Outlines, WHY?

Why An Outline?

An outline is like a building’s foundation. Without one a building will not long stand and neither will your story. Your outline is the framework on which you build a solid, powerful, cohesive tale. Without it, your story most likely breakdown midway through your first draft.

When the idea of outlining is brought up in writing workshops, most beginners stare glassy-eyed before admitting that they've never tried this technique to develop their stories. I can even imagine seasoned writers reacting badly, arguing that outlines stifle creativity and spontaneity.

Who's right?

To find out, first try to write a story your own way. Jump right in. Be spontaneous. Exhaust your creativity. Get it all on paper or into your computer. After the first draft, if your story is in trouble and you're not sure why, see if an outline will help. You may be pleasantly surprised. You may even find that this valuable tool is perhaps the most important step in the writing process.

Why?

(If you haven’t caught onto the theme of this article yet, reread paragraph one again.)

Because an outline is the foundation of your story, a framework on which to build a solid, powerful story that your audience will read cover to cover. Many people who earn their living writing almost always outline their story idea before they start their first draft. While they may not write out a complete diagram, seasoned writers can tell you what will happen to their characters in general terms from the first sentence until the last word. An outline forces a writer to think through their story chapter by chapter. It shows us quickly and precisely:

(1) the depth of our principal character's problem.

(2) if our story adequately resolves that problem.

(3) whether our plot logically takes the character from his problem to the eventual resolution.



How Deep Is Deep Enough?

One way to begin is to determine what kind of story you want to tell. Most stories fall into three general categories or any combination of the three: man against himself, man against man, and man against his environment. Take note of the word against in all three categories. Against implies conflict and action, an essential ingredient for any successful story. (Subject of a later article in this series.)

Start by writing down the kind of conflict that concerns your main character. With this information in front of you, you're ready to begin your outline. The first line – the problem – should describe your character's dilemma in a short, concise phrase. Don't settle for a superficial summary of an event. Instead, create an image that conveys the turmoil deep within your character's heart and soul. A lot of your story's power will depend on how well you've thought through this step.



Let's explore an example.

Brilliant nuro-surgeon operates on best friend's wife.

Wife dies during surgery.

Guilt ridden doctor plunges headlong down a road of a self-destruction. Abusing alcohol and drugs, he seeks to kill the pain and ultimately himself – this is your man-against-himself story.

However, after two drafts you’re stumped. All your wonderful ideas don’t make for an interesting, powerful story. You suspected your logic is flawed, but you don’t know how to fix it.

Let's see if an outline can help.

What is the character's problem? Is it: "surgeon loses patient"?

That's what you might conclude. "Surgeon loses patient" is what happens, but that won’t tell your reader anything about the surgeon's inner struggle. Why is the doctor shattered by the death of one patient? Surgeons work with death every day. What makes this operation different?

Is it because the surgeon knew his patient? Owed something to his friend? Or did the doctor commit some blunder that cost the woman her life? Did someone else make a mistake? Was her death an act of God? Answering these questions will tell the you as the writer how profound the story is.

If the problem simply is "surgeon loses patient," this may suggest a technical day-in-the-life story devoid of emotional depth. If you planned to resolve "surgeon loses patient" with "surgeon kills himself," you can immediately see that your logic is flawed.

If the doctor is not at fault in woman's death is not, yet it destroys him with guilt, your readers will feel little empathy for the character. What makes this episode worthy of the reader's attention? Dig deeper for the answer. Remember the "man against himself" theme? Could the surgeon have made an honest mistake. Does the woman's death resurrect long buried doubts on your doctors ability to help others.

We may be getting warmer. During a routine operation on his best friend's wife, the surgeon's faith in himself and his profession is suddenly shattered. Using an outline to discover the character's innermost conflict will lead you to a richer story.

A shallow story about a loser who throws away his gifted life after one mishap will leave the reader with an empty experience, a story only half read and tossed aside. But a story about a doctor who has deep-seated doubts about his ability to help others could offer an intriguing glimpse into the human side of medicine. So, on your first line, jot down your character's innermost turmoil: "Surgeon doubts his abilities."

Resolution

Once you have identified you character's "real" problem – his inner struggle – you can go immediately to the story’s resolution and make a crucial decision. Does your character eventually come to terms with his fallibility and emerge from the

crisis a wiser man, a more confident and competent surgeon? Or does he kill himself in a street fight over a bottle of booze, as originally planned.

Does the second option resolve his conflict of self-doubt?

