How to Plot (For Better Stories)

Lane Robbins, Odyssey Class of 1999

After a lot of trial and error, mostly error, I've become addicted to outlines. I don't have a complete outline, but rather a working outline, where I've built in the major plot points from beginning to end, very often with a soft spot somewhere beginning the last quarter of the book. What outlining does for me is cut down on writer's block–where the reason I got blocked was because I really didn't have enough idea for a novel, a novella, or even a short story, and I've gotten 200 pages in on style and character. That's immensely frustrating because not only does everything come to a screeching halt, but most of the time I end up ditching the 200 pages I've already written.

These days when I want to work on a book, I create a file where I . . . collect snippets of thoughts and ask myself questions about the character, the world, the magic, the emotional arc, why things are the way they are, why someone wants to change them. Then once I've done that, I try to put it all together in a 500-1000 words synopsis, figuring if I can make a pitch out of it, I have enough to actually write a book. If the synopsis won't be written, I'm missing something vital; a source of conflict, a character motivation, something.

After that I outline the first 8 chapters in some detail. I don't go further than that. I've learned . . . that characters, setting, and events will take you places you might not have expected. I can usually see 8 chapters ahead. Not more. After writing those 8 chapters, I outline the next set. My outlines tend to involve a chapter head and bullet points about what I want to include and why. I've learned there's no such thing as too much clarity in outlines. Otherwise I end up with a bullet point that reads, She chose the Skirt!!!! and have no idea why it's worthy of exclamation points or even of being included in the important chapter information.

So yes, outlining, but not in the classic sense. I know of writers who write their books in outline form, dense, detailed narrative outlines that end up around 100 pages long, and then the book is simply expanding on that. I admire that, but don't think I could ever manage to do it in that fashion.