Hey you outliners! What's your method?

The best advice I have is to find what works for you. I personally don't stick to an outline too much.

First, random notes, higglety pigglety in one Word document. When it all comes together (I think of the metaphor of scone dough--at some point, you can pick it up and start patting it into a shape but before that point, you just have a sort of mess and need a fork) I open an Excel spreadsheet. There are still some blanks on it when I start writing, but they seem to fill themselves in.

The spreadsheets always look a little different, depending on the novel. For WIP, a multiple viewpoint novel, down the left, I have date/time. Across the top: event/Character 1/Character 2/3/4. ETA: not all of these end up being scenes that need to be played. But I do need do know what everyone was doing at X time, even if it was all off-stage

Other people use various software but what I've glanced at seems like it's not worth the time investment to learn it. I know Word; I know Excel. I'd rather spend my time writing.

If you're comfortable without a program, what I do is make four folders (physical folders, not folders on the computer). This may expand depending on the story, but to start with I make one for Characters, Plot, Research, and Drafts. If location is important and it's a location you're not familiar with, you can make a location folder so you're notes for the location are kept separate from the research folder. It makes for much easier reference. I use one piece of paper per character and put everything I know about them on there. Outlines and scene descriptions go in the plot folder. You can adjust accordingly.

If you want a program, I suggest either yWriter (totally free) or Scrivener ($40.) I just download the trial of Scrivener two days ago. Normally when it comes to a program you have to pay for, I'll use it for the trial period and then spend two months thinking about whether I want to buy it or not. But after only two days, I've found Scrivener to be of immense help. You can arrange everything however is easiest for you and switch it up in a pinch if you find it's not working. You can use their "corkboard" function, which is great if you're into the notecard thing. I hate physical notecards because they fall all over the place and the rubber band always breaks and if there's one thing I'm always short of, it's rubber bands. But on Scrivener, it's a lot easier to use.

Think about what works best for you. I spent a lot of time considering what my needs were that would help me to outline better (because I am a biiiiiiiig outliner) and what I needed to help me work faster. I will still use the physical folders no matter what because me and computers don't work well together and I don't want to lose my work, but Scrivener makes it much easier to see everything at a glance rather than sift through folders two inches thick... okay, not quite that thick, but you get my point. Good luck!

I went from yWriter to Writer's Cafe to Scrivener. Scrivener works best for me. I use the collections feature a lot as sorting mechanisms.

ETA: I also use MS OneNote as a pre-sorter, idea collection tool.

There's an FAQ On Outlining. It's thrilling and exciting.

See also the Outlining stuff in Novels, for helpful suggestions.

cmtruesd said:

What about you??

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I make a chapter-by-chapter summary, even though I know I'll abandon it by chapter 5 or 6.

I'm a dedicated outliner, but I've never been able to understand how fancy tools would make it any easier. I pull up a blank sheet of "paper" (a blank word document, usually in my little free word-processor that doesn't have any bells or whistles to get in the way) and just start writing the outline.

If it's a brand new project I haven't done any development work for, I'll start with a couple page synopsis, then expand that into a chapter outline. Then I put spaces between all the chapters and put a brief description of each scene beneath them. When I need to move stuff around I just highlight and drag or copy and paste.

I have Scrivener and use it for all my drafting because of how well it organizes long documents (no more scrolling for an hour to find a specific scene in a 100k document), but I don't use it for outlining.

Modified version of snowflake, though I undoubtedly am subconsciously applying things I learned from reading about premise in Lajos Egri's writing, characters as vectors of thematic argument in Cynthia Joyce Clay's writing, and an assortment of design principles in various Dramatica-related writings.

Though I've read The Morphology of the Folktale and several things about the hero's journey plot archetype, I don't use any of that because I've never found it to be relevant to my story ideas.

I always think I should outline, but I generally come up with the equivalent of an elevator pitch "Shadow mage mercenary sent to steal a 'treasure' finds that the treasure is a little girl who can turn metal to gold. The unfamiliar weight of morality descends as she realizes she can't turn the kid over to her client, but doesn't know what else to do with her."

Then I write.

I usually write a synopsis and a query-letter like thing. (It's query letter-like because I cover the entire book, not just the main three or four events; I haven't found a way to make it more query-like yet). I don't know how well it works yet. I haven't actually started the MS yet but it definitely felt helpful for me.

For single POV, I free write a really detailed synopsis. Then I go back, fill in any blanks, and divide it up by natural chapter breaks. Then I start writing!

For multiple POV, epic stuff, I use Excel. I list chapters in columns, with the POV character for the chapter below, and then each subplot gets its own row. It helps me make sure each subplot is being touched on enough and that I'm tying everything together at the appropriate times. A big blank spot means I'm not doing it right.

Both methods have worked out well for me.

My outline comes out of character arcs. First, I figure out what each character needs to accomplish during the story. Here's the list for my protagonist in my WIP:

Charm needs to make peace with his past so he will feel comfortable putting down roots. In order to make peace with his past and get on the road to self-fulfillment, he has to...

* Make peace with his father and his past – to understand the similarities between himself and his father and to understand why his parents were the way they were. He doesn’t necessarily have to forgive them, but he needs to understand enough to move on.
* Repair the relationship with his sister Marlie.
* Create a new relationship with his mother.
* Help Lucas fulfill Jake’s promise.
* Help Marlie.
* Find direction -- find a solution that both satisfies his need for freedom and gives him the security of roots. He has to get comfortable with his place in his family – this includes getting over his jealousy of Jake.
* To overcome his alcoholism.

I do that for each of the main characters. There is a fair amount of overlap. Then I group together the related bullet points and figure out what I need to show in order to introduce, explore, and resolve that issue.

I take that huge list of bullet points and break it up into Act 1, Act 2a, Act 2b, and Act 3 buckets. Then I look at each bucket and figure out how I can combine the bullets to create logical scenes. It's very, very rare when a scene is devoted to a single bullet point.

By the time I'm done, my outline is in really good shape.

Helpful thread.
Thanks

callalily61 said:

The Snowflake. (Google R@ndy Ing3rmanson.) I like its flexibility. I use only the pieces that work for me.

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This. It really works. Again, I adapted it to my needs.

3x5 cards, chapter by chapter, at least 3 chapters ahead at all times. Additional 3x5 cards, sometimes color-coded, usually not, to give character sketches, scene ideas, timelines, battle-plots (though I usually use a specially-designed Excel spreadsheet for this for my space opera), etc. I also have a vast spreadsheet-based map of locations, characters, fleets, events, fleet movements, etc, which gets updated usually on a chapter by chapter basis.

For my first novel I also had a very intricate size/volume/weight/O2-CO2/buckling force spreadsheet since I was dealing with hard SF issues involving all of those.

If I need details on a ship design for my space opera I have an integrated spreadsheet for designing every major detail of anything from a ground unit to a starbase, hundreds of pre-generated designs to draw on from 15 years of running a space opera game, and over 500 single-spaced pages of internally-consistent technologies taken from the game I used to run. I can run full-scale fleet battles with thousands of ships on each side in seconds, generate a new alien race on the fly (including design parameters and preferences, numbers of colonies, etc., etc), and generate thousands of new star systems in minutes if I need to (complete with most data needed for information on the system and any individual planet). I have space opera level data on a volume of space over 6 thousand light years on a side currently and several more unconnected areas of equal size.

All that data is accessible via Excel so I can call it up anytime I need to (a lot of it really needs to go into an Access database though).

I outline major events and chapters on 3x5 cards, wing it through minor events, and consult my data sheets really only when I absolutely need to.

Major characters often get 3-5 cards all to themselves, minor characters usually only one.

I've also been known to use the app iCard Sort on my iPad to do 3x5 card outlining. It works great.

Same as callalily61, sunandshadow and jallenecs. A modified version of The Snowflake Method has been my most successful way so far. But I love to learn new ways of organization and note taking and thought-jotting, so I'm open.

I'm a bit of a weird outliner, I can never stick to one method so I have all these documents and notecards everywhere. But it makes sense in my head. What I usually do is write a synopsis and gradually make it longer and more detailed; sort of like the Snowflake Method, I guess. I find index cards/Scrivener to be a help if I don't know exactly where I'm going with things.

I've done a few varieties. Spreadsheet worked okay, though I think breaking down plots and characters to hard and fast outlines is a mistake for me, as I need a sprinkle of discovery writing. My crafting style is very similar to Brandon Sanderson - he's an outliner, but will give his characters a "line-item veto". If something doesn't feel right, he'll immediately reevaluate his outline.

Last novel, I basically wrote it out in paragraph form, where each paragraph kinda summed up a chapter, though don't really think I'm going to stick with what I've written out.

For my last two novels, I jotted down everything in Dramatica Pro, filling in the questionnaire, creating characters, "encoding" the storyforms and the whole lot. Then I let it simmer for a while and just started writing, keeping half an eye on the four throughlines. I am not rigid about it, accepting ideas wherever they lead me, but I am not dissatisfied with the results so far. I don't know whether I will keep using Dramatica, but for now it seems to work all right for me.

Mharvey said:

I think breaking down plots and characters to hard and fast outlines is a mistake for me, as I need a sprinkle of discovery writing.

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That is me, too. I write a few paragraphs on my main characters, then I write a quick summary about the basic plot. It usually sums up the character arc, setting, main conflict. Then I bullet point my plot points--but as I'm writing, I've always found that my outlines tend to be pretty vague, since I don't go into a scene-by-scene breakdown. So it gives me structure and still leaves me plenty of room to discover as I write along. I use spreadsheets for timelines, if the story calls for it.

I get a notebook that I tend to take with me where ever I go during the planning stage. It will have sections for notes, things I need to find out, maps (which could include ground plans of buildings), photos, character outlines and descriptions. I will do a time line across two pages and plot where each character is and what they are doing. I am getting obsessive about that! Killed a character off way too soon in one work and had to do some major re-writes.

I think that you have to find what works for you and the genre you are writing in. I write mysteries and I know that if I do not plan and research I will write a lot of gibberish. I also find that photos/maps help with description and ups the word count.

My way is a little abstract.

I start chapter-by-chapter outlines, sometimes scene-by-scene. I like to get all of my ideas out, no matter how detailed, and then slowly scale this back. Once I have my huge outline (usually comes up to 10k+) I limit myself to about 100 words per chapter, and summarise my outline. My last outline is a 500 word summary of the whole novel.

I think this works for me because it has leeway; if I'm going right on track I have an excellent blue-print in which to follow, but if I start to go off tangent, I at least have some basic framework to look back at. It's a bit of an 'all basis covered' plan.

I guess I'm more of a pantser. I'll type up notes and try to keep them organized, but I've found that I learn who my characters really are by listening to them in my head (usually when I'm doing dishes, driving, or showering). In fact, they like to argue in my head. I'll think about the plot for days, trying to work it out like a puzzle. So mostly, I have an idea of where I'm going, but I'm really horrible at outlines--most of it is done and stored in my head. I find the story as I write.