Of course not. Because it doesn't, your audience would feel cheated. Perhaps you wanted to make a sad statement about abusing drugs and booze. Too shallow? People make for good stories, not alcohol and drugs. Perhaps you want to tell a story about a man who can't live with his mistake. In that case his death, by his own hand, resolves his inner turmoil, and we perhaps learn a sad lesson about throwing one’s life away. Still shallow

Let's go back to our original idea. A surgeon with serious doubts about his ability to help others. After the tragic operation, he believes he has let his best friend down. He isn't the savior he thought he was. To bury his lost confidence, he succumbs to drink and nearly destroys himself. During the course of the story, however, the character discovers that the gift of life is not his to give. After all, he isn't God, merely a man, with all man's fallibility. Once the character understands this, he can continue practicing medicine, but with a new-found respect for the miracle of life.

So your resolution falls into place: "Surgeon accepts his fallibility."

Let's look at the outline so far:
Problem: Surgeon doubts his abilities.

Plot:
1)
2)
3)
Resolution: Surgeon accepts his fallibility.

Map Out Your Plot

Once the complication and resolution are clear, you now must develop your story around the character resolution of his issue. You begin to see that some of your original ideas and assumptions no longer fit. Examine each scene in your draft and ask yourself if it helps resolve the character's problem. If it doesn't, be your own tough editor and take it out.

Let's see how your story had fared.

After retreating to booze (the first plot development), the surgeon finds himself estranged from his family, divorced, and living on his own in a dive. He develops a relationship with a nurse from his hospital who is one of the dew who still believes in him. In you original story line, it might have been clear even to you what role this nurse would play other than narrating her friends failure and road to self-destruction. Obviously, the nurse could not help doctor. Following the conflict– resolution outline developed thus far, the nurse must help man understand his role as a doctor. The writer needs one final scene called the epiphany. Something must happen that turns on the floodlight of inner revelation that shows the surgeon the way out of his dilemma. This pivotal plot development was missing from the your original story.

What can she do? Here's a solution: They are caught in the middle of a disaster that strikes the town in which they live. (Fire, flood, earthquake, railroad crash, plane crash, etc.) They find themselves at a hospital in a low-income neighborhood. There, our doctor is compelled to operate amidst overcrowding. Due to overwrought doctors less capable than himself, he loses himself in relieving the suffering of the injured. He successfully intervenes and directs the hospital staff in saving hundreds of lives while still losing many who cannot be saved. This bring your doctor to experience his moment of truth. He comes to understand he can make a difference even if he can’t save everyone. He is not in control of who lives or dies. He understands that by throwing away his gift he is guilty of a much bigger sin than letting his best friends wife die. So, with his good friend’s help, your doctor makes peace with himself and swears off liquor and drugs. In a final scene you surgeon is back in the operating theater saving the lives of needy children. Does he go back to his wife or stick with the nurse who had faith in him? That is for you to decide. Any way it’s nice, respectable story.

The completed outline now reads:
Theme: Man against himself.
Problem: Surgeon doubts his abilities
Plot:
1) Surgeon retreats to drugs and booze.
2) Nurse/friend sticks by doctor.
3) Nurse helps Doctor fine his real worth
Resolution: Surgeon accepts his fallibility

Conclusion: Surgeon resumes strong, caring practice with a much more balanced outlook on life.

Outline’s Value
An outline is one of countless ways you or any writer could develop a story around this particular problem and resolution. Nothing to stifle creativity here. There's still plenty of room in this well-thought-out story for experimentation. An outline is a fluid document. During the first draft, you're free to refine and change it as your story takes shape The rest of the process is straightforward. With a little outline taped below the computer monitor, any writer can start a new draft and know precisely where to focus the narrative drive. Having established a solid foundation, concentrate on characterization, dialogue, pacing and all the other ingredients that make a read compelling.

Outlines need not be lengthy tomes, nor should they take long to complete. If you can't seem to finish your outline, this may be a sign that all is not well with your story idea. If you get mired down, ask yourself: Is your character problem compelling enough to build a story around? Does your resolution adaquility solve your character's problem? Do your plot developments logically take the character from his problem to his resolution? If not, can you come up with a series of events that do? Don't leave your story's development to chance; instead, use an outline to build a solid foundation.

This fundamental step will quickly and clearly show you:

(1) the depth of your character's problem;

(2) how the character goes about solving his or her problem;

(3) whether the final resolution supports the rest of your story.

Before you begin writing, that's the least you should know about your story. Outlining first may make the difference between a story with impact and depth, or a mediocre tale; receiving royalty checks, or a rejection letter.