Writing : How do YOU outline?

-First I outline what happens.  This is more or less a brainstorming process that includes lines of dialogue, major and minor plot points, character traits, etc.

It reads like a series of promps essentially.

-Step 2 is organizing all that (in chronological order, if possible), and then I have a basic map of the story.

This is something I have been thinking about a fair bit.

As it stands I do very little in the way of outlining. Sometimes it's a few notes scribbled on scrap paper when I'm away from my computer, usually when I have an idea I want to make sure I don't forget. Most of it gets kept in my head and when it comes to the actual writing I usually just dive in.

The problem I am having is that I end up with a lot of false starts. A bunch of times I have discarded something because the idea or inspiration seemed more exciting in my meandering thoughts than it actually turned out. Occasionally I manage to salvage key parts and use them elsewhere, but it does seem like I end up wasting time in this fashion.

So the conclusion I have come to is that I need to be more organised. I intend to be a little more methodical about my next few efforts - see if it gets any easier. Worth a try, right?

I use cards. Digital cards. In Scrivener.

I also keep all my notes in the program. I have my files saved to Dropbox, and every computer I use on a daily basis as both Scrivener and Dropbox, so I can work on it wherever I am. 

I'm not that great at outlining, though. I know how many pages I want to aim for in this draft, and how long I'd like each chapter, give or take a few hundred words. I write out my notes a few chapters in advance, and I know the main points of the beginning, middle, and end. but I can't outline each chapter through the whole novel before I write it--too many things change as I go along!

However, I am obsessive about notes. In my binder in Scrivener, I have a list of every character, their backstory, their sign, their looks, and their accessories/wardrobe. For the more important characters I add on likes, dislikes, situations, beliefs, etc. For all of them I have a list of keywords.

I have monsters listed, what myths they're based on, weaknesses and strengths, and keywords. I have places, too, cities and shopping centers and the like, with blueprints and maps of real places they're based on. Sometimes I spend more time building notes than I do writing.

Brian Lee O'malley put it nicely: "Living in this world for years so you can read about it for a couple of hours!"

But as far as outlining, well, I'm a combination of both a write-as-you-go and a must-know-the-details sort of gal.

Good question: there's kind of a formula to it.

A while ago I wrote a piece called Gourmet which is about a restaurant that serves pretentious food.  The idea came when I read an article about a restaurant that talked about the decor and chefs for about 90% of the piece and the actual food part very little, almost like an afterthought.  So the idea is to basically to take a garish restaurant, the chef, the setting, and hyper-exageratte it.

You break this down into components:

-Possible setting and set pieces

-Possible dishes

-Possible character traits of the chef

-Possible consequences

You make a list of these and then introduce a control element, something to keep the piece grounded so that the reader doesn't completely slip into a place of total disbelief.  In this case, it's an interviewer.

So the outline is basically every possible thing the restaurant can do/serve and how the grounding element reacts to that.  You then have to flesh these items out into something readable.

Example 1: menu item descriptions.

Normal: Fresh, meaty shrimp delicately fried to a golden-brown to deliver a perfect crunch and tossed lightly in our homemade sweet-and-sassy chile sauce to add just the right balance of tang and bite. These juicy shrimp will dance deliciously on your taste buds.

Satired: Half-Rack Baby Lamb & Peppercorn Cranberry Chutney: A beautifully tragic dish.  The lamb was read “Oliver Twist” by a Canadian Laureate and marinated in Susan Boyle’s tears as she sang, “I Dreamed a Dream.”  The lamb then invites you to dine on the carcass as stated in its Last Will & Testament, delivered in a wax-sealed envelope by a half-Catholic altar boy.

Example 2: flatware

Normal: knives, spoons, forks

Satired: All Artisan dishes are accompanied by specialty flatware hand-selected by Chef Tairy Livingston.  Savor our Fondue with a Mont Blanc pen or eat beef & pepper kabobs off a power drill.  The possibilities are endless!

So essentially you list out all the things you could possibly do to your protagonist, cut them down to your best ones, and then present them to your protag.  If you go from least affecting to most affecting, an order should present itself, as would a climax.

Oh, I didn't price that one.  The scallops are listed for $187.

I write a few scenes, I get the idea of what happens on paper, then I outline. I figure out what I have, where it goes, and what I need. 

I would not outline something with less than 10k words ever. Unless a certain professor was on my ass about that outline being due, worth 20% of my grade, and how important it is to outline research projects on the policies of Lula in Brazil.

I understand all of the fancy technology getting employed for the process, I bet it has its advantages, but I do all of my outlining by hand in my notebook because it helps me think better. If you are already thinking this is a suboptimal practice then I will compound it by admitting that I do it in pen as well.

