45: Don’t Call It an Outline

How can you avoid deleting or rewriting big

portions of your story? Before you reach the end? How can you

avoid abandoning a story halfway through because it simply isn't

working? Can you have the freedom of being a pantser? And

enjoy the benefits of being a plotter? Is it possible to be a

plotter without overthinking your story? Answers to these

questions and more in this episode are frightening

pursuits. Welcome to the writing pursuits podcast where authors

like you discuss writing craft, author, life and book marketing

strategies. I'm your host Kathrese. McKee. I own writing

pursuits and write and produce the weekly newsletter writing

pursuits tips for authors. In addition, I am a speculative

fiction author, writing procedures for authors who drink

too much coffee, endure judgemental looks from their

furry writing, convenience and struggle for words. If you are a

writer seeking encouragement, information and inspiration,

this podcast is for you. Let's get to it. Hey, writing

pursuits, authors. Welcome

back to the podcast. To those of you who are new, I want to

extend a special welcome. My name is Kathrese. McKee. And I'm

glad you're here. Please leave a comment a star rating and follow

the show to help others find writing pursuits. Back when I

first played around with the idea of writing a book, I opened

up a spiral and started writing a story I thought my kids would

enjoy every spare moment at games, and doctor visits. And

during lunch, I would invent problems for my characters to

solve and things for them to say, I was a pantser. And I

didn't care about how to map out a novel. Eventually, a plot

formed, the first novel grew into two than three, I had an

entire shelf of spirals, and three ring binders, all written

in longhand. By then I knew I could write a book because I had

already written one if that makes sense. Along the way I

read every craft book I could find, and I learned about things

like story structure, characterization and point of

view. Finally, I decided to get serious and write a book for

publication. I didn't want to get halfway through my novel and

falter, so I took a few days to plot it out. I became a plotter.

I think many authors who write by the seat of their pants

resist plotting because they fear it will stifle their

creativity. They live for the spontaneity, the bursts of

inspiration. Painters often have a folder full of unfinished

novels. And that's frustrating. plotters don't have all the

answers either. If you are a plotter, you may be stifling

your creativity by plotting every moment of your story

before you start writing. How many times have you made it to

the end of your work in progress without going off script? As

every military commander can attest, no plan survives first

contact with the enemy. Stuff happens. Things go wrong.

adjustments must be made. Honestly. These days I call

myself a puzzler, because I take the middle road between plotting

and pantsing. The puzzler approach takes a fair amount of

prewriting and preparation before the real work begins, but

don't call it an outline. Outlines give me the hives. I

have flashbacks to high school history, science and language

arts, where the teachers expected the class to pull

outline notes out of the errors. They lectured with Roman

numerals and everything, and then created your notes on how

well you can outline. Yeah, plotting isn't about creating an

outline. I know you've heard experts tell you that you ought

to outline your book, you've read how to write books that

instruct you to plot out your story, but I'm here to tell you

that an outline for fiction isn't what you think it is.

Dismiss that picture of the indented structure that you

learned in school Roman numerals, capitalized letters,

Arabic numerals and lowercase letters Dobby is a free elf. Yes

Dobby you are free, free to create notes in any form you

choose. Sorry, nonfiction writers. Even if you start out

in freeform, you must eventually Marshal your thoughts into a

proper outline, you will probably need to create an index

to sorry back to Dobby the free l fiction author who can take

notes anyway chooses doodles diagrams, mind maps or copious

notes. Dobby can use notebooks, scrolls, butcher paper,

notecards Scrivener or Evernote as long as Dobby captures his

ideas before they get away. A premise is highly recommended.

In the center of your blank piece of paper. It's a good idea

to capture the kernel of your story idea, also known as the

premise. Try to state your premise in 10 words or less. I'm

going to give a few examples and let's see if you can recognize

the books and movies referenced Okay. And I'll come back around

to that and I'll answer at the end. And I'll give you a word

count on each one of these. Okay, number one, the parents of

five down powerless daughters must attract rich husbands 10

words, a powerless orphan is chosen to defeat an evil wizard.

10 words. A private investigator addicted to cocaine solves

difficult cases. Nine, a federation crew keeps a madman

from deploying regeneration bomb 10 conscientious objector

becomes highly decorated war hero eight words. The premise

helps you focus anytime you get lost while you're writing.

Return to your story, Colonel. This one piece of information

can get you back on track. It's worth taking the time the very

beginning to really hone that premise, so that it helps you

stay the course now think about your characters. Each of the

story kernels in the examples begins with a character or a

group of characters, the more likely the character, a

powerless orphan, or conscientious objector the

better. readers love to root for the underdog. Once you have

identified your characters flesh them out a bit. What are their

strengths than weaknesses, wants and needs? What motivates them

what do they fear the most? Then identify the stakes. The

doubtless the hunters face poverty, the Federation crew

faces death itself, the investigator may lose his

credibility or fall victim to a dangerous villain, each hero or

heroine will lose big time if they fail. A premise hints at

the conflict and what is at stake story structure is the

secret sauce. Writing pursuits is run by Kathrese. McKee who

their writing to a new level of excellence. Guthrie's is a three

story methods certified editor who specializes in story

diagnostics, coaching, and line editing to help you prepare your

story for the journey ahead. For more information, go to writing

pursuits.com. The link is in the show notes. And now back to the

podcast. Now that you have your premise and you have a main

character, and the conflict and stakes, now you can think about

structure. There you go again, imagining the worst forget about

Roman numerals and indentation story structure is a secret

sauce to your plot. Think seven columns, five columns are only

three. Remember in elementary school and they taught you

beginning, middle and end. Start there or middle school. When you

learned about exposition, rising action climax, falling action

and denouement. Or maybe your teacher called it resolution. In

other words, think of your story in big blocks of time. And then

subdivide those blocks according to the goals for each block.

