The Bad Version Part Four: What Every Writer Must Know About Creating Strong Outlines

Read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three to catch up!

Let’s pause here to talk about outlining. I can only speak from personal experience when I say that outlining is like that old adage: “Things never go as planned.” I’m not advocating diving into a project headfirst with no roadmap, I’m only cautioning you to be open to that roadmap changing. 

In essence, an outline is the proto-Bad Version of your story. It really is the place for you to walk every cliché, to create flat characters, to take the story in completely expected and mundane directions.

Outlines are safe. Nobody ever reads them.

(Aside: please reach out to me if you’d like to read the fabulous outline James Cameron wrote for AVATAR, it’s essentially a 300 page novelization of the movie and it kicks ass).

They’re the sketchpads, the imperfect study that a painter makes. And this is okay. Because the details missing from an outline inevitably will make up the work - dialogue, description, emotion, that X-factor that sends your reader into a trance and doesn’t let them put your writing down. Those things, I’m afraid, cannot be planned in advance. They must be discovered along the way and refined as you continue on.

For fun, I’ve gone back and examined my outlines after I’m several drafts into a project. Sometimes it’s out of boredom or because I’m searching for an idea I know I’d written down and thought was long forgotten. And nearly every time I am blown away by how much the story has changed from my original plan. Whole characters have shifted gender, age, wants and needs.

To me, this is essential to the work. It is rare that a creative idea stays nascent from seed to finished product, because the joy of discovery is part of creativity itself. 

I’m not here to discourage you from outlining - but I want you to make peace with the practice as the first rung on a ladder.

It can provide you with sure footing. But once you reach the top, you probably won’t be thinking about that first step too often. And - accept that there is no “correct” way to outline. Unless you’re delivering an outline as part of a professional obligation, of course - whereby you should consult with your producer or editor to ask some for some guidance in terms of what they’re looking for.

But, in your own work, it’s perfectly acceptable to outline for thirty+ pages or… for half a page. I like to joke with my students that an outline for a story can be as simple as:

Act 1: Character 1 climbs tree.

Act 2: Character 2 comes along and throws rocks at Character 1.

Act 3: Character 1 climbs down from tree and throws rocks back at Character 2.

THE END.

I’ll be honest, folks, I’ve written screenplays from lesser outlines (they were shit).  

One practice I’ve begun to employ is a hybrid model, something I call “Outline As You Go.” This method is not for the faint of heart. It’s akin to furiously laying down railroad tracks as the train bores down on you, engine roaring, horn blasting.

In essence, it involves me outlining quick and dirty - telling myself not to sweat the details. I go with my gut and a word processor into the first draft. As I finish scenes at the end of the day, or the beginning of the next, I’ll jot down some guidelines for where the story should go based on my original outline. It’s here that wild new ideas can show up and, while they're sometimes indecipherable the next morning, they’re always different from my outline.

The whole process is alive for me, though it’s often harrowing.

(Aside: beware of the 2AM idea! I believe I read this first on the brilliant screenwriting blog ScriptShadow - but I’ll reiterate it here, as these “a ha” moments in the middle of the night or, worse, waking from some dream about my own story. They might feel brilliant at the time but a sleep addled brain does not make a good writer!)   

I had a fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Macdonald, who used to say that learning is a process whereby she gives us the bones and we put the meat on those bones. Are there too many metaphors in this? Whatever, I can always take them out. My point - outlining is not much more than a skeleton to hang your story’s flesh on. When we accept that, the entire process can seem less daunting.  

Invariably, many other writers will tell you, skimping on outlining leads to more rewriting. They’re probably right and I’m okay with that. This is simply the way I do things and isn’t meant to be a textbook, necessarily. For me it’s about tuning into the ever shifting nature of creative work. The story will never (re)write itself - you’ll eventually need to do that.

‍