After I have a concept I think is story-worthy, and it is a story I want to tell, I start outlining/plotting the story. Yes, that makes me a “plotter” more than a “pantser,” but I’m still somewhere along the spectrum, not all the way to one side. The outlining and/or plotting step overlaps with the previous, concept development and research, step, but the bulk of it follows having a complete concept, known facts, and decided style.
The process I describe here is for works about 10K words or longer. However, I might give shorter works a similar treatment. It depends on the story and how I picture it. A short story that I think is “important” or “tricky” might get a similar, though abbreviated, treatment. Otherwise, for less difficult, short works, I can do the process in my head. Still, though, I think through this process and the story structure. I just save on some effort by typing a quick outline in the document then fleshing it out from the top in that same document.
Note: I’ve tried several processes and tools, and have settled on this major process for now. However, I’m always tweaking it. And again, this is a brief description of my process, not a lesson on how to write.
Structure and Milestones
I first think about the outline at a structure or milestone level. The structure I use depends on the type of story, but loosely, I’m likely to think about the story as a three-act structure first. This helps me get the major shifts in the story down. Why is my protagonist in this situation? How does the protagonist respond to the situation? How does that work out for the protagonist? This activity is mostly in my head, but the structure often ends up as the first level heading in my outline.
The level I’m really trying to get down in (electronic) writing first, though, is the milestone level. I’ve distilled several sources into a set of milestones that work for most of what I write. These are based on the hero’s journey, Save the Cat, and the signposts described by James Scott Bell. I encourage you to read about any and all of those to help formulate a structure that works for you and your readers.
So, without much description, this is my broad plot outline:
- Act 1: Disturbance
- Disturbance: Disturbance to lead’s normal life.
- Trouble Brewing: Real trouble, something big, is on the way.
- Care Package (optional): Relationship lead has before the story begins.
- Argument Against Transformation: Lead argues against theme, a life lesson.
- First Doorway of No Return: Lead forced toward death stakes.
- Act 2: Arena of Conflict
- Kick in the Shins: Bigger setback. Lead and reader dig in.
- Mirror Moment: Reflect on deficiencies internal (character) or external (opposition).
- I encourage you to read James Scott Bell’s Write Your Novel from the Middle
- Pet the Dog (optional): Act of kindness by lead shows true character.
- Second Doorway of No Return: Major crisis, setback, discovery, or clue
- Act 3: Resolution
- Mounting Forces: Lead presses forward. Opposition builds.
- Darkest Night: The final battle is inevitable and success is unlikely.
- Reinforcements (optional): Jolt of courage, reason for confidence.
- Final Battle: Final confrontation (Internal, External, both).
- Transformation: Show transformation in thought, word, and/or deed.
Chapters, Scenes, and Beats (and Episodes)
First, a bit about chapters. Chapters are breaks in the text to achieve a writer objective or to facilitate reading. There are many reasons to insert a chapter break in the text that aren’t directly related to scenes or my plot outline. Although my outline usually breaks down coincidentally with chapters, when I’m outlining, I’m not concerned about chapters.
I structure my plot outline at the scene and beat level. In my writing, scenes and beats often align with chapters, but they could be shorter (multiple scenes within a chapter) or much less likely, longer (multiple chapters in a scene).
In serialized fiction, the important break in the text for publication is the episode. For me, episodes more closely match scenes than chapters, but an episode may still include multiple scenes. As with chapters, a breakpoint like “***” indicates a change in scene within an episode.
I’ve read plenty about beats and have seen them described in different ways. For my outline, I think about beats at two levels. Major beats represent shifts in the story—they span scenes and chapters. Minor beats represent changes from scene to scene or within scenes.
So, for me, scenes and beats are closely tied, but have a major difference. Like you might expect from theater, TV, or movies, scenes represent a location with a subset of the cast interacting. Beats represent a mood within a scene and/or the writer’s purpose for the scene. When the mood changes significantly, so likely does the beat.
Scene Outline
I try to make every scene purposeful with a story structure within the story. I outline each scene with the following structure:
- Inciting incident
- Turning point
- Crisis
- Climax
- Resolution
If the scene doesn’t have all of these, it is probably weak and needs help.
