When writing a novel do you write an outline for you chapters?

Question

If so, what does the structure of the format look like? I really think I could benefit from doing this, but I just don't quite know how to set it up.

Answer 1

I personally don't use really constrictive outlining structures. I'll kind of bulletpoint the basics of the story from beginning to end and then make a list of the things I need to happen in the story. I even write my scenes out of order, too and go back and do all the transitioning stuff later.

Do whatever works best. There's a book on Plot by Elements of Fiction and also one called Beginnings Middles & Ends that might help you. Also, there's a book called Story Structure Archictect that goes over the basic story plots (Learning journey, Obastacles to Love, Deliverance etc) and the main plot structures (FATE as shown in Carlito's Way, PARELLEL as shown in Lord of the Rings, etc.) that will help you better outline the happenings of your story.

Answer 2

Personally, no I don't. I am a fly by the seat of the pants author. I am not saying I don't plan things out ahead - I most definitely do. I just do not formally outline. However, if you asked me what the ending was going to be while I was writing the first chapter, I could tell you. I write more visually - what is called cinematically. I can visualize an entire book in my head like a movie - beginning to end. But it is a skill developed over a lot of time. You don't just jump into that like kamikaze writing.

But I do recommend them for novice authors. The format for the outline isn't written in stone. Whatever works for you. Just list the main events on a sheet of paper with lots of room in between so you can go in and add subplots and backstories. I do recommend using different color ink for the main plot and one color each for the subplots and backstories so you can juggle them later if you want to.

You might also try a story curve. Draw a rainbow. Beginning at the lower left corner, start with the beginning of your story - I call it "Ground Zero" - life as it is when the story begins. Then along comes the conflict - one step higher up the rainbow. After that you have the character's attempts to resolve the conflict leading up to the highest point of the rainbow where you have the resolution - the climax. Then coming down the right side you have the descending actions - what happens after the climax that leads your characters back to the bottom - which I call "Ground Zero Plus" ... meaning it is things basically back to normal, but with the characters having changed in some way due to the experiences in the story.

There is a great novel called The Novelist by Angela Hunt. In it, a very successful writer is teaching a college Creative Writing course. During the semester, she writes a book for the class. As she goes along, she teaches all her steps one by one. Not only is it a good novel, it is a great tool for learning the techniques involved in a writer's preparation work.

Hope that helps. Pax - C

Answer 3

NEVER! Well, actually, I sort of did once, but it was just jumbled notes everywhere. I don't like planning everything beforehand, it drains the idea out of me and then I can't actually write what i planned. I prefer planning the charcters, 1 or 2 major turning points or events that i NEED to happen to get the the end and of course the outcome of everything. Oh yeah, and the main idea of it all the main plot! teverything else just comes along as i go. i know that you don't have to go exactly by the outline, but having one makes me feel that way and i nearly never stay true to where i had originally started going in a novel or story or whatever you want to call it. Still, it works for some people! Try it out, use any format you want! When i do make an outline, which is rarely, i just take sticky notes and scribble down everything in a random order and little things behind the character aqnd sutff i need to keep noted of, then arrange those stickys on a piece of papaer. i've only done it once, but it's working wonders, my sticky notes!

Answer 4

Not unless it's an extremely complex and long book.

You usually set one up by chapter outline like this one:

Chapter 1.

Fred went to the store to pick up some apples, but ended up getting robbed at gunpoint at the local Quick-E-Mart--after stopping for some much needed gas.

You just give enough information for the chapter--but you DON'T go nuts on it. Things have a habit of changing real quick and without warning.

Then you go onto Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and so on--until you have enough of an idea on how the book will shape out.

Answer 5

I used to favor to sit and outline each little element, each backstory, each little thing, yet then i realized why i replaced into writing - for amusement. So certain, you should outline it, yet it is not any longer a rule. once you've a strike of thought, write it down. this is not any longer like this is everlasting. Draft, draft and draft some extra. even if in worry-free words 0.001% is used interior the only top piece. I have a tendency to no longer only write chapters immediately off nonetheless, i favor to plot what is going to take position or this is going to run away someplace else and experience jumpy, I only write little snippets, or a lengthy piece of prose. do not imagine in chapters! As for the JK Rowling element... properly, i don't understand even if that replaced right into a rhetorical question provided that of direction no longer; her first draft of the first financial disaster replaced into Hermione's mothers and fathers rowing a deliver to Harry's figure's destroyed residing house. Little distinct, eh? i imagine the nature only jumped out at her on that prepare journey. i have had that formerly. even as something or someone only seems on your ideas and sticks. yet one personality does no longer make a powerful plot.

Answer 6

I don't professionally write, (I hope maybe someday) but I sort of do an general outline first (very vague, something you could have on the back cover, really).

Then you break it down into sections (beginning, climax, end).

I haven't really gotten to breaking it down into chapters yet, but an outline can be helpful if you start at a random place in the book and need to keep yourself on track.

Try with a vague headline, then list everything you want to say in that chapter, the secrets revealed, etc.

Good Luck!

Answer 7

No, I just outline the entire book as it's set up. It looks like this:

* Main Character meets true love
* Main Character's true love turns out to be a vampire
* Main Character and true love have arguement

The bullets are more detailed, but that's what I do. I just write how the story is going to go and that's it. I do a very loose outline, since I don't want to limit myself.

Answer 8

No I don't. I just write what ever comes to my mind. Usually by the third chapter I know what the ending wil be like. When I begin wrighting I can see the story in my head as a movie and I just write down everything I dream about or see in my head.

But outlines make it hard for you to continue without trying to stick to a tough boundry that you have set for yourself. However when I write, I do make myself familiar with the characters. I will do a character evaluation project of each character in which I write down everything about them to rather or not they have a limp to what they do in private when no one is looking. Doing Character Evaluation's is tough. It's somenthing that I created on my own. So I wouldn't recomend it to beginig writers. But it helps you eep the flow of the story. For instance, if you know how all characters behave and act it helps you to better place them in actions in the book and it contributes to the depth of the story.

But like I said, not everyone can do this. I have started a 9 series book and it has 850 characters in over a nine year stretch. It took me almost 6 months to do a Character Evaluation on each character.

But if you are going to do this, start with basic things such as their favoriate color, their religion (if any), their hair color, eye color, and other basic qualities of character's. Then get down in the details. Such as their level of intellegence, their reactions to sertain situations, their accent, and rather or not their tone changes in front of sertain people. When you create a world of characters, the character's are usually the outline of the novel. Espically when you get to the point where the characters control what happens next instead of you.

Answer 9

I just jot down notes as they come to me--and not necessarily in the order they will appear in the story and then I just type. Sometimes the story takes on a life of its own and the ending goes somewhere else than where I'd originally planned--but that is usually a better place anyway.

Answer 10

Have u ever heard about A Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell? He's a American professor who studying mythology and he discovered that many of them using the same pattern and he called the pattern a Hero With Thousand Faces. U can used the pattern for ur stories and develop it freely. or u can create it based on your imagination, just write it down every times you came up with ideas and collect them, fill the hole, build a bridge between each ideas.