Once I knew these things, I knew how I needed to set the scene up, and once I knew how to set the scene up, I knew what to put in the previous slot in the outline. Eventually, I was able to work myself all the way back to the dinner party. Voilà! I now had a complete sequence of events, all of which were cohesive, linear, and logical enough to make my story tight and intense.
Facing the wide unknown of a story is scary, and putting one foot in front of the other, when you’re unsure of the terrain, can be overwhelming. But when you can work your way backwards from a known point, finding your way becomes as simple as filling in the blanks. The result is a story that falls into order like a row of expertly placed dominoes.
Chapter Nine Checklist
Write your extended outline, scene by scene, numbering each new section.
Decide how to make this story your “perfect novel.”
Determine your audience demographic.
Select which POV(s) and tense you will write from.
Double-check the structure of your beginning, middle, and ending.
Verify that your story contains humor, action, and relation-ships.
Frame your story with a cohesive and resonant beginning and ending that complement and strengthen each other.
Set your scenes up like a row of dominos, each one influencing those that follow.
Eliminate any unnecessary scenes.
Outline backwards when you’re unsure how to get from Point A to Point B.
Asking the Authors: Dan L. Hays
Bio: The author of the memoir Freedom’s Just Another Word, Dan L. Hays hosts the inspirational podcast Minute to Freedom and the radio program Dialogue With Dignity and writes the blog Thoughts Along the Road to Healing. Visit him at http://www.danlhays.com.
Can you describe your outlining process?
An outline is analogous to reading a map before a road trip. I find my starting point, then pick out the best route to where I’m headed. First, I determine where the story begins. I also have an approximate idea where the story ends. I say approximate because the story may shift as I write it. Having a starting and ending point gives me a timeline. For my first novel, that timeline was four months. For the current memoir I’m writing, the timeline is thirty years. The longer timeline has made it essential to have a solid outline and idea of where the story is going. I periodically check the road map along the way, to make sure I’m still on the right path.
What is the greatest benefit of outlining?
When I begin to write that first chapter, I have the road map in the back of my mind, which helps enormously in the first draft. If I’ve wandered off course, I can more readily sense it and pull back from the extraneous direction. In my first memoir, I had numerous threads I left out of the manuscript, because they weren’t part of the story I was trying to tell. I wanted to focus on the interaction between me and my father and how his death impacted me. The outline helped me stay on that path.
What is the biggest pitfall of outlining?
Serving the outline, rather than using it as a tool to serve me. Once I lay out the basic structure of the book, I don’t want to adhere rigidly to the outline to the detriment of the story. I have to allow the creative component to invest my process, to help me learn the true story along the way. Sometimes unexpected moments happen, and I want to be free to capture them.
I think the best way to avoid becoming too rigid in outlining is to allow for adjustments along the way. A canoe doesn’t go across the lake in a straight line. As the rower paddles on one side or the other, the canoe moves slightly back and forth across the intended path. I think allowing the outline to work that same way gives it the maximum benefit without hindering the creative process.
Do you recommend “pantsing” for certain situations and outlining for others?
If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t know where you’ll end up. For some people “pantsing” might work well, but it just doesn’t fit for me. Within a shorter segment, such as a chapter, I will work without an outline, writing the scenes as they unfold. However, I do have an outline for the larger work, so the scenes have already in a sense been outlined. For a short piece—such as a blog post or a short article—I’m a lot more likely to “pants.” I am a storyteller by nature; even my blog posts tend toward a story structure.
What’s the most important contributing factor to a successful outlining experience?
An outline has to have the fluidity to shift according to the needs of the story. I usually take a long time to write a novel or a memoir—typically several years. If I wasn’t working within a structure, I would get lost and veer far off course. My writing process begins by flying high above the story and laying out the nature of the forest—the outline does that for me. Then I dip down and describe the trees and the path through the forest from a very close perspective. Without the road map, I might take the wrong path and not even know it. I can tell some very entertaining stories that sound really wonderful, but don’t fit the story I’m currently trying to tell.
But, as I walk through the forest, describing the process and my journey, I have to have the flexibility to encounter the unexpected and embrace it. If my outline is Roman Numeral I, A & B, I have to allow for the possibility that there is a C that needs to be included, which I might not realize until I get to that point.
Chapter Ten
The Abbreviated Outline:
Drawing Your Road Map
“I’ve found that people who outline a lot spend more time up front planning. People who discover their story by writing it spend more time at the end revising. It tends to even out.”
—Brandon Sanderson27
Once you’ve finished outlining your plot, it’s time to condense the pertinent info into an Abbreviated Outline. The Abbreviated Outline will keep you from having to read your entire Extended Outline every time you sit down to write. It will provide you an at-a-glance road map that highlights all the important stops along the way to your destination. This is the guide you’ll refer to while writing your official first draft. Of course, if you want to, you can skip this step and use your Extended Outline while writing. But I choose to summarize my notes and type them up on the computer for several reasons:
• It cuts out the rambling. Because the Extended Outline offers us the opportunity to solve problems, explore dead ends, and sort through hundreds of ideas in search of the dozen or so worth keeping, it’s inevitably full of digression and repetition. Much of the word count in my Extended Outline isn’t something I need to re-read to help myself understand the story. I don’t necessarily need to save the information about how I reached a decision; in writing my first draft, I only need to know what that decision is.
