Outlining the First Draft

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Sam had a great question yesterday...

When you outline for the first draft do you outline in terms of Scene and Sequel or do think about that after the first draft is written? 

Scene and sequel, totally. More scene than sequel though. Structure is my most useful tool in my writer's toolbox. (POV is second) It allows me to focus on what drives a story and keeps me from wandering aimlessly off. I'll tweak that after the first draft of course, and tighten the book up, but I plan my novels by what happens.

For those who don't know, scene and sequel are the building blocks of any story. (learn more about this in depth here) A scene is basically the section of the story in which your protag is trying to achieve a goal. When that goal is resolved (good or bad) then they have a sequel. They react, think about what just happened, and decide on what to do next, which sets up the next scene goal.



I totally use this structure when I outline, because outlines (for me) are all about plot. The outline is what happens in the novel. They stuff the characters do. I'll toss in the character growth as well if I know it, because motivation is what determines the goals, but my outlines focus mostly on the external actions.

I dug around and found my original outline for The Shifter. I'll show the first three chapters here so you can see what I did and how this led me to write the actual chapters. It might be interesting to see how little I actually did before I wrote the book.

CHAPTER ONE

Opening Scene:  Nya is stealing eggs, nearly gets caught and uses her talent to get away. She’s seen by two League wards. She goes to her sister to get rid of the pain and, while leaving, is spotted by the wards. An Elder is there and insists she come speak to him.

You'll notice how little "story" there is in this. These are exactly the events that transpire in the final book. It took me around 4000 words to show all this, but these are the plot events. From a scene and sequel standpoint, it breaks down like this:

Scene: Nya is stealing eggs and gets caught. Her goal is to find something to eat. Uses her talent to get away is the sequel/new goal. I don't spell out the actual sequel part here, but after she's caught, she reacts, thinks about what to do and then does it (uses her talent). That leads to a new problem (she's seen by the wards) which she solves, but I don't have that in the outline. Next big goal is to get rid of the pain, which is the new scene and new goal. When she leaves her sister (there's a goal there but I don't state it because at this point I didn't know why) she runs into her next problem. She's spotted by the wards. The stakes go up because now an Elder is involved.

All of this is about what Nya does. The why isn't even mentioned yet, but I was thinking about all that as I wrote the actual novel. That's when those things developed for me.

CHAPTER TWO

She talks to him, lies about who she is. He tries to touch her and she flinches away. He tries to grab her, does, is surprised, and she manages to escape. She runs into the crowd but he doesn’t chase her. She’s scared, but hungry, and goes to find work. She doesn’t and goes home. But she missed paying her rent and she’s been thrown out. She doesn't know what to do next, but then sees someone following her.

Again, event for event, almost exactly how the final chapter plays out. (Aylin is introduced in the final, but she doesn't show up in the outline) It's about what Nya does. I figured out why she did it and sometimes even the results of those actions in the actual text.

CHAPTER THREE

She evades the follower, but now she has nowhere to go. She spends the night somewhere. Next morning, she’s determined to get work so she can eat and get back a room. Some accident happens (ferry sinks? Something world related) and a lot of aristocrats are hurt. Big run on the League. Nya helps a few and heals some. She meets Tali that evening. Tali is scared, there are rumors flying around the League and people are asking questions. More that something weird is going on. More apprentices are gone, right after the big healing of the aristocrats. Nya tells her about being followed. After Tali leaves, Nya gets grabbed.

This is where things start to vary from the final book. But overall, it's the same basic events. I decided on the fly that Nya just evading the follower and going to bed was boring, so I moved up her meeting with Tali to before the accident. That way, I could lay some groundwork that something was going on a lot sooner. You'll also notice that the big major event that is kinda the lynch pin of the whole book isn't even fleshed out yet. "Some accident happens." Until I got to that part of the book, I had no clue what that was going to be. I also had no idea who was following her or why. That all came later. But I knew somebody was going to be after her because of what she did and who saw her do it.  

My outlines are, obviously, very open-ended, but you'll also see there's enough structure to let me know the types of events I want to have happen. Actions, stakes that cause problems, trouble that changes plans. I know what Nya is doing and that will lead her to the important plot events. I have no clue how she might do that or even why she needs to at this stage.

I used to do a very strict outline. I manged to find one of them for a book I trunked.

CHAPTER ONE - RUNNING

Scene 1: Intro Nadine and show her problem. She doesn’t want to go to Tellus. Outline her reasons and her relationship with her mother. Show what her final growth will be by what she’s afraid of not being able to do.

POV: Nadine

Goal: To convince her mom not to go.

Internal Conflict: Her mother has decided that they need to start over on a new world to escape painful memories. Nadine thinks Mom is just dragging her away from the only place she’s ever been happy. She wants to stay where she can be reminded of him, and remember him. She’s afraid that moving to Tellus will make her forget him.

External Complication: They have a fight, but they never finish it because the protest gets violent, proving her mom’s point.

Climax: The protesters get violent and say they’re going to blow up the ship. Nadine gets hurt.

As you can see, this is very different. And for me, a total failure. It was too structured, and required me to do too much thinking on the front end. It really stiffed my creativity because I tried too hard to make the book fit what I wrote in the outline, and I'm not that kind of writer.

I used to do an even more structured outline, and actually had the sequel info. I wish I still had an outline for that, but those were trashed long ago. I'll fake it though.

CHAPTER ONE - RUNNING

Scene 1: Intro Nadine and show her problem. She doesn’t want to go to Tellus. Outline her reasons and her relationship with her mother. Show what her final growth will be by what she’s afraid of not being able to do.

POV: Nadine

Goal: To convince her mom not to go.

Internal Conflict: Her mother has decided that they need to start over on a new world to escape painful memories. Nadine thinks Mom is just dragging her away from the only place she’s ever been happy. She wants to stay where she can be reminded of him, and remember him. She’s afraid that moving to Tellus will make her forget him.

External Complication: They have a fight, but they never finish it because the protest gets violent, proving her mom’s point.

Climax: The protesters get violent and say they’re going to blow up the ship. Nadine gets hurt.

Sequel: Reaction: Fear and pain.

Thought: Is scared she might die, even madder at her mom.

Decision: To run away

New Goal: Nadine plans to get off the ship before it launches. 

This made me crazy, but it did teach me a lot about how a novel flows. It really made me think about how one scene transitions into the next and what worked as a good goal and what was just fluff goals. I remember writing stuff just because I needed a goal for my outline, and then making that happen even though it was a terrible idea. And a boring one. However, if you like a tight outline, this might be the exact template to keep you focused and your plot moving. Or you might be like me and keep trimming out the stuff that stifles you until you find the right level of info to keep your story tight and moving.

Outlines have a reputation for being stringent (like my last example), but they're just a way for you to organize your thoughts. There's no right way to do it. My current method is pretty loose, but still a very effective way for me to write a book. You can have structure, and still maintain spontaneity and the freedom to do whatever you want.