How specific should I be when outlining the plot?
One problem I often run into when trying to make a general outline of the plot for a story is how specific I am in the descriptions of events. Generally, this happens when I have written a portion of the story already, meaning that I know what happens in and around that part of the story. When I decide to actually outline the plot for the entire story, I start out very general at first, but get more and more specific as I get closer to the part that I've written. This obviously leads to having numerous bullet points with very specific information on events that are very close together (short gap between points), while there are other bullet points that are very general and open for expansion (larger gap between points).
Is there a level of detail that I should try to keep the outline at? How detailed/simple should each bullet point be? My goal is to write a plot outline such that I can look at it and have a general idea of how long it is just by the number of items in the outline. Another goal could be considered to be ensuring that one plot point is not significantly more important or detailed than another. Is there any general method for doing such a thing?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/8130. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
It's tempting to include all this information that you already know, so what's the harm? The harm, as you indicate in your question, is that the outline no longer serves as a good gauge of your progress through the work.
What is the purpose of the outline? If your publisher requires it then follow your publisher's guidelines -- but, probably, the outline is for you. You should therefore include the amount of detail that meets your needs. Since you want a consistent level of detail, this means either adding a lot more detail for the parts you haven't written yet or cutting detail out of the outline for the parts you have written. (It's already in your book/story, so it's not lost.) The latter sounds easier to me.
Perhaps you are tempted to include the detail because you need to keep track of key events, character moments, and so on. That's important too, but consider using a different tool for that -- a timeline, a map, a collection of notes sorted by topic/character/place/artifact, or whatever.
My field is technical writing, not fiction, so I don't need to keep track of characters and plot elements -- but I do need to keep track of code snippets that I've used as examples, interactions among different parts of the system, and the introduction of key concepts. I use notes, lists on whiteboards, and sometimes a task-tracking system to keep track of all this. The outline, on the other hand, remains a glorified table of contents, helping me to keep track of the book organization as a whole without getting bogged down in details.
0 comment threads
Your problem is that you're trying to use one tool for two opposing tasks.
- You're using an outline as a guide for writing (what happens next).
- You want to use your outline to gauge the size of your work (what has already happened).
If you can't gauge the size of your work by reading the actual text, then my suggestion is to keep two outlines.
Your writing outline is the one you use to create the book. This is a working document, and it can have as many or as few bullet points as you need. This is the one which has breathing room for pantsing.
- Friday night: John goes to the pub. Thinks about his life and decides it doesn't suck.
Your reading outline is the one you use to measure your progress. After you finish writing for the day, or maybe at the beginning of a session as a refresher to get you back in the groove, you turn your text into bullet points outlining what you wrote. This document is descriptive.
- Friday night: John goes to the pub.
- Gets his usual.
- Sits in usual chair, watches regular crowd shuffle in.
- Starts thinking about the rut he's in.
- Considers whether he needs a new job. Rejects idea.
- Considers whether he needs a girlfriend. Rejects idea.
- Startled by Greg joining him.
- Greg starts telling John about his day.
- John concludes his life is not so bad.
Once your descriptive outline is finished, you can see quickly whether your scenes are balanced to your satisfaction.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads