He doesn‘t do the normal thing that someone in his position would do. I.E. call the police. Instead he walks to the phone and has a tender if somewhat strained conversation with his son.
Wow, now we’ve added a lot. I’ve made some very specific notes in scene 51. These are probably more intensive than I would normally write just for myself. Instead of writing a scene where Bob discovers something implicating Mike, I’ve skipped ahead to “nitty-gritty” I.E. What he does about it. Through some planning we’ve dropped in that bit of exposition in a way that feels more like characterization, builds some tension externally and internally (Is he really going to hit Mike?), and shows us a bit more about Bob (Bob, seems to be timid. But boy, he really does turn into a hothead when Shelly is concerned! Notice his last thought is of her.)
In scene 53 I resolve the internal conflict I introduced with Bob’s son. When we begin outlining in this twofold manner you will start to see that the internal conflict moves through stages just as the external does. In this example it’s almost as if we’ve created a subplot and then resolved it.
Additionally I’ve added some actual physical action in scene 53. “He doesn‘t do the normal thing that someone in his position would do. I.E. call the police. Instead he walks to the phone and has a tender if somewhat strained conversation with his son.” This is one of the many wonderful things that occurs when we outline this way. Bob’s internal conflict demanded it...yet what will be the external implications of Bob not calling the police? By planning the internal conflict and character growth out, we've sparked off a new idea.
Now was that note internal or external? Once you begin writing this way the line begins to blur. Eventually you don’t even have to think about it. The characters and the external events become locked together , each affecting the other, and each seeming more real. This is what good writers do.
Of course, this is an example using my method. Your methods may be different. The point is, character growth and internal conflict are important to a story. So important that they too deserve planning. You'll also notice how quickly we went from a very tenous story, to something more developed. This is an excellent way to go from a brainstorming session, undeveloped idea, or the like, to something we can sit down and write.
In my next post I’ll touch on a few more things concerning this subject.
Then if anyone is still interested I have a couple of ideas on how to use exposition and setting without making our readers’ eyes glaze over.
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11/20/2008, 5:53 pm
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BaneBlade
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
I'm curious to know if anyone would like more?
I actually have been wanting to do an installment on how to move in the other direction. How to take the same outline method, and simplify it. Or how to leave our selves more room to play. Sadly, I would really need to sit down and brainstorm out that post.
I do however, have another post already brainstormed. It deals with something I think all new writers have trouble with. That being, eposition (a.k.a. backstory), description and setting. I want to describe some methods to tuck these three things into our stories without making the writers eye's glaze over. If anything they should actually enhance the story.
Of course this will take the thread topic away from simply outlining to more general writing tips.
Any interest? Anyone else reading these?
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1/17/2009, 8:06 pm
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Loud G
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
Definitely interested!
Anything you want to share on the subject of writing, I'll be reading
--- Reading: Mistborn
Writing: Eriadhin
"Life is like a book, except it takes longer to get to the climax."
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1/18/2009, 11:51 am
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tryingtowrite
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
Give us more! 
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1/21/2009, 1:06 pm
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BaneBlade
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Re: Bane's outlining method.
Thanks for the vote of confidence folks! 
I wrote the first part last night. One more to go.
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1/21/2009, 1:24 pm
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