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Welcome to the Outlining Workshop. For those who don’t know me, my name is Tia Wood. I am an aspiring fantasy/sci-fi/horror novelist and one of my strengths is outlining.
Outlining has helped me overcome many obstacles over the hurdles of writing such as generating novel ideas and curing writer’s block. We are going to use four methods of outlining as described below: - Outlining a Novel
- Outlining a Novel Advanced
- Writer's Block Outlining
- Index Card Outlining
However, these methods are for all types of writing (articles, essays, short stories, songs, grocery lists, etc) and not strictly for novels. Outlining is a great help in the first draft process and can also help you in the editing process. Each method can be mixed with another or used alone. The fun part is, outlining is a creative process in itself and really helps jump start your inner muse! For this workshop you will need paper, pen/pencil and index cards. If you don’t have index cards handy, you can take a piece of paper and cut it into four parts. Whatever works. I like to assign homework but homework is optional. You can scan your outlined pages and upload them to ImageShack.us and paste a link here for us to review. Or you can sit back and read. Participation is up to you. Outlining a Novel Using the Bubble Method It’s exciting when we’re in the worst places of places and a novel idea pops into our head. That’s usually when I scrounge around in my purse for my tiny composition book and I scribble the main idea of what my novel would be about. The main idea is important. It can be a simple title, sentence or even a single word. Whatever the main idea is about, write it down in the middle of a piece of paper and circle it. For example, let’s say our novel is about the journey of a tiger targeted towards a young adult audience. I would write “journey of a tiger” in the middle of the page and circle it as pictured below. 
The next step is to ask yourself a set of questions which is prompted by the topic. For “journey of a tiger”, I could ask: - Where would my tiger go? - What would my tiger see? - What problems would my tiger face? - What is the point of the journey? - What message (if any) do I want to come across to my reader? Get out four more pieces of paper and spread them out on a table. On each piece of paper, write your topic in the middle and circle it, just like the first one. At the top of each piece of paper, write down the questions you asked. For example, on my first piece of paper, I would write “Where would my tiger go?”. On my second, “What would my tiger see?”. So on and so forth as pictured below: 
When you have your five papers and questions set up (and the amount of questions you have may be different), begin answering them one by one while continuing to outline. Write down the first thing that pops into your head, no matter how silly. Q. Where would my tiger go?
A. zoo, city, restaurant, bath, get hair done, dance club, play golf Q. What would my tiger see?
A. people, other animals, balloons, spoons, trees Q. What problems would my tiger face?
A. people would run, people surprised that he can talk, too big to fit on city bus, no money, got a boo boo 
Simply continue to bubble until you run out of ideas. You can also go a third, four, fifth level. Whatever it takes to keep your muse flowing. Q. Why would people run away from my tiger?
A. people don’t normally see tigers out of zoos, he’s red, he’s scary, nobody understands him, he has matted hair 
The point is to get the ideas flowing. Do not worry about how silly or stupid or impossible something sounds or seems. Just keep writing and letting it flow. This outlining method prepares you for the next type of method, which takes much more time and thinking. It’s not as fun as the bubble method but it will help show where your story can go. Homework If you’ve had a novel idea stewing in your head, outline it using the method I just mentioned. If you want: scan it in, upload it to ImageShack.us and paste a link here to share. Or come back and tell us how it went. Questions are welcome. No one has commented on this article. |
