From Prewriting to Outlining
The nebulous divide, the fuzzy limit, the unclear border – I could keep going, but that’s enough. What am I talking about? I’m referring to the point where you transition from “giving shape to an idea” to “organizing the idea so I can write a story about it.” Hello, Neophyte! Yes, I’m letting you out more now; I hope you’re enjoying the company of the two new brooms. Anyway.
Today’s lesson is about moving on, changing, evolving, and most importantly, finally getting on with your project. Especially because there is only so much you can do in any single phase. Yes, you can go as wide and deep as you wish, but at the end of the day, you still have to sit and write. There are only so many Socratic conversations you can have with your characters or a wall before it becomes unproductive.
Why am I dividing Outlining from prewriting if they are essentially one and the same? Because while in theory they are, in practice, they aren’t. As I have mentioned before, there is a set of people that I call Hardcore Outliners. They essentially write their entire book or story in the outline phase, after which they just turn the outline into a proper story and call it a day. That may work for some, but for me, it doesn’t work that way. There is always the element of the unknown, things about your tale that you just can’t possibly know before you sit down and actually write. During my current work, I had an outline – “had” being the correct tense – most of my characters had another idea about the way things have to go. I still use it as a guide but not as a rule. But then again, this is me I am talking about; I am neither a Hardcore Outliner nor a Pure Pantser, like most mortals, I am somewhere right in the middle.
Having said all of that, how do you go from one to the other? Assuming for the sake of argument that you are right in the middle of the spectrum, here the answer depends on you. With writing, unless you have someone who you can bounce your ideas off of, there is a lot of gut feeling, a lot of trial and error. The only way of working out what works and what doesn’t is sitting down and doing it.
As you work, there will always be that one moment where you feel that you have done enough, that realistically speaking, you can’t do more and should move to the next phase. If you are playing your cards right, then you will eventually have that feeling while you work.
After some time researching, building, organizing, designing characters, and giving proper shape to your idea, you will naturally move on to the Outline phase so you can start building the beats and rhythm of the story.
Part of me wishes that I could sit here and just give you an ironbound rule book of what to do and when to move on to the next phase, but this doesn’t work like Neophyte, not at all. Outlining, being essentially part of the prewriting phase, can confuse matters for all the rookies out there. The best I can do is as follows.
Usually, and again at least for me, the best point to start outlining is once you have finished building the basics for the themes, the main plot, and characters. That will give you the basics on top of which to build what will follow.
A short one today, next, we will be going deeper into the Outline.
Until next time, and what are you doing? Nope, back to the closet with you.
