Basics of Making an Outline

Popular Outlining Methods

Synopsis Outline

• Includes the hook, inciting incident, major plot points, midpoint, climactic sequence, and resolution
  • Start with Plot Basics
    • Inciting Incident that gets things moving, sets the protagonist on course toward his goal
    • Events which illustrate opposition to the story goal
    • Crisis: the decisive event or turning point that sets the story on a course for either achieving the goal or failure
    • Resolution or the climax, which illustrates the achievement (or not) of the goal and its aftermath
  • Main Character’s Arc
    • Who is the main character? What kind of person is he/she? What is his/her approach to life?
    • Describe how the main character is thrust into a situation where he/she is pressured to change.
    • Does the main character take a leap of faith and change? Does he adopt a new approach or take some uncharacteristic action? Or does he/she hold true to who he/she is and become more entrenched in his/her attitude or approach?
    • At the end of the story, is the main character better off because of the choice he/she has made? Does the reader feel he/she has done the right thing?
  • Impact Character’s Role
    • This is the character (sometimes characters) who are responsible for pressuring the main character to change. He/she shows why and how the main character might need to change.
    • When the Impact Character enters the story, how does he/she express a different approach or attitude to that of the main character?
    • How does the Impact Character pressure or influence the main character to either abandon his/her old ways or learn a new way of doing things?
    • If the main character changes at the climax of the story, the Impact Character typically remains fixed in her/her ways. If the main character stays the same, the Impact Character may be forced to change.
    • Is the Impact Character better or worse off at the end of the story?
  • Major relationship Emotional Arc
    • How the relationship stands at the beginning.
    • How the relationship develops or is tested in the story.
    • The climax of the relationship (a decisive change).
    • The relationship at the end of the story.
  • Thematic Considerations
    • What issues to the characters struggle with during the story?
    • What themes will be addressed in the story?
    • What is the message or moral?
  • Include Basic Plot Elements
    • Story Goal
      • What the protagonist wants to achieve or the problem he/she wants to resolve.
    • Consequence
      • What happens if the goal is not achieved?
    • Requirements
      • What must be accomplished to achieve the goal.
    • Forewarnings
      • Events that show the consequence is getting closer.
    • Costs
      • Sacrifices the character is willing to make or suffer to achieve the goal.
    • Dividends
      • Rewards the character receives along the journey towards the goal.
    • Prerequisites
      • Events that must happen for the Requirements to happen, an added layer of challenges.
    • Preconditions
      • Small impediments in the plot. Stipulations laid down by certain characters that make it more difficult for the goal to be achieved.

In-Depth Outline

• Summarizes each individual chapter or scene

Sample Outline

1. Main idea
   1. Secondary or supporting idea to main idea I
   1. Secondary or supporting idea to main idea I
      1.   Secondary idea to B
      1. Secondary idea to B
         1. Secondary idea to 2
         1. Secondary idea to 2
2. Main idea
3. Main idea

Snowflake Method

• Expands the story idea little by little until you’ve created not only an outline of the story’s plot, but gained a strong understanding of the characters, settings, themes, and more.
• Write a one-sentence story summary.
  • The “hook” to get a reader interested in the story.
• Expand it to a one-paragraph summary.
  • Build off the details of the one-sentence summary by adding a few elements until the story is told in five sentences.
  • Introduce major plot points.
• Start small with the characters.
  • Identify the major characters with names.
  • Identify their motivations, goals, conflict, epiphany (how they overcome the conflict)
• Expand the one-paragraph summary into a single page.
  • Expand each sentence into a full paragraph.
  • Develop the story into blocks that are easy to understand and write.
  • End each paragraph with a “disaster” (a major plot point or a cliffhanger).
• Character bibles and character synopses.
  • Create a one-page dossier for each major character, a half-page for minor characters.
• Write a four-page synopsis and scene list.
  • Take each paragraph from the single-page summary and expand it.
  • Draft a scene list, where the exact details of what will happen in every scene is described.

Bookend Method

• “Bookend” the novel by mapping out where the story begins and ends while choosing to discover the journey from Point A to Point B in drafting.
• Need to have a strong understanding of the type of story you’re writing.
• Take time to define the story’s premise before getting started.