• Makes it legible. Do we really need to talk about my handwriting again? Typing my notes into the computer means saving myself from repeatedly having to decipher my handwriting. While transcribing, I’ll also fix my spelling, punctuation, and grammar—and generally streamline my thoughts to make them intelligible.
• Distills the pertinent points. An Abbreviated Outline allows me to see the prominent plot points at a glance. A quick scroll down the screen, and I’ve seen my entire story arc in a few seconds. Were I to leave my notes within the welter of my handwritten Extended Outline, I would have to read paragraphs upon paragraphs per scene.
• Saves time. Transcribing my notes can take several weeks, but it saves time in the long run. Instead of having to flip through two or three notebooks, wading through all the extraneous chatter while trying to remember where I might have written a particular idea, I can use the Find feature on my computer to zip right to the pertinent info.
In days of yore, I used to type the Abbreviated Outline in Word and print a copy for easy reference. But ever since I discovered the superior organizational features of the software program yWriter, I’ve used it to store and organize my Abbreviated Outline notes. (You can find information about downloading and using yWriter in Chapter Two.)
> Because I went through my Extended Outline notes at the end of each outlining session and used my blue highlighter to mark the bits I wanted to keep, I’ve saved myself the trouble of having to reread the entirety of my notes. Instead, all I have to do is look for the blue bits and type them up under the appropriate scene and chapter headings.
Your Abbreviated Outline, in its simplest form, might look something like mine from Behold the Dawn:
Gethin confronts Annan in Italy, and Annan follows him to the Crusade.
Roderic hires Annan to kill Matthias, Gethin, and William and kidnap Mairead; Annan agrees only to kill Matthias.
Roderic is unsure how to take the news of Annan’s “accepting” the job.
Annan is injured in the siege of Acre and taken prisoner.
He is nursed by Mairead, the wife of his one-time mentor, Lord William, who is dying.
Richard slaughters the Saracen prisoners.
William requests Annan marry Mairead and protect her.
Annan and Mairead escape with Gethin’s aid.
Roderic decides to send Hugh and Warin to kill Annan and Mairead.
If you prefer, your Abbreviated Outline can include more information than just these one-sentence summaries. I used more in-depth scene descriptions in Dreamlander, as demonstrated by these excerpts from the middle of the outline:
51. Allara decides to visit the Garowai because she can feel something’s not right. Chris gives a recruiting speech to the citizens of Glen Arden. Among those who join up to fight are Orrick and Markham. (I probably don’t need to go into great detail with this. Recruiting speeches are pretty boring. Open this chapter in Allara’s POV and just more or less make the comment that Chris gained some new recruits.)
Allara prepares to ride out of the city at the same time as Chris and his men. She happens to stop next to Chris’s sisters. They exchange a few comments about Chris, highlighting Allara’s confusion of emotions after the balcony scene the night before. Allara is finding herself more and more drawn to Chris. Her former antipathy for him has all but faded. Now, she is truly growing to respect him. He is proving himself a valiant and honorable person. She feels safer around him, stronger. He makes her want to believe. For the first time in her life, she’s met someone who is actually capable of sharing her great burden—and helping her bear it. She is less a Searcher around him—and more a... woman. She’s met few men capable of being bigger than her—stronger—wiser—braver. She’s used to being the responsible one, the strong one. But with him, she doesn’t have to pull him up—she’s learning to just lean into his strength. For the first time in a long time, she has a reason to believe, and Chris Redston is that reason.
Anyhow, as Allara’s conversation with the Bowen ladies winds down, Chris looks up and catches her eye and smiles. They should exchange a few words. Then they part ways.
52. Chris gets stuck in a skirmish on the army’s flank, with Pitch somehow at the center of things. Pitch escaped Mactalde and made it across the river to tell Chris Orias is in trouble. Pitch may disapprove of some of Orias’s actions of late, but he loves Orias too much to ever betray him. Pitch knows where Mactalde has placed an artillery battlement, so Chris and Co. go off to destroy that.
53. Allara rides off to have her talk with the Garowai. Since we’re jumping from the tense scene of skirmishing over an artillery battlement to this, the tension in the conversation needs to be tight. Allara starts out asking for the Garowai to make an appearance at Glen Arden to help quell the Nateros sentiments—which she is naturally pretty tense about. And from there (with a little help from Quinnon), the conversation switches to Chris. Allara asks again why the Garowai never told her another Gifted was coming, and Quinnon interjects some pretty pointed remarks, prodding the Garowai for info about Chris.