Call it a map, a timeline or a synopsis, but don't call it an

outline. If nothing else, figure out what your showdown might

look like and work forward and backward. From there. Ask

yourself questions like what happens after that? How did that

happen? Why did it happen? And what happened before that before

that before that? How did this story begin? Try thinking about

the darkest moment before the dawn, when all seems lost for

your main character. My stories benefit most. When I pay

attention to the hero's journey, or the heroines journey journey

you have probably heard of the hero's journey, made famous by

Joseph Campbell, but the heroines journey is every bit as

strong. Neither of these structures has anything to do

with gender by the way anyway, you need to become acquainted

with both structures because story structure is tried and

true and time tested. Ignore story structure at your peril.

If you pay attention to it, you will find a Shining Path to

Follow whether you are a plotter, pancer or puzzler.

After I wrote my first two books, I discovered I was

writing a heroines journey, many aspects of my series suddenly

made more sense to me. So I am going to encourage you to find

Gil characters book the heroines journey for writers, readers,

and fans of pop culture. It's a great addition to your author

library, and I will include a link in the show notes, now's

the time to tell yourself the story in shorthand, do they

actually teach shorthand in school anymore? Back on my

mother's day she took shorthand in high school. The beauty of

using shorthand was how you could take notes in a way that

didn't require every letter of every word, but later, you could

decipher your notes without forgetting important details. So

the concept of shorthand, not the crazy little squiggles is

still viable for writers today. Tell yourself the story you want

to write using a More hand approach. use present tense. If

you don't know the names, use code names like a and b, etc.

Give yourself the green light to get as crazy as you like. This

is like brainstorming, just Greenlight it all the way. Don't

Don't keep pulling back. It's like, oh, by all work, just

Greenlight it, write down anything you that comes to mind.

If you think of a snippet of conversation, or a witty line,

jot it down. Can you see a picture of the action in your

mind's eye, put it where it fits best Beginning, middle or in

rising action, climax or resolution? Another thing you

might try is writing. Writing the synopsis first, when I

decided to write a prequel to my series, I didn't want to waste a

lot of time going down dead in streets to create a good story.

So I wrote a synopsis for my prequel before I ever wrote it.

Synopsis is a scary word that means summary. Okay, summary

sounds scary, too. But all I did was tell myself the story at a

very high level. Here is part of the synopsis I wrote before I

started work on pirates wager my prequel novelette to Martin

smart, Sam Zohr 13 is brought aboard his clothes though faded

in dirty bespeak a more privileged life. Scar comes

aboard to as a new first mate. The first night in charge, Scar

banish is all done in Linus to the hold, because they are,

quote, too little to be of use, and foreign to boot scar

figures. He can turn Sanders oriented back can because he's a

big strong boy. So I put sim czar with the crew, people to

remember frats biscuits, rows are in scar. Granted, this is

more detailed than it had to be because I already knew the

characters from the full length novel, I could have written it

like this sims or becomes a slave on a pirate ship. The same

day a first name made a is hired. A is a terrible bigot and

a very cruel man. He hates foreigners. There are two other

slaves C and D. Or I could have started in the middle because of

something Sam Azhar does the cruel first mate decides to

punish C, and C is in danger of dying from the middle. It's a

matter of going forward and backward on the timeline until

you reach the end and the beginning. So it isn't an

outline. It's a map. When you write your story beats as some

people call them, they serve as a map to take you from beginning

to end. But you don't need to know immediately where all the

details belong. It is okay to write a jumble of ideas,

moments, action beats, setting notes and crazy thoughts in no

particular order. Then do a preliminary sort and get

started. You don't need to know everything that's going to

happen. The unknown factor should make Pantsers happy

because the door is wide open for sudden inspiration. Those

golden transcendent moments authors long for and

transcendent moments should also please even the most devoted

plotters. Now you have a map to use during those days when

writing is more labor than love. When you're feeling a little bit

lost. Let your map get you back on track. Give yourself

permission to be messy. Learn about story structure. Write the

beats. Create a synopsis if you like or draw a diagram, but

don't call it an outline. If you are in the middle of a story and

feel lost, take a few hours to map out where you want it to go.

If you haven't begun to write, identify your premise and figure

out whether you are writing a hero hero's journey or heroines

journey. If you've already finished your book, that's a

great time to write a synopsis and that will help you test your

story from plot holes. The question of the week is how do

you map out your stories? What methods work best for you? Put

your answers in the comments at writing proceeds.com forward

slash podcast forward slash 45. I can't believe we're already on

episode 45. Oh, and the answers for the examples. The parents of

five Dallas daughters must attract rich husbands. That's

Pride and Prejudice. A powerless orphan has chosen to defeat an

evil wizard. Of course that's a Harry Potter series. A private

investigator addicted to cocaine solves difficult cases. Sherlock

Holmes. A Federation crew keeps a madman from deploying

regeneration bomb. That would be the Wrath of Khan, a

conscientious objector becomes highly decorated war hero is

Sergeant York. And that's all I have for today. Until next time,

keep writing.

Thank you for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode,

please leave a comment and follow the podcast. If you're

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the the links mentioned in today's episode are in the show

notes at writing pursuits.com Please join us on Wednesdays for

new episodes and keep writing my friends keep writing