Dirkin

I have just moved from writing very short stories to writing longer pieces, hoping to one day achieve a "novel" sized book or two. The catalyst for my transition? A good outline. I am an amateur, so my advice may be bad, but if anyone wants to correct me, go ahead. I'm trying to learn.

I have found that more important to the completion of a large piece of work (10,000 plus words) has been an outline. Having a general idea of what is going to happen in your story allows you to fill in spaces with description and character development. Plot is one of the hardest things to do properly, or so I have found. In the past, all of my stories were stream of consciousness.

Having a general idea of where your story will go is very important. It doesn't even have to be that in depth. In my story I wrote in steps the general lay of the land, where my story would go. Then as I got to certain steps, they evolved. I added chapters that I hadn't intended, as new characters entered the scenes. I changed or scrapped scenes that were in my guideline that didn't make any sense anymore. But I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did without first sitting down and plotting out my story.

The thing is, long stories are ambitious goals, that shouldn't be taken without serious thought. Think long and hard about what you want your story to be before you even start it. You don't have to go to herculean efforts like Tolkien or Rowling, who planned more back story then could ever possibly be written. All you have to do is know who your characters are, and where they are going.

Plot the rising action, climax and conclusion in your outline. Try and stay close to these guidelines as you write. If you enjoy reading your outline, then perhaps you will enjoy writing your story. And if you enjoy writing your story, then you will probably finish it, which should be the ultimate goal. A half-written story can't go anywhere. It can't even go in the dumpster. As writer's our primary goal in our work is to finish our work. At least that's my philosophy.

I'm rambling here. I really should have written an outline for this. Now I'm lost. So if anyone has anything to add, or amend, please post it. I need all the help I can get. Even if my advice is bad, maybe someone else will give better advice. This is a very important part of writing stories.

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"As the celerity took its horrid grip on his body, he turned to the right to see the bullet coming. In his twisted sense of time he had hardly a second to duck out of the way. Before the second bullet could leave the chamber, Saede was feeding.

'How easily your life flows. The adrenaline only serves makes the sensation sweeter,' the assamite said through blood-soaked lips."

Dirkin

I'm currently at a loss in my story, because I glazed over the end in my outline... I have a lot happening at once and I need to meditate on how to bring it all together... its tough... make sure to have a good idea how your story will resolve before you get to the end...

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"As the celerity took its horrid grip on his body, he turned to the right to see the bullet coming. In his twisted sense of time he had hardly a second to duck out of the way. Before the second bullet could leave the chamber, Saede was feeding.

'How easily your life flows. The adrenaline only serves makes the sensation sweeter,' the assamite said through blood-soaked lips."

The New Guy

I am currently beginning to write a rather lengthy story and like you have to decided that I need a roadmap of sorts.

I began by creating a character outline of the main and major characters of the work. Oddly enough, about ten minutes ago I had just finished writing my chapter 1 outline/summary. The purpose of which, was just to outline what I wanted to be done in the chapter. My outline contained not only a plot summary, but outline descriptions of characters and places, character introductions, and sometimes even character observations and behaviours I felt to be imporant and integeral to the plot.

Eventhough the complete story was in my head, it was far to complex to keep track of without having a guide. However, as another thread author, with a similiar title, mentioned: sometimes outlines can hurt creativity because you know what comes next making it feel robotic. Expecting this I plan to combat it by writing the chapter directly after writing the outline, not by writing the entire outline first then the entire work second. This way I feel I can still expand/edit the chapter without negatively effecting the next, while also being somewhat organized.

Finally, I plan to make use of outlines as reference notes. For example, if I write a plot point that may not make sense considering an earlier chapter, it will be easier to check the outline rather then a much larger body of text.

Hope that help

- TNG

suzakugaiden

My entire story is already panned out mentally. To outline would be superfluous and a waste of time.

Dirkin

Unless you have an eidedic memory, it can't hurt to write out your story's outline. If you take a hiatus of any length of time, you could some key point could be missed. But if you really believe that you have a grip on it, your better off then most.

__________________
"As the celerity took its horrid grip on his body, he turned to the right to see the bullet coming. In his twisted sense of time he had hardly a second to duck out of the way. Before the second bullet could leave the chamber, Saede was feeding.

'How easily your life flows. The adrenaline only serves makes the sensation sweeter,' the assamite said through blood-soaked lips."

suzakugaiden

It's too engrained into my personality at this point. The odd little details... the exact WHY'S behind some of the events are not important yet; they're purely vehicular and will come up on their own accord. I have massive files detailing these esoteric physics and illusory landscapes, but how much do I need them? How much have I used them? How relevant, still, are they? Things happen regardless of whether or not there's a real, obvious reason for it (I am the termite of temptation; I need no fact or validation). I could plan an intricate, ingenious series of events, and riddle the story with plot twists, treachery, and red herrings. But my story is a straightforward one. I do not need long lists of information to keep the plot straight because there's not much for it to become tangled on. And so what if I forget something? It could just be my subconcious deleting plot threads I secretly find silly.

Dirkin

my entire outline was about 20 lines, about 6 or 7 words a line... I filled in a lot of blanks, created new blanks to fill along the way... but by keeping to an outline, I have (until just very recently), been able to keep on target with my writing... I have to sit down and write an outline for the ending itself... maybe I'll do that right now.



EDIT: Well, after plotting the end of my story, it becomes evident that I probably will be making a sequel. Interesting, I thought I'd be able to tie off the loose ends, but I developed the perfect twist that I don't think should be resolved in this story...


so there you go, the magic of an outline at work.

__________________
"As the celerity took its horrid grip on his body, he turned to the right to see the bullet coming. In his twisted sense of time he had hardly a second to duck out of the way. Before the second bullet could leave the chamber, Saede was feeding.

'How easily your life flows. The adrenaline only serves makes the sensation sweeter,' the assamite said through blood-soaked lips."

lisajane

My last lengthy story, which reached about 147 pages before I grew a bit bored and eventually I'll go back to it, had an outline. Several outlines.

New one, I'm about 12 pages in I think. With no outline. It's easy enough at the moment, but once I start running into problems I'll consider an actual outline more.

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'Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap. And he, a little charleychaplin man, who may or may not catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the empty air of existence.' - Laurence Felinghetti, 'The Acrobat'

.Kallero

You definetly need a rough idea of how your story will go. Too many times have I had only a good idea of how my begining or end would go and absolutely no middle and I eventually got stuck, lost, and confused, and ended up putting the piece aside. I also find that if I get too indepth with planning out the story or especially backstory I'll get bored with the story fast, though I do enjoy writting backstory for my worlds. Maybe it's just me though.

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*Insert Spiffiness Here*

Dirkin

I have that problem as well Kallero - my outlines are always point form and concise

__________________
"As the celerity took its horrid grip on his body, he turned to the right to see the bullet coming. In his twisted sense of time he had hardly a second to duck out of the way. Before the second bullet could leave the chamber, Saede was feeding.

'How easily your life flows. The adrenaline only serves makes the sensation sweeter,' the assamite said through blood-soaked lips."