Organizing and Analyzing Your Scenes
Transferring your scenes into your Abbreviated Outline gives you your first opportunity to analyze your raw material, cut what doesn’t work, and strengthen what does. Be on the watch for unnecessary scenes that can be deleted or combined with one or more equally floppy scenes. Could your character get the phone call about her mother’s death while she’s en route to her hearing? Although you could certainly cut and paste and combine scenes after writing the first draft, it’s so much easier to make these adjustments in the outline.
Consider each scene’s importance and effectiveness. Make note of scenes that can be deleted, scenes that can be combined, and scenes that are weak. This goes for characters and settings as well. Can you streamline your cast by combining two or more minor characters? The fewer characters you have, the more focused your story will be and the fewer loose ends you’ll have to tie up at the end. However, as important as it is to keep streamlining techniques in mind, don’t be afraid to let your story tell itself the way it needs to be told.
Dividing Your Story Into Chapters and Scenes
Although you may choose (as I do) not to break your book into chapters until after the first draft is finished, the Abbreviated Outline is the time to start looking for likely places for chapter and scene breaks. Often, your story will naturally break at appropriately dramatic moments. Be on the hunt for ways you can incorporate strong scene endings into your outline.
Keep Readers Reading
Scene breaks are do-or-die territory for novelists. You may be spinning a grand ol’ tale, full of fascinating characters, but if your chapter and scene endings leave readers no reason to turn the page and find out what happens next, all your hard work on the other aspects of your story will be wasted. Not every scene needs to end with a cliffhanger, but they do need to encompass a question powerful enough to make the reader crazy to know the answer.
This is no easy task, in large part because not every scene is going to feature huge revelations and startling questions. How do you mine your story for the tension and conflict that will translate into the most powerful question a reader can ask: What’s gonna happen next? Following are eleven suggestions for turning your blasé endings into killer chapter breaks:
Promise of conflict.
Example: The hero has just been challenged to a duel.
Inherent Question: Will he survive?
A secret kept.
Example: The hero’s partner hides a letter.
Inherent Question: What’s in the confounded letter?
A major decision or vow.
Example: The hero swears to avenge his wife’s murder.
Inherent Question: How will he go about it? Will he succeed?
An announcement of a shocking event.
Example: The hero’s father dies.
Inherent Question: How did he die? How is the hero going to react?
A moment of high emotion.
Example: The hero is enraged by the promotion of an incompetent coworker.
Inherent Question: How will the hero express his anger? Will he experience repercussions?
A reversal or surprise that turns the story upside down.
Example: The heroine discovers her long-dead mother isn’t dead at all.
Inherent Question: Where has the mother been all this time? How is the heroine going to adjust to this new paradigm?
A new idea.
Example: The hero comes up with a new scheme for defeating the bad guy.
Inherent Question: Will it work?
An unanswered question.
Example: “You’re not who you said you were, are you?”
Inherent Question: Is he who he said he was? If not, who is he? And why did he lie about his identity?
A mysterious line of dialogue.
Example: “You’ll find your answers on the Northside Bridge, midnight. Come alone.”
Inherent Question: What are the answers? Why the North-side Bridge? Why midnight? Why alone?
A portentous metaphor.
Example: A solar eclipse over a battlefield.
Inherent Question: Is this an indication of tragedy to come?
A turning point.<
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Example: The heroine is shipped off to an orphanage.
Inherent Question: What will happen in her new life? How will she adapt?
Use a wide variety of breaks to keep your readers guessing. It’s possible—and even preferable—to use all of these examples in one story. Ending every scene with a cliffhanger can become monotonous, so don’t feel as if the tension has to be ratcheted to the breaking point at the end of every scene. Make sure your readers are left with a question—a reason to find out more—and, before they know it, they’ll have read your entire book in one sitting.
Control Pacing
You’re probably familiar with the common wisdom that writing shorter sentences during action scenes contributes to a sense of tension and speed. If you want a scene to move quickly, think short. If you want it to move leisurely, lengthen the rhythm of your writing. The same holds just as true for scene and chapter length.
Ruth Downie’s boisterous, tongue-in-cheek Gaius Petreius Ruso series, features extremely short chapters. Some are barely longer than a page. Due in no small part to this simple trick, her historical mysteries rush along at a madcap pace that perfectly suits her humorous tone and her hapless main character. In contrast to the fifty-plus chapters in Downie’s books, the similarly sized books in Patrick O’Brian’s lauded Aubrey/Maturin series rarely feature more than ten chapters. His decision to use chapters of fifty or more pages fits nicely within his series’ historical tone and lends gravitas to his characters’ seafaring adventures during the Napoleonic War.
Downie’s and O’Brian’s respective decisions on scene and chapter length effortlessly contribute to the fast-paced, modern tone of the one and the historic, slightly detached perspective of the other. Consider the needs of your story and apply this simple trick of pacing to control your overall goal of tone and energy. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to tell how long your scenes and chapters will turn out, just from your outline notes, but now is a good time to start planning your pacing, so you can order your scenes accordingly when you start writing.
Outlining Your Novel_Map Your Way to Success Page 13