Building the Bones: Outlining Your Novel: Beyond the Style Manual, #6

By Red Adept Publishing and Jessica Dall

Do you have a story you’ve always wanted to write, but weren’t sure how to begin? Have you tried pantsing and floundered, unsure how to finish your novel? Learning the simple basics of outlining can help you plot with confidence.

This instructional guide booklet covers the easy, straightforward techniques you need to plan your story before you write. These guidelines will aid you in organizing your ideas no matter what genre you write or what age group you write for. Whether you use paper or a computer to plan with, these outlining concepts will help you navigate the unknowns of your imagination so you can bring your story to life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
• Release date: Jun 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781533789280

Book preview

How to Use this Guide

In creative writing, there’s no one right way to start. Some people are pantsers who tend to fly by the seats of their pants. They love to jump in with no more than a basic idea for a plot and see what happens. Some people are plotters who have extremely detailed scene-by-scene outlines worked out before they write the first word. Others are planners who find themselves somewhere in between—they might have a basic outline or story map but sometimes stray from their plan when a new idea strikes halfway through. Whatever your writing style might be, you’re doing it right as long as you wind up with a completed story at the end.

Since writing styles vary drastically, remember that this guide is presenting advice, not cardinal law. If you find some parts help you but others don’t, then use what works and forget the rest. The most important things are to keep moving forward and working on your story. Discovering your personal style is an ongoing process that can often change as you progress in your writing career, so feel free to experiment with different methods of using a full outline, no outline, or anything in between.

Many authors who jump into a story with no idea of where it’s going often find that their manuscripts fizzle out before the end is in sight. If this is happening to you, try outlining your next project. Authors who spend a long time outlining sometimes find they lose their passion for projects or feel too hemmed in once they start to write. If that happens to you, consider cutting back on outlining instead. This guide will cover both the basics of story structure and the bare-bones outline then offer tips to putting together the writing in between that will take you from word one to The End, whatever your personal style. The last section of this manual focuses on the reverse outline and its use as an editing tool for those who often finish a manuscript without following a full outline then find that those stories don’t feel cohesive.

Use the exercises included throughout the book to help build an outline, step by step, as you learn how simple or detailed your outlining style is. Completed examples, ranging from the most basic premise outline to a complete