What Is an Outline?

Hello, Neophyte! Welcome back. Yes, we’re diving deep into more classes with you. No, it’s not because I particularly enjoy your company; it’s just that Timmy can be a bit of an airhead, and I lack the patience to teach him these topics. Today, we’re delving into the subject of outlining.

The fabled outline! Go online, and you’ll find an infinite number of teachers, each with their own books and methods, ready to teach you a thousand different ways of how an outline works, what it means, and why it’s crucial. So, a brief recap of what an outline is? An outline is a structured plan or framework that helps organize ideas and information before writing. It typically includes main points and supporting details, providing a roadmap for the writing process. As you can see, Neophyte, and I hope you’re taking some form of note—even if it’s just doodling cats in the corner of your notepad—an outline applies to any field requiring planning. However, writers seem to have embraced the concept wholeheartedly. Why? Because writing a novel, even a modest-sized one, demands some form of guidance. You’re taking ideas from your head and giving them concrete form on paper, which requires organization and patience, mainly to avoid creating a jumbled mess that makes no sense. Trust me, by the fifty-thousand-word mark, you’re going to have trouble remembering details like the hair color of a minor character.

Few and far between are the pure “pantsers,” those who can sit down and write without a plan. Never accept the lie that writing is just sitting down and typing. If it’s part of the process, then it’s free writing; if not, then it’s a waste—time you could better invest elsewhere. The writing process involves taking the chaos of the mind and ordering it into a coherent tale, for which you’ll need tools to help you navigate the path. Hence, why we’re here, Neophyte.

There’s a saying in my homeland, “each teacher has his book,” which means that each person has their own way of doing things. That’s why when I first started learning writing on my own, I was very confused because everyone was proclaiming on the internet that this method or that method was the right way to go. What I didn’t understand—and I hope you’ll grasp by the end—is that there is not one outlining method. An outline is whatever you need to prevent confusion while you work. Long and tedious is the craft of writing, and if you’ve ever gone on a trip anywhere, you know it’s not hard to get lost. That’s the purpose of the outline—your very own map. One of the greatest pitfalls in writing is the loss of coherence and cohesion as you write. The longer time passes, the more your original idea fades; the longer it’s been since you had that flash of inspiration, the more it loses its shine. Therefore, the purpose of an outline is twofold: to map the road forward and to keep a record of the path already traversed.

Go online now, and you’ll find an entire galaxy of methods, from simple bullet points to lists to mind maps. There’s no end to what you can find, to what methods you can add to your toolkit. This is the point where I tell you not to worry—simply do, write, make a mess, plan something, only to plan it again. For something so important, it’s quite malleable in the ways it can be applied. Worry less about which outline you’re using and more about whether you’re actually writing one.

So, what are the benefits? I’ve already mentioned it several times, but it’s worth emphasizing: outlining transforms a chaotic process into an orderly one. It varies from person to person, but generally speaking, putting an idea on paper helps solidify it. The reasons behind this phenomenon elude me, but suffice it to say that the mind is fickle. At the moment of conceiving an idea, the story might be fresh and its elements clear, but without putting it on paper, they’ll fade, leaving you midway through your book with a lost sense of direction. With an outline, you can discern the structure you need and how to implement it. It helps you see what information you require, which plotlines will intertwine into the main tale (multiple plots—we’ll discuss this eventually), and it just simplifies the writing process. Writing, as alluring as it may be for many, can be very lonely. Unless you have someone to write with you or to share the load, it can be overwhelmingly solitary, and loneliness is hard. Organization, by definition, makes things easier, simpler, smoother. Mind you, it doesn’t make the process any less difficult, just less complicated.

So, how do you go about it? Ideally, it’s something you do in the prewriting phase of your work, but that’s idealistic. The truth of the matter is that you’ll return to your outline several times over the course of your work. It’s not a one-time task; it requires several revisions until you feel satisfied. Much like your own manuscripts, the outline will need revisions until it’s complete. But how do you do it? I hear you ask, Neophyte. Well, study. Look at examples, see what works in your chosen genre, understand what the audience expects, and, above all, read. There’s no better educator in this craft than reading on your own, even if you don’t stop to analyze books. Read, and while you do so, pay attention; you’ll start to discern patterns.

This is not a perfect system, however. Many things can happen that might bog you down. Perfectionism, for one. Only the Hardcore Outliners write their stories entirely within the outline; for everyone else, it’s a discovery process. You’ll never truly find what your story is until you start to write. So, lingering longer than necessary in the outline is dangerous. You can also become overambitious, entangling too many plot threads until you have a mess you can’t undo. If you can’t follow the story, what hope does the reader have of following it? There’s also the danger of forgetting about it after creating it, simply sitting and writing until you get lost in your own ideas. Remember, you have a finite amount of everything, so keeping things focused is one of your most important tasks. It might sound hard to believe, but the “oh shiny” syndrome is all too real and affects most rookie writers and many veterans who should know better. It’s much more productive to write down the idea and revisit it later than to pursue it and forget what you should be doing.

So, to recap, an outline is the roadmap you set for yourself at the start of a writing project. It’s essential to keep things neat and tidy and to ensure that you don’t get lost. It’s the best way of organizing everything within the project you wish to do. It’s something that I encourage everyone to try. You won’t hit the nail on the head with exactly what works for you, and that’s fine. You won’t know until you try, just don’t be afraid of knowing. On a personal note, it’s something that I should try to put on paper myself. I have the horrible habit of keeping everything inside my head, and that is a recipe for problems. Listen, Neophyte, never underestimate the power of writing things down.