Usually I start every revision by writing a new outline of what I think is going on and how it flows.

I like to chart out my plots on a separate sheet of paper, where the climax and rising action are clearly indicated. I do not re-do this as often as I re-do my outline.

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Brandon, that is a very interesting process.

Outlines are fantastic because it has totally eliminated writer's block for me. Sometimes I may get stuck while I'm outlining, but before when I didn't use them, my writer's block lasted a lot longer than my "outlining block" because I simultanously focused on the writing style and the content; while with an outline, I only focus on the content, and it doesn't matter how incredibly shitty my outline's prose is as long as the content is great.

But overall, the biggest advantage is the ability to go back and rewrite scenes in an outline when I've reached a certain point in the story when I've realized that changing an earlier scene will improve the book. If the same thing happened back when I didn't outline (although honestly plot construction wasn't that important to me back then anyway), I would have to completely rewrite a scene and it would be a big waste of time.

Also, while I'm working on a book, I occasionally don't follow the outline exactly because there are moments when I can only determine whether or not something is effective while I'm writing the actual scene. So when I follow the outline, I occasionally stray away from it rather than use every single detail.

Also, before outlining, I write extensive bios about the lives of the book's main characters, much of which doesn't get revealed in the actual book.

@Bradley I do the same with my characters. I like having the information on hand because it dictates how they'll act to a certain situation, but I rarely drop in that information. Ah, the joys of having secrets!

Sadly I never outlined a story. I've done free writes, that I edit as I write, but I never take it further than that. That's my weak point.

First I make a very rough relative timeline of major events in the novel, and map out the emotions/themes for each section.  Then I go through and write out what happens in each chapter, keeping track of characters in each one.

I'm also going to be trying something new where I bought a bunch of heavy-duty post-it notes and I'm going to cover one of my bedroom walls with them, so I can write on my bed and just look up at the outline.

I use the power of the word processor instead of an outline. With "search and destroy" as I like to call it, you can find any reference point within a millisecond. I do keep a list of the names of characters on a sheet of paper but I have a good enough memory to recall who each are and what they are about. I can trace the story as a process without resorting to notes by using the search feature.

I use the search feature to make sure I haven't left loose ends. The stories I am writing evolve on their own and I have no idea where they are going until they get there. They are character driven so that the interactions and desires of the characters carry the stories from genesis to revelation.

I have been a published nonfiction writer for some time so the process of writing is not new to me. I am new at fiction. I've written some short stories and I am assaying a novel in the psychological mystery realm and everything flows easily. The big BUT is, will I be able to produce anything worthy of paid publication? That is why I am here. I began writing nonfiction with the aid of a good critique group and found success. I need feedback and the act of critiquing others to discover if what I have translates into fiction writing at a professional level. No matter the outcome, I expect the journey to be fun.

To me, nonfiction is a well-presented distilation of facts, sometimes using the same techniques as fiction which includes the use of exciting dialogue, narrative and exposition. The responsibility to choose the best words of action instead of a passive presentation is likewise an obligation a writer has to his readers. Fiction, on the other hand, is a well-concealed rendiiton of truths that are best concealed in the guise of fictions.

I am already using the following disclaimer on all my fiction pieces: Every word you will read is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth...only it didn't happen in quite this way or to quite the representatives I call characters whose purpose it is to expose the truth without exposing either the guilty or innocent people whose truths I present.

I like your disclaimer simon.

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I used to have a lot of the problems with outlining being described here, it was always this structure to organize thoughts I hadn't had yet so I didn't really understand how to use it.

But when I started outlining after I wrote, while I edited, all of the sudden outlining became an immensely useful tool for me.

I even do it with my songs now. I listen to takes and try to determine how they can be improved, rewrite lyrics, all with a nifty little outline.

normally i dont. and this isnt something im super proud of, in fact i think it is often a hinderance to my creative process to "channel" character voices onto paper for seven to ten pages. but then the short story i've farted out serves as a pretty detailed character sketch of two people (generally i write a narrator, and a person the narrator follows/interacts with....) all this is to say, later when im without much inspiration, i have a folder full of not very developped characters, settings, and occasionally backstory that *could* be used later in a larger piece.

i have been meaning for a couple years to make myself work on a similar system to brandon's, but i seem to lack any motivation to that end. every time i start it feels confining, like those characters aren't leading me (which it feels like in my non-outlined work, mentioned above) to me throwing people into situations that im not sure they could handle.

with an ending in mind, writing is easier. Without one, it can meander (mine certainly does).

The outline, for me, helps to establish the points between the introduction of characters/situations and the invariable ending.

Although, outlining can be as big a distraction from writing as Internet message boards...