What do you mean by story outline?

Question

I'm confused. I'm asked to make a story outline of my work. When one means a story outline does that mean like a summary or does it have to be the structured outline with Roman numerals and ABC? help!

the exact requirement is a half page story outline that is maximum of 400 words. it's for the animax awards pan-asia competition

Answer 1

Neither one. A story outline should begin with information that will set up the story in the reader's mind:
- location, date, setting, characters, relationships, history. If you were going to produce a movie or a play, how would you hire the actors, build the sets and write the scripts to give them their lines?
- plot development - how does the story unfold? how are the characters brought in or taken out of the story? What does the reader learn (or is supposed to learn)?
- conclusion - in what ways COULD the story end? which is most plausible and what are alternative endings? Consider various classic stories: how do they end? Tragically like Romeo and Juliet; happily like westerns where they ride off into the sunset; leaving you hanging for the next story in the series like the Harry Potter series?

Answer 2

Outline For A Story

Answer 3

About 20 years ago I attended a Science Fiction Convention that had a panel by Algis Budrys, one of the last great pulp fiction writers’ from the 40’s and 50’s. Its title was "how anyone can write a story." It was a brief outline that tells you exactly how to organza and tell a story. The outline follows: BEGINNING 1. Character 2. Setting 3. Problem MIDDLE 4. Protagonist tries to resolve the problem and fails. This makes the problem worse. 5. The protagonist gathers their resources and tries to resolve the problem again and fails. This makes the problem a matter of life and death. 6. The protagonist gathers whatever resources are left and tries to resolve the problem for a third time. They succeed for a happy ending or fail for a tragic ending. This is the climax of the story. END 7. Validation This format works for everything, from short stories to 100.000 word trilogies. It can be as short or detailed, as you want to make it. It keeps you on track (from wondering up a lot of dark alleys in the middle of your novel) and gives you immediate goals so you remain interested in what you are writing. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but briefly, you start with a character in a setting with a problem. You can start with any one of these elements as your opening sentence. The first few sentences or paragraphs of a short story need to set this up. The first chapter or two of a novel can be used to open your story. You move on to the middle and in each step the protagonist gets in more and more trouble until you reach the climax. You can't just simply go to a solution. That would be boring. You need to make your protagonist work for the climax. In the END you write a short validation that more or less tells the reader that the story is really over after the climax. This method of organizing a story really works. If you keep your outline short and to the point it is not as mechanical as most outline methods seem to be. You might want to try it.

Answer 4

An outline is a chapter-by-chapter synopsis, written in the present tense, and is usually only one page in length. If your book has 37 chapters to it then you will have 37 pages of synopses for the outline.

Answer 5

I would check with my instructor, some are very strict on outlines while others are more leniant and less formal.

Answer 6

depends...usually it means the summary. but i would ask my teacher first!!