Beat Elements
This is where my plot outline explodes, more for some stories than others, but always explodes. For each beat, I describe some or all of the following, depending on the story type and storytelling goal. Note: Those notes and descriptions for each beat are quick, not even complete sentences most of the time. I just try to get the critical concepts down. I’ll use Missouri Compromise: A Young Trapper’s Tale (MC) as the example of how I use these elements and why they’re important.
- Title: (which will likely become the chapter title, but there may be duplicates for chapters that span beats).
- Story Structure: Where in the story structure is this beat, which determines what kind of beat it is. This includes the story structure described above and any genre trope events that need to happen at a particular time in the story (like the second murder in a murder mystery).
- Series Structure: Where in the series structure is this beat, which determines what kind of beat it is.
- Main POV Plot: The scene outline described above and who is the POV character, which determines the flavor/voice of the scene.
- Core Conflict: A simpler version of the Main POV Plot is to describe the core conflict in the beat. The purpose of both of these elements it to ensure that every beat has a purpose. Note: Some beats don’t have a conflict, but in those, the protagonist is usually recovering from the last one and/or preparing for the next one.
- Protagonist: What the protagonist is doing and thinking in this beat. What they are trying to achieve. How they are helping or hurting their progress. The protagonist in MC is Guy, who is only fourteen, but must join a trapping party to support his mother and little sisters.
- Major Supporting: Same as for protagonist, but for the major supporting character in the beat. The major supporting character in MC is Guy’s mentor.
- Other Supporting: Same as for major supporting, but for all the other supporting cast in the beat. Other supporting characters in MC are the other trappers. Some antagonize Guy, but none are the antagonist of the story.
- Antagonist: Same as for supporting cast, but with special attention to how the antagonist’s goals are progressing (whether the antagonist is in the scene or not). In MC, Guy’s father was killed by “Indians” while on a trapping expedition. Guy thinks the Indians are the antagonist, but the true antagonist is Guy’s fear and misunderstanding of the Indians. I plotted both the real and perceived antagonists.
- Environmental: Most of my stories involve an aspect of the environment that essentially acts like a major character. In MC, the Missouri River functions like a character, so its natural objectives and how it interacts with the protagonist’s objectives are considered in every beat. With a significant Man vs Nature element to the story, “the wilderness” and “the West” are also characters.
- Backstory: How any critical backstory is represented in the beat. How the protagonist’s known world or worldview In MC, the death of Guy’s father is critical to his relationship with the other trappers and the Indians.
- Juxtaposition: Like backstory. How the protagonist’s known world or worldview is challenged by the changed world. In MC, Guy must reconcile what he thinks is reality with what is actually happening.
- Theme: How the theme of the story is represented in the beat. The critical theme of MC is sacrifice: one person trading their life for another’s (a theme I consider part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820). So I outline how every beat contributes to building toward this theme and/or demonstrating it.
- Story Foreshadow: I consider how every beat contributes to building the story that plays out later in this story. In MC, there are many events foreshadowed in earlier beats, but the most significant event is foreshadowed in every/most scenes.
- Series Foreshadow: Since most of my stories are part of series, I consider how every beat contributes to building the story that plays out throughout the series. The fourteen-year-old Guy of MC becomes the mentor of the protagonist in the main series. So, events and effects on Guy in the story prefigure how he is able to become the mentor in the later series.
Special Mystery Elements
Most of the beat elements listed above are applicable to any genre I might write. However, some genres may benefit from specific elements, mystery in particular. For a mystery, I add the following elements to each beat.
- Clues and Herrings: Any clues or red herrings (I may not know which type it is until much later).
- Lead In: Which scenes, characters, clues lead the sleuth to this scene.
- Lead Out: Which scenes and suspects does this scene lead to.
Character Map
For some stories, particularly mysteries or ones with many characters, I also create a character map in this step. The character map is a significant effort so I’ll save it for the next article.
That’s a Lot
While I write a few short stories purely for fun and entertainment value, my sights are set higher for most of what I write. I want to write significant stories—ones that are fun to read, but also have “backbone” and can be read for their significance as well. For me to write a story like that, I need to consider that backbone in every beat. The process isn’t as arduous as it may seem.
