The Writing Blog: Reactive Outlines
I’m working on my Master’s dissertation at the University of Edinburgh right now, so you guys get to see my thought processes as I futz with the plot and procrastinate. Warning: there are definitely upcoming blogs complaining about misogynistic ancient Athenians you’ve probably never heard of.
This one’s about the outlining and plotting process, though.
Warning: this blog post contains spoilers for the first bit of (working title) Antikythera, although it does not contain any content from the story.
If you know me in a writing capacity, you know I’m a plotter. I’m solidly a plotter. I have outlines longer than some of my short stories. These outlines are living documents—I edit the outline as I write the story, since some things you just don’t know until you get to the point of writing them—but the act of writing the outline usually takes the place of my first rough draft.
Outlining gives me the scope to do a little content editing as I go, and it means I can nudge the characters in the right directions when I need to. It gives me a level of omnipotence I wouldn’t really get otherwise, which streamlines the whole process and means I can actually finish my projects.
(This is not a necessary thing for all writers. Part of the magic of writing is that we can go back and edit. But it works for me.)
One of the biggest problems with outlining is that it can lead to a rigid plot without much room for character interaction. If you just write down a list of places you want your characters to end up, you’ll find yourself staring at your characters while they refuse to move or react to anything. I suspect this is the problem most people have with outlining: it’s hard to translate natural characterization into bullet points.
But it’s not impossible. I’ve adopted an outlining method I first heard of in a workshop with Kali vanBaale.
Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, Conflict method is a fantastic way to get down a basic outline of events, something which can be fleshed out as you have more ideas. It’s naturalistic. And it’s extremely simple.
Take the template below and fill it out until you reach the end of the plot.
[Character] wants [Goal] because [Motivation] but [Conflict] so [result], meaning [Character] wants [New Goal] because [Motivation] but [Conflict] so [result], [etc.]
That’s it. I’m not joking.
The idea is to set up a character-focused chain of events. The conflict can be character vs situation, vs character, or vs self: but it forces you to make that conflict present. I have a tendency to be too nice to my characters (I just want to see them happy!) and when I find myself lingering somewhere I’ll pull this template out and see what I need to do to spur them forward.
This is what I’ve done with Antikythera:
[Kallis] wants [to see the Assembly] because [she wants to be an orator], but [she’s a girl] so [she gets in immense trouble], meaning [some of the orators] want [to see her married immediately] because [they believe she is Getting Ideas] but [Kallis refuses to do so] so [she publicly and loudly denounces her betrothal], meaning [Niko] wants [to bring her back under his wing and to convince her to become a good wife to Athon] because [it undermines his authority that she’s rebelling] but [Kallis refuses to cooperate] so [she runs away]
It’s a bit of a block of text. I reformat it once I’ve got the basic chain of events mapped out. Note that I’m paying zero attention to my use of language in the outline.
- [Kallis] wants [to see the Assembly] because [she wants to be an orator]
- But [she’s a girl] so [she gets in immense trouble]
- Meaning [some of the orators] want [to see her married immediately] because [they believe she is Getting Ideas]- But [Kallis refuses to do so] so [she publicly and loudly denounces her betrothal],
- Meaning [Niko] wants [to bring her back under his wing and to convince her to become a good wife to Athon] because [it undermines his authority that she’s rebelling]- But [Kallis refuses to cooperate] so [she runs away]
That looks more like an outline, right? I take out the brackets and I add notes as I go along, marking where the plot changes or where I add in details that come in later.
- Kallis wants to see the Assembly after seeing a play with her friends because she realizes the societal reasons she can’t become an orator are invalid, and she believes she’d be an excellent leader and orator.
- She goes to the Assembly with Athon (her betrothed) and Hephestios (his boyfriend).- She’s a girl so she gets in immense trouble.
- Some of the orators want to see her married immediately because they believe she is Getting Ideas and becoming ‘untamed’ (note: use Xenophon language here)- Kallis refuses to do so, so she publicly and loudly denounces her betrothal.
- Niko wants to bring her back under his wing and to convince her to become a good wife to Athon because it undermines his authority that she’s rebelling.- Kallis refuses to cooperate so she runs away.
This isn’t foolproof.
It doesn’t work as well for, say, mystery novels, where the tension of the plot comes from answering a question. (Although it would be useful for establishing a chain of events leading up to a crime, I suppose?) It doesn’t work well for stories where the main source of tension comes from understanding the connection between events. It doesn’t work as well for non-sequential stories.
There are other outlining methods out there for those—this method works well for sequential, character-driven stories, and therefore it works really well for what I’m writing right now.
If you’re looking for a place to start with outlining, this is it.