How do you make your outline?

[xuduxixi]

Do you like them complex like a detective's pin board, or do you like them simple like your dog's brain?

I have a good memory and bachelor in arts of laziness, so most of the time I just think of the major points that I want on my story and then the ending that I wanted.

 

[Keene]

In complete contrast to how I've tried to write for years, I've now found that writing without an outline produces my best work.

I would previously imagine an awesome scene, or conversation, cliff hanger and then try and outline my way to that point. 95% of attempts this failed for me.

I think the difference for me was I finally came up with some characters whose voice I both liked and understood to the point where I would put them in a room, at the start of the chapter, knowing nothing less than the opening sentence and to my surprise everything else would flow from there.

Shockingly I also found all those awesome moments, bits of conversation that I think the readers would love, those cliff hangers, all that and more just started to come out naturally as I wrote, on the spot.

Which is surprising for me, as someone who his highly analytical, being a programmer and all, to find I was a discovery writer.

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

I just pants everything. I have tried outlining, but its not really my thing.

 

[KonoKei]

I talk to myself while I poop. Plan out all my dialogue and plot points that way. Works wonders.

 

[AmeronWerschrux]

Do you like them complex like a detective's pin board, or do you like them simple like your dog's brain?

I have a good memory and bachelor in arts of laziness, so most of the time I just think of the major points that I want on my story and then the ending that I wanted.

Honestly, I write what pops into my mind. I do have a sort of segregating system and the main ideas that my chapters would rotate around. I say you don't follow what I do though XD

 

[DannyTheDaikon]

I tried writing without outlining, writing down key points and proper detailed outline and while the last option takes the most time it also provides the best results. It's easier to notice any problematic plot holes, makes writing faster, because most things are already planned and helps with avoiding mistakes.
Everyone works differently, though. Just try everything and see what works the best for you.

 

[xuduxixi]

Which is surprising for me, as someone who his highly analytical, being a programmer and all, to find I was a discovery writer.

Wow, I didn't know that there's a word for writing like that. Thanks for the info.

I talk to myself while I poop. Plan out all my dialogue and plot points that way. Works wonders.

I don't think my poo will go out if I did that, it takes a lot of focus to release them.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

Do you like them complex like a detective's pin board, or do you like them simple like your dog's brain?

I have a good memory and bachelor in arts of laziness, so most of the time I just think of the major points that I want on my story and then the ending that I wanted.

Same. Except that I don't have a good memory. I usually keep an excel doc around with names for characters and places, so I don't end up forgetting a good one I came up with at some point.

 

[AutumnPlunkett]

I like to do a brief outline of everything I plan to write on a weekly basis rather than for a full story. I'll plan out chapter names, basic events, and any math needed for ~10 chapters on Sunday and then write the chapters throughout the week. I usually do a bunch of notes taking like excel sheets and chapter summaries that I even make available for my readers on my Discord in order to help keep the story more consistent. Having chapters compiled into a document instead of just a site like this also allows me to use the find & replace feature to look for keywords when I need to revisit a previous plot point for a refresher as well. I've found this whole process to be a nice middle ground for me. I'd get bored of the story idea by the time I finished planning for 500 chapters and never end up writing the story of I did a full detailed outline. Doing planning on a weekly basis, though, helps keep me centered on the immediate future so it doesn't feel like such a monumental task and I still get to finish everything in a few years time.

 

[RiaCorvidiva]

No outlines here; I have vague notions of where I want the story to go and sometimes seed hints for certain events that might happen later, but I mostly let the characters and the world write the story, with minimal guidance from me to steer it in directions that might make more sense for thematic purposes.

At best, I have some sort of notion for how the story is going to end and a few of the major events that the characters willpass by on the way to that end. But even then, there's fuzziness and room for things to shift course.

 

[Verdant]

Do you like them complex like a detective's pin board, or do you like them simple like your dog's brain?

I have a good memory and bachelor in arts of laziness, so most of the time I just think of the major points that I want on my story and then the ending that I wanted.

I honestly (probably) spend more time on the outline than the actual individual chapters lol. I got done (mostly) with my outline about 240+ days in.
I use google docs and put in a bunch of information, then streamline it into bullet points. My chapters then go more into detail.

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

Livin' la vida loca, here.
The plan is to not have a plan. The characters will (hopefully) figure it out.

Don't do what I do if you don't want to regret it.

 

[raytides]

Of course, everyone's ideal writing workflow will be different (and you should do what you've found to produce your best work!), but personally I'm quite an advocate for some level of pre-plotting/outlining for anyone who's considering to try it out!

I find that it makes the actual writing phase of things a lot smoother since you always have this sense of your next 'destination' in both the short and long-term of your plot. It also saves some time invested into prose: you're less likely to spend time writing scenes that you might later realise don't fit into the direction you want the story to go. More importantly, I think it's a good way of ensuring the themes and arcs in your story come together more cohesively in the long run, since you go into the writing phase with a clear sense of the overall trajectory of the concepts you're intending to weave in, as well as the major plot beats/scenes you need to hit in order to accomplish that.

Outlining doesn't have to be super detailed. For anyone interested in giving outlining a try, I would recommend looking into the Snowflake Method! (you can search it up online if unfamiliar and curious) In the most simplified way of putting it, it involves working on painting the broadest strokes of your story first as a base "scaffold", and with each subsequent step you build on that and go one layer deeper into detail, fleshing it out further and further each time. In that sense it's very flexible even if you're not the type to enjoy super detailed plans, since you can just stop at whichever layer of detail you feel satisfied with if you're more of a discovery writer or a pantser at heart hehe.

Also, it's perfectly normal to deviate from your initial outline as you write :) It's just there as a reference of sorts, not a strict set of rules you have to follow after establishing.

 

[Takiemina]

I have to be honest, I think not outlining was my problem all along. I used to find finishing a novel so complicated but ever since I decided to finally sit down, and work carefully on my past works, I realised a lot of difficulties I encountered could have been prevented. Meaning, I could have finished my piece if I at least had an idea of what to do with it down the line. I know you can sometimes deviate from the initial outline (because I have done so countless times even in the first chapters of my most recent novel that has been in the works for years now) but it makes your job much easier.

I am not super organised, so I usually arrange everything in the same database (in this case I use Notion because I like the visuals and the simplicity) and write key points. Sometimes, when things need to be more descriptive to get the "vibe right for writing later" I do it, but most of the time it is just: <Aramina gets her arm cut off> or something like that. Then, I rely on imagination to make it into something else entirely.

I find Notion so good for outlining because I can make an initial heading, and another heading for a scene within, put all the key points related to it, and then both appear clickable on the side.

Like this:

 

[prognastat]

Mine is just a short list of bullet points of events I want the story to go through. It’s all very rough and I just figure the rest out as I go.

 

[kitty_maine]

I've had good luck with the one page novel planning spreadsheet. It might not be super helpful for webnovels, but it helps to format all your ideas in arcs and conflict and stuff.

The One Page Novel Scene Spreadsheet

Project Title THE ONE PAGE NOVEL SCENE SPREADSHEET STAGE/ SCENE,DESCRIPTION,TIME / DATE,PLACE,CHARACTER 1,CHARACTER 2,SUBPLOT,WORD COUNT,CUMULATIVE WORD COUNT,INSTRUCTIONS 2. STASIS,The character or their world is in a state of stagnation.,5,000,5,000,- You don't need to request access. Just go ...

docs.google.com

 

[Thraben]

A consistent page break + new chapter naming scheme and ctrl+f. If I bother to outline at all