Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Short Story Outline Issues

You will need two documents open at the same time, one on the left, one on the right. Let's say the manuscript in its current form is on the left. Now, on the right, jot down some notes about the...

posted 7y ago by aparente001‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-16T05:33:16Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26764
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:07:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26764
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:07:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
You will need two documents open at the same time, one on the left, one on the right. Let's say the manuscript in its current form is on the left.

Now, on the right, jot down some notes about the first paragraph -- what's going on in this paragraph?

Do that for each paragraph.

Now close the manuscript and put your paragraph-by-paragraph analysis on the left, with a new blank document on the right. This time, look at several lines at a time and describe what's going on in that group.

Through this successive reduction process, you will end up with an outline of what you have already written.

I think that after you have done this a few times, you will be motivated to:

# next time make the outline before you begin writing the story.

It is soo much easier that way.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-02-16T19:39:18Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 0