I’m not an outliner. Never have been. Most of my stories have been conceived with an ending in mind, and then I pick a starting point and work my way toward end.
Is that the best way to write? I honestly don’t think so. But it is my way, and the way I’ve always done it. Old habits, they say, die hard. And use to be Use to be, a lot of writers would describe their writing process as sitting down to the blank page and letting ‘er rip, even if that wasn’t exactly the truth. And of those who did admit to having an outline, their description of the process was either vague or meant to sell a how-to book.
So where can someone still learning the craft go for help?
Well, I already blogged about writing books I’d recommend, so I won’t rehash old information here. And on the free advice front, I also spent all of last week going over the basics of storytelling.
This week, Wren Emerson posted what is probably the most detailed blog entry on outlining a novel I’ve ever seen. Most of this information is the kind of stuff one normally has to pay for, yet here it is, all laid out in nice WordPress blog form.
Wren’s post will give you a lot of tools to help you get your story laid out. But what goes in the blanks?
One thing I did with my current WIP was fill out a Save the Cat Beat Sheet, available on Blake Snyder’s website under the tools section. Fair warning, if you haven’t read Save the Cat, then the beat sheet probably won’t make much sense to you.
I always start my story development process with those two points I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post. Point A and Point Z. In my case, though, Point A and Point Z aren’t the beginning and end of the story, but rather Point A is the inciting incident and Point Z is usually the climax.
In the case of my current WIP, Point A was the moment when the three estranged brothers are asked to drive cross-country to scatter their father’s ashes. From Point A, I usually work back just enough that I can create an opening image. Once again, from my current WIP, that opening image was the oldest brother living the life of his dreams in Manhattan. But between that opening image and inciting incident, we need something to disrupt day-to-day life and bring the character from opening image to inciting incident.
Likewise, I go from Point Z to end fairly easily, by tying up the major storyline with the hero and heroine riding off into the sunset or with the hero putting a bullet in the bad guy’s head. Whatever works for the story.
It’s those points in between A and Z that are so hard to fill. That’s where writers live or die.
So how do I do that? I put milestones along the way. Sometimes my milestones are a progression from beginning to end. Sometimes my milestones go from the end and work backward. Sometimes I put a milestone in the middle, and then try to half each segment as I go.
For example, I might say
Point A: Boy Meets Girl
In-Between: Boy and Girl fall in love & are happy
Middle: Boy Loses Girl
In-Between: Boy struggles to win girl back, watches her fall for someone else.
Point Z: Boy and Girl Unite
Those two in-betweens are where the heart of the story will be fleshed out.
Perhaps it will go something like this:
Point A: Boy Meets Girl
Point B: Boy and Girl Go on Date
Point C: Boy proposes to Girl
Middle: Boy Loses Girl
Point X: Boy pines for Girl
Point Y: Boy performs heroics to get Girl
Point Z: Boy and Girl Unite
From here it’s simply a matter of filling in more in betweens. Between each point, I get more and more specific, until I have a roadmap in my mind of how the story will play out.
In theory, that makes writing it easier. Right?
Anyway, it’s getting ready to storm here so I’m going to jump off. If I don’t see you guys again for a while, blame the weather!
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