Did you ever feel bored midway writing a scene? Or lukewarm? Do you feel like readers will jump full chunks of text?
Well, I used to feel that all the time.
I disliked outline with a passion. I thought it stole the magic away from creation. I thought it would trap my story in a box. Whenever I tried, I had no idea where to start, so I blamed outlining all over again. I would just write the first scene and allow my story to unfold itself. Although it is fun to let your story take the lead, it’s also chaotic.
I realized the importance of outlining on my third book. After months and months of hard work, my story turned out just… boring. Weak characters. A plot full of holes. No defined theme. Useless scenes. And a story that started with a goal, but changed so many times along the pages and accomplished almost nothing. Slow. Tedious. I was frustrated. I had to delete more than half to make it work. Even after rewriting, I wasn’t happy. That project was a major fail.
And failing was good, because, on my next project, I outlined.
I listed all arcs and, within the arcs, all scenes. I was mad. I wanted control. I wanted power. And I only sat down to write when I knew exactly what was going to happen from start to finish. I never wrote something that fast and effortlessly in my life. It didn’t take away the magic of writing, it simply gave me a sense of direction.
Outline is a map. And when you have a map, you have a journey to make.
If, like me, you are a bit lost, here’s how you can create the map for your next novel, or how to outline your book scene by scene. I’ll share with you three techniques, but will divide them into three posts. This is the part one. Or the Map Technique.
I advice you to grab pen and paper, and move away from the computer. Find a comfortable spot, maybe a coffee shop, or by your window. And let’s work!
Before outlining, write down your storyline in one phrase. I’ll be using an example to help you understand this technique. So, my storyline is:
Masked twins fight against a violent dictatorship.
Now, let’s start.
In every journey, we need a departure point and an arrival point. This is essential for a map. And, if it’s essential for a map, it’s essential for our outline. So, create the start (departure) and the end (arrival) of your story. With my example, it goes:
Twins have their lives destroyed by the government (departure)
They destroy the government (arrival)
Amazing!! Our map is taking form.
What else a journey must have? Milestones. Without milestones, we don’t know how far we are from the arrival. They are essential as well. But how can we put milestones in an outline? Easy. Between departure and arrival, you will list every important arc (or event, or key scene, or plot point) that must happen in order to take the plot from start to end. More or less like this:
Twins have their lives destroyed by the government (departure)
Their family is destroyed
They are taken in by their uncle
Uncle and twins plan their revenge
Twins find their mask
Twins perform small acts of justice
They gain the respect of the citizens
Government sees them as threat
Government tries to erase them
Twins perform huge acts of justice
They are almost killed
Uncle is killed
They perform one last act of justice by killing the dictator
Citizens claim for democracy
Democracy is installed
The twins destroy their masks
They destroy the government (arrival)
All milestones are placed, nothing too fancy, just a description of what we’ll be seeing along the journey. Good.
From milestone to milestone, we have roads, or sequences of roads. Between arcs, write down sequences of scenes that must happen to move the plot forward. For example:
Twins have their lives destroyed by the government (departure)
Their family is destroyed
Twins live with their father (who is an important journalist)
Father is abducted by the government
Social worker takes them to lonely uncle
They are taken in by their uncle
Twins and uncle can’t adjust to new life
They are all filled with grief
Uncle comes up with revenge plan
Uncle and twins plan their revenge
Twins trains while uncle perfects his plan
Twins and uncle adjust to new life
They become a family
Twins find their mask
Getting ready for their first step
Twins perform small acts of justice
They destroy factory that uses slave force
They kill politician who closed hospitals
They kill a famous torturer for the government party
They find their father’s file
Discover that father was tortured and killed
They gain the respect of the citizens
…
We are almost there…
Because, in every mile of the road, we have landscapes. Scenes are landscapes. And we need hundreds of different landscapes along the journey, beautiful ones, strange ones, unexpected ones… we need scenes. To every sequence, create as many scenes as you need:
Twins have their lives destroyed by the government (departure)
Their family is destroyed
Twins live with their father (who is an important journalist)
Father receives a journalism award
Twins enjoy the party
It’s time to go
Father drives them home
Father is abducted by the government
In isolated street, the car is stoped
Two man attacks them and abducts their father
One of the twins receive a scar on their face
Twins are left alone in deserted street
Social worker takes them to lonely uncle
Social worker takes them from the hospital
Drives them to poor area
Leaves them with unknown uncle
They are taken in by their uncle
Twins and uncle can’t adjust to new life
Twins can’t eat
Twins won’t leave the house
Uncle tries to get information on what happened to his brother, but fails
It’s believed that their father died
They are all filled with grief
Uncle and twins have a sincere talk about father, they tell past stories, they laugh, they cry
For the first time, they have dinner together
Uncle comes up with revenge plan
…
You can almost see the story playing inside your head like a movie. That’s the magic of a scene by scene outline. 😀
This last step is optional. But it’s a great exercise to trim the rough edges. Under each scene, catalog which character(s) you’ll need, what place(s) will be used, what does the scene accomplishes and ways it can unfold. Example:
Question of